Protestantism in action and US politics

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[Marcus]

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[Marcus]

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[Marcus]

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[Colonel Sun]

Since there is a flood of US Founding Father's quotes. I'll contribute a few:

If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish Church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. These found it wrong in the bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here and in New England.

~ Benjamin Franklin, [An Essay on Toleration

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, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.

~ Benjamin Franklin, letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1780, quoted from Adrienne Koch, ed, The American Enlightenment: The Shaping of the American Experiment and a Free Society, New York: George Braziller, 1965, p. 93.

The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason: The Morning Daylight appears plainer when you put out your Candle.

~ Benjamin Franklin, the incompatibility of faith and reason, Poor Richard's Almanack (1758)

I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies.

~ Benjamin Franklin, quoted from Victor J Stenger, Has Science Found God? (2001)

Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so; It is not so. It is so; it is not so.

~ Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1743

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Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one-half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.

~ Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-82

The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.

~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823,

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His [Calvin's] religion was demonism. If ever a man worshiped a false god, he did. The being described in his five points is ... a demon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious, attributes of Calvin.

~ Thomas Jefferson, Works, 1829 edition, vol. 4, p. 322,

[Marcus]

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[YMix]

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"To shed light on the possible inaccuracies of the original translation, the title of the text should be "On Democracy in America", however this was changed by Reeve. Although not a complete rewrite, the clarity that Tocqueville wrote with depended on its concreteness and by making words interchangeable at will, it does have an effect on the meaning especially to readers who do not put the effort to research the text or read it in its native French."

-- Arthur Goldhammer

[Marcus]

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" "Hump," he said to me, elaborately polite, "kindly take Mr. Mugridge's arm and help him up on deck. He is not feeling very well." " -- Jack London

[Marcus]

" "Hump," he said to me, elaborately polite, "kindly take Ishmael's arm and help him up on deck. He just shit himself." " -- Lack Jondon

[amos]

I wish I could understand what the fuss is all about, for most of what I see strutting about in the name of God these days is as far removed from what Christ advocated that he must be either angry and embarrassed.

[Ibrahim]

[Marcus]

[Ibrahim]

[Marcus]

[amos]

[Ibrahim]

[Marcus]

[amos]

[Ibrahim]

Sorry to everyone offended by my asking questions about Protestantism in US politics in a thread titled "Protestantism in action and US politics."


I'm a shitty shitter shitting geese full of shit.