Minority White Christians’ Religious War On the Constitution

[Panich52]

There is a gross misconception among incredibly ignorant Americans that this nation was founded on the tenets of the Christian bible and is therefore a Christian nation. It is this willful lack of information about the nation’s founding that, in large part, is why Americans are not the smartest people on the planet. Maybe they believe that because white Christians make up the majority of the population, the Founding Fathers were wrong in creating America as a secular nation. However, according to a new study, white Christians who believe they own the right to control politics and culture in America are “losing their majority status” across the country and not just in left-leaning states.

According to data from the American Values Atlas and the Public Religion Research Institute that gathers information on political opinions, values, and religion; white Christians are now a minority in 19 states. Stunningly including “traditionally conservative states.” Still, that has not stopped an avalanche of religious right fanatics serving in legislatures and state courts from pushing theocratic edicts on the people and rejecting the U.S. Constitution as the law of the land and it is getting worse.

The Alabama Supreme Court finally revealed this week what it regards as the supreme law of the land when it put an end to same-sex marriages (again) despite a federal court ruling that the state’s ban was patently unconstitutional. When the Alabama Baptist Citizens Action Program demanded that the Alabama Supreme Court put a halt to same-sex unions in the state, despite a federal court order, the Court duly obeyed. Obviously, the Constitution’s 14th Amendment does not apply in Alabama; especially if it conflicts with a verse in the Old Testament where god says he thinks gays are an abomination; not that they cannot marry, just that they are an abomination.

Like every other religious right fanatic ignorant that the Constitution is the law of the land, Chief Justice Roy Moore said, “I can’t explain why more than 20 other states have bowed down to unlawful federal authority; but Alabama is not one of them. A federal judge has no authority in the face of a state court’s opinion on the same matter.” It was an interesting use of the religious term “bow down,” but put more aptly, 20 other states understand and adhere to the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause as law of the land; not the bible.

More
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/03/07/minority-white-christians-religious-war-constitution.html

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And all levels of gov't are infested with these theocrats & Dominionists. So much for "will of the people...

[daredtowork]

1. They usually quote "The Founders"

and what follows is an amazing string of anachronism and shallowest understanding of history possible.

From time to time I see people on DU cite "The Founders" - it always gives me the creeps because it reminds of people who invoke a history that they've completely made up to fulfill their political agenda (usually this Christian Nation claptrap).

By the way, the Magna Carta is often cited in the same ahistorical, hollow way.

[hifiguy]

2. The ignorance of these creatures regarding

the thoughts and writings of Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Franklin, Washington and others is so vast as to be unmeasurable. Fungi are smarter.

[kiri]

3. our Constitution never once mentions any god or Christianity

About the Constitution and the Bible. Let me tell you there is nothing in the Constitution about the Bible and there is nothing in the Bible about democracy or our Constitution.

Many people assume there is some connection between the Bible and our Constitution.

But our Constitution never once mentions God or Christianity or any Commandments. It is a purely humanistic document. The preamble begins, “We the people do ordain and establish...”

It mentions religion just twice, and both times the word “no” attached. The first mention is in Art. VI “no religious test shall ever be required...” The second time is in the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The Constitution is a purely humanistic, religiously neutral, secular, and political document. No delegate thought the idea of free voting by common people came from divine revelation. [That is free voting by white, propertied men; maybe it was divine that women and blacks were not allowed to vote?]

It is significant that the Constitution does not call for any worship or ask for any divine blessing by Providence. The Constitution's oath for taking office does NOT contain the phrase "so help me God". That has been appended by various oath-takers, probably for political “spin”.

The writers of the Constitution were very careful to distinguish between an oath vs affirmation, or, "I do swear or affirm" swearing to an oath, because oath/swearing had religious connotations. Affirm was to assure freedom from religion.

And the Bible never once mentions democracy. The Bible never once mentions freedom of speech or freedom of religion. It does not mention checks and balances and limitations on the power of the executive; nor an independent judicial branch; it does not mention elections or voting.

The Bible does not even mention tolerance for other believers, much less non-believers. There are more than 200 denominations in the US alone, and each claims to have the one true faith. The sheer number of such claims makes it difficult to believe any one of them.

The Bible provides no model for ‘good’ government or for personal freedoms. The Bible is a purely religious/theological document for some believers. The Commandments—10 or all 613 of them—do not represent American society.

We are not a Christian nation, nor a Judeo-Christian nation. We are a Constitutional nation.

I will add here about the Declaration of Independence. It is a poetic document, intended to stir emotions and to override the prevalent notion of the “divine right of kings”.

This is a talk in itself. But, the DOI is equally for religious independence as for political independence.

But the main point is that the DOI is not any part of the Constitution; and no part of our laws. Not a single legal decision by SCOTUS is based on the DOI.

Our rights from our Creator is Humanistic in its intent, and if religious, Deistic. It was to emphasize the rights of the common man/woman over the kingshipclass.

[EEO]

4. Hear, hear.

[Panich52]

6. Preaching to choir where I'm concerned. ;) Of late, the theocrats have stretched things w/ 1 find:

apparently affixed to the end of the Constitution are the words "...in the year of our Lord..."

Of course, the purely non-specific use of a term used for over 1000 years at the time, to designate a wholly arbitrary point of time escapes them. No wonder that argument is largely ignored by even the most vocal theocratic rwnjs.

[blackspade]

5. Religion is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the advancement of the human race.

From the land of free dum to the cradle of civilization, religion threatens the very fabric of human endeavor.
I see very little daylight between fanatics from the Middle East to the heartland of the US. they are all cut from the same cloth.