Raj1037 asked this question on 2/21/2000:

I was wondering.. what exactly goes through the minds of religious people when they feel the need to force their majority religion upon all minorities within the nation? The posting of the 10 commandments, christian prayer in schools, christian creationism in schools.. and so forth, would all would discriminate against everyone who is non-christian (25-35% of the nation).

Do they not realize this is directly imposing their beliefs onto others? How would they feel if Islamics were to force the Koran, Islamic teachings, and Islamic prayer onto them? What if they were taught Hindu creationism? How about if they had to walk past idols from other religions everyday at school?

Are these things just completely out of their minds? I personally am an atheist, and I can't believe these people want to make the same mistakes the catholics did in England a few hundred years ago. This nation was founded and had such a large colonial population because they were trying to escape religious persecution. Have they completely forgotten that?

darwitt gave this response on 3/1/2000:

The dominant Protestant nondenominational church has never felt any compunction about moving in wherever they could. If it had not been for the concertedefforts of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the radical sectarian John Leland, we probably would have vague Protestanism as the established religion of our country. UNOFFICALLY we were until the 60's a Protestant Christian country and public schools were UNOFFICIAL Protestant schools. Catholics didn't like that back then. Neither did Jews. Nobody seemed to care much about Muslims, Hindus, Budhists etc.

There is no question of the intent of Jefferson, Madican and Leland. Jefferson: It does me no injury for my neighbor to say ther are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket not breaks my leg. Leland (a Baptist I believe): [Ist Amemendmentpermits]every man speak freely without fear, maintainng the principles that he believes, worship according to his own faith either fro one god, Three gods or no god or twenty gods. and let government protect him in doing so.

So government was not to help religion or irreligion. This was not a popular stance back then and a parliamentary maneuver won the day. In the 60's the Supreme Court not only made us live up to our racial ideals, but also to the ideal of the First Amendment.

God in mentioned in the Declaration of Independence--It was meant to rally popular support and support from France--but as far as I know, God is NOT written into the constitution. Prayer in school and similar controversies about church state relations have become rallying cries for Political Conservatism. I frankly think they are a cynical and cheap ploy to the votes of the disaffected. The same can be said for not so subtle racism. But If we really are a Christian Nation and want generic Christianity as the OFFICIAL religion, then we should revoke by Constitutional Amendmnt the work of Jefferson, Madison, and Leland.

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