GOP Wins the Contest for Number of God References in their Platform

[whell]

Originally Posted by Boreas

The language is clear, Whell. "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion" means just what it says, ergo: we are not a "Christian nation" as is so tiresomely bandied about by the Fundies.

The First Amendment is there to ensure that no religious orthodoxy would be imposed upon the citizenry. A "Christian nation" would by definition require just such an orthodoxy or, at the very least, an official State religion.

The Declaration of Independence is not, in the strictest sense, a "founding document" of this country. Rather, it is a declaration of our intent to sever relations with the nation of which we were then a part.

The Treaty with the Bey of Tunis was ancillary to the Treaty of Tripoli, as Tunis was one of the Barbary States with which we were at war. The reference to the President was just that, a reference to the President: a person, not the country. We now have an African American president. Are we then an African American nation? God help us if he really is a Muslim!

John

Your logic is a bit tortured here IMHO. To suggest that the Declaration is not a founding document when it is treated as such by both historians and our own government is curious on your part. In "the strictest sense", it is a product of the Continental Congress, a governmental body and forerunner of our current ferderal government. It's as much a part of the history of this country as the Magna Charta is to England.

The reference to the President was to the office, not the person, since the treaty did not reference the President by name.