Los Angeles' literary landscape

[Ghetta Life]

And most of these fundies would be SHOCKED to learn that the author of the 
Declaration of Independence (could there be any document more rightly 
labeled "founding" for this country?) produced the Jefferson Bible?  For 
fundies, this is true blasphemy.

"Thomas Jefferson believed that the ethical system of Jesus was the finest 
the world has ever seen. In compiling what has come to be called "The 
Jefferson Bible," he sought to separate those ethical teachings from the 
religious dogma and other supernatural elements that are intermixed in the 
account provided by the four Gospels. He presented these teachings, along 
with the essential events of the life of Jesus, in one continuous 
narrative."

http://www.angelfire.com/co/JeffersonBible/

Also, no other founder so clearly wished to keep religion separate from all 
forms of public coersion:

"In June 1779 the introduction of Jefferson's bill on religious liberty 
touched off a quarrel that caused turmoil in Virginia for 8 years. The bill 
was significant as no other state--indeed, no other nation--provided for 
complete religious liberty at that time. Jefferson's bill stated "that all 
men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions on 
matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, 
or affect their civil capacities." Many Virginians regarded the bill as an 
attack upon Christianity. It did not pass until 1786, and then mainly 
through the perseverance of James Madison. Jefferson, by then in France, 
congratulated Madison, adding that "it is honorable for us to have produced 
the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason of man 
may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions."

http://sc94.ameslab.gov/TOUR/tjefferson.html

Ghetta

>From: "Joe Allonby" <joeallonby at gmail.com>>
>
>I liked some of the quotes about the other cross and what "America was 
>founded on". Have any of these people actually READ the Constitution, Bill 
>of Rights, Declaration of Independence, or any of the Federalist papers?

_________________________________________________________________
Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! 
http://search.msn.com/