Fun with the Founding Fathers (and Abe)

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson

I don't think John Adams was against Christianity, per se, but rather to the extremes to which it was taken throughout history (up to 1776, anyhow)...i.e
Crusades, witch burnings and other atrocities.

"Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." - James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785

I have a firm belief that organized religion bears many simliarities to organized crime.

'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent Alliances, with any portion of the foreign world. George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

I wasn't able to get the whole farewell address, but I wonder if this means he'd disapprove of our involvment in the U.N, or with our policy of getting 'interested' in other countries' disputes.

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

True patriotism is criticizing the government and not merely agreeing with the majority.

"The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." -President George Washington (Acts Passed at the First Session of the Fifth Congress of the United States of America (Philadelphia: William Ross, 1797), pp. 43-44.)

I posted this comment on my other defunct blog, but I like it.

"The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion." -President Abraham Lincoln

I think he believed in God, but rejected people's interpretations of their version of the truth. As I said before, people are flawed. People are inclined to twist words to fit their needs or just outright lie.