BURNING TIMES NEWSROOM / BURNING TIMES NEWSROOM

Founding Fathers By Gregg Mulry , WI USA gmulry@discover-net.net

"Two of our founding father icons are regularly claimed by fundamentalist Christiandom as being card-carrying members of this often woefully limited, yet arrogant belief system. Apparently there are unsubstantiated claims that someone witnessed these guys profess faith in Christ just before their deaths. The truth is that George Washington was not even remotely a Christian. There is no authentic evidence anywhere to support claims that he consecrated himself to Jesus Christ at any point. Although Abraham Lincoln believed in Providence, he did not endorse any particular faith or doctrine, and he did not belong to any church. On occasion he even had the nerve to make fun of the Christian faith. Several of our founding fathers, including Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and George Washington, actually subscribed to a form of deism. Deism today has come to mean belief in a God Who created the universe and thereafter has left it to run itself. However, the founding father’s deism included a personal God Who created everything, and Who provides a happy existence for human beings after death. It was a religion based on reason, not revelation So spare us, Lord. Now some authoritarian personalities (read a select group of Christian fundamentalists) are proposing the creation of a biblical state in the good old US of A. Yes, indeedy, they want to create an honest-to-God common state creed, based on a minimum standard for what it means to be a Christian. The first question that begs is who will determine what that is? Baptists? conservative Catholics? Mormons? Unitarians? Jehovah’s Witnesses? The Amish? Heaven’s Gate? The break-away Republic of Texas? If the answer is that all Christians must all have input, just who will get all these people to talk? Who will decide who is minimally a Christian? And who will be the final arbiter of what constitutes God’s moral law? Aren’t the hundreds of different Christian churches proof enough that this cannot be done? God is certainly not going to hold court at such a gross spectacle. Recall our Lord does not communicate to us as if giving some sort of presidential address and God has never pre-empted prime time. If God ever did choose to speak to us directly about attending a constitutional convention on forming an American theocracy, it would most likely be to send regrets. Although this sort of ignorant crap may be a constitutionally protected pursuit in our great nation, it is not something to be divinely dignified. And already some blockhead is hissing about the inerrancy of the Bible and “where’s the problem” with establishing this sort of religious freedom. The problem is that even evangelical Christians can’t agree on every spiritual point and they certainly disagree among themselves on specific meanings of chapter and verse. And how do we address the truly tough and controversial subjects? How do we prevent, for example, abortion or homosexuality from becoming a capital crimes in an allegedly compassionate and righteous Christian state? Look at any theocracy around the world and take note of the rampant persecution that exists just because certain individuals do not adhere to the state’s right way of thinking. Among the most ridiculous beliefs of western religious fundamentalism is that impious acts ought to bring swift vengeance from an apparently very thin-skinned God. However, one seemingly obvious truth is God does not need to punish anyone for anything. The consequences of any wrongdoing are part of the overall divine process. People can sin as they choose, and God still welcomes them back when and if they are ready to return. Jesus revealed this truth in the parable of the prodigal son. The father did not even ask the son what he did when he was away. The father simply welcomed the son home. Jesus came to promote salvation through reconciliation. He certainly didn’t concern himself with the constitutinal specifics and politics of a state to exist almost two millenia into the future. So let’s not blame this theocracy idea on him. It instead appears to have arisen from a group of folks who believe that Americans are God’s chosen people. That speaks for itself. "