AWESOME response to one of the right wing spam emails

[Horse with no Name]

I won't post the entire email I was originally sent--but you know the one..where it talks about "Taking God out of schools is when all the trouble started", "The SCOTUS has the Ten Commandments", etc.
This is the response--I guess he was just one of the "cc" as I was in this spam.

"Firstly, I hope you do not consider this spam. I simply replied to all
the addresses this email has been forwarded to. If you don't like it,
complain to your friends who don't know how to use bcc. i'm deleteing
all these addresses from my computer once i've said my piece.

i am also assuming you read the whole email, i left large (and
inaccurate) parts out for brevity, but it all boils down to the
following paragraph:

Somebody wrote:
>
> I was asked to send this on if I _agreed_ or delete if I
> didn't. Now it is your turn...
> It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it
> is very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having
> the Ten Commandments on display or "In God We Trust" on our
> money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we
> just tell the other 14% to Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!

i choose option #3: reply. The proponents of this message WANT people
who disagree to be silent and not rebuke their obvious and infallable
logic/beliefs (yes, thats sarcasm).

"It is said" doesn't count as a statistic, or as anything else, other
than gossip. however, i'll turn on suspension of disbelief for a half
second and go with these figures, as my point is the same, regardless of
the accuracy of what "is said."

Why don't we tell them to go sit in a corner? Because that 14% have the
exact SAME rights as any other American.

DID YOU KNOW?
The second paragraph of the declaration of Independance states:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

It doesn't say 'christian god' or 'evangelical christians' it says "all
men" (interpeted to mean mankind) and "their creator"... whoever they
happen to believe that is.

Sounds to me like somebody wants to set the stage so the majority can
pass laws without regard for the people who disagree. If YOU were hold
to "Sit down and SHUT UP" by Buddhists, because 86% of Americans were
Buddhists, would that be okay with you? What happened to things like
Freedom of choice? Freedom of religion?

So it's only 14%. Big deal, right?

While the colonies were trying to secede from England, one of the
rallying cries we were all taught in school was "No taxation without
representation!" A legitimate claim, however, the colonies were offered
a representitive in Parliment. The colonies refused, simply because they
knew their singular voice would be ignored and inneffective at promoting
the new world agendas & issues in any meaningful way to the King and
other .uk.gov officials.

Now i am recieving emails suggesting 14% (probably more, seeing as a LOT
of believers in a christian God are not Evangelical) of US citizens
should be relegated to paying taxes without any reasonable voice in the
upper tiers of government.

In MY Humble Opinion, seperation of church and state is VITAL to keeping
America strong, and towards not creating second-class citizens! It was
the smartest thing (again, IMHO) the founding fathers did in laying the
framework of our nation.

To quote the supreme court:
"When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion it
conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the
favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all
persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some."
Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun in the Lee v. Weisman ruling, 1992.

A little bit of googling can be very helpful:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/capital.asp

For some more interesting reading, i would suggest the following links:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/scs_intr.htm
http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=7341&security=1002&news_iv_ctrl=1241
http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLiberty.cfm?ID=9894&c=29

Sometimes i am forced to wonder; "What kind of American do we live in
anymore?" :("

[MsTryska]

1. f*cking brilliant.

kudos to the author.

[Horse with no Name]

2. I have no idea who it is

But I did email him/her back and gave them the link here.
Sounds like someone we might like to hear more from.

[brystheguy]

3. I always save these great replies

just in case I ever get one of these RW emails. I can't wait!

[Puregonzo1188]

4. On the "it is said 86% believe in God."

Couldn't that just mean a higher power, creator, or in other words a god, not just God as in the Christian god, "God." In a way, couldn't many religious idols be referred to as "gods"? :shrug:

[yankeedem]

5. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall

When the freeper got the bounce back.

I got a similar email, I replied back that if "God" was so important to the founding fathers, why isn't he mentioned in the Constitution once, and only mentioned in the federalist papers once?

If you need a snappy comeback, that is.

[racaulk]

6. That's freaking awesome!!!

I have always dismissed these RW emails as an annoyance and simply deleted them. Maybe I should take a page from this person's book by getting vocal and start responding. He summed up my point of view perfectly and I could not have said it better myself! Thanks for posting this--it really made my day! :-)

[ArkDem]

7. deleting

[The Blue Flower]

8. Now really

Do you actually believe that the people who send and receive this kind of claptrap would be able to read and understand your well-reasoned reply? Way too many big words.