think about this

[Camron Rust]

Originally posted by Mark Padgett

First, the assertion that this country was founded on "Christian principles" would be news to Thomas Jefferson, who was adamant on the theory of separation of church and state. In fact, our founders felt so strong about that one point that they made it the cornerstone of our entire constitution.

Actually, Mark, it is quite the opposite. While Jefferson was adamant on the seperation of church and state, he did not at mean that religion and faith should not be a part of the state matters. It's sad that this principle is so distorted in today's culture and politics. This country was settled by people who wanted the choice to practice christianity as they believed it, and not as the state dictated it. In England at the time, there was a single "official" religion: either Roman Catholic or Church of England, depending on who was King at the time. They were not allowed to practice any other faith than the one declared by the King. When the constitution was written, it was made such that the government would have no say in what religion people could practice. It did not, however, prohibit the government nor the public organizations from incorporating religious elements into practices. Still to this day, many government bodies have formal prayers (Congress, for example) as part of their regular proceedings. I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who established or supported many of these traditions of incorporating prayer in goverentment functions. He frequently refered to religious themes in his speeces.

The founding fathers were all very religious individuals but and did incorporate religion into government matters. However, they didn't want a government body telling the citizenry that they couldn't be Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist, etc.

Fourth, I hope this is the last time I am goaded into a serious political dialogue on this board. I would much rather stick to basketball.

Waiting for your reply... ;-)