I could not have said it better...

This being cross-posted from "the Smirking Chimp" and also and to the point, Harvey Wassserman's blog on the same Smirking Chimp.

Our Founders Were NOT Fundamentalists
Religious Right
by Harvey Wasserman | February 13, 2010 - 12:43pm
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"God made the idiot for practice, and then He made the school board."
--Mark Twain

Tomorrow's New York Times Sunday Magazine highlights yet another mob of extremists using the Texas School Board to baptize our children's textbooks.

This endless, ever-angry escalating assault on our Constitution by crusading theocrats could be obliterated with the effective incantation of two names: Benjamin Franklin, and Deganawidah.

But first, let's do some history:

1) Actual Founder-Presidents #2 through #6 -- John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams -- were all freethinking Deists and Unitarians; what Christian precepts they embraced were moderate, tolerant and open-minded.

2) Actual Founder-President #1, George Washington, became an Anglican as required for original military service under the British, and occasionally quoted scripture. But he vehemently opposed any church-state union. In a 1790 letter to the Jews of Truro, he wrote: The "Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistances, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens." A 1796 treaty he signed says "the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Washington rarely went to church and by some accounts refused last religious rites.

3) Washington was also the nation's leading brewer, and since most Americans drank much beer (water could be lethal in the cities) they regularly trembled before the keg, not the altar. Like Washington, Jefferson and Madison, virtually all American farmers raised hemp and its variations.

4) Jefferson produced a personal Bible from which he edited out all reference to the "miraculous" from the life of Jesus, whom he considered both an activist and a mortal.

5) Tom Paine's COMMON SENSE sparked the Revolution with nary a mention of Jesus or Christianity. His Deist Creator established the laws of Nature, endowed humans with Free Will, then left.

6) The Constitution never mentions the words "Christian" or "Jesus" or "Christ."

7) Revolutionary America was filled with Christians whose commitment to toleration and diversity was completely adverse to the violent, racist, misogynist, anti-sex theocratic Puritans whose "City on the Hill" meant a totalitarian state. Inspirational preachers like Rhode Island's Roger Williams and religious groups like the Quakers envisioned a nation built on tolerance and love for all.

8) The US was founded less on Judeo-Christian beliefs than on the Greco-Roman love for dialog and reason. There are no contemporary portraits of any Founder wearing a crucifix or church garb. But Washington was famously painted half-naked in the buff toga of the Roman Republic, which continues to inspire much of our official architecture.

9) The great guerilla fighter (and furniture maker) Ethan Allen was an aggressive atheist; his beliefs were common among the farmers, sailors and artisans who were the backbone of Revolutionary America.

10) America's most influential statesman, thinker, writer, agitator, publisher, citizen-scientist and proud liberal libertine was -- and remains -- Benjamin Franklin. He was at the heart of the Declaration, Constitution and Treaty of Paris ending the Revolution. The ultimate Enlightenment icon, Franklin's Deism embraced a pragmatic love of diversity. As early America's dominant publisher he, Paine and Jefferson printed the intellectual soul of the new nation.

11) Franklin deeply admired the Ho-de-no-sau-nee (Iroquois) Confederacy of what's now upstate New York. Inspired by the legendary peacemaker Deganawidah, this democratic congress of five tribes had worked "better than the British Parliament" for more than two centuries. It gave us the model for our federal structure and the images of freedom and equality that inspired both the French and American Revolutions.

It's no accident today's fundamentalist crusaders and media bloviators (Rev. Limbaugh, St. Beck) seek to purge our children's texts of all native images except as they are being forceably converted or killed.

Today's fundamentalists would have DESPISED the actual Founders. Franklin's joyous, amply reciprocated love of women would evoke their limitless rage. Jefferson's paternities with his slave mistress Sally Hemings, Paine's attacks on the priesthood, Hamilton's bastardly philandering, the grassroots scorn for organized religion -- all would draw howls of righteous right-wing rage.

Which may be why theocratic fundamentalists are so desperate to sanitize and fictionalize what's real about our history.

God forbid our children should know of American Christians who embraced the Sermon on the Mount and renounced the Book of Revelations...or natives who established democracy on American soil long before they saw the first European...or actual Founders who got drunk, high and laid on their way to writing the Constitution.

Faith-based tyranny is anti-American. So are dishonest textbooks. It's time to fight them both.

HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is at www.harveywasserman.com, along with PASSIONS OF THE POTSMOKING PATRIOTS by "Thomas Paine." This article is written in honor of the spirit of Howard Zinn.
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Harvey Wasserman / Solartopia.org


About author
Harvey Wasserman is author of HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES; SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH and A GLIMPSE OF THE BIG LIGHT: LOSING PARENTS, FINDING SPIRIT, all at www.harveywasserman.com. He writes regularly on politics and the environment at www.solartopia.org and www.freepress.org.

Much more eloquent than anything I could say yet it embodies the reality of my belief ... We are Americans dedicated to the advancement of all people and for the freedom to indulge in true pluralism amd the understanding that multiculturalism, is fundamental to our exixtence on this planet and perhaps even our place in an advanced universe.


Peace, love, and light....TR

P.S. Go hug someone, even if you don't like them ...it makes the bond of dislike weaker and then perhaps you will see the world from someone elses concepts, even if you don't agree.

New guest and of His own opinion...

Welcome one and all to the New and possibly improved version of the Ranting Raven...I hope that the new addition will enlighten you and amuse you at times, this is my son and co-writer, treat him with your thoughts , opinions and respect...


Hi, readers. This is TauRaven's son. Call me Ben.

My dad wanted me to write a post for his blog, so here's my shot at it.

Let's start with a question.

"How many minors must be put on the sex offender registry before one realizes the law is being abused?"

...I should hope you all know the answer. It's deplorable. It's maddening. It's gut-wrenchingly sickening. That people can turn a blind eye to people as young as FOUR YEARS OLD being put on a life-destroying list in the name of "get those disgusting pedos!" makes me sick to my stomach.

I am 21 years old. I'll be 22 in January. And if these laws had been abused when I was a kid as they are now, I could very easily be on the list for being caught playing DOCTOR with a little girl I knew once.

This is what's happening. Children--teenagers, confused by hormones and growing bodies--are being targeted and treated as adults for the horrifying, immoral crime of GROWING UP.

I apologize for the upcoming barrage of links, but I cannot make these claims without some proof.

http://www.rickyslife.com/

This young man, 16 years old, met a wonderful girl his age. You were 16 once, you know what happens...this and that, a kiss here, a rub there...only it turned out she was 13 and lying about her age. Ricky is STILL forced to be on the sex offender registry and spent YEARS trying to fend for himself when everyone turned their backs on him. They blamed him for being lied to! Is this acceptable?

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4783650

I can't even find the words necessary to describe the lunacy! How can a 13-year-old girl be both the victim AND the offender?! Is this acceptable?!

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/10573391/detail.html

Two for the price of one. Two children UNDER THE AGE OF SIX were accused of sexual harassment. How the fuck would you explain to your child what sexual harassment is and why they're in trouble for it?! IS THIS ACCEPTABLE?!

I have more. They're sickening, they make me want to vomit, and I wish to God, Allah, Buddha, and all the other deities that I were making this up, that I were playing some kind of prank...but I'm not.

These are the last two, guys. I promise. I have so many more examples, but I think the point's been made.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190586,00.html
http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2009/09/there-is-fury-and-and-sadness-inside.html

Read them. Read them and understand, once and for all, what's really happening when a politician says "look, we're helping".

This is a tragedy, folks. This is something that absolutely must stop. This isn't protecting children at all! There's no "stop the molesters" here! It's "punish children for growing up"!

Is this the stance we're taking as a society? Is this what's happening? We're taking little girls and boys and telling them their bodies are terrible. We're telling little girls that all men are depraved perverts and must be actively distrusted, while at the same time they must be as attractive to those depraved perverts as possible (while STILL at the same time telling them they have no sex drive and are pure, innocent angels). We're telling little boys that they are worthless, and that they have no chance to be anything better than a drooling idiot with his hand around his dick--or worse, a rapist and child molester, simply because he had the misfortune of being born with a penis!

Here's my request to you. When people in the media say "think of the children", they mean nothing more than "I know how to get votes/publicity". I implore you, every last one of you, to truly and honestly think of the children, and spread the word. Make it known that the law is being misused and MUST be changed.

Please. For me, for you, and for our society's future--because as it stands, we're not protecting our children.

We're destroying them.

Peace.

-Ben


Well there you go my friends, take it for what you will and respond as you see fit....I care for you all and may you blessed ...and on top of that ... have really nice day!!!!...LOL