Where Religion Meets Politics: Church, State and American History

[theDudeAbides1100]

religion should have no place in politics. nothing is concrete about religion, it makes no sense for politics and religion to be mixed. come on, its 2012, we gotta grow up.

[SwordofSpirit1]

Church is a man—made invention. There's nothing godly about playing church. Some call it sectarianism (religion). It's mammon worship. Hebrews 9: 11—12 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building (creation); Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

[Dooger1026]

Religion was never a private matter when it came to the founding of AMERICA. It is astounding how revisionists rewrite history, and the role Christianity had in America. Maybe every American should return to Plymouth Rock, to The Mayflower Compact, and to Matthew 5:14 " a city on a hill." This is what the Pilgrims believed to be their purpose.. To create a Christian nation,'"as salt and light," for the world to see! Stop revising the facts, and teach it as it was!!!!!

[JonathanTheAlchemist]

@Dooger1026

The pilgrims never had anything to do with the founding of the country. Who's the revisionist now?

[hXcDiedWithHitler]

@Dooger1026 lol wow, you are so deluded. the pilgrims didn't found America, the founding fathers did. perhaps that's why they're called the _founding_ fathers? of whom, might i add, _rejected_ religion. in fact, most were deists. NOT christians.

"Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law." - Thomas Jefferson

we “as a nation” have nothing to do with your god. keep it out of our government, please.

RON PAUL 2012

[vechorik]

What about freedom of speech? It's the same old story, accept something from the government and they "own you." Maybe churches should pay taxes and become free to say what they want.

[ivlfounder]

@vechorik

That would violate the bill of right

[MsLibertyforall100]

Religions were invented by the Illuminati, so they can divide and conquer throughout the centuries.

[RadicalSyndicate]

yeah we're a mixed bag alright

[TEEJAY9920]

Is that lady a burn victim?

[MrHarry46]

every american should be FORCED TO MEMORIZE the ENTIRE US Constitution before he or she is allowed to graduate High School

USA would be a MUCH better place

[chrisfromneenah]

See atheists don't realize and forget that the United States was born out of Strong Christians. There were those that were atheists but they needed guidance otherwise chaos would have ensued. There was a degree of survival of the fittest amidst the colonists who first came over. Civilizations and colonies only developed because Christians knew that they had to establish laws and frameworks to live together peacably. Otherwise, agian, the basis ends up being the survival of the fittest.

[Beauwrath]

This is presumption and nonsense. Laws have to be made and colonies structured, of course, but saying that the only reason they did so was because of religion is a bold statement based on what?

Atheists needed guidance? Sorry, but you make such bold claims that seem entirely constructed out of biased conjecture. Do you assume that because someone doesn't believe in a god, they run wild with no regard for law or moral integrity?

[DastardlyDimwit]

@chrisfromneenah look up Thomas Jefferson on wikipedia. Click the link that says "Beliefs" or "Religion" I would be shocked if you said anything that said he was any way remotely Christian. Founders=predominately deist. If they used God, they used it rhetorically.

[ivlfounder]

@DastardlyDimwit

LOL Jefferson called himself a Christian.

[squaggles1987]

Its 2010, we're not talking about colonist. You are generalizing Athiest when you say we don't realize or forget the US was born on bible thumpers! So Its prefectly ok for me to say that every christian is the same and has the same close minded views.

[chrisfromneenah]

I am sorry if I was so strong. You are correct. All atheists don't think they can do without Christians. I have just seem so many on youtube that respond in such a harsh way towards Christians that it made me wonder if all atheists felt as strong. But I know that this isn't true. My point isn't to exclude atheists either. I believe there needs to be unity and discussion with everyone-whatever the belief. I just know without the Christians, it would have been difficult to find a moral foundation.

[checkunderyourbed]

Denys Turner sounded like a complete pretentious bastard....

[revjimbob]

Denys Turner (Professor of Historical Theology at Yale, no less) says that though Britain has a state church "it makes not a blind bit of difference to one person when it comes to a political issue."

Fucking hell - he is obviously British as well. How can he be so ignorant? The state church's bishops have seats in the House of Lords and ready access to the centres of power.

If I was his employer, I would look at this guy's academic credentials.

[malcolmbryant]

GK Chesterton NEVER said " when people stop believing in god.....they start believing in anything". It is a complete myth but unfortunately is everywhere.

[blackiron60]

Develop a constitution and, unfortunately, just about every political group will want to use it to their advantage - that in itself will inevitably lead to its abuse.

[winterstellar]

The "suicide-rates are higher in the atheist countries like the scandinavian ones or Japan" is bullcrap which has been disproven a "zillion" times just on YouTube! So try another lie, Billie ray Bob John!: (

By the way, which countries in the world have the lowest life-expectancy and are the world's most christian and have the highest numbers of HIV/AIDS-infected people? Err..the sub-saharan ones. Look it up, if you have other books than"The Bible".. : )

[Zubinen]

Highly developed countries such as Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, etc. are mostly non-religious because the quality of life in such countries supersedes the necessity for some non-existent "afterlife".

[Zubinen]

Mot, you ask questions without ever trying to look for an answer. I suggest you look up something called "classical physics", that will describe macroscopic things in the universe and I also suggest you look up something called "quantum physics" which will describe small things in the universe(and also the beginnings of the universe).

Oh and another thing. Apply any form of logic, let's say Occam's Razor, to religion and you no longer see any reason to believe in its superstitions.

[winterstellar]

I'm so glad to be scandinavian, up here in north Europe we're almost totally rid of christianity now. ( And lo and behold, we've also the lowest crime rates,the highest levels of education, the highest standards of living, the highest incomes and so on and so on. So what does these old, invisible men in the sky do for you, really? Help you dodge the next bullet from a crack-addict's gun? Nope, scientists have actually bothered to waste time on proving prayer has no effect(as if they didn't know)

[arequipa1]

rid of christianity? then what do you have instead?

[bodeezy]

Reality.

[arequipa1]

a bunch of muslim immigrants from other countries who threaten to blow shit up. yeah, you've definitely got that.

[bodeezy]

So how does the existence of christianity have any effect on muslims threatening to blow up shit?

All religions are shit. Some more than others when they commit violent acts in the name of their "god", which christians & muslims have both done.

It's not like you have to pick one or the other. You could choose reality, no proof of any gods, therefore....no religion.

Christianity certainly doesn't counter balance islam.

Islamism is just a slightly more deranged version.

[arequipa1]

islam is a lot more deranged. the existence of it does't have any bearing on christianity. i just thought i'd bring it up.

[marsCubed]

@arequipa1 Islam is no more deranged than the jesus camp kids.

Religion is deranged, ignorant fools who follow dogma blindly are deranged.

There is nothing in religious texts to save souls, such texts deny any possibility of choice.

bullying and deranged stories of worthy and unworthy are not choice,

They are the evil in the world.

[l8rthen]

@marsCubed, islam no more wrong?

sorry, dude, if jesus camp kids sought to impose relig shariah type govt on nonbelievers, I would agree with U.

B4 throwing too many rocks, U might want to consider what athiest based idealogies have wrought.

[shababfilisteen]

Here is reality, CNN has completely brainwashed you and you have no idea what christanity is and what islam is. Blowing up is not a muslim practice, lol it is an american practice. americans are the biggest bombing terroriists ever! did you already forget about the hiroshima? and the the destruction of iraq and afghanistan and helping the terrorist state of israel with nuclear weapons?? you terrorists, you should learn a thing or two from Islam's peaceful teachings and stop watching CNN.

[bodeezy]

You are obviously delusional & deranged.

The U.S. did NOT bomb anyone because of RELIGIOUS beliefs.

"Islam's peaceful teachings" ?

Like chopping off people's heads for having sex out of wedlock? OR Burying a girl in the sand up to her neck and stoning her to death because someone raped her?

Dua Khalil Aswad ?

Cartoons of muhammad are offensive enough to KILL someone?

Please explain how that IS NOT crazy?

[moteintheeye]

Highest suicide rates.

[naliuj]

Finland has the 15th highest suicide rate, Sweden has 30th. Many religious countries come before it

[biggesttrucker]

Mormons said niggers couldn't be priests. But after 1965, they were allowed. WHAT CHANGED?

[ericaj58]

@biggesttrucker Better choice of words, you sound like an idiot.

[hal2017]

Chesterton, not surprisingly, got it completely wrong.

It is when you DO believe in deities that you are much more likely to believe in all sorts of other nonsense. Just look at the religious right, home of the Truthers, the Tea-baggers, the socialism conspiracy theorists.

Being an atheist, more often than not , gives one a skeptical mindset, and we are therefore less inclines to believe in 'just about anything'.

[ngarbo00]

Ever notice how we learn about god in prisons and AA meetings while we learn about science in college and AAI meetings?

[mynameisbobtoo]

@ngarbo00 That needs to go on a shirt.

[ngarbo00]

lol. you think i could patent that?  :)

[jvilla21]

shit, i'll invest lol lets do it.

[LorenzKamo]

Flying Spaghetti Monster FTW

[Zubinen]

Religious texts are poorly written fairy tales.

[mynameisbobtoo]

@Zubinen you are correct and who ever gave you a thumbs down is ignorant to the truth.

I find ignorant people are also cowards and do cowardly things like vote down posts that they fear.

[Zubinen]

Ignorant people are just as their description suggests. Simply they lack the mental faculties required to communicate and think properly.

[jvilla21]

i gave you both a thumbs up

[AxiomofDiscord]

hey some are good fairy tales just not much from the middle east or anything monotheistic they tend to be less engaging stories.

Aberran of Axiom of Discord

[moteintheeye]

Not one fairy in the Bible.

[Zubinen]

The phrase fairy tale describes any amusing story that is highly implausible. To be fair, the people that wrote the bible weren't very good writers so you could say due to its poor writing, the bible was a boring story.

[dackjaniels555]

God does not exist.

[pye333]

@dackjaniels555 Your right! its common sense to know that a god does not exist.

[moteintheeye]

Law of Thermodynamics: Matter/energy cannot created or destroyed. Question: where did it come from? Where is the process occurring now? Why can not we see it being formed? We see stars go nova, why not formed? If it is all random, there should be stars being formed now.

[vr00m123]

It seems to be more difficult to detect star being born (gas clouds forming in a dimly lit space), than it does to detect the cosmic explosions given off by a supernova. Both processes take billions of years to occur so the supernova that we see "dying" will not be dead for a long while. Star formation has been seen and Kent Hovind must not know how to use Google.

[merdufer]

What God?

[NermalsChannel]

Thor?

[stalkerxz]

Who?

[ivlfounder]

@dackjaniels555

And you know this since you know everything.

[caveatemp]

@dackjaniels555 Exist: from Latin exsistere ‘come into being,’

I agree 100% God did not come into being.

[Earchiel]

@dackjaniels555 ಠ_ಠ