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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldworldnet who wrote (265272)	6/19/2002 2:55:41 PM
From: goldworldnet	Respond to of 769667

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of government with the principles of Christianity. From the day of the Declaration...they were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledged as the rule of their conduct." - John Quincy Adams- 6th President "Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." - George Washington (1796) "Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian." - U.S. Supreme Court, 1892 James Madison, "Father of the Constitution", said: "If the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the Nation...be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a faithful exercise of its powers." id.ucsb.edu * * *

To: goldworldnet who wrote (265272)	6/19/2002 3:14:24 PM
From: Frederick Smart	Respond to of 769667

Thanks goldworld!! >>Our Founding Fathers did not want freedom from religion; they promoted freedom of religion. Their idea was to make sure that no one sect would be the "official" church as had been the case in England.>> 119293!!

To: goldworldnet who wrote (265272)	6/19/2002 3:59:31 PM
From: gao seng	Respond to of 769667

An influential early liberal was the English philosopher John Locke. In his political writings, which deeply influenced the framers of the U.S. Constitution, he argued for popular sovereignty, the right of rebellion against oppression, and toleration of religious minorities. According to the thought of Locke and his many followers, the state exists not to promote people's spiritual salvation, but to serve its citizens and to guarantee their life, liberty, and property under a constitution. Much of Locke's philosophy is reflected in the writings of the Anglo-American political philosopher and writer Thomas Paine, who argued that the authority of one generation should not be considered binding on its successors, that the state is perhaps necessary but still an evil, and that a belief in divine order was all the religion that need be demanded of free people. Thomas Jefferson also echoed Locke in the Declaration of Independence and in later pronouncements defending revolutions, attacking paternalistic government, and upholding free expression of unpopular opinions. In France, Locke's philosophy was taken over by the leaders of the French Enlightenment, notably by the author and philosopher Voltaire. He insisted that the state should be supreme over the church and demanded universal religious toleration, abolition of censorship, lenient punishment of criminals, and a strong state acting only under general rules of law against forces obstructive of social progress and individual liberty. For Voltaire as for the French philosopher and dramatist Denis Diderot, the state is a machine for the creation of happiness and a positive instrument designed to check a strong nobility and a strong church, the two forces they considered most uncompromisingly dedicated to the conservation of old institutions. "Liberalism," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2000. © 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.