New Year’s greeting for the ages
1 January 2009 by Stardust
Rob Boston from Americans United wrote a very good reminder about what the founding fathers meant by “religious liberty”: A New Year’s Greeting For The Ages: Jefferson’s Jan. 1 Letter To The Danbury Baptists Still Rings True
From Jefferson on, thoughtful Americans have understood that true religious liberty means that government stays out of religious matters. That’s not a plot; it’s common sense – and it’s the mandate of our Constitution. The American people have, indeed, built a wall of separation between church and state, and it will take more than the ravings of Religious Right zealots such as [Christopher] Merola to tear it down.
Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists
The Final Letter, as Sent
To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.
Gentlemen
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.
Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.
Happy New Year, everyone! Hope it’s a good one for all of our moderators and loyal readers.
2 January 2009, on 1:20 am
Thanks, Stardust, for highlighting that excellent commentary on a HUGELY important topic.
Yes…indeed…Happy 2009, all you SANE GifSters!
And…what!…(on another note?) let’s get started with some of the USUAL stories about MORE idiot humans?
Allow me to start off the New Year with this little gem…with my usual cynicism, of course.
[I know youse guys are just frothing at the mouth for this kind of shit. I'm KIDDING!]
Another tale of totally ignorant, scumbag trash.
Any bets that they were brought up as Xtian fuckheads?
And…guessing, of course…they probably STILL actively worship Jeebus!
“4 arrested in N. California gang rape of lesbian”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090102/ap_on_re_us/lesbian_rape
“Vat a Voild diss iss!” And Regarding the New Year…
To paraphrase that famous Bette Davis line from “All About Eve”…
“Strap yourselves in, folks…it’s going to a bumpy ride!”
2 January 2009, on 1:29 am
^ …it’s going to BE a bumpy ride!”
SHEESH! Well…the old editing ‘blindness’ problem sure hasn’t changed!
2 January 2009, on 5:32 am
I have to say I was very impressed with some of the US founding fathers attitude towards religion and it’s separation from the state, we had a program on SBS a while back and those dudes were on the money, they never thought that the religious fruits would still be around I reckon, they were pretty hostile towards some of the religious freaks around then, what a terrible tragedy that all these years later their great and noble intent has been trashed by ego driven mendacious megalomaniac’s, due to our convict heritage thankfully religion is still regarded with HUGE suspicion…………………………………..
2 January 2009, on 3:18 pm
Unfortunately, religious fringenuts will ignore the message of the letter and latch on to the last paragraph to claim that Jefferson was a loving jesus worshiper with a large vocabulary. Morans!
And ‘09 will indeed be an interesting year, maybe even exciting. I hope without much optimism that there will be no stories similiar to the one ChuckA linked to. Happy New Year everyone.
3 January 2009, on 1:11 am
The clarity of our founding fathers is in stark contast to our current batch of ignorant boobs. And the simple fact that neither the constitution nor the Declaration of Independence contain provisions for religious authority to have any rights within government. That tells me that none of them trusted the religious to be leaders in the matter of governance. It also tells me why the first amendment was drafted. Probably to placate the religious who feared that this new government may persecute them.
Now if we could just get as much mileage out of the first amendment as the religious do we would be in pretty good position.