KK>MF>      The Founding
KK>MF>Fathers were, for the most part, Bible believing
KK>MF>Christians who, IMHO, could
KK>MF>not know of the religious diversity we have in our country today.
Absolutely not.  The Founders would be in total shock.
KK>I'm afraid Mr Jefferson might disagree with you there.  Here he was
KK>writing in the context of the Enlightenment, in which it was
KK>acknowledged that such thinkers as Galileo and Newton had produced
KK>ideas that outraged the orthodox Christianity of their time, yet
KK>actual observation had borne them out:
KK>    "Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before
KK>     them ... Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your
KK>     inquisitors?  Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private
KK>     as well as public reasons.  And why subject it to coercion?
KK>     To produce uniformity.  But is uniformity of opinion desirable?
KK>     No more than of face and stature ... Is uniformity attainable?
KK>     Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction
KK>     of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we

Faith of Our Founding Fathers by Tim LaHaye
The five points of fundamental religious beliefs.
1. Recognition and worship of a Creator who made all things.
2. That the Creator has revealed a moral code of behavior for happy
   living which  distinguishes right from wrong.
3. That the Creator holds mankind responsible for the way they
   treat each other.
4. That all mankind live beyond this life.
5. That in the next life individuals are judged for their conduct
   in this one.
Thomas Jefferson called these basic beliefs the principles "in which God
has united us all."
Jefferson was  far cry from the modern secularizers and secular
humanists.  he obviously believed in God and recognized the need for a
meaningful religion in the life of the nation, even though he opposed a
governmentally established church and deplored the hypocrisy of some
liberal cllerics.  To give you some idea of his recognition of a
personal God, note these famous quotations etched in marble on the walls
of the Jefferson Monument in Washington, D. C.
  Almighty God hath created the mind free.  All attempts to influence it
  by temporal punishments or burdens...are a departure from the plan of
  the Holy Author of our religion.
  ....No men shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious
  worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his
  religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and
  by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion.  i
  know but no one code of morality for men whether acting singly or
  collectively.
  I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every
  form of tyranny over the mind of man.
  God who gave us life, gave us libery.  can the liberty of a nation be
  secure where we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a
  gift of God? indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God
  is just.  That His justice cannot sleep forever.  Commerce between
  master and slave is despotism.  Nothing is more certainly written in
  the Book of Life thanb that these people are to be free.
KK>            -- Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia"
KK>MF>       I believe
KK>MF>that the only way our country can be saved is to return
KK>MF>to the principles our
KK>MF>country was founded upon.
KK>Right.  And one of those principles is that government will provide
KK>freedom for all religions without favoring any one of them.
We need to return to the principles of our Founding Fathers.
We are what we are because of the grace of God. You will notice that
the more this country separates from God, the worse things get.
___
 X SLMR 2.1a X Gore's head is vacant as breakfast rm at honeymoon hotel.
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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