while you're busying getting out your gun you'll get your keyboard smashed over your head

Peeps like ADPi Conniebama make me want to walk away from Christianity. :(

sheetcake, you were SO GOOD at the bridal shower yesterday. I wish I had some leftover you :(

Oh now Rudey, I never said that it was a perfect system ,just that I did not like what was going on. But as soon as we get that Social Security to go private we will be in much better shape!!

Welcome back, SHEETCAKE!

First chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Jay, wrote:

"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty ... of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." (1816)

William Penn

"Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants."

Even liberal Supreme Court chief justice, Earl Warren, wrote in 1954:

"I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses ... .. a Christian land governed by Christian principles. I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it: freedom of belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under law, and the reservation of powers to the people ... I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country."

Washington also said:

"Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

"It is impossible to rightly govern . . . without God & the Bible."

"You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all the religion of Jesus Christ." to a group of Indian chiefs.

Thomas Jefferson, the man "blamed" for the wall of separation between church and state said:

"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that His justice cannot sleep forever."

Abraham Lincoln:

"Unless the great God who assisted [President Washington], shall be with me and aid me, I must fail. But if the same omniscient mind, and Almighty arm, that directed and protected him, shall guide and support me, I shall not fail ... Let us pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake us now."

Teddy Roosevelt:

"In this actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at, or ignored their religious needs, is a community on the rapid down-grade."

Yes, I googled "christian nation." I also "cut and paste" so as not to make any grammatical errors.

I have enjoyed this thread and I hope everyone has had a wonderful time. I am going back to the shooting range to practice and to the bible to study. I am sure I will see all of the gc names again soon.

Thanks, but those are a bunch of random quotes from random people. Those are people's opinions that this country is a Christian country. Those are NOT fact.

Show me where it says Christianity is our official religion. I would like to see this stated in an actual governing document, such as the Declaration of Independence or the United States Constitution.

Hint: You're going to be looking for a long time.

No, it's not just you. Regardless if it's the same belief, it all depends on how it's presented. For instance, I don't enjoy listening to the views when they are laced with fear. As in, be saved or burn in hell. (Or as I experienced: make sure you brother gets saved or you won't see him in Heaven.) To me, that energy (and money toward printing "helpful" brochures) could go to better purposes.

I lied... I'm actually a centrist. But centrists don't really get any credit in these types of debates. I lean a bit to the left so in order to get any sort of attention, I should probably just jump on the liberal bandwagon. But I'm nice regardless. [/snark]

"Dad, can I get a gun rack on my bike?"

"Bobby, I've been waiting for the day you'd ask me that."

But GP, she just posted a bunch of random quotes and then said she was going to the shooting range -- making it clear that she is not expected to return to try to actually discuss anything she posted.

Nah, that's just a convenient excuse not to actually have to come up with something to back herself up.

She's been online since she posted last, and has even viewed this thread. "Who's Online" is a fun tool ;)

Blind ignorance of history and a firm belief in "guns and god" is perhaps the most damaging segment of the "conservative" movement in the US... the fact that she posted crap from at least 40 years after the founding (and including a statment that was greated as hypocritical even then) speaks of a willingness to ignore anything contradicting her beliefs, and a bias for statements that remotely support her beliefs... something that does not enure a strong trust of her sources...

Anyways the current US conservative movement is so divorced from it's historical foundings within the Tory movement it might almost be commical (for example the firm opposition to capital punsihment). I'd say that Christianity hasn't co-opted the conservative movement - but the evangelical movement of Christianity... in much the same way as fundamentalist Islam has co-opted many Middle East governments - in philisophical opposition to the tenats of each respective faith.

YOU'RE BACk!!! :D