Quote:
Originally Posted by sageofages
Actually I think the founding fathers were very insightful in acknowledging a higher power "god" but to not delineate a specific "god". Government must grow to meet the needs of the entire population to be effective.
Yes they all were "christian" but the range of denominational belief is great.
http://www.adherents.com/gov/Foundin..._Religion.html
Religious Affiliation
of U.S. Founding Fathers - # of Founding Fathers - % of Founding Fathers
Episcopalian/Anglican - 88 - 54.7%
Presbyterian - 30 - 18.6%
Congregationalist - 27 - 16.8%
Quaker - 7 - 4.3%
Dutch Reformed/
German Reformed - 6 - 3.7%
Lutheran - 5 - 3.1%
Catholic - 3 - 1.9%
Huguenot - 3 - 1.9%
Unitarian - 3 - 1.9%
Methodist - 2 - 1.2%
Calvinist - 1 - 0.6%
TOTAL 204 |
I don't disagree, but I think we lose something in translation in our efforts to fit the Founding Fathers into 2007 America - namely, that the language used is very Masonic, and likely was not intended to be open in the fashion that we consider it (although the basis of the founding of America would dictate openness to a certain degree, as well).
Here's the rub, though - the overwhelming majority, if not all (I'm not sure how we consider Calvinism nowadays to be honest) of those are indeed Christian, and the founding of the nation was intended to allow freedom to worship, but generally the freedom to worship whichever Christian God you choose. That's well and good, but it just doesn't apply to modern America - using the nation's founding as any sort of crutch on either side of this discussion seems difficult, if not impossible.
In God We Trust just really doesn't work for this particular argument, for that reason - if we're going to be "open" we can't rely on the word "God" to do our work for us. Many religions, including some practiced by hundreds of millions worldwide, don't fit the Christian ideal of "God" in that sense. I do apologize for being "snippy" before, but I think this may more accurately reflect my point here.