There should be a religious test for politicians.
If you're too religious, you should not be a politician
You know what? Yes. And if you’re found to be swayed by your religion while making law? You should be barred from office.
Shot for treason
I'd like to test him about feeding the hungry. Sheltering the homeless. Comforting the widow. Coveting your neighbors goods. Doing to others as you would like have done to you. I'm not even fucking talking about religion, either.
I'd like to test him about the desire for control and dictatorial tendencies. He would fail every time
I wish these chucklefucks would realize not all of us believe in god let alone the same one they pray to.
They do realize this. They see it as a problem that needs fixing.
They seem to forget one of the main reasons people founded this country in the first place. Freedom OF religion includes freedom FROM religion.
That’s not how they see it though.
The US Constitution was set up and amended in such a way that religions could not be interfered with by the state, but such that religions could invade the state and exert influence there. It’s not so much a Freedom from Religion as it is a Freedom for Religious People. Goddamn puritans.
No, that's what Barton wants people to believe. But when you read what the Founders had to say about church and state, they made it pretty clear they wanted to keep religion out of the state as well.
“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
- John Adams
The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. ... But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with all this artificial scaffolding....
meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammeden, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.
- Thomas Jefferson again
If they are good workmen, they may be from Asia, Africa or Europe; they may be Mahometans, Jews, Christians of any sect, or they may be Atheists...
- George Washington, to Tench Tilghman, March 24, 1784, when asked what type of workman to get for Mount Vernon, from The Washington papers, edited by Saul Padover
...I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.
- George Washington, to United Baptists Churches of Virginia, May, 1789 from The Washington papers, edited by Saul Padover]
For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
- George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island | Wednesday, August 18, 1790
While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to him only in this case they are answerable.
- George Washington letter to Benedict Arnold | Thursday, September 14, 1775
There is a 'no religious test' bit in the constitution It turns out that the only religious test the constitution sanctions is DON'T PROPOSE RELIGIOUS TESTS
That's the one that tells us you can't be trusted with secular authority
Now we got to listen to this bullshit. Would love to see him take a test on the bible.
We'll start by asking him to list all twenty commandments, since conservatives usually claim that they love them so much.
Twenty? I'm not a Christian so was unaware of the extra ten.
Most "Christians" are also unaware of the extra ones, despite them being listed in black and white in the bible.
In Exodus 20, Moses is given the tablets containing the ten commandments, which are listed off in the text of the bible in that chapter and are the ten that "everyone knows."
Then, in Exodus 32:19, Moses gets so pissed off at witnessing his people worshiping the golden calf that he breaks the tablets that have the commandments carved on them. In Exodus 33 he goes back up the mountain to ask god what to do about it. In Exodus 34, god goes as far as to say unto Moses, "Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest." Throughout the chapter he does so, listing off a screed that contains a couple of the original commandments (no other gods before me, and remember the sabbath) but the rest of his directions are quite different from the first list.
Further, there is a recitation of the first ten commandments in Deuteronomy 5, where a different explanation for the sabbath day is given. In Exodus god claims the sabbath is holy because he created the world in six days and the seventh day is a day of rest, but in Deuteronomy he says the sabbath actually holy because the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt and god gave them rest in the form of their freedom. Moses further goes on to say after this recitation that these were the words god spoke and he "added no more," which as we saw in Exodus 34 is bogus.
I guess actually it's 18 in total, then. We can treat it as a trick question for Mike Johnson.
There's an interesting detail to the whole "Moses breaking the original tablets in response to the golden calf worship."
This parallels the alleged reforms of Josiah.
Josiah "finds a new book of laws" and then suddenly carries out major religious reforms. He performed human sacrifice slaughtering the priests of the high places on their altars to defile them. He hides away the Ark, the anointing oil, the manna jar. He gets rid of the Asherah worship.
And he gets rid of the golden calves in Bethel and Dan while getting rid of the old laws and bringing new ones.
Oh, and he institutes the Passover narrative.
So suddenly in the events around Moses, the central part of that Passover narrative, is a scene that has old laws being destroyed in response to golden calf worship and new laws taking their place.
Very sus.
Even more sus is that Josiah's reforms appear to be anachronistic given the correspondence over a century later between Elephantine and Jerusalem.
We should really be taking Hecataeus of Adbera's claim that the scriptures of the Jews had recently been significantly altered around the Exodus narrative under the Persian and Macedonian conquests more seriously.
Edit: Also if the Shapira scroll is legit, there was originally an 11th commandment.
Start with "Which came first, people or animals?"
Genesis 1:
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 2:
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Indeed. Two stories from two regions mashed up into the Septuagint along with a number of other writings, much of it proven to be anachronistic, meant to unify a kingdom politically against its rivals under one religion and one god where before there were many of each. It's also why you see god being named in different ways in different books.
This guy’s a fuckin freak.
And he doesn't know that you never go full religious pineapple
I feel like a major lesson from the Trump era is that no one has to take American evangelicals seriously when they talk about how their faith informs their politics. They can and will justify anything so it’s just a waste of everyone’s time to pretend they’re sincere in their beliefs.
Ironic considering that Jews and atheists tend to be more knowledgeable than Christians about religion: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/07/23/what-americans-know-about-religion/
I fully support this. Anyone who claims to be religious - of any kind - will not get my vote.
This is turning into a South Park episode.
🌎👨🚀🔫👨🚀
Man, these guys just hate this country so very much. It's so obvious because they keep ignoring and/or gaslighting about one of the most important things about this country, and that is that it is a SECULAR country.
I would love to see how closely they follow "love thy neighbor"
thats why they try so hard to change who is allowed to move in next door
I'm sure he's really concerned about usery.
How about a religious test on this extra set of ten commandments and start by seeinh how the idiots in the House would even pass it.
No need to invent new commandments. Use the holy book they claim to follow.
James 5: 1-6:
1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
Not done your best to eliminate wage theft and tax the rich? Fail.
Leviticus 19:34
The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
Not voted in favour of equal (voting, residence, labour, ...) rights for migrants? Fail.
Exodus 22:25
“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.
Not voted in favour of mandating interest free loans to the poor? Fail.
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