Buffman

Grumpy

What's super-creepy is that someone must have drafted that resolution within a couple of hours after the 9th Circuit ruling came down. Why would anyone have these quotes handy for quick reference??

Looks like a standard, David Barton, "Wallbuiders" product to me. Obviously he is the radical Christian right's, revisionist history, poster boy.

What is even more scary, though certainly not surprising, is how the American voters can continue to elect such ill-informed and patently un-principled Christians and Jews to Congress. Is it any wonder that Islam was one of the fastest growing faith beliefs in this country before 9/11?

capsaicin67

I am super-concerned about the events of the past week. There have been some issues of similar controversy over the recent years, but I haven't seen such an overwhelming, willful, lack of leadership [on the part of politicians] and journalistic cowardice before. Half the truth is definitely as dangerous as a whole lie, as we've seen in many of the editorials and reports and letters to the editor. The full scope of the issue is being narrowed and watered down, and many Americans are totally unaware of many of the facts underlying the issue, and its turned into a tsunami of ignorance. The fundamentalists are controlling the "meaning and story" to such a degree that I think we are at serious risk of further erosion of the ideals of the framers and the enlightenment for generations. Yikes!

galiel

Hey, can you blame the politicians? What political price do they pay for toeing the orthdox line? We don't vote them out, we don't boycott, we don't demonstrate, we don't work together to make our voice heard. Oh, sure, a few folks here and there write a letter now and then.

Our republic works by representative government. Good politicians please their voters. That is not a flaw with the system, it is the virtue of the system - responsive government. The problem is US.

You are right, things have reached a critical point, and it is time to stop all the bickering between different groups supporting nonbelievers, and to spend more energy speaking out and less talking to ourselves and writing scholarly articles. With due respect to the excellent research people are doing on the issue, much of the general public can't even spell the word "constitution", let alone be bothered by obscure references to actual historical documents.

The only way this will change is if *we* change it. No one is going to do it for us. Even the ACLU has abandoned us.

Each and every one of us must become an activist, and do whatever we can to keep the issue in the public eye. Write to the newspaper, put a bumper sticker on your car, speak up at town meeting, ask candidates if they support the equal rights of atheists, talk with your family and friends, come out of the closet and stand up and be counted. And attend the march in DC in November!

[ July 07, 2002: Message edited for spelling by: galiel ]

[ July 07, 2002: Message edited by: galiel ]</p>

Berenger Sauniere

And to all the fine Congress people who brought about this so called resolution, I have this to say: Fuck the Colony of the Mayflower Compact, let's talk about the Colony which was planted on Roanoke Island in 1587 in the southern parts of ol' Virginy, which now comprises coastal North Carolina. How about it Congress? Let's see how much that story will advance the Christian cause.

Ron Garrett

here's another good editorial with some historic perspective:
Todd Morman - Godless Capitalists, Patrick Henry and Politics as Distraction