My challenge was to Dark Angel for the following statement:
"
Very good read. I had missed this when Best posted, so thanks for the repost.
I have to chuckle when many Christians like gb and Bill say in one sentence that they are not talking about a theocracy, then turn around and say this nation was founded as a Christian nation. Its like silly double speak. I don't know if they just don't understand what a theocracy is or if they are actually trying to fool someone. Either way, its silly and will not fly!"
If in the responses I accused you of that statement I apologize for it wasn't your statement but rather Dark Angel that made that statement. Others though have alluded to it and attempted to say that I have said the same. Also where I have made the statement that we were/are a nation of Christians I mean a nation that believed in the God of Christianity, the God of the Christian Bible and not that they conformed to the strict definition that we have today of Believing in Jesus Christ and His divinity but there is an effort to cloud the issue by taking that statement that I meant in the general sense and applying it to all.
Many of the founders also had changes in their personal beliefs throughout their life. It is difficult to imagine the context of these statements unless we were living during the time and saw the conflicts that existed between the major denominations and Churches at that time. Conflicts that drew the ire of many of those who wrote about Christianity in those days. They say the divisions within the Churches and from one to the next and those divisions were not light but very strong and objectionable. There is no doubt that it had influence upon many of those men who drafted our Constitution to be sure that the Church would not have control of the Government and control or legislate their own version of morality. There WERE NOT though non-Christains or non-Religious people who had disdain for God and Religions as some would like to believe or teach.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...06/0604.waldman.html is yet another good URL with information regarding some of the activities with Christianity and religion in those days.
Common sense, of any student of history, should lead one to realize that in the great majority of people that were alive and living during that time, America's citizens they were Church going people who believed in God, the same God as in the Christian Bible (NT & OT) and the same God that Israel/Jews worshiped. A look and study of each state's constitution will also reveal that God was prominently mentioned and referenced as Creator. From this it is not difficult to imagine that there were great divisions and anamosity with some people about which Church or Doctrine was right. There was such diverse belief among the peoples and great divisions between the various Churches but none the less they were "people of God" who held Religion in high esteem. The Christian Bible was also seen as God's Word unto the People and great care was taken to insure that it's wording was kept accurate and not changed or altered. Our government was never designed to be Christian or even to be Religious but it also was never designed or fashioned to be against God or those who accepted worship of God as God. We were not a Christian Nation but rather we were, for the most part, a nation of Christians and even greater a nation of people who believed in God and that Religion was a Good thing for humanity and not a bad thing.
My arguments regarding the founders were simply to say these men believed in God, the Christian God. These men were not hostile to believers or Religion or Christianity however some were hostile to the actions of some of the preachers and Churches that sought to control the people and take away the people's freedom under the guise of Religion. If I ever said they were ALL Christian I never meant it that way however I do believe they all, for the most part, were believers in the God of Christianity. They might have differed in their beliefs regarding Jesus Christ but they held Christianity or Jesus Christ, in high esteem and held God as creator and as God who watched over our new Nation and bestowed upon man his unalienable rights, the originally came from God was their belief.