Being an American there is an easily detectable conspiracy amidst believers to spread a myth about America's origins. According to right-wing Christians America is a Christian nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles.
The first part of this myth I want to put to bed is the idea that America is a Christian nation. This can be killed off by a simple Google Search to find the Treaty of Tripoli. Signed by President John Adams the treaty destroys any notion that we were established as a specifically Christian nation.
The following text is from Article Eleven of the Treaty of Tripoli:
"Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
I want to further show, however, to these fundamentalist morons, that the Bible has had almost NO influence over our laws OR our Constitution.
As you can see from the above photo the Bill of Rights says nothing about America being a Christian nation and appears more AGAINST Judeo-Christian values than for them. Rather than shoving religion down the throat of all godless heathens and sinister idol worshipping pagans the Bill of Rights establishes free religion. Notice that nowhere does it say that:
People who work on the Sabbath should be killed. (Exodus 31:12-15)
Women who are not virgins on their wedding night should be stoned. This is in the wonderfully rich chapter Deuteronomy 22 where the following other gems can be found:
- The penalty for adultery is death for both the cheater and the woman he cheated with
- A virgin pledged to be married who is raped before her wedding night inside a city BUT fails to cry out is to be STONED TO DEATH with her attacker.
Notice that in the verse about a virgin who is raped the man is put to death ONLY for having sex with "another man's wife" NOT for the crime of RAPE. Women are apparently possessions to these people. Is this truly the gold standard of morality that theists want us to believe it is? Has the Christian right even sat down and read their Bibles?
As for the claim that our LAWS are based on Judeo-Christian values I submit to you the very simple story of the wise King Solomon and the baby he demands be sawn in half. I can hear the theists reading this screaming already "BUT THE BABY ISN'T KILLED, HE DOES THIS TO BLAH BLAH BLAH" - I KNOW but the story is still absurd and would never slide in an American court. Could you imagine how outrageous it would be? The Judge would be disbarred immediately!
The story, for those who don't know, is about two women who come before King Solomon both claiming ownership of the same infant. Solomon sees no way to determine who truly is the Mother and rightful guardian so he suggests the infant be cut in half so each woman could have a half of the baby. Amazingly only ONE woman immediately cries out that this is a terrible idea. Why did the other one want the baby if she was okay with it being cut in half?
Many Christians claim that it is the NEW testament we base our laws on but this is not true. In this they may have a point, after all the Apostle Paul tells Slaves or Obey their masters in Colossians 3:22 and slavery was, unfortunately, a part of this country's laws. So on that point they can claim they are right but then again its not exactly good to want slavery is it? More on that in my next post (which will be about, you guessed it, slavery in the Bible).
Another repugnant claim made is that we are one nation Under God and that In God We Trust should be our motto. Many folks believe those words with as much conviction as they believe in Jesus himself or that the sun will rise tomorrow. Little do they know that it wasn't added to our coins until a surge of religiosity during the Civil War and it wasn't added to paper money until another surge during the anti-Communist era (in 1957). Three years before that, in 1954, was when the words UNDER GOD were added to the pledge in order to set us apart from the "godless" communists. Neither motto or idea are originally American and neither reflect the Freedom of Religion that forms a corner-stone of our society.
America is NOT a Christian nation...
I present you with the words of Thomas Paine, one of the free thinkers that led to the American Revolution and his thoughts on the Bible:
"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half 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; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel." - From Thomas Paine's the Age of Reason
That's exactly what we are still in need of Thomas, an Age of Reason, we didn't see it in your lifetime and I'm still waiting for it in mine. We still live in a world guided by the superstitious and fearful, the indoctrinated sheep who grow old believing in fairy tales. But I digress...
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