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   From: usenet@larseighner.com   
      
   In our last episode, , the   
   lovely and talented George Orwell broadcast on alt.politics.democrats:   
      
   > How did America go from Pilgrims seeking freedom to express   
   > their Judeo-Christian beliefs to today’s discrimination against   
   > those very beliefs in the name of tolerance?   
      
   This is utter nonsense.  The Pilgrims were not the first European colony in   
   America --- and not even the first colonists whose descendants would be part   
   of the 13 colonies to form the United States.  Many colonies were   
   commericial in nature --- as indeed the people who footed the bill for the   
   Plymouth colony intended, and of the colonies that were predominately   
   religious, many other religions were represented.   
      
   Although some would like it if American history skipped over the 150 years   
   between the mythical "First Thanksqiving" and the American Revolutionary   
   war, the fact of the matter is, the Plymouth Colony was defunct before 1700,   
   and descendants of the colonists were concentrated in a couple of small and   
   insignificant villages.  That missing 150 years included countless witch   
   trials and many sectarian skirmishes.  By the time of the American   
   Revolution, most Americans were sick of religious rule.  The US Constitution   
   almost certainly would never have been ratified if the First Amendment had   
   not been submitted to protect the people from religious rule.   
      
   There is no such thing as "Judeo-Christian" anything.   
      
   Religious tolerance does not mean tolerating religious government.   
   Tolerance doesn't mean you get to use the power of the state to enforce your   
   religion on others.   
      
   --   
           Lars Eighner  usenet@larseighner.com   
                       War on Terrorism:  History a Mystery   
    "He's busy making history, but doesn't look back at his own, or the   
      world's.... Bush would rather look forward than backward." --_Newsweek_   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)