TPM: McCain: Constitution establishes a ‘Christian nation’

[L. Coyote]

McCain: Constitution establishes a ‘Christian nation’
09.29.07 -- By Steve Benen
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/054560.php

I've always thought the constitutional language was straightforward: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The Constitution is entirely secular -- there's no mention of God, the Bible, the Ten Commandments, or the Judeo-Christian tradition.

With this in mind, one wonders what Constitution Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been reading.

A recent poll found that 55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation. What do you think?

I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation. But I say that in the broadest sense. The lady that holds her lamp beside the golden door doesn't say, "I only welcome Christians." We welcome the poor, the tired, the huddled masses. But when they come here they know that they are in a nation founded on Christian principles.

John McCain has been in Congress for several decades, and he's sworn to uphold the Constitution on more than a few occasions. One would like to think he's read it enough times to know this is nonsense.

..............

[Cha]

1. And does "Christian Nation" mean

you don't kill and lie, mccain.. fucker.

[TheUniverse]

3. And stone disobeident children...

[Cha]

9. mccain, the asshole, has blood on his

hands and he's always fucking lying so he doesn't even need to worry about anything else.

[L. Coyote]

10. Don't forget burning witches and killing pagans

QUOTATIONS:

1637 - Following the burning of the Pequots by the Puritans Cotton Mather expressed gratefulness to the Lord that they had
"sent 600 heathen souls to hell."

1644 - Order from General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay:
"noe Indian shall come att any towne or howse of the English uppon the Lords day, except to attend the public meetings; neither shall they come att any English howse uppon any other day in the week, but shall first knocke att the dore, and after leave given, yo come in..."

1782 - Brackenridge "... the animals vulgarly called indians."

Ben Franklin observed that rum should be regarded as the agent of Providence
"to extripate these savages in order to make room for the cultivators of the earth."

Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri:
"the whites should supplant the indian because Whites use the land according to the intentions of the Creator."

Contact population estimate for USA is 12 to 25 million.
1850 Native American population was 250,000.

Just establishing a Christian nation!

[WinkyDink]

20. Please don't go all Old Testament to denigrate the New.

[TheUniverse]

25. OK John 3:18

Where Jesus Condemns anyone who doesn't believe in him to hell.


or Matt 10:34

""I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword"

[hobbit709]

2. He's pandering

He wants to be president so bad that he has either already sold out or is willing to sell out every principle he's got. Personally, anybody who wants the job that bad should have a full-blown psychiatric evaluation.

[AlCzervik]

4. i hope he's pandering otherwise i really think he has totally lost his mind.

pretty soon he'll be yelling about strawberries.

[L. Coyote]

24. He was recently asked about his age, Alzheimers, etc. He admitted memory problems.

And he had a bad joke for the student who asked it. This was on NPR radio.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. I actually think the word, here, is "flailing".

It would be pathetic if it weren't so god-damn offensive.

[killbotfactory]

5. I'm starting to feel sorry for him

Jesus, what an idiot.

[Mojambo]

6. Reality establishes McCain knows absolutely nothing about the Constitution. n/t

[asjr]

7. The entire Republican slate seem to be

running for Prophet or Preacher of the United States instead of president. I have come to the conclusion McCain has mental problems. The others use religion to make people believe they are "good" people. McCain has lost his way in more than one way. I know Republicans will say or do anything to become president but during this race they have lost grip on reality more than at anytime in the past. One's religion is personal and should remain that way.

[Quixote1818]

8. Wasn't McCain the guy who ripped into Allan Keys about shit like this?

McCain clearly wants to be president way too much.

[Disturbed]

14. McLame would shoot his entire family if that would get him the

Imperial Throne.

In no way was America founded upon Christianity. A bit of research will prove that.

[Trillo]

11. I think one of the big problems with our representatives is the

"verbal" nature of getting elected. Give a speech. Give another speech.

Now we see the Internet itself being expanded into video audio dissemination, and we are seeing how text descriptions, such as the thread of the woman in LBN who complied complained of being tasered, diverge from video presentations. We see a scrolling ticker on the major news media of the latest stories, yet this is NOT synchronized to the talking head's topic.

Perhaps using speeches to get elected to office selects for those who are more verbally oriented, and perhaps are less able to understand written words strung together in thoughts versus those who have trouble giving speeches but can read and write well.

Of course, the other possibility is he's just lying. Any way it's sliced, he also needs remedial constitution lessons, just like Gen. Pace. By making such a severe misstatement (Treaty of Tripoly explicitly proves its falsehood, among other things), he shows he is either unable or unwilling to defend the constitution.

[pingzing58]

12. What an obsurd concept. The founders clearly wanted to be free from the chains of established

religion and their control over government. The Pilgrims (an American Archtype) fled Europe for the sake of religious freedom - not to establish a Christian nation but in the end to establish a nation of religious freedom where The Church of England, The Roman Catholic Church, etc., would not have them burned at the stake or tortured until they converted.

[L. Coyote]

13. BINGO> He is either unknowing of the facts of our history, or pandering to wingnuts.

[WinkyDink]

21. The Puritans of 1620 (aka, "pilgrims") wanted "religious freedom" ONLY for themselves.

[mitchum]

15. He's an idiot speaking to idiots

[Orsino]

16. Could he point out for us any mention of Christ in the Constitution? n/t

[Disturbed]

17. The problem with this falsehood is that it is rarely challenged

in the vast public forums. It has been challenged on DU many times yet how many Dems or Repugs of the domineering parties have challenged this falsehood?

[Jed Dilligan]

18. .

:puke:

[WinkyDink]

22. The 18th C. "Founders" (as opposed to 17th C. colonists) were sons of the

Enlightenment, and as such, were Deists, NOT CHRISTIANS.

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/myth.html
http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/summer97/secular.html

[Bluerthanblue]

23. wow, he's getting pretty desperate.

he needs to read not only the Constitution again, but the Federalist letters/papers which give a LOT of insight into how and why the Constitution and the Bill of Rights evolved into the document it is.

As for the "poll"- since when did this country use "polls" to establish anything? Polls are a tool- useful in the right hands, and dangerously destructive in the wrong ones.

:shrug: