Posted by Damozel | Ruh-roh! Poor John McCain's really put his foot in it this time. In an interview at Beliefnet.com, he said:
"I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who has a grounding in my faith." (CNN)
He also said...
"I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who has a grounding in my faith." (CNN)
Now, of course, he's in big, big trouble with those Americans who don't happen to be of his faith, especially those not of his party. For example, the Jewish Democrats found his statement "repugnant." So he has now "clarified" his statement, as follows:
"What I do mean...is the United States of America was founded on the values of Judeo-Christian values, which were translated by our founding fathers which is basically the rights of human dignity and human rights."(CNN)
According to McCain,
Our Founding Fathers believed in separation of church and state and they stated it unequivocally. But, they also continued to emphasize the Christian principle. In God We Trust or [all men are] created equal—every statement that they made had to do with the belief in a Divine Creator… They sought guidance from their Creator. So, when some people interpret their desire for separation of church and state as a failure to acknowledge the importance and influence of our Creator, I think that they have a different view of history than I do.(Beliefnet.com)
On the other hand, maybe it just reflects the desire of the Founders not to have the state all up in their religion or to have someone else's religion all up in their state.
On the other other hand....some have argued that the Founders were influenced as much by masonic/deist principles as by Christian ones. Based on what little I have gleaned about masonry from the odd desultory exposure, combined with the well-documented and otherwise rather puzzling statements of various Founders, this doesn't seem completely implausible. (Admittedly my sources probably wouldn't pass muster with academic historians.)
In any case, whatever the beliefs of Jefferson, Washington, Madison, and Franklin, it really does seem fairly certain that they certainly weren't very similar to those of contemporary evangelical Christians, or of John McCain.
At any rate, I beg to differ with respect to McCain's understanding of history. I think quite a few of the more prominent Founders as well as The Treaty of Tripoli would beg to differ with him as well
As for Bush and his "theological perspective," so-called, on Iraq, McCain suggested that the Greek God Hubris (a/k/a "Donald Rumsfeld") was responsible for Bush's mistakes in Iraq. Perhaps he isn't quite as monotheistic as he'd have you believe.
As to the legitimacy of Bush's mission..... "[We] mishandled it terribly" and that if we hadn't, "[E]verybody would be happy with Iraq today because Saddam Hussein is gone and they have a country that's functioning." And he doesn't think Bush was wrong to want to spread our "God-given rights to people all over the earth," though at the same time, he seems to think Bush was wrong to try.
On the issue of the war in Iraq and the conduct of it and President Bush's public statements about it, let me just go back. We were founded as a nation on Judeo-Christian principles. There's very little debate about that. And I think the noblest words ever written are, "We hold these truths to be self evident that all, all people are created equal and endowed by their Creator."
So if you believe in that fundamental principle, then of course you believe in the desirability and the attractiveness of helping bring to those God-given rights to people all over the earth. What has happened, though, throughout our history is a tension between realpolitik and Wilsonian principles…. [which are] clearly defined in "We are endowed by our Creator." But realpolitik says that if you overstretch, if you go places you shouldn't go, then the penalty you pay is higher than anything you might have hoped to have gained.(Beliefnet.com)
Um....okay.
At The Volokh Conspiracy blawg, David Bernstein reflects on "McCain's interesting reading of the Constitution."
Number of times the Constitution actually mentions Christianity: 0.
Number of times the Constitution forbids the establishment of religion by Congress: 1.
Undoubtedly, given the demographics of the time, the Framers expected that the American population would be primarily Christian, and some of them believed that the ideas that inspired the Declaration and Constitution were Christian in origin (though that cuts both ways, because southern slavery advocates believed that slavery, protected to some extent by the original Constitution, was divinely ordained). But that's not quite the same as suggesting that the American constitution establishes a "Christian nation."
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The main difference in mainstream politics between europe and U.S:
"god", "faith", "religion" = still an issue in U.S ( from what I hear ). Those things are NEVER mentioned in europe.
If you hear someone goes regularly to church, it's the same thing as hearing that person has AIDS, you're immediately shocked.
P.S I'm talking primarly about northern europe!
Posted by: 27bytes | March 29, 2008 at 03:45 PM