Founding Father Quotes Against Religion

We hear over and over from the demagogues of the Christian Right how America was supposedly founded as a Christian Nation and/or that the Founding Fathers supported a far right Christianist approach to religion intertwining with the secular laws.  Like most of what the "godly Christian" crowd says, these claims are a lie - it's yet another example of if these people's lips are moving, it's almost certain they are lying.  Addicting Info has compiled 35 statements by various Founding Fathers that basically blow the "Christian nation" myth to Hell.  Here is a sampling (be sure to read the full piece):

The separation of church and state is one of the cornerstones of America’s foundation. Conservative Christian fundamentalists have sought to crush this cornerstone in the hopes of establishing Christianity as the state religion, an action that would threaten the rest of the foundation that makes up the Constitution. These conservatives contend that the Founding Fathers dreamed of making America a Christian state at the expense of those who practice other religions or none at all.

So here are 35 quotes from the Founding Fathers. Perhaps your first thoughts are the first four Presidents and maybe Benjamin Franklin, but there were many other Founding Fathers. Many were signers of the Constitution and The Declaration of Independence. They were lawyers, judges, soldiers, merchants, farmers, and some were even clergy. And the great majority of them signed the Constitution knowing that matters of government and matters of religion would be separate.

1. “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.”
~George Washington, letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May 1789

2. “Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.”
~George Washington, letter to Edward Newenham, October 20, 1792

3. “We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition… In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States.”
~George Washington, letter to the members of the New Church in Baltimore, January 27, 1793

5. “The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
~1797 Treaty of Tripoli signed by John Adams

6. “Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.”
~John Adams, “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America” (1787-88)

7. “We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions shall enjoy equal liberty, property, and an equal chance for honors and power we may expect that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society.”
~John Adams, letter to Dr. Price, April 8, 1785

9. “In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”
~Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Horatio Spofford, 1814

10. “Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, then that of blindfolded fear.”
~Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787

12. “History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.”
-Thomas Jefferson: in letter to Alexander von Humboldt, December 6, 1813 

13. “Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual.  State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. We have solved … the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.”
~Thomas Jefferson: in a speech to the Virginia Baptists, 1808

15. “The civil government functions with complete success by the total separation of the Church from the State.”
~James Madison, 1819, Writings, 8:432, quoted from Gene Garman, “Essays In Addition to America’s Real Religion”

20. “When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obligated to call for help of the civil power, it’s a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.”
~Benjamin Franklin, letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1780

23. “That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forebearance, love, and charity towards each other.”
~George Mason, Virginia Bill of Rights, 1776

These are hardly the words of men who allegedly believed that America should be a Christian nation governed by the Bible as conservatives constantly claim. On the contrary, the great majority of the Founders believed strongly in separation of church and state. So keep in mind that this country has survived for over two centuries under the principle of separation and it is only now when conservatives are attempting to destroy that very cornerstone that we find America becoming ever more divided and more politically charged than ever before. If this right-wing faction has their way, America as we know it will cease to exist and the freedoms we have enjoyed because of the Constitution will erode. The Founding Fathers had a vision of this nation and trusted that the people would protect that vision and improve upon it. Now is not the time to fail them. Because the day the people fail, so does America.

Ignorance of accurate history is the Christofascists best friend when it comes to their quest to turn America into a theocracy.  Unfortunately, nowadays, too few Americans know history they way the need to in order to defend constitutional government from religious extremists.  Here in Virginia, the GOP slate of statewide candidates - Ken Cuccinelli, E. W. Jackson, and Mark Obenshain - and their supporters at The Family Foundation would destroy the religious freedom the Founding Fathers so strongly supported.

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Virginian Pilot: It Is Time for Marriage Equality in Virginia

While anti-gay bigotry and animus remain synonymous with the Republican Party of Virginia and its puppet masters at The Family Foundation, things are shifting rapidly in Virginia - a new poll showed that a majority of Virginians now favor gay marriage - especially in the urban areas of the Commonwealth which when voter turn out is high readily determine which candidates are elected to statewide offices.  With a federal lawsuit now pending in Virginia seeking to have Virginia's gay marriage ban struck down and a recent ruling in Ohio, the Virginian Pilot calls out for marriage equality now and rightly identifies what motivated the passage of Virginia's foul Marshall-Newman Amendment which wrote discrimination into the Bill of Rights of the Virginia Constitution: malice and animus.  Not surprisingly, some of the local knuckle draggers are none too happy with the truth being stated based on their delusional comments (which underscore the malice and animus cited).  Here are highlights from the main editorial:

The ballot measure [the Marshall-Newman Amendment] was a political tactic to drive voter turnout. It was crafted by Republican strategists, designed to leverage social conservatism in the name of partisan advantage. It worked to a degree in both states, although former Sen. George Allen might disagree.

The human cost was and remains immense. Gay couples were marginalized, unwelcome in their own states. Even minor legal arrangements within a family were subject to challenge.

No matter the rationalizations mouthed by organizations like the Family Foundation, the basic truth is that each vote excluded homosexual Virginians from fundamental rights because of how they were born.

As has become increasingly clear, history will look unkindly upon the day the amendment was passed and will hold its most vicious and opportunistic supporters accountable.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court began the process of unwinding such discriminatory measures.

It is only a matter of time before that process effects change in Virginia, where the constitutional amendment that carries the names of Sen. Steve Newman and Del. Bob Marshall will be undone. This week, it arrived in Ohio, courtesy of a federal judge.

"This is not a complicated case," wrote U.S. District Judge Timothy Black. "The issue is whether the State of Ohio can discriminate against same sex marriages lawfully solemnized out of state, when Ohio law has historically and unambiguously provided that the validity of a marriage is determined by whether it complies with the law of the jurisdiction where it was celebrated."

Even though Black's opinion came in an Ohio case, the same reasoning applies in Virginia, which has also historically respected marriages from other states. Even though there's no such institution as a common-law marriage in Virginia, for example, the commonwealth recognizes such unions from other states.

As Black wrote, the only reason to refuse to recognize gay unions performed in states that permit them - as the Supreme Court found in the United States vs. Windsor - is to "impose inequality." Furthermore, the judge made clear that Ohio didn't come close to meeting the standard required for withholding such basic rights:

"Even if there were proffered some attendant governmental purpose to discriminate against gay couples, other than to effect pure animus, it is difficult to imagine how it could outweigh the severe burden imposed by the ban imposed on same-sex couples legally married in other states. Families deserve the highest level of protection under the First Amendment right of association."

Anti-gay amendments - as in Ohio and Virginia and 29 other states - undo that protection. They impose inequality out of malice and animus, elevating the will of the majority over the rights of individuals. Thankfully, the days of such measures are numbered.

Unfortunately, The Family Foundation and its triumvirate of hate merchants on the GOP statewide ticket -  Ken Cuccinelli, E.W. Jackson, and Mark Obenshain - care nothing about equality or the U. S. Constitution,  Instead, their sole goal is to impose Christofascist religious views on all Virginians.

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Ken Cuccinelli Backed Anti-Adultery Laws - Does He Still?

Frighteningly, most Virginians do not seem to grasp the full extent of Ken Cuccinelli's religious extremism and desire to police their bedrooms and personal lives.   In this effort, he is furthering the agenda of The Family Foundation which seeks a far right Christian theocracy in Virginia and which would inflict its fear and hate based religious views on all citizens.  In addition to wanting to continue to make oral and anal sex - even between married couples - a felony ( a good article can be found here), Kookinelli has in the past supported enforcing the anti-adultery law still on the books in Virginia.  Have an affair, be charged, prosecuted and go to jail.  That's the agenda of Kookinelli and most assuredly the utterly insane GOP Lt. Governor candidate "Bishop" Jackson.  Politico looks at Cuccinelli's past support for criminally prosecuting adulterers.  Here are highlights:

Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli once suggested that society would benefit from enforcing anti-adultery laws, according to a report dating to the Republican’s days as a state senator.  Speaking to Richmond’s Style Weekly magazine back in 2008, Cuccinelli defended laws criminalizing extramarital sex, saying that such restrictions “ought to stay on the books.”

“Frankly it wouldn’t hurt to enforce them more,” Cuccinelli is quoted saying. The magazine paraphrased Cuccinelli drawing a comparison to “perjury inasmuch as the occasional prosecution or two would get people thinking twice.”

Cuccinelli went on to be elected attorney general of Virginia the following year and he is now the GOP nominee for governor. At issue in the race is his history of hardline social conservative stances, which Cuccinelli has de-emphasized in the current campaign in favor of economic issues.

In response to an email from POLITICO, Cuccinelli spokeswoman Anna Nix said the question of adultery was not a major issue in the 2013 election.

“Ken Cuccinelli is someone who believes in and supports the institution of marriage. The campaign for the governorship in Virginia is about the concerns of voters, which include first and foremost creating jobs and growing the economy,” Nix said.

Note how Cuccinelli merely dodged the issue and did not disavow his past positions.  The man is insane and dangerous.  He needs to be defeated in November.

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Weekly Protests Against Republican Extremism in North Carolina - Deja Vu for Virginia?

If Virginians want a glimpse of what a Cuccinelli/Jackson/Obenshain administration would look like - especially with the GOP controlling the House of Delegates - they need only look across the border to North Carolina where the North Carolina GOP is busy implementing a Christofascist/Tea Party agenda which is a wet dream for the extremists in today's Virginia GOP.  Programs for the poor and unemployed are being slashed, voter disenfranchisement and extreme restrictions on all abortions are the rule of the day.  The Daily Beast looks at how some North Carolinians are waking up to the nightmare that has swept North Carolina and taking to the streets in weekly protests.  I hope Virginians are watching and will not make the mistake of trusting the Virginia GOP with Virginia's future.  Here are story highlights:

The protests are called Moral Mondays, and are staged by a coalition led by the NAACP and other progressive groups to speak out against the Republican legislature that they say is working behind closed doors to push an extreme agenda.

But Moral Mondays have also attracted a grassroots collection of teachers and students, retirees, stay-at-home moms, and blue collar workers from across the political spectrum who told me Monday the same thing I heard from Tea Party protesters in 2009-- that they did not recognize the government representing them and that they were tired of doing nothing about it.

In a state that had come to be known as a swing state in the Deep South, which Barack Obama won in 2008 but lost narrowly in 2012, the first Republican legislature in more than 100 years has moved to cut funding for public education, unemployment and Medicaid; added new requirements and funding for voter-ID laws; eliminated the earned income tax credit and worked to loosen laws limiting fracking in the state.  Earlier this year, the legislature added major new restrictions to abortion services, first as a rider on a bill outlawing Sharia, and then as a clause on a motorcycle safety bill.

"We may not all agree on the issues, but the fact remains (the legislators) did not ask us.  It's like we don't matter," she said. "I guess they think we're all stupid and we're not seeing them and we're just going to sit back and not do anything, but I'm not sitting back."

Before the protests, the women went to Christian Faith Baptist Church, where the Rev. William Barber, the president of the North Carolina NAACP, led a training session on civil disobedience and instructed protestors on the finer points of getting arrested. But he also put the agenda of the North Carolina legislature, especially the new voter-ID laws, in what he saw as the context of history for his audience, which was mostly white.

"We know we are in a war for the ballot," he said."Raleigh is our Selma.The general assembly is our Edmond Pettus Bridge."

There's more that deserves a read.  What is happening is ugly, but then ugliness and greed and heartlessness are the norm in the GOP today.  Virginia soccer moms need to stop worrying about PTA meetings and childrens' sports teams and get out an vote against the GOP ticket here in Virginia if they want their children's schools to have future funding.

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Is This Political Ad Too Gay For Virginia?

One thing that always pisses me off is the way the Christofacists believe they have free license to say whatever foul and horrible thing they want about gay citizens hiding behind the cloak of "deeply held religious belief."  Of course, most of what they say is a pack of outright lies and they seem to see themselves as exempt from the Commandment against lying and bearing false witness.  Somehow they only observe nine Commandments. Here in Virginia this year we have the most extreme and insane slate of GOP statewide candidates in Virginia's history.  While the most openly insane is Lt. Governor candidate "Bishop" E. W. Jackson, who n my view belongs in an insane asylum, gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli and Attorney General candidate Mark Obenshain share Jackson's views of gays - they are simply trying to hide their extremism from voters.  Above is a mock ad against Jackson that I would personally like to see aired in Virginia so as to put Jackson's hate and batshitery on the air waves.   A piece in The Advocate considers the ad and in the closing paragraphs sums up my views:

I work in the information business. I can't possibly agree with the notion that spreading the word about what homophobes say doesn't make a difference, that it doesn't help reduce homophobia in the long run. What I believe will happen (and has been happening) is that Americans are recoiling from the likes of E.W. Jackson and Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum and the others.

Times have changed. Americans by and large are not asking us to hide anymore. But we can't expect them to stand up for us if we won't first stand up for ourselves.

Jackson may play well to the rural and less educated parts of Virginia, but many areas, including Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia will likely view him as frightening.  But only if his fully insanity is put on view.  The same goes for Ken Cuccinelli who hopefully will soon have to defend the Marshall-Newman Amendment as soon as the ACLU files its promised lawsuit.  Just last night the boyfriend and I had dinner at the James River Country Club - not exactly perceived as a bastion of liberalism - as guests of friends and not one person batted an eye seeing a gay couple there.  And they ALL know who we are due to the boyfriend's near celebrity status with the women.  We need to be open about who we are and we need to take the battle back against the hate merchants like Jackson, Cuccinelli and Obenshain.

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Virginia GOP's E. W. Jackson - A Growing Train Wreck

The entertainment factor and ongoing exposure of just how insane the Virginia GOP base has become just goes on and on in the form of GOP Lt. Governor candidate E. W. Jackson.   The man is a train wreck.  And what must remembered is that despite the efforts of Ken Cuccinelli and Mark Obenshain to distance themselves from Jackson, all three hold virtually the same anti-gay, anti-women and anti-modernity positions.  They are the face of The Family Foundation and the religious extremists who hijacked the Republican Party of Virginia.  In a press conference yesterday, Jackson admitted drug use in his past - and not just marijuana - filing bankruptcy and claimed to have taken course at Harvard that Harvard has no record of.  Jackson is exhibit A as to why the GOP ticket needs to be thoroughly defeated in November.  Here are highlights from a Virginian Pilot piece:

The Republican nominee for Virginia lieutenant governor acknowledged Wednesday that he used marijuana and experimented with other controlled substances in his youth, and that he was forced to file for bankruptcy.

Jackson sought to get out front on his past on Wednesday. He said during his speech that he used marijuana as a youth, and when questioned after the speech, acknowledged that he experimented with other controlled substances, but did not go into detail. 

He spent a lot of time discussing his 1993 bankruptcy filing, which he said came after nine years of work to make a go of an AM gospel radio station in Boston. He said many of the difficulties came from extended battles with the Federal Communications Commission  .  .  .  .

He also talked about his transition over time from lawyer to minister. He said that while he graduated from Harvard Law School, he took several classes at the divinity school, even though Harvard apparently has no record of it.  "They were not teaching what I believed to be orthodox Christian biblical theology but rather a liberal version of that. I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture; they did not," Jackson said of the Harvard divinity classes.

He acknowledged that he was asked to leave his first ministerial position in 1982, after two years at a Baptist church in Cambridge.

Jackson said many of his statements have been taken out of context to try to make it sound as though he believes that birth defects are caused by parents' sins or that yoga leads to Satanism.

"I do not believe that birth defects are caused by parents' sin unless, of course, there's a direct scientific connection between the parents' behavior and the disabilities of the child," he said, giving the example of birth defects that might result from a child born to a mother addicted to heroin.

He added, "I do not believe that yoga leads to Satanism. One of my ministers is a yoga instructor. What I said was that Christian meditation does not involve emptying oneself but filling oneself ... with the spirit of God. That is classic Biblical Christianity."

The uproar over yoga came last week when the National Review posted an excerpt of a book that Jackson had written in which he wrote, "When one hears the word meditation, it conjures an image of Maharishi Yoga talking about finding a mantra and striving for nirvana. ... The purpose of such meditation is to empty oneself. (Satan) is happy to invade the empty vacuum of your soul and possess it."

The man is a nutcase and any party that could nominate Jackson for Lt. Governor is simply unfit to govern.  Between now and November Virginia voters need to realize that Cuccinelli, Jackson and Obenshain are all cut out of the same cloth.

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