The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American

by Andrew L. Seidel

Oven…. Thus did the LORD judge among the Heathen, filling the Place with dead Bodies!”

American children were “more indifferent in matters of religion than their parents. The foolish vanity, or rather the fury of making Proselytes, is unknown here; they have no time.”)54

Wish that had continued unabated we would be in a better place

“the Government of the United States…gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

“It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.”

The Puritans imposed the death penalty for worshipping other gods, blasphemy, homosexuality, and adultery.

“millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, [who] have been burnt, tortured,

fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.”

The biblical vision of government supported in Isaiah is exactly what the Constitution ended.

It came from Montesquieu, who never mentioned or referred to the bible in his discussion of three separate branches of government.

He added, “The oracle who is always consulted and cited on this subject is the celebrated Montesquieu.” Judeo-Christian principles have nothing to do with separation of powers.

unintelligible propositions” and called the trinity the “mere Abracadabra of mountebanks calling themselves the Priests of Jesus.”23

The Golden Rule exists in nearly every society and also appears, in one form or another, in many religions, including “Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, and the rest of the world’s major religions,”

1. “Now this is the command: Do to the doer to cause that he do.” ~Ancient Egypt (c. 2040–1650 BCE)6 2. “Don’t do yourself what you disapprove of in others.” ~Pittacus of Mytilene, Ancient Greece (c. 640–568 BCE)7 3. “Never do ourselves what we blame others for doing.” ~Thales of Miletus, Ancient Greece (c. 624–545 BCE)8 4. “To those who are good (to me), I am good; and to those who are not good (to me), I am also good; and thus (all) get to be good.” ~Laozi, China (sixth century BCE)9 5. “Do not impose on others what you do not desire others to impose upon you.” ~Confucius, China (551–479 BCE)10 6. “What I disapprove of in the actions of my neighbor, that—as best I can—I will not do.” ~Herodotus, Ancient Greece (fifth century BCE)11 7. “If people regarded other people’s families in the same way that they regard their own, who then would incite their own family to attack that of another? For one would do for others as one would do for oneself.” ~Mozi, China (c. 470–391 BCE)12 8. “Do not do to others the things that anger you when you experience them from others.” ~Isocrates, Ancient Greece (c. 436–338 BCE)13 9. “We ought not to retaliate or render evil for evil to anyone, whatever evil we may have suffered from him.” ~Plato/Socrates (fifth–fourth century BCE)14 10. “One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the rule of

Variations of the Golden Rule in other religions.

Righteousness.” ~Hindu Mahabharata (c. fourth century BCE)15 11. Justice is an agreement “neither to harm nor be harmed.” ~Epicurus, Ancient Greece (341–270 BCE)16 12. “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.” ~Hillel (c. 110 BCE–10 CE)17 13. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” ~Jesus (c. 30 CE)18

More versions of the golden Rule

One reflective Sunday, Adams wrote in his diary that Christianity included the rule but did not invent it: “One great advantage of the Christian religion is, that it brings the great principle of the law of nature and nations,—Love your neighbor as yourself, and do to others as you would that others should do to you,—to the knowledge, belief, and veneration of the whole people.”21

the Golden Rule influenced America’s founding does nothing to prove that we are a Christian nation, but it does help show the arrogance of Christian nationalism.

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments declare that no citizen can be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” by federal or state governments respectively.

13th abolished slavery 14th citizenship and equal protection 15 voting rights

An applicant who mentioned their god—as in, “I swear to God I’ll pay you back”—was 2.2 times more likely to default on the loan, making it “among the single highest indicators that someone would not pay back.

To believe this, you must accept not only that all humans descended from two originals that a god created for his garden, but also that all human beings are culpable for the actions of those two forebears, whose disobedience was prompted by a talking snake and was committed millennia ago.

Could this lesson taught so early and so frequently be why White Christians act like they are personally being held responsible for slavery - when people are simply trying to explain systemic racism

as well as entire groups of people who are punished for the minor infractions of one person in the group:

Teachers communal punishment

Virginia Plan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Plan#Principles Large state plan with 2 houses both based on population

“putting the Bible and Testament into the hands of the children, at an age when their judgments are not sufficiently matured for religious enquiries, their memories may here be stored with the most useful facts from Grecian, Roman, European and American history.”

about a lady who asked Benjamin Franklin at the close of the Constitutional Convention, “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”28 Franklin’s response was the legendary “A republic, if you can keep it.”

“founded on the natural authority of the people alone without a pretence of miracle or mystery,”26 as John Adams put it.

only references to religion are exclusionary: Prohibiting a religious test for public office.29 Prohibiting governmental interference with religious worship.30 Prohibiting religious interference with government.31

The Judeo-Christian first commandment and the US First Amendment fundamentally conflict. They are irreconcilable.