Our Christian Founders

I believe that everyone who actually reads what I write here already knows that I absolutely love "The View".  I'm reasonably sure that I've made it clear on more than one occasion that I find it to be a truly excellent program...informative, entertaining, well-produced...everything a good panel discussion show should be. 

I truly envy the women sitting at that table and would give almost anything to be able to have their job.  Although I am certainly no Barbara Walters, nor am I anywhere CLOSE to having the talent of Whoopi Goldberg, and I certainly couldn't argue for the Right-wing perspective like Elizabeth...though I do acknowledge the importance of a voice like hers on a show like this (and MAN would I LOVE to have an opportunity to discuss some of these issues with her, I'm sure I'd have a great time with the argument)...but I know that I could do at least as well as Sherri Shepherd (personally, I think I'd be much better, because I'm NOT obsessed with fake hair, I know the world is NOT flat*, I understand that Jesus WAS poor, and I would NOT constantly be talking about "Jeffrey" or any other child for that matter, as I never had children). 

So...as a serious fan of "The View", naturally I "liked" them on my Facebook and therefore get periodic status updates from them.  Also, on occasion, I have gone to their FB page and even posted on their wall
(http://www.facebook.com/TheView) as I felt compelled to do today.

Barbara made a comment during today's broadcast that "all" American Presidents had espoused their belief in Christianity.  So...I decided to put a post on their wall with a link to a page which includes plenty of quotes from various "Founding Fathers" (presidents among them, of course) that express negative statements regarding Christianity, as many of the "Founders" were not Christians, but Deists. 

http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html

~  At that site, one can see quotes like the following: 

 "As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" ~ President John Adams 

"Have you considered that system of holy lies and pious frauds that has raged and triumphed for 1,500 years?" ~ President John Adams

"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it." ~ President John Adams

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology." ~ President Thomas Jefferson 

"Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself." ~ President Thomas Jefferson, in his private journal, Feb. 1800
 
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." ~ President James Madison

"The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession." ~ President Abraham Lincoln

"I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy-day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity." ~ Benjamin Franklin

But none of the Founders was as outspoken on the subject as Thomas Paine, author of "Common Sense" who said all the following:

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half of the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind." 

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

So, in the future whenever you hear someone talk about how America is a "Christian Nation" and how all of the founding fathers were devout Christians, remember this information and correct the person espousing that myth.














Oh and if anyone knows how to get me that gig on "The View"...PLEASE do let me know! ;)


*