Really Senator? And just where in the Constitution does it say that?
Newsweek Editor John Meacham, a Christian himself, debunks this outrageous statement. Writing in the New York Times Meacham notes:
The only acknowledgment of religion in the original Constitution is a
utilitarian one: the document is dated “in the year of our Lord 1787.” Even the
religion clause of the First Amendment is framed dryly and without reference to
any particular faith. The Connecticut ratifying convention debated rewriting the
preamble to take note of God’s authority, but the effort failed...In the 1790s,
in the waters off Tripoli, pirates were making sport of American shipping near
the Barbary Coast. Toward the end of his second term, Washington sent Joel
Barlow, the diplomat-poet, to Tripoli to settle matters, and the resulting
treaty, finished after Washington left office, bought a few years of peace.
Article 11 of this long-ago document says that “as the government of the United
States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,” there should be
no cause for conflict over differences of “religious opinion” between countries.
The treaty passed the Senate unanimously. Mr. McCain is not the only American
who would find it useful reading.
A Christian Nation indeed!
Jim
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