"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...

"RogerN" wrote in message
m...
snip

In Christianity from the beginning their has been different denominations
with different ideas on many details. The Bible doesn't approve of false
religions of worshipping false God's but I find zero examples of Jesus
cramming his teachings down anyone's throats or trying to force them to
his "religion".

It's a far reach from that claim to Jefferson's statement in _Notes on the
State of Virginia_, "The legitimate powers of government extend to such
acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my
neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my
pocket nor breaks my leg." Neither the old nor the new testament shows
much tolerance for 20 gods, at least 19 of which must be "false Gods." We
won't complicate this with the trinity-versus-unitarian argument. Say,
then, there were at least 17 false Gods. g

He said "it does me no injury", I could also say it did Jesus (or Billy
Graham for that matter) no injury if his next door neighbor believed in no
god or 20 gods. That has zero reflection on what Jesus believed in. It
does me no injury if my neighbor paints their house pink with purple
pokadots, but that doesn't mean I like it or approve of it, it just means
that it doesn't injure me. I work with people of different beliefs
including atheism and "it does me no injury" for what they believe.

In the New Testament the Apostles went about spreading the Gospel and
encountered people that worshipped false Gods, but that in itself did the
Apostles no injury. What did Jesus injury were the religious leaders of the
day that believed in the same God as he did.

If that's all you can say, what does it have to do with the idea that the
US Constitution was founded on "Christian principles"? It seems to have
nothing to do with it. Rather, it seems to be what cs_posting was talking
about when he said, very accurately, IMO:

That has nothing to do with the founding of the Constitution but has
everything to do with the redefining of the first amendment as is
demonstrated today. The ACLU has a lawsuit because there is a veterans
memorial cross, an 8ft cross made from pipe, in the Mojave dessert and they
want it removed because they claim it violates the "separation of church and
state".

We're talking about the "principles" upon which our government was
founded. You still haven't shown us any principles drawn from Christianity
that support equality under the law, democratic government, civilian
control of the military, free speech, and freedom of religion.

--
Ed Huntress

Well, there's the thing about all men being _Created_ equal. But today some
believe that all men evolved unequal from primates. So, since we are a
product of evolution, and it's important that the strongest survive and the
weakest die, which races and people are the weakest and should be destroyed?

RogerN