Help Me pick this apart this facist propaganda - History Forgotten

[Must_B_Free]

I'm going to blast a response back to all the people who received it:

here's what I have so far

"And anyone who believes this facist propaganda needs to go back to 3rd grade and learn why the Pilgrims landed here in the first place

And how "Christian" was it to slaughter the people who were he before Columbus "discovered" America. Did you evernotice that the majority of State names in America aren't even our language?

Idaho, Ohio, Massasschusets, Wyoming, Dakota, Nebraska - these all sound like Native American words to me."

Here is the propaganda my realator mailed me:

History Forgotten


Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence were orthodox, deeply committed Christians? The other three all believed in the Bible as the divine truth, the God of scripture, and His personal intervention.

It is the same Congress that formed the American Bible Society. Immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of scripture for the people of this nation.

Patrick Henry, who is called the firebrand of the American Revolution, is still remembered for his words, '"Give me liberty or give me death."' But in current textbooks the context of these words is deleted. Here is what he actually said: '"An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death."'

These sentences have been erased from our textbooks. Was Patrick Henry a Christian? The following year, 1776, he wrote this '"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."'

Consider these words that Thomas Jefferson wrote on the front of his well-worn Bible: '"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator "' He was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest and most important role.

On July 4, 1821, President Adams said, '"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."'

Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President of the United States reaffirmed this truth when he wrote, '"The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country."'

In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: '"The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools."'

William Holmes McGuffey is the author of the McGuffey Reader, which was used for over 100 years in our public schools with over 125 million copies sold until it was stopped in 1963. President Lincoln called him the '"Schoolmaster of the Nation."'

Listen to these words of Mr. McGuffey: '"The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our notions on the character of God, on the great moral Governor of the universe.

On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions. From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. From all these extracts from the Bible I make no apology."'

Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636. In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number 1 was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the scriptures: '"Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments. James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: '"We have staked the whole future of our new nation not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."'

Today, we are asking God to bless America. But, how can He bless a Nation that has departed so far from Him? Prior to September 11, He was not welcome in America. Most of what you read in this article has been erased from our textbooks. Revisionists have rewritten history to remove the truth about our country's Christian roots.

You are encouraged to share with others, so that the truth of our nation's history will be told.


Melvin H. Worth

[Iris]

1. This was sent to you by your realtor?

I'd find a new one.

[Journeyman]

2. Right from the start, there were 56 signatories. . .

to the Declaration of Independence. If they can't get such a straightforward, look-at-the-document, count-the-names fact correct, what hope have they of getting the interpretive information correct?

[Nomad559]

3. We ask and require you

http://members.aol.com/magastodu/americanindianhistory/aih04.htm


As required by the government of Spain, the early Spanish explorers to the New World had to pronounce the following statement to any native they might encounter:

We ask and require you... to acknowledge the Church as ruler and superior of the whole world, and the high priest called the Pope and his name the King as lords of... terra firma... , we... shall leave you, your wives and children, and your lands, free without servitude.... But if you do not ... we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you.... We shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them.... and we shall take away your goods and shall do you all the harm and damage we can.

[sandnsea]

13. Constitutional Amendment

My response:

"If you want the Bible to be the primary document for interpreting the Rule of Law in America; just put together a Constitutional Amendment and let the people decide."

I am so sick of this crap and I don't see any other way to shut the idiots down. If America wants the Bible to be the rule of law, then I need to know. This would absolutely be the final straw that would cause me to leave the country. Let's quit arguing with them, call their bluff and get it decided once and for all.

[Sequoia]

4. I am ill now.

What a bunch of hype indeed. Let me tell you, most of our found fathers didn't beleive all of that, they just went along with it. They sure trashed Thomas Paine in a hurry when he worte that ani-religion book back then. Christians are oh so willing to kill others who aren't white, right, and ready to fight.

[TheBigGuy]

5. The context is key

The USA was founded during the Enlighenment. The founders may have believed in God, a Deity, but not in any sectarian fundamentalist diety. The best example of this was Jeffersons "bible", where he had cut out all the supernatural elements.

[arcane1]

6. don't forget the Treaty of Tripoli

signed by Adams it states:

"...the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion..."
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary/bar1796t.htm

also, do a google search on some of Thomas Jefferson's writings, he essentially declares the Bible is crap and God is unworthy of worship.

and then there is Jefferson's Bible, where he included Jesus' quotes but omitted ALL the spiritual God stuff

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. The McGuffy Reader was not

"stopped in 1963" (the implication being by the same Supreme Court that outlawed official school prayer--school prayer which had never existed in most of the U.S. in the first place)

I'm old enough to remember what really happened. The McGuffy Readers were hopelessly out of date by the early twentieth century. School districts stopped using them for the same reason that today's school districts no longer use the "Dick and Jane" readers from the 1950s.

Around the beginning of the 1960s, some publisher acquired the rights to the McGuffy Readers and reprinted them as curiosities. I remember them being on sale in bookstores. A few right-wingers (the most extreme wing of the Goldwater supporters) suggested requiring them in modern school systems, but I never heard of any school district actually using them. Both the pictures and the language were distinctly nineteenth century, and it would have been ridiculous to use them in the 1960s.

Addition on edit: The fundies are taught that they are practicing the true, original Christianity, when they are really practicing a nineteenth-century variety of Christianity that arose out of opposition to the scientific discoveries of the period in biology and geology.

There was an American Experience program on the spiritualism craze of the nineteenth century a few years ago that pointed out that before the Civil War, church attendance was quite low. The most influential institutions in New England towns were the Masonic lodges, not the churches.

It makes sense. The eighteenth century was the high point of Freemasonry, and it was in the eighteenth century that Unitarianism first caught on. (The first Unitarian and Universalist churches in the U.S. were founded in the late 18th century.)

The mid-eighteenth century had seen a revival movement called the Great Awakening (approx. 1735-45), but it burned out as quickly as it spread. In fact, the "burn out" was so strong that some parts of the East Coast remained hostile to religion for years afterward and were referred to as "burned over areas."

Outside of the Great Awakening, the eighteenth century was no fundamentalist utopia, especially in the non-Puritan areas.

One of the sad results of the decline of history teaching and recreational reading in this country is that people are more susceptible to this fundamentalist crap about the U.S. than they once were.

[sweetheart]

8. gratuitous christian propaganda

Now it is 2003, you have the right to freedom of religion. The best practice standard in government, learned after much much much much much much foolish mistakes is SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.

America is not a christian nation anymore, as is clearly evidenced in its mass murders and ugly behaviour bombing and killing 1000's of innocents in its pursuit of egotism and pride.

I respect the example of christ's life as a model for how a modern liberal might see the world... and indeed his life is not an example for hardly anyone... clearly. Rather they hide behind doctrines and quotes from "approved sources" given the "nag hammadi gospel of phillup" is not "approved by the church"... yet it exposes an unedited christ who speaks more like an eastern master.

Now there is an evil roman emperor as dark and sordid as anything biblical during christ's lifetime... and where are all the christians? Nope. There are very few if any real christians in america... just a lot of literature scholars who quote texts.

[Isome]

9. Part of this is from David Barton's "America's Godly Heritage"

"52 of the 55 signers of the Constitution were "orthodox" Christians and many were "evangelical Christians."

There are no authorities to corroborate that assertion. The consensus of scholarly opinion is the opposite.

Adams said, '"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."'

Advocates of merging religion and state should think twice about using Adams to bolster their cause. According to John McCollister, "some members of the organized church branded an atheist" and there was no evidence that the Bible was used at the time he took the oath of office. His church attendance was irregular at times.(John McCollister, So Help Me God, pp. 41-43.)

The First Amendment To The U.S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ."

James Madison, considered to be the Father of the Constitution, said in an 1819 letter, "The number, the industry and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church and state."

In the Treaty of Tripoli, a trade agreement signed between the United States and the Muslim region of north Africa in 1797, after negotiations under George Washington, and approved by the Senate under John Adams, states clearly, "The Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion...."

There's lots more I could give ya', but right now I gotta go!

[Must_B_Free]

10. The Xtian Identity movement is ANTI AMERICAN

they are trying to overcome our protection, i.e. the Constitution and Bill of Rights with "God's law".

The Christian Identity movement is as Unamerican as the communists after WWII - WORSE even!

If we give this article the slack it asks for, then the next question is - which is the "one true Christianity"? Certainly we are being asked NOT to tolerate any other religion or law before that of God and the Bible. But then which Christians are the "right kind"?

How Christian was it for our President, a man who professes faith in God, to tell lies that killed innoncent American servicemen and women, let alone the Iraqi Families, men women and CHILDREN that were and are still being slaughtered to this day for his lie.

[DBoon]

16. I think you mean Christian Reconstruction

Christian Identity is a racist white supremicist movement that sees Europeans as God's chose people, and other as sub-human or tribes of satan.

Christian Identity bears a close resemblence to the Nazi'z cult of race.

Christian Reconstruction is a movement that tries to remake American government and society along the lines of the old testament. Note: they have little sympathy for notions of democracy or liberty. Their view is a very paternalistic oligarchy.

Christian Identity looks like an American version of Franco's National Catholicism (fascism)

[wtmusic]

11. And they all knew better than to put it in the Constitution

that says it all

[Romberry]

12. A quick read shows almost the entire thing...

....to be false and filled with bogus (read "made up") quotes. Thomas Jefferson certainly did NOT write " am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator " in a "well worn" Bible. It simply didn't happen.

Neither were "52 of 55 founders" professed Christians. In fact, most were not Christians at all. They were Deists. If the person that sent this spew your way thinks he can show otherwise, let him/her try.

You can get some actual (not bunk) quotes with their original sources here: http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/qnoframe.htm

Also, see the Jefferson Bible: http://www.angelfire.com/co/JeffersonBible/

[sangha]

14. Ben Franklin

I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies.
-- Benjamin Franklin, quoted from Victor J. Stenger, Has Science Found God? (2001)

[greekspeak]

15. The key word here is "revisionist"

In right wing jargon, the term "revisionist" refers to an historian who is doing his or her job correctly. Right wingers think of history as a political tool, a never changing, rose-colored, sugar coated right wing paradise. The fact of the matter is that historian reinterpret history all the time. New evidence comes to light. Biases are removed.

The right wing history of the United States is a Church going, little house on the prairie fundamentalist happy go lucky slave Donna Reed sinless good old days orgy populated by highly polished archetypes. In other words, it bears no mark of reality.