What is it to be Christian ?

[mrnoodle]

That's a popular viewpoint. But it's based on the misconception that this is an atheist country that is somehow being taken over by Christians. Actually, the opposite is more true. The US is founded on Judeo-Christian philosophy, plain and simple. No amount of whining can change that. However, we all live together and must get along as best as we know how. That doesn't mean that only the Christians have to keep their opinions private and remove them from the arena of ideas. It doesn't mean that anyone of faith must act as atheistic as possible if they are in public office. Separation of church and state is not a requirement for the eradication of religion in the public square, although that's the atheist wet dream.

You are 100% correct, though. If Christians would worry as much about their own lives as they do the lives of others, it would be a far different world. But not in the way you think. If there were more Christians who actually lived like Christ, the message of hope would spread even further, not be choked off.

I don't see how anyone can look at the state of the country today, with popular music soaked in imagery of ho's, killing, drugs, and decay, with people committing mass murder in schools and businesses, with everything that is evil being propped up and everything that is pure being mocked and derided, and decide that things are better when God is out of the picture. We are so frantic that the government might be listening to our conversations and use them against us, but we're completely ambivalent about saying the most hurtful things we can come up with to damage others. We are so bloody concerned that someone somewhere is cutting down a tree, but we ignore the human being right next to us that is dying inside. We want to steal from the rich to give to the poor, but the poor never get anything, and the Robin Hoods have homes on Martha's Vineyard.

Everything is backwards and wrong on a large scale, and it's not because people are acting too Christian, count on that.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by mrnoodle

The US is founded on Judeo-Christian philosophy, plain and simple. No amount of whining can change that.

What's "Judeo-Christian philosophy"? If it's the Old Testament, then it is just Jewish. If it is Old and New Testament, then it's just Christian. Is it bits and pieces taken from philosophers of each persuasion?

As there were more Deists among the Founding Fathers than Jews, I suspect that the "Judeo-Christian philosophy" line is Bill O'Reilly's code word for "the US was founded as a Christian nation".

Originally Posted by mrnoodle

That's a popular viewpoint. But it's based on the misconception that this is an atheist country that is somehow being taken over by Christians. Actually, the opposite is more true. The US is founded on Judeo-Christian philosophy, plain and simple. No amount of whining can change that.....

Wrong.

Amendment 1 (1st for a reason)
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

In Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, an agreement signed between the United States and the Muslim region of North Africa in 1797 after negotiations concluded by George Washington (the document, which was approved by the Senate in accordance with Constitutional law, and then signed by John Adams), it states flatly, "The Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." signed by John Adams
"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!" John Adams

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion...has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity; -Benjamin Franklin

"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law" -Thomas Jefferson

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion...has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the Truth with less trouble." He died a month later, and historians consider him, like so many great Americans of his time, to be a Deist, not a Christian.
From: Benjamin Franklin, A Biography in his Own Words

"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion"
John Adams April 27,1797

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries"
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." -James Madison fourth president and father of the Constitution

"Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together." -James Madison

The words "one nation under God" were not added to the Pledge of allegiance until 1953

None of the 85 Federalist Papers written in support of the Constitution reference God, the Bible, religion or Christianity.

The words "in God we trust were not consistently added to all money until the 1950s after the McCarthy Era

James Madison, Jefferson's close friend and political ally, was just as vigorously opposed to religious intrusions into civil affairs as Jefferson was. In 1785, when the Commonwealth of Virginia was considering passage of a bill "establishing a provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion," Madison wrote his famous "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments" in which he presented fifteen reasons why government should not be come involved in the support of any religion.
The views of Madison and Jefferson prevailed in the Virginia Assembly

Jesus even said it:
Mark 12:17
And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him.

Matthew 22:21
They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.

Luke 20:25
And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's.

"The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion." -Thomas Paine