Our Founding Fathers
So, as I'm sure you're aware, I'm a big fan of debate and politics and religion and all sorts of taboo subjects that most shy away from. In the last two elections, I encountered numerous folks and debates that covered the gay marriage stuff and argued that "our country is built on religion and Christianity" and blah blah blah. Listening to the "religious right" you'd think that democrats are pretty new to the world and that they are just now trying to take it over and change everything. I've never believed this as reading the declaration of independence and the constitution and amendments it seems pretty obvious that there is specific intent written into the founding documents protecting all belief systems and encouraging no forced belief system and the documents themselves seem inherently liberal by design.
Last night I picked up a book by the Smithsonian Institute titled Presidents: Every Question Answered.
While the book is not nearly as deep as the title suggests, it has been extremely enlightening. With summaries of each presidential term, time-lines and key facts of each president, it is a very convenient book to research the basic principles that each president stood for. Here are some points that stand out the most to me and gave me "oh, wow" moments...
Religion: of the first 5 presidents, Washington, Madison(4) and Monroe(5) were all Episcopalian which is one of the more liberal religions and openly supports gay rights as well as other equal civil rights as a whole. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Church_(United_States)#Homosexuality
The 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson, was the first that had NO OFFICIAL RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION and is considered the first science minded "political thinker" of his age. He was a major author of the declaration of independence and is credited with the championing of the separation of church and state. While he claimed belief in a god, his beliefs didn't align with any specific existing religion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson
The 2nd president, John Adams, was Unitarian and is the only religious president of the first 5 that actually follows a more "traditional" belief system that backs up the religious right's claims to what America was "founded" on.
All in all, in the first 5 presidents you have 36 years worth of presidential control in which all served multiple terms with the exception of Adams (the closest thing to a modern christian for that time period). While at that time, religion may not have been a driving factor in voting, it certainly is telling when looking at the religious foundation our country is built on.
So next time you hear a right winged "conservative" defend their country's founding motives, don't hesitate to send them on an educational trip to wikipedia after you explain to them what a computer is. Maybe they'll actually learn something about their country that they so blindly defend with words of utter stupidity and ignorance.
Last night I picked up a book by the Smithsonian Institute titled Presidents: Every Question Answered.
While the book is not nearly as deep as the title suggests, it has been extremely enlightening. With summaries of each presidential term, time-lines and key facts of each president, it is a very convenient book to research the basic principles that each president stood for. Here are some points that stand out the most to me and gave me "oh, wow" moments...
Religion: of the first 5 presidents, Washington, Madison(4) and Monroe(5) were all Episcopalian which is one of the more liberal religions and openly supports gay rights as well as other equal civil rights as a whole. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Church_(United_States)#Homosexuality
The 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson, was the first that had NO OFFICIAL RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION and is considered the first science minded "political thinker" of his age. He was a major author of the declaration of independence and is credited with the championing of the separation of church and state. While he claimed belief in a god, his beliefs didn't align with any specific existing religion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson
The 2nd president, John Adams, was Unitarian and is the only religious president of the first 5 that actually follows a more "traditional" belief system that backs up the religious right's claims to what America was "founded" on.
All in all, in the first 5 presidents you have 36 years worth of presidential control in which all served multiple terms with the exception of Adams (the closest thing to a modern christian for that time period). While at that time, religion may not have been a driving factor in voting, it certainly is telling when looking at the religious foundation our country is built on.
So next time you hear a right winged "conservative" defend their country's founding motives, don't hesitate to send them on an educational trip to wikipedia after you explain to them what a computer is. Maybe they'll actually learn something about their country that they so blindly defend with words of utter stupidity and ignorance.