Can anyone really argue that the unabated blending, mixing, and intermingling of Christianity with America's "nation state" would not indicate a respect for Christianity as the established "state religion"? You can try, like Limbaugh and Beck do, but you'd be wrong, just like they are.
Did Madison, himself, looking back in retrospect at the Constitution, agree with the sentiment from two term, third President, and author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, in his 1802, letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut?
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."
You bet that Madison did, as can be seen in his June 3, 1811 letter to the Baptist churches in Neal's Creek, North Carolina. From Letters And Other Writings of James Madison, Fourth President Of The United States, In Four Volumes, Published By the Order Of Congress, Vol. II, J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, (1865) pp 511-512.
"I have received, fellow-citizens, your address, approving my objection to tile Bill containing a grant of public land to the, BaptistChurch at Salem Meeting House: MississippiTerritory. Having always regarded [the] practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government as essential to the purity of both and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. I could not have otherwise discharged my duty on the occasion which presented itself. Among the various religious societies in our Country, none has been more vigilant or constant in maintaining that distinction than the Society of which you make a part, and it is an honorable proof of your sincerity and integrity, that you are as ready to do so in a case favoring the interest of your brethren as in other cases. It is but dust, at the same time, to the Baptist Church at Salem Meeting House, to remark that their application to the National legislature does not appear to have contemplated a grant of the land in question but on terms that might be equitable to the public as well as to themselves."
Practical "distinction"? Limbaugh and Beck argue that the Founding Fathers had no intention of separating state (government) from church (religion)? Poppycock!
Limbaugh argues...
"And the left has taken this to say that religious people cannot be in government and that you can't teach something like creation in the schools while you can teach evolution, because evolution isn't religion but creationism is. Intelligent design can't be taught because that's a religion. Evolution isn't."
I say... is Limbaugh kidding? No one that I know, on "the left", argues that "religious people" cannot serve in government. Mr. Limbaugh pulled that one from where the "sun don't shine". And the rest of that statement is pure nonsense that just establishes one thing about fundamentalist Christians like Rush Limbaugh - the "Intelligent Design is science" movement is just Biblical "Creation", in a Trojan Horse.
Now, what about Glenn Beck? Is he any wiser than Limbaugh when it comes to the Founding Fathers? Nope. In fact, his knowledge of Founding Father, Thomas Paine, known as the "Father of the American Revolution", is downright pathetic. Beck went so far as to write his own updated version of Thomas Paine's famous pamphlet titled "Common Sense". Paine's pamphlet is credited with spurring the Colonists to win the Revolutionary War against the British. Beck's version is titled "Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine". I won't review it here. It is suffice to say that the hundreds of "1 star" reviews on Amazonà ‚¬ com correctly categorize it as an irrational, historical revisionist, stinker.
What I will comment on is my absolute amazement that Mr. Beck would choose author Thomas Paine, as a hero, to help him establish his, quoting myself, "United States of Christianity". Beck's strategy is absolutely mind boggling when you consider that Paine also authored the brilliant critique of Christianity, and the Bible, titled "Age of Reason". With Beck bringing Paine back from the relative obscurity that the religious right has relegated him to, over the centuries, he has opened the doors wide open for the people that oppose America's becoming a theocracy, like the countries of the Middle East, to ask questions like "But didn't Paine, in the Age of Reason, make incredibly brilliant observations like this one, from Part First, Section 2?
"It is curious to observe how the theory of what is called the Christian church sprung out of the tail of the heathen mythology. A direct incorporation took place in the first instance, by making the reputed founder to be celestially begotten. The trinity of gods that then followed was no other than a reduction of the former plurality, which was about twenty or thirty thousand: the statue of Mary succeeded the statue of Diana of Ephesus; the deification of heroes changed into the canonization of saints; the Mythologists had gods for everything; the Christian Mythologists had saints for everything; the church became as crowded with one, as the Pantheon had been with the other, and Rome was the place of both. The Christian theory is little else than the idolatry of the ancient Mythologists, accommodated to the purposes of power and revenue; and it yet remains to reason and philosophy to abolish the amphibious fraud."
And, there's even more bad news for Mr. Beck. Paine's critique of Christianity was not limited to the volumes contained within Age of Reason. Paine's personal writings could be devastating, as well. From a letter to Andrew Dean, in 1806; from Philip S. Foner, ed., The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine, Vol. II, New York: The Citadel Press, 1969, p. 1484:
"As to the book called the Bible, it is blasphemy to call it the Word of God. It is a book of lies and contradictions, and a history of bad times and bad men. There are but a few good characters in the whole book. The fable of Christ and his twelve apostles, which is a parody on the sun and the twelve signs of the zodiac, copied from the ancient religions of the eastern world, is the least hurtful part. Everything told of Christ has reference to the sun. His reported resurrection is at sunrise, and that on the first day of the week; that is, on the day anciently dedicated to the sun, and from thence called Sunday -- in Latin Dies Solis, the day of the sun; as the next day, Monday, is Moon-day."
Sounds a bit like Thomas Paine was the first George Carlin, doesn't it?
"Religion easily has the greatest b__s___ story ever told. Think about it, religion has actually convinced people that there's an INVISIBLE MAN...LIVING IN THE SKY...who watches every thing you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten special things that he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish where he will send to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry for ever and ever 'til the end of time...but he loves you. ["] Religion convinced the world that there's an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do. And there's 10 things he doesn't want you to do or else you'll to to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of eternity. But he loves you! ...And he needs money!" - George Carlin
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