It is tiring reading about what our Founding Fathers wanted or
did not want in matters of religion. Historical documents are
replete with their desires for a secular government without the
intrusion of Christianity.
Editor,
It is tiring reading about what our Founding Fathers wanted or did not want in matters of religion. Historical documents are replete with their desires for a secular government without the intrusion of Christianity. With certainty, the Founding Fathers were Deists not Christians, and purposefully did not put Christ into our constitution. Our secular constitution was meant to be that way regardless of the incantations of biblical fundamentalists today or 200 years ago.
Thomas Jefferson rejected the Christian belief that the bible was the “inspired word of God.” In his Notes on the State of Virginia he said, “There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.” Jefferson proceeded to rewrite the Christian New Testament into the Jeffersonian Bible eliminating the virgin birth, miracles and the ascension of Christ.
In James Madison’s A Memorial and Remonstrance he stated, “During almost 15 centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.”
Upon signing the Treaty of Tripoli (June 7, 1797), our second President John Adams stated, “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion. The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.”
If our Founding Fathers showed up at the Dover Area Public School intelligent design trial adjudicated by a conservative George W. Bush judge, they would have stood and applauded the judge’s decision with collective acknowledgement that their secular U.S. Constitution has weathered the storms of religious attacks the past 200 years.
Dale Morejon, Gilroy
