Article: The Rapidly Eroding Wall of Separation Between Church and State

That, as the Founders of America realized, is not going to happen, because it is not what Jesus of Nazareth intended, nor is it what preceding Jewish prophets or any other of the world's prophets prophesied.

It Is Time For a New Reformation

Benjamin Franklin wrote: "When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."

Thomas Paine wrote: "Soon after I had published the pamphlet, 'Common Sense' [on Feb. 14, 1776] in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion."

Paine was way ahead of his time in that vision. However, he understood what most of the Founders understood, that Pauline Christianity as they knew it (which is what we know today as "Christianity"), was flawed in some of its concepts and some of its doctrines. And they understood why Jesus was reported to have said that hypocrites claim to do "many wonderful works in the name of the Lord" when they actually "work iniquity."

Thomas Jefferson even wrote: "Among the sayings and discourses imputed to [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others, again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the [refuse]; restore him to the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, the roguery of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and imposters, Paul was the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus."

Jefferson was quite right. So it is time for a New Reformation, because the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did not actually reform Christianity as it needs to be reformed. All it did was create a number of Protestant denominations, all of which retained and maintained the same erroneous doctrines and the Nicene Creed. And the "Divine Right" of Emperors and Popes was perpetuated and adopted as the "Divine Right" of Christian Kings and Queens.

Consequently, the history of atrocities committed in the name of Christianity between the fourth century (when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and the Nicene Creed was written) and 1787 (when the Founders of America finally stood up to Theocrats and prohibited Theocracy) reveals how the erroneous, theocratic, patriarchal doctrine of superiority and supremacy impacted the world.

Furthermore, the state of the nation and the world today reveals the continuing impact that modern American Christian Theocrats have had, especially during the last 30 years -- which is why "holy wars" have increased.

That is why we must bring about a New Reformation, not only of Christianity, but of any and all religions that provide "justification" for the so-called "holy wars" which have caused so much unnecessary human suffering, death, and destruction.

For further information, please see the articles from which this article was gleaned, which include the following:

About Christianity

What Is The True Nature of God?

Ignored American History

Why the Religious Right Is Wrong

Quotes From the Founders Regarding Religion
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(Article changed on May 12, 2014 at 18:16)

(Article changed on May 12, 2014 at 21:18)

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