From: phurley@tamu.edu (Philip W. Hurley)
Subject: Re: Religious rights and responsibilities
Organization: Computer Technology Group, TAEX
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 20:04:44 GMT

In article <1992Oct01.172424.110207@zeus.calpoly.edu> swoodwar@zeus.calpoly.
edu (Null Cypher) writes:

>phurley@tamu.edu (Philip W. Hurley) had the unmitigated audacity to say:
                                             ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^
Oh, pardon me, I didn't know I was overstepping any bounds in posting to the 
net. Obviously, I didn't "say" what follows.

>[lots deleted]

Yes, including the question I was trying to answer, viz., what are the 
responsibilities associated with freedom of religion.

>>
>>"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation 
>>was founded not by religionists but by Christians; not on religions but on 
>>the gospel of Jesus Christ"
>>                                      Patrick Henry
>>
>>"The church must take right ground in regard to politics. Politics are part 
>>of a religion in a country as this and Christians must do their duty to the 
>>country as part of their duty to God. God will bless or curse this nation 
>>according to the course that Christians take in politics."
>>                                      Charles Finney
>>
>>"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this:  that it connected 
>>in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the 
>>principles of Christianity."
>>                                      John Quincy Adams
>>
>>"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the 
>>duty as well as the priviledge and interest of our Christian nation to 
>>select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
>>                      John Jay, first Cheif Justice of the Supreme Court
>>
>>"Reason and experience both, forbid us to expect that national morality can 
>>prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
>>                                      George Washington

>"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine."
>                                        George Washington

>"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no
>god.  It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
>                                        Thomas Jefferson

>"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the
>Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant
>Church, nor by any church that I know of.  My own mind is my own church."
>                                        Thomas Paine

>"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature."
>                                        Thomas Jefferson

>"The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion.  I could
>never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma."
>                                        Abraham Lincoln

Yes? So what's your point, that Washington, Jefferson and Paine disagreed 
with roughly 90% of the other people at the Constitutional Convention? 
That Lincoln did not always agree with the Bible and Christianity? 
Neither did C.S. Lewis. The quotes I listed have very little to do with the 
personal religious persuasions of the men quoted and have everything to do 
with the conscience and future of the nation and the responsibilities of 
its people. Perhaps what the Supreme Court said about it would be more to 
your liking?

"Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based on and must include 
the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible for it to be 
otherwise. In this sense, to this extent our civilization and our 
institutions are emphatically Christian."
					Supreme Court, 1892

"Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends to destroy civil 
government."
					Supreme Court, 1844

Or, perhaps you'ld rather here the findings in 1853 of a Senate Judiciary 
Committee charged with investigating whether or not religious principles can 
be separated from government?

"Had the people during the Revolution had a suspicion of any attempt to war 
against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its 
cradle. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and its amendments, 
the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, but not 
any one denomination. In this age, there is no substitute for Christianity. 
That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it 
to remain the religion of their descendants. The great, the vital, the 
conservative element of our system is the belief of our people in the pure 
doctrine and the divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

If you have any trouble with what I "say", take it up with my spokesmen.