Atheist that I a, July 4th is one of the few holidays I celebrate because it’s not a christian-based holiday.
If so, maybe the ad was placed by a cheesemaker (or at least a manufacturer of dairy products), whom we know Jesus blessed.
Be nice. Didn’t the Lord say “Blessed are the curd makers”?
No, no, no – you’re thinking of the Greek who’s going to inherit the earth…
Oh wow.
Ohhhhh wow.
you’ve got to scan this and send it to me! Is there any way you can get more copies?
Revtim my sweet, you owe me a new keyboard because I just spit ginger ale all over mine. I think this is the funniest damn thing I’ve read all week.
He was probably reusing a right-wing religious Christmas rant “Jesus is the reason for the season”, and trying to apply it to yet another holiday.
Even the Christmas one, while being a nice rhyme, is also inaccurate. Most cultures had a holiday celebration at that time, for hundreds of years before Jesus was (allegedly) born.
Please, please, send a copy of this ad to The Daily Show It is vital for the rest of America to get this important message.
I’d kill to see Corddry interview whoever is responisble.
Sure, we need to remember Jesus on the 4th. Remember how he bravely fought and gave his life to free the United States from British domination?
Hey, wait…
If you’re unfamiliar with the fourth verse of that song, be prepared for a little surprise…
I think they would be surprised to hear you say that. The vast majority of them professed some sort of traditional Christian church membership, at a time when church membership was taken quite seriously. Even Ben Franklin, who is frequently labelled a deist, made repeated appeals to prayer and to the Scriptures.
One of the founding fathers, the Reverend Dr. John Witherspoon, had numerous volumes of his gospel sermons published. He was also responsible for two American editions of the Bible — including America’s first family Bible. I’m sure he would be quite shocked to learn that he does not regard Jesus as a savior!
Another, Dr. Benjamin Rush, started the first Bible society and Sunday school society in America. Charles Pinckney and John Langdon founded the American Bible Society. James McHenry founded the Baltimore Bible Society. Rufus King helped establish a Bible society for Anglicans. Abraham Baldwin was a chaplain in the Revolution and was considered the youngest theologian in America. Roger Sherman, William Samuel Johnson, John Dickinson, and Jacob Broom were also theological writers. I don’t think they’d agree with your assessment of their religious views.
Now admittedly, the founding fathers are a mixed bag. Several of them espoused statements which indicate an unabashedly Christian worldview, even as some (most notably, Thomas Jefferson) did not. Henry Dearborne, Charles Lee, or Ethan Allen, for example, were rather irreligious. To say that they did not regard Jesus as a personal savior is a vast oversimplification, to say the least.
That’s quite a revelation, Sternvogel. Thanks.
Just FTR, here it is:
To follow our SDMB motto (“Combatting ignorance…”), it should be pointed out that this 4th verse was not written by Frances Scott Key, but added long after his death.
This was made the national model of the US in 1956, in the midst of the Cold War against “godless communism”. It was originated by Salmon Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, who had it added to US coins during the Civil War.
Are you sure? I’ve been searching the web for nearly an hour now, and I couldn’t find any reference to that claim which you just made. In fact, I found several sources (both religious and secular) which claimed that this verse was part of Francis Scott Key’s original four-stanza poem.
Are you sure you’re not thinking of Deutschland über alles? It does have a fourth verse which was added after the original song was composed.
A couple of years ago, when my neighbours’ children were in a Christian school, I was asked to tutor the older girl in her 8th grade history – the books for this school were interesting. Her 8th grade history text was on American history, and it did have statements in it to the effect of, ‘The Americans defeated the British in the Revolution because Jesus was on the Americans’ side’ – :eek: – I wish I could get hold of this book; it was that way through.
The maths texts were similar; at the end of each unit was a self-test before the child could go on, and the questions were a mix of maths problems and identifying quotes from Scripture.
Sure…whenever you misremember the Pythagorean Theorem, God kills a kitten.
JThunder, not for nothing but I found that cite of yours to be less than completely nonpartisan…
And my personal favorite from that section:
All obtained here.
Also this:
From the evolution page (accessible through the menu on the left side of the page), and this:
That bit from here.
I’m holding out for something slightly more scholarly;)
:eek: I failed most of my high school maths courses and one at uni! :eek:
I think possibly the writer is confounding Christ’s riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and Yankee Doodle’s riding into London on a pony. The day I see an image of JC with a big old Uncle Sam Red White and Blue top hat, I’m calling in sick.
11811, Presby
Look, if you want an exhaustive analysis of the Founding Fathers’ religious beliefs, you’re unlikely to find them anywhere but on a religious (or anti-religious) website. I think your skepticism is a bit unwarranted here. Moreover, that article cited several published sources for its claims, such as The Annals of America, (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1976). If you want to dispute these sources, then by all means, look them up.
Moreover, if you’re willing to dismiss these claims on the grounds that they are given by a religious organization, then you had better be prepared to dismiss any claims made by American Atheists or any similar anti-religious group. That is, if you wish to avoid the “partisanship” of which you spoke so disparagingly.
Additionally, the fact that one of the more prominent Founding Fathers went by the title of Reverend Dr. John Witherspoon should speak volumes.
I also mentioned several other Founding Fathers, such as Benjamin Rush, Charles Pinckney, John Langdon, James McHenry and more. Their lives are a matter of public record. The Virtualology on-line museum, for example, verifies that Benjamin Rush was the vice-president and founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society. Time constraints prohibit me from digging up exhaustive links on all these founders, but if you want to read more about their religious histories, just trek to the public library and dig up their biographies. As I said, they’re a matter of public record.