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Jul. 19th, 2005 12:34 pmFrom Andrew Sullivan:
"...it is nevertheless true to say, from all that I have read, that the following seven critical early American leaders were Deists and denied the divinity of Jesus: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Ethan Allen, and Thomas Paine. In fact, can you imagine what a senior Republican would say today about the following statement: 'The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion'? That's from the Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Tripoli, Article XI, passed by the Senate under John Adams' presidency. No one saying that could be nominated in today's explicitly Christianist GOP. In fact, many of the statements of the Founding Fathers sound more like Christopher Hitchens than George W. Bush - and would be characterized as bigotry by much of the Republican right. It's important to realize that today's Christianists are not representative of the constitutional order and philosophy of this country's founding; and are, in fact, one of the deeper threats to the maintenance of the freedom bequeathed to Americans as a birthright."
"...it is nevertheless true to say, from all that I have read, that the following seven critical early American leaders were Deists and denied the divinity of Jesus: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Ethan Allen, and Thomas Paine. In fact, can you imagine what a senior Republican would say today about the following statement: 'The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion'? That's from the Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Tripoli, Article XI, passed by the Senate under John Adams' presidency. No one saying that could be nominated in today's explicitly Christianist GOP. In fact, many of the statements of the Founding Fathers sound more like Christopher Hitchens than George W. Bush - and would be characterized as bigotry by much of the Republican right. It's important to realize that today's Christianists are not representative of the constitutional order and philosophy of this country's founding; and are, in fact, one of the deeper threats to the maintenance of the freedom bequeathed to Americans as a birthright."