At least, that’s the take-away I get from this story:
More at the link above.
I don’t know what to say. I’m gobsmacked at the stupidity.
I don’t really see where stupidity enters into this, just evil and would-be oppression.
I’m just glad that most Americans are still opposed to establishing a state religion.
I also read that 1/2 of Americans are below average in intelligence!
Which flavor of Christianity are they hoping for?
Scary, but not surprising, sadly.
Because the idiots who would support this have absolutely no knowledge of the motivations of the people who fled England to come here in the first place, and no knowledge of one of the most fundamental aspects of the Constitution : separation of church and state.
So, yep, they’s some dumb ass mother fuckers. And we have to *live *with them…
Why do you say that? Some parts of New England had established churches until the 19th century. Rhode Island was even founded by people who fled from the people who fled England.
Well in light of the Colonists plight, the only real solution then is to make the official state religion the Church of England!
I suppose the Massachusetts Bay Colony is a good example of how “Christianity” can’t really be established. I bet half of the people who approved are members of churches that would declare the approved faith to be heretical and unchristian within a few years.
Although they probably weren’t really thinking of establishing a church, just putting Jesus up on the information board at the capitol next to the state fossil and the state tree, and letting God back into schools and other platitudes.
Eh, it’s not so bad. The system worked.
Thiss may be alarming, or it may not. If people thought the question was asking if Christianity should be the official religion in a way that would make Christian law state law one and the same, that’s very scary. If, on the other hand, they simply want it to be the “official” religion to give a nod to our founding sentiments, then it’s not nearly as big a deal. My guess it’s the latter. I don’t think many Christians would favor a Christain-law based Sharia-like adherence like you see in some Muslim countries. I’m not saying the number is zero. Just very, very low.
As an aside, this reminds me of the panic from the left when you hear talk of the U.S. making English the official language. Some people froth as if no other language will be able to be spoken in the 50 states.
It will all sort itself out in the future when the majority of the population becomes indifferent to organised religion. Say, when you enter the 20th century.
Theirs naturally. Theocracy is a lot more attractive when you can convince yourself that it’s your particular religion that will get to be the theocrats.
You picked a bad example. From the original Massachusetts constitution:
Or maybe you were thinking of the original settlers, a hundred years prior. At any rate, MA did have an established Christian religion, that spanned different denominations, but absolutely favored Protestant Christianity over everything else.
Missed the edit window… They probably thought they were being very progressive by letting each congregation decide which flavor of Protestantism it could follow, rather than impose one flavor on everyone!
First Baptist! No Second Baptist! Civil War.
Cover me slightly skeptical. The results are believable but when I see, say, polls about evolution, the results can be drastically changed based upon how you word it, as many people believe in God but also all the hallmarks of Darwinism, and can easily answer one way or another depending on how it’s asked. Like making English an official language, I could see that some correspondents wanted a theocracy, but many just want that verbiage on the books without forced conversions. Not the most enlightened opinion, but not the same as expelling people.
Also, the article is very unclear: sounds like a phone poll of 1000 people based on an Internet poll? Because if it was an Internet poll, a non-trivial problem is that some megachurch can tell their parishioners to visit. It’s the reason why on a list of the 10 greatest books I saw once, about 8 of them were from either L. Ron Hubbard or Ayn Rand.
Maryland is for me the most obvious example. Founded by Catholic refugees who were tired of being dicked around in England, they did establish freedom of religion. That meant that the Puritans could come after being shut out of Anglican Virginia, and they so learned from their situations that they had a coup and made Maryland theocratic for almost a decade.
It’s the usual nonsense from a significant number of Christians. They want the state to acknowledge that their religion is important and should have more rights in the public square than other religions.
I see this in my school district all the time. The area is predominantly Protestant Christian. Parents are upset that kids get off holidays they don’t think important like Rosh Ha’shanah and Yom Kippur which one more than parent called an inconvenience at a school board meeting. But when I dared voice the same sentiments about what a pain in the ass it was that my kid got off Good Friday and then a whole week for Easter while being denied off Passover, I was essentially told to STFU and be grateful we had any Jewish holidays off at all.
Which is such bullshit. I am NEVER allowed to work on Christmas. What that means is I get asked to work crazy pain in the ass hours beforehand because the work has to get done. Meanwhile I often wind up having to beg to get off from work on Yom Kippur.
It’s just an example of Christians expecting yet more privilege in their lives. I cannot imagine the same people would be happy if we declared Satanism the state religion.
What’s amazing is how many people were “not sure” of their answers. 50% of Democrats either favored (25%) or were not sure (25%) if they favored the Establishment of Christianity in their states.
And even though a significant majority of Republicans want Christianity established, more of them, than the Democrats, know that it’s not allowed by the Constitution. Again, because so many are “not sure”.
It would be more of a “nod to our founding sentiments” if they rejected a state religion altogether, though.
The One, True Faith, of course.
And we all know what that one is… :rolleyes: