Barbara McGraw on Religion in America

This position is all well and good but is it really relevant to talk about the current state of America in terms of what men two centuries in their graves thought when compared against the realities of today?

The founders didn't have to contend with Rove v. Wade or the Xian Dominionist movement. The founders had never heard of global warming or embryonic research. The founders were also trying to found a nation rather than perpetuate one that was already hundreds of years old. Most importantly, the founders didn't have to contend with a vocal, violent, apocalyptic death cult that actively desired to conquer and subjugate the world in the name of Jesus and that was disproportionately represented in governing bodies across the nation.

I also remind everyone that, while the men who founded our country had plenty of good ideas that have persisted through the intervening decades they also had a large share of bad ideas as well. The history of our country is defined as much by the struggle to shrug off those bad ideas as it is by the attempt to live by the good ones. As we approach the hundred and fifty years since the USA was founded, it might do us all some good to think and talk about what we want our country to be in the here and now.

Okay, I AM Canadian, but by MY math, America was founded just shy of 233 years ago. July 4th, 1776 right?! Good points Thomas, but credibility is somewhat destroyed by such inaccuracies.

The "Great Experiment" was designed -- as in deliberately constructed -- to establish a living government based on foundational principles. It was, contrary to what some Christian determinists would have it, set up in opposition to any even mildly theocratic pressure.

This, on the surface, makes it secular and nothing else. However, McGraw makes the important point, and if some would wish to offer rebuttal is should be to that point: pluralism was the guiding principle, and the founders succeeded in making pluralism possible.

Yes, they failed to establish pluralism from the beginning. Yes, the nascent government jumped with both feet onto the very principles they espoused during the Revolution. But here we are, 233 years later, and the foundational principles remain strong... and we are just as capable of screwing them up as the founders were, so I suggest we consider ourselves in Good Company. ;-)

Re: Cassaundra

Upon re-reading, you are correct. I omitted the word "two" in my first comment.

However, a typo on a weblog comment doesn't destroy one's credibility any more than pausing while speaking does.