November 3, 2002
GOT 'EM FLANKED:
Nonbelievers march on Mall (Denise Barnes, 11/02/02, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)Thousands of nonbelievers converged on the Mall yesterday to demand equal rights under the Constitution and separation between politics and the pulpit during the first-ever Godless Americans March on Washington.The roughly 2,000 demonstrators from around the nation--self-proclaimed atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and secular humanists--toted cardboard signs that read, "One Nation Under the Constitution," "Religion Kills" and "God is a Fairytale." [...]
The speakers included Michael Newdow, the West Coast physician whose lawsuit led a San Francisco federal appeals court to rule in June that "under God" be stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance--a ruling widely expected to be reversed on appeal.
At one end of the Mall is the Lincoln Memorial, dedicated to the President who said the following:
"[T]his nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom...
At the other end is the Washington Monument, dedicated to the President who, in his final public address to the Nation he had served so well, said the following:
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. 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.It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?
Though obviously entitled to their own beliefs, these protestors are not sincere friends of freedom. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 3, 2002 7:53 AM
The first paragraph sounds like an Onion parody.
Posted by: at November 3, 2002 7:46 AMBeing a non-militant atheist myself, does 2000 really count as "thousands"?
Posted by: Peter Schiavo at November 3, 2002 10:09 AMGeorge Orwell
, no true friend of freedom...
I have always found evangelical atheism
something of a self-contradiction but it's a
great nation ain't it?
And in between those monuments is the one
to Jefferson, author of the Virginia Statute for
Religious Liberty, a man Orrin derides as an
unsuccessful politician.
Anyhow, I'll cheerfully set my moral and
political behavior, atheist that I am, against
that of the Grand Mufti or the cardinal-archbishop
of Boston any time.
Being a "sincere friend of freedom" does not entail agreeing with every word other friends of freedom may have uttered.
Posted by: David Ross at November 3, 2002 4:56 PMQuotations on the Jefferson Memorial
http://www.monticello.org/resources/interests/memorial.html
PANEL ONE:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men. We . . . solemnly publish and declare, that these colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states. . . And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
PANEL TWO:
"Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens . . . are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion . . . No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively."
PANEL THREE:
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Establish a law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state and on a general plan."
Yeah, but he didn't like churches. Or theologians.
Posted by: Harry at November 3, 2002 7:58 PMWhat's that got to do with anything?
Posted by: oj at November 3, 2002 8:18 PMI dunno, separation of church and state, maybe?
Freedom of conscience?