Recent content by Dale

The Founding Fathers and other patriots of the American Revolution were certainly aware of religions and attitudes toward religion other than Christianity and Judaism. For one thing, a substantial number of people in Massachusetts at that time were Unitarians. Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common...

You complain about “secular authority.” Let me give you a different view. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of...

Let me amplify what I said about Benjamin Franklin in #64. Not only was Franklin familiar with Iroquois ways, their language, and their religion he participated in making treaties with them. “On the English colonial side of the table (or the council fire) sat such notables as Benjamin...

Merrill, I’m not aware of the situation in Maryland. I’m better informed about Florida, where I live. You are making a big deal out of restrictions on churches, but religious institutions were not specifically targeted. The State of Florida Issues Updates on COVID-19 March 17, 2020 <<...

Merrill: “We see that when the First Amendment was crafted, the framers clearly had in mind Christianity, and to a lesser degree, Judaism and Islam.” Benjamin Franklin spent a considerable amount of time with the Iroquois Indians. The Founding Fathers were well aware that American Indians were...

Lifepsy: << There are two faiths at work here. One is a faith in Jesus. One is a Hegelian, revolutionary faith in "Liberty" with expressions like "The Free World" and "Sacred Democracy" >> You mention the Hegelians, who are followers of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1830). Hegel was...

Ignatius: “There are no rights in nature and we as Christians only have the law of God and our own internal sense of right and wrong to go by when it comes to deducing morality.” No rights in nature? Apparently you don’t believe in natural law. When Pope Paul VI released his decree banning...

Ignatius: “There used to be a right to the freedom of association in the USA but that no longer exists and you are not free to associate with whom you want because of the civil rights law in the USA.” I’m not sure how much you know about segregation, desegregation and integration in the US...

Lifepsyop: “Christians have had that freedom [to exercise faith] for 2000 years. You didn't win it in the American revolution …” Maybe you should read some religious history. Do you know anything about the persecution of Quakers in England? They were often arrested and they didn’t always come...

John G: “The court's reasoning on the banning of prayer in schools was flawed. The first amendment of the US constitution guarantees freedom OF religion not freedom FROM religion.” I have heard the slogan, “It’s freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion,” in a Baptist church and I’m sure...

Lifepsyop: “Evangelicals actually do believe in a liberal or progressive form of Christian nationalism.. (think Battle Hymn of the Republic) but they believe God favors the spirit of democracy and the secular framework of the United States.” Where I come from, ultraconservative southerners...

Lifepsyop: << On one hand the modern Evangelical says "Yes, it's so sad the world is fallen, etc." and on the other hand ... >> I don’t know what a “modern Evangelical” is. Lifepsyop: << There are two faiths at work here. One is a faith in Jesus. One is a Hegelian, revolutionary faith in...

There is a surprisingly persistent effort to get government entangled with religion. I live in Florida, so Ron DeSantis is the Governor. A couple of times a month I get an email from Governor Ron DeSantis’ Faith and Community Initiative. The headings mention his wife, First Lady Casey DeSantis...

Kiwi: “I've heard arguments that the constitution is not as Godless as the OP might like it to be, but if it is, it is not worth defending.” I am not advocating a Godless society. Look at it this way. In the late Roman Empire, after Constantine, the writing of Origen were controversial. Bishops...

Thanks for that example. I notice that it is several years old, so this doesn't seem to be typical. I don't know if this teacher was expressing their own antireligious views or just confused about what the policy is. In the schools I went to, the Administration was not hostile to religion...