This is my first diary... I have been around for a while, posting on occasion, but this is the first time I have fealt I had reason to start a separate topic...
This morning I read a letter to the editor in my local daily, I am attempting to craft a rebuttle LTE and would like input on my draft...
Follow me if you would like to help me out...
Here is what I read:
Founders recognized God
God not mentioned in the Constitution? True, but insignificant.
Anyone familiar with this document will be aware of the fact that the Constitution is a list of basic rules for the operation of each of our individual states, and for the functioning of the three branches of Federal government. An operating manual, if you will. So why was God not mentioned? Because the founding fathers assumed that the awareness of God and the authority of the Bible would remain constant in our nation.
Previously, a writer to this paper mentioned Hamilton and Madison as examples of supposed 1700's neutrality toward Christianity. Let the founders speak, and let the readers decide. Alexander Hamilton, co-author of the Federalist Papers and the Constitution said, "I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion. ... I can prove it's truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man." James Madison, co-author of the Constitution said, "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
Sounds sort of, well, Christian, doesn't it? "Hornswoggling?" Not on your life! Just the facts. When one studies, one finds truth!
The dudes name
Pastor, the name of a church in the next town over
Here is a draft of my responce:
Separation of church and state.
A recent letter to the editor from a pastor at a Town near here church claimed that the absence of god in the constitution is insignificant because multiple authors of the document had expressed their support of the Christian religion in other writings. I find this logic highly suspect. Doesn't it make more sense that the founders understood that mixing government and religion was highly dangerous and should be avoided, and thus intentionally avoided mention of god in the highest law of the new country they were forming? The fact that Hamilton and Madison had written of their support for the Christian religion in other works only makes their decision not to do so in the case of the constitution more significant.
Anybody have any suggestions?