The fundamentalist attack on church/state separation
06/05/05
The right-wing's multi-front war on American democracy now aims at our core belief in separation of church and state. It includes an attempt to say the founding fathers endorsed the idea that this is a 'Christian nation,' with an official religion. But the founders -- and a vast majority of Americans -- repeatedly, vehemently and with stunning clarity denounced, rejected and despised such beliefs. Nowhere in the Constitution they wrote does the word 'Christian' or the name of Christ appear. The very first phrase of the First Amendment demands that 'Congress shall make no law concerning an establishment of religion.' One major reason Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, Ethan Allen and the vast majority of early Americans rejected the merger of church and state was the lingering stench of Puritan intolerance...
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2005/1141
from Free Press, by Harvey Wasserman
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
The right-wing's multi-front war on American democracy now aims at our core belief in separation of church and state. It includes an attempt to say the founding fathers endorsed the idea that this is a 'Christian nation,' with an official religion. But the founders -- and a vast majority of Americans -- repeatedly, vehemently and with stunning clarity denounced, rejected and despised such beliefs. Nowhere in the Constitution they wrote does the word 'Christian' or the name of Christ appear. The very first phrase of the First Amendment demands that 'Congress shall make no law concerning an establishment of religion.' One major reason Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, Ethan Allen and the vast majority of early Americans rejected the merger of church and state was the lingering stench of Puritan intolerance...
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2005/1141
from Free Press, by Harvey Wasserman
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
Starmail - 6. Jun, 15:00
