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By Mike Cuenca | January 20, 2004
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Those who have written in to remind us of the devout faith of many of
this nation's Founding Fathers contradict their own arguments that
those founding fathers intended this to be a Judeo-Christian nation.
Think of those men in context. They had risen up against a monarchy
from which many had fled religious persecution or oppression. They had
staged and won a violent overthrow of that monarchy's colonial rule.
They were in charge. Completely. They could have created any nation, in
any style, that they chose.
And, yes, many of the Founding Fathers were
devoutly Christian. So the fact that they deliberately enacted a
constitution that forbids the establishment of a national religion
proves that they intended to prevent any religious group -- even their
own religious groups -- from taking over the country. Instead, they
created a nation in which no one religious group could impose their
beliefs and practices on its citizens; a nation in which all religions
and spiritualities could flourish without fear of government
intervention or reprisal.
Today, we face a very real constitutional
threat from religious extremists who want to force on all of us their
religious beliefs, morals, and practices. They're not Islamic or
Buddhist extremists. They're Christian extremists. They have taken
control of high-level offices of our government and are boldly and
defiantly attempting to force their spiritual will on the nation.
But
Washington, Jefferson and those other (Christian) visionaries of
democracy stood firmly against the imposition of any religion --
including Christianity -- on Americans.
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Originally published by Lawrence Journal-World.
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