Last week a judge in Nebraska tossed out a law that banned same-sex marriages. As could be expected the religious right-wing nut zealots went off the deep end. They accused the judge of judicial activism and legislating from the bench. The right-wing nuts claimed that the judge had no right striking this unfair law down because the law was the popular will of the people, therefore legal. Since it is the popular will of the people to discriminate against one group, the judge was not right in ruling the way he did. What these right-wing nuts don't seem to understand is that it is the judicial branch's job to strike down unfair laws. When the state or Federal legislatures pass and the governor or President signs discriminatory law, it is the judicial branch's job to rule the laws unconstitutional and thus unfair. "But it is the will of the people," the right wing nuts shout. Just because something is popular does not make it right. At this time in history, it is popular to discriminate against homosexuals. This does not make it right. At one time it was popular in the United States to keep Africans as slaves. Did this make slavery right? It was also popular to deny voting rights to women. Was this right? In Nazi Germany, it was popular to discriminate against Jews, steal their property, and send them to concentration camps. Was this right? It was the popular will of the people. At one time it was popular to deny voting rights to blacks. Was this right? Just because it is popular to discriminate does not make it right.
Now, what is right is not popular. It is the judge's job to decide if laws are fair or not. This is not activism. This is common sense. It is the judge's job to stop discrimination. The right wing nuts want the judicial branch to follow the popular will of the people. This would make the judicial branch irrelevant. Our country wouldn't need courts if laws were passed based on the popular will of the people. Courts have to make decisions based on right and wrong, fair and unfair, even if the decision is unpopular. That means banning discrimination against homosexuals.
What is popular is not always right; what is right is not always popular.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Monday, May 09, 2005
Founding Fathers not Christians
In last week’s edition of my local paper, a writer stated that “Our country was founded on Christian principals, most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were Christians”, however, the historical record does not bear this out. Here are some quotes from some of the men who had a hand in writing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution:
Thomas Paine , author of Common Sense, “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...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."
John Adams, 2nd President of the United States, "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!" It was during Washington’s administration that the Treaty of Peace and Friendship was written and it was during Adam's administration that the Senate ratified it. In the Treaty it states in Article XI "the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion."
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and 3rd President of the United States, in a letter to John Adams dated April 11, 1823 - "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."
James Madison, 4th President of the United States, “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."
Eathan Allen, hero of the American Revolution, "That Jesus Christ was not God is evidence from his own words." Allen noted that he was generally "denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed, being conscious that I am no Christian."
Ben Franklin, helped write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, “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.."
As you can clearly see, many of the Founding Fathers did not support the Christian Religion. It is a patently untrue when conservatives and the religious right claim the United States was founded on Christianity and that the Founding Fathers were Christians. A trip through the historical archives and writings of these men disprove this. I believe the Founding Fathers would be horrified and dismayed at the blatant use and disuse of their names in support of the religious rights agenda.
Thomas Paine , author of Common Sense, “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...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."
John Adams, 2nd President of the United States, "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!" It was during Washington’s administration that the Treaty of Peace and Friendship was written and it was during Adam's administration that the Senate ratified it. In the Treaty it states in Article XI "the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion."
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and 3rd President of the United States, in a letter to John Adams dated April 11, 1823 - "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."
James Madison, 4th President of the United States, “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."
Eathan Allen, hero of the American Revolution, "That Jesus Christ was not God is evidence from his own words." Allen noted that he was generally "denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed, being conscious that I am no Christian."
Ben Franklin, helped write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, “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.."
As you can clearly see, many of the Founding Fathers did not support the Christian Religion. It is a patently untrue when conservatives and the religious right claim the United States was founded on Christianity and that the Founding Fathers were Christians. A trip through the historical archives and writings of these men disprove this. I believe the Founding Fathers would be horrified and dismayed at the blatant use and disuse of their names in support of the religious rights agenda.
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