Rick Perry’s “War on Religion”
Read Time:4 Minute, 16 Second
Rick Perry has a brand new ad on television, entitled “Strong”. Perry is seen walking in a field, wearing a denim shirt and a barn coat, musing on his own faith.
He talks about President Obama’s war on religion, the liberals’ war on religion, and compares DADT to prayer in public school. He speaks emotionally about America being a Christian nation. I’d like to dissect this 30 second pile of fiction one lie at a time.
Our founding fathers, for the most part, were Deists. Most of them were Freemasons. George Washington never took Communion, waiting outside while Martha attended Mass, and on his death bed, he wanted no religious ritual, did not pray and did not ask for a priest. (Barry Schwartz, The New York Press, 1987 pp 174-175) In his private journal, Thomas Jefferson wrote “Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than he did himself.”
Benjamin Franklin wrote in Poor Richard’s Almanac that lighthouses are more helpful than churches. Franklin bemoaned the lack of actual good deeds in Christianity, wishing it was more than sermons and holy-day keeping. Thomas Jefferson did not believe in the Holy Trinity, and stated this in a letter James Smith in 1822: “The hocus pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs.”
Abraham Lincoln, although not a Founding Father, was a Republican. According to his first law partner, John T. Stuart, he was also practically an atheist. Stuart said of Lincoln: “He was a vowed and open infidel, and sometimes bordered on atheism. He went further against Christian beliefs and doctrines and principles than any man I have ever heard.”
America was founded and molded by men who were Deists, independent thinkers and men who did NOT believe in the “hocus pocus” as Jefferson puts it. We are not a Christian nation. There can be no war on Christianity if it is not the State Religion of America, and it is not. We fought the American Revolution so we would not have to worship anyone else’s religion; we would be free to worship however and whomever we please. President Obama is not waging a war on religion, but the conservatives certainly are. Any religion other than Christianity is not welcome in America, no matter what the Constitution states.
Let’s take a look at prayer in school. I attended Catholic schools until I was a sophomore in high school. I went to Mass, and Confession and took classes in Bible study. Because my parents paid for me to attend parochial schools. If my son, who attends public school, wants to say a silent prayer before a huge test, no problem. If my son’s teacher forces every single student to pray to Jesus, that IS a problem. Since America has no State Religion (thank you, Thomas Jefferson), no religion can be forced on our citizens. You cannot make an entire student body to pray to Jesus because Christianity is not the state religion. No matter what Rick Perry thinks.
Lastly, the reversal of DADT and the conservatives’ obsession with homosexuality. Conservatives say they hate homosexuality and members of the LGBT community because of these two passages in the book of Leviticus:
Lev 18:22-Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
Lev 20:13-If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
The book of Leviticus was written by men, not by God. Men who couldn’t explain things, like the sun, the moon, how we came to be, anything. So they made up stories. They made up laws, like the two above and the others contained in Leviticus that Christians choose to ignore. For example:
Lev 20:18-And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from their people.
You don’t hear that thrown around with quite the same fervor as Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, do you?
In closing, let me state that the only war being waged on religion freedom is being waged by conservative Christians. A party that worships the Constitution wants to create a State Religion, and that’s dangerous. It’s how a bunch of white guys in wigs ended up over here in the first place. Rick Perry has no clue most of the time, but this time, I am positive he knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s telling white conservative Christians that the black Muslim in the White House, and the vile, godless, liberal heathens are coming for their Bibles. He’s winning through fear.
Thanks to Freethought.mbdojo.com for the quotes.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
While I applaud your points and agree with them, I just wanted to point out a bit of historical inaccuracy. The Founding Fathers didn’t leave England to seek out religious toleration. Many of the Founding Fathers were, indeed Deists, though others were devout Christians, but they came along about a hundred years after Jamestown was founded in Virginia (actually, if one gives them a medium of age of 30 in 1776, more like 140+ years)–which was based on pure commerce, not religion, and the Puritans, called Pilgrims, who settled in New England, who we often say were seeking religious freedom, and they were, but if you look at English history, the Commonwealth, led by Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan ,had collapsed with his death-his son Richard couldn’t keep it together–and Charles II, an extremely tolerant king had taken over. The Puritans were upset they weren’t the ruling party any more; there well could have been some antagonism against them, but what they wanted more than the freedom to worship as they pleased, was to make everyone else worship as they pleased as well. Come to think of it, there are certainly some Conservative Christians who could relate to them…
Thanks for this. It was a good read.
Erin,
I’m generally in agreement with you, but you gloss over a few important points.
1. Deists, by definition, aren’t atheist. They’re certainly not traditional, or fundamentalist Christians, but they’re neither atheist nor agnostic and can generally believe in the Christian God, although they may differ on the details as taught in any Church.
2. In your article you basically equate Catholicism and Protestantism. These two Christian denominations fought bloody battles, historically. It may not be as big a deal these days, and to a non-Christian they may seem like the same thing–but they’re not. In early US politics Catholics weren’t well liked.
3. Especially important is your assertion that the Bible was written by men. It’s an important point to many Christian denominations that the Bible was written by, or divinely inspired by, God. Basically this means that mortal hands were the mechanism, but they’re Gods words, quite infallible and literal. You’re demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding about the faith of many Americans.
4. Politicians and citizens have been paying special lip service, at least, to Christianity for a long time. Christianity has most definitely been a privileged belief system throughout our history. All of our Presidents have nominally identified as Christians publicly. (That doesn’t mean their identification was entirely sincere, but it shows the tide of public opinion.)
There are lots of Christians who really miss the point and do need to understand what what the First Amendment means and that protects them. If there really were a war against Christianity, Freedom of Religion would be their safety net. They should be supporting it, not trying to chip away at it by asking for special privileges.
Nevertheless, we won’t be able to have a coherent dialog if we don’t understand the basics of, and diversity within, the Christian faith.
I do understand what a Deist is. And as a former Catholic, I’m not certain where you see a comparison between Protestantism and Catholicism. My point was that America was not founded on Christian values, be they Catholic, Protestant, Primitive Baptist, what have you. It doesn’t matter. Our Founding Fathers left England to form a republic where people could worship however they chose to worship. The basis of the religions you mentioned, and many others in America is Christianity-the belief that the Bible is true and that Jesus is the Son of God. Many Christians I know who are liberal do not in fact believe the Bible is divinely inspired. We believe, as do many people in this country, that man wrote the Bible to explain things, to set down a story of time. Did the people written about in the Bible actually exist? I have no idea, probably. But did Noah build a big boat to escape a flood with 2 of every animal on earth aboard? Odds are slim.
We do not have a state religion, but fundamentalist Christians like Rick Perry desperately want one, and that is incredibly dangerous. I understand Christianity. I’ve taken theology courses and have friends who are deeply spiritual, just not religious, like me. I realize that not all Christians are loons like Perry, but perhaps that would be easier for others to see if the loons were not the primary source of information: Bryan Fischer, David Barton, Michele Bachmann and others who demonize the LGBT community, make up their own versions of American and even world history and do everything they can to make certain that America’s state religion is Christianity. Our Founding Fathers weep at what the conservatives have done to this country.
I think Rick Perry missed his calling. He should have played Adam Cartwright on Bonanza. Of course Adam never would have said something so intolerant, but the script writer could take care of that.
But then again, since Mr. Perry has another engagement at the moment, maybe he should just be a guest star for one episode. He could be the evil townsperson, and the Cartwrights could set everything right by the end of the show. Frankly, I wouldn’t miss it.
You say courage, others use the word masochist…potato, potAto.
Oh, you might get a few interesting comments, since I just posted this to Rick Perry’s Facebook page. 😀
LOL! Wonderful. You remind me of Jess, one of our longest running commenters. Same courage 🙂
Don’t forget the bombs going off in El Paso and state “pray for rain” day.
I forgot about that! Geez!
The statewide “pray for rain” day which resulted in half of the state going up in flames not two weeks later.
Fortunately his isn’t winning anything at the moment. I have a feeling he is about to be an afterthought.
I just can’t abide this character. I knew he was an idiot when I heard he wanted Texas to secede from the union and when he shot a poor coyote while jogging in the hills. This latest comes as no surprise to me.