{"id":9901,"date":"2012-07-04T04:30:49","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T11:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/?p=9901"},"modified":"2012-07-03T19:20:56","modified_gmt":"2012-07-04T02:20:56","slug":"happy-4th-of-july-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/07\/happy-4th-of-july-4.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy 4th of July"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cNeither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.\u201d <\/em>\u2013 <\/em>Thomas Jefferson, quoting John Locke<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hail to the pen and muse of\u00a0Thomas Jefferson<\/a>,\u00a0who wrote the\u00a0Declaration of Independence<\/a>!\u00a0Hail to those who\u2019ve honored the true spirit of our founding documents, who defended us with arms, who challenged us with nonviolence, and reminded us of our true nature through art and rebellion.<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/p>

\n

\u201c\u2026the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion\u2026\u201d <\/em>\u2013 Article 11,\u00a0Treaty of Tripoli<\/a>, 1796 (signed by\u00a0President<\/a> John Adams<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let us not forget that the United States was shaped by indigenous Native religions,\u00a0Transcendentalism<\/a>,\u00a0Deism<\/a>,\u00a0Freemasonry<\/a>, and free-thinking products of the\u00a0Enlightenment<\/a>, just as it was shaped by Christianity. Let us not forget the pre-Christian \u201cpagan\u201d roots of our democracy, our republic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cEvery president, every politician, who takes the oath to uphold our Constitution, are taking an oath that the founders knew would allow for men and women of every faith (or even no faith) to someday take their place among our leadership. They are taking an oath on a document crafted by men\u00a0who are products of the Enlightenment<\/a>, whose\u00a0thinkers looked to ancient pagan thinkers, politicians, and\u00a0philosophers\u00a0for wisdom and guidance, unencumbered by the filter of the Christian church. The religious pluralism of the United States of America is a pluralism that had its first breaths in ancient Greece, and later ancient Rome, where a variety of gods, goddesses, cults, sects, and traditions had to live together in a civil society.\u00a0To return to Professor Majid\u2019s essay,<\/a> \u201cone can\u2019t imagine the American Republic without the Founding Fathers\u2019 knowledge of Greece and Rome.\u201dDemocracy, republicanism, are core pagan inventions, and no matter how Christian the hand who steers the ship of State, those ideals remain lest our\u00a0institutions\u00a0crumble.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let us be thankful that our founders understood completely that religious freedom meant all faiths, even if they were Pagans, or claimed no religion at all.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBut it is objected that the people of America may, perhaps, choose representatives who have no religion at all, and that pagans and Mahometans may be admitted into offices. But how is it possible to exclude any set of men, without taking away that principle of religious freedom which we ourselves so warmly contend for? This is the foundation on which persecution has been raised in every part of the world. The people in power were always right, and every body else wrong. If you admit the least difference, the door to persecution is opened.\u201d <\/em>\u2013\u00a0James Iredell, North Carolina<\/a>, one our first Supreme Court justices<\/a>, appointed by George Washington.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Happy\u00a0Independence\u00a0Day! Also, happy belated Canada Day<\/a> to my neighbors up north.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNeither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.\u201d \u2013 Thomas Jefferson, quoting John Locke Hail to the pen and muse of\u00a0Thomas Jefferson,\u00a0who wrote the\u00a0Declaration of Independence!\u00a0Hail to those who\u2019ve honored the true spirit of our founding documents, who defended us with arms, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[16,1066,2775],"class_list":["post-9901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paganism","category-religion","tag-4th-of-july","tag-independence-day","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"\nHappy 4th of July<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.\u201d - 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