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Was the U.S. Founded on ReligiousFreedom?


roddma

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That's always a fun discussion to have with conservative Christians/evangelicals/fundies. Puritans! Religious freedom! City on a hill!

And it was great until the Quakers showed up, at which point the Puritans oppressed them by incarcerating, mutilating, and killing them. It was pretty bad. 

Needless to say, the contents of Pennsylvania's charter aren't all that surprising in light of that. Pennsylvania was founded by Friends. 

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This is a moot point. We have a Constitution that gives us religious freedom. The rest belongs in history books.

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The thing is Duggars and their ilk argue about religious freedom. However it also means freedom FROM religion.

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I agree that the constitution makes religious freedom a critical component of the American political arena, regardless of how the country started out.

That said, I find that some of the freedoms enshrined in the constitution are quite ironic. The religious freedom thing is especially grating to me given how many African Americans living in slavery were forced to become Christians and how many Native Americans were similarly coerced into conversion. So not religious freedom...

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For my part, and YMMV, my Swedish ancestors ran like rabbits to the Glorious America, where they could pray and worship any way they wanted (and even had the freedom to hire and fire ministers!--no state church, whoooohooo!).

(US citizen here, by right of birth, born to US-born parents whose elders cheerfully renounced their old citizenship and went "hurray for the US!")  

We don't need to shelter the Declaration of Independence in a nuclear-proof vault. I'd hate to lose it as a historical document, but if it burns, we are still a free and independent people.

What we NEED is to protect our blessed Constitution, which has stood up against dictators, Presidents, and others who tried to gain powers which We, The People had NOT given to them.  Our lovely, wonderful, incredible, precious Constitution gives protection to the great and the small, to the powerful and the weak. (There ARE problems: we're working on it, trust me. Please stand by: evolution takes a bit of time. We don't have all the ideals down perfectly yet--it's an ongoing process, but many of us still have hope,)

And partial hijack: for everyone who lives in a land that you identify as "free"---and am not about to argue terms---this weekend (between Great Sale Days, sigh), we in the US are celebrating Memorial Day, where we are supposed to remember all the ones who suffered and died for freedom.  Can I respectfully suggest that folks take a few minutes to thank the defenders of their nation(s)?

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The Puritans only wanted freedom for themselves.

Many posts from Fundies on Patriotic holidays harp on how wonderful freedom is.

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