Religion: One Nation, Under . . . ?Joseph Lieberman has been running his vice-presidential campaign like a one-man God squad, talking about his and Al Gore's faith-so much so that the Anti-Defamation League Anti-Defamation League B’nai B’rith organization which fights anti-Semitism. [Am. Hist.: Wigoder, 33] See : Anti-Semitism was moved to write him a letter rebuking his "overt expressions" of belief as "contrary to the American ideal." If the ADL were right, there would have to be serious alterations to Mt. Rushmore. Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, at the start of his second term as President of the United States. At a time when victory over the secessionists in the American Civil War was within days and slavery was near an end, Lincoln did not was a dark meditation on the role of God in history, particularly the Civil War. Washington's Farewell Address (which Lieberman has been quoting on the stump campaigning for public office; running for election to office. See also: Stump ) warned Americans never to indulge the supposition "that morality can be maintained without religion." Jefferson's Declaration of Independence said that Nature's God had entitled the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. to independence, and that the Creator had endowed men with inalienable rights The term inalienable rights (or unalienable rights) refers to a theoretical set of human rights that are fundamental, are not awarded by human power, and cannot be surrendered. They are by definition, rights retained by the people. . If all these men, and the politicians who agreed with them, are un-American, whom does that leave? Robert Ingersoll Robert Ingersoll may refer to:
The ADL is not right. Projecting the terrors of a European past onto the American present, liberal Jews have been tempted to shelter behind militant secularism sec·u·lar·ism n. 1. Religious skepticism or indifference. 2. The view that religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs or public education. as a bulwark against the presumed depredations of their Christian neighbors. Yet the pogroms never seem to happen here. Is that because secularist watchdogs keep the Cossacks at bay? Or because the religious sense of Abraham Lincoln, and most Americans, is different from Hitler's? Refreshingly, the champion of good history and common sense in the most recent round of this ongoing debate is Jewish. When religious opinions enter the arena, they must, like all opinions, be subject to definition and refinement. Sen. Lieberman has been comparing Bill Clinton to Moses, an identification which hitherto escaped Biblical exegetes. Lieberman has also been careful to say that religion's relevance to politics is "less a matter of programs or legislation" than "giving respect" to the role that faith plays "in the lives of individuals, and in the lives of the community." Appropriately then, he takes the Mario Cuomo Mario Matthew Cuomo (born June 15, 1932) served as the Governor of New York from 1983 to 1995. Cuomo became nationally known for his rousing keynote speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention and the subsequent speculation over the next two decades that he might run for the position on an issue like abortion: He is personally opposed, but he doesn't want his understanding of what a fetus is to impinge on anyone else. Will he maintain his all-talk, no-action stance the next time Jesse Jackson urges the government to feed the hungry (i.e., support whatever welfare program is on the table)? Acknowledging the importance of religion to public life does not end the discussion; it does not even really begin it. But it puts the censors and the silencers in their place. |
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