Defending That Which is Right

The other day, I read an excellent post on The Zen Witch blog titled, “Be the Change.” In it, Willow writes about how we, as Pagans, Wiccans, Buddhists, etc., should not have to feel we must lie about our beliefs or religion - nor does she wish to raise her children to ever be ashamed of who and what they are. Her point was, basically, that we can’t expect a change in society’s attitudes toward us if we continue to hide in the “broom closet” all of our lives.

Among the comments which she received, was a very upset Christian who, apparently, was under the delusion that our Founding Fathers built our Country on the Christian religion and; therefore, they were also ALL Bible Christians. This individual was referring to, of course, our Freedom of Religion Act.

As I have said before, I am a strong advocate of religious tolerance; however, it MUST go both ways! Normally, I do not allow the ignorance of others to engage me as I have dealt with this issue for a number of years, but this time was much different. The person who was being attacked for her beliefs is a very close friend of mine and someone whom I have known for several years now. Admittedly, I have never been very good at defending myself; however, my family and friends are a different matter. I could not allow myself to just sit back as usual and take it in stride, so I defended Willow, and our religious freedom, by replying to this Christian woman on her blog.

So with the help of my husband, whom I call a “walking encyclopedia of history,” I intelligently explained to this Christian about our so-called “Christian” Founding Fathers and what the Freedom of Religion Act really meant in their own words:

“Where the preamble declares is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting ‘Jesus Christ’ so that it would read, ‘departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion.’ The insertion was rejected by the great majority in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its’ protection the Jew and Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedon, the Hindu and the Infidel of every denomination.”

 – Thomas Jefferson on The Religious Freedom Act

“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion.” – John Adams, November 4, 1796

“But it does me no injury to say there are twenty gods or no God.”
– Thomas Jefferson, 1782

“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.”
-Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams, 1/24/1814

“This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it.”
– John Adams letter to Thomas Jefferson, April 19, 1817

“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.”
– Thomas Jefferson, 1782

With all due respect, our Founding Fathers were speaking of a “generic” God, NOT Christian specific. Perhaps it is people such as this who need to study their history and learn a little bit more about what “freedom of religion” really means. My Christian friends do not judge me nor do they try to convert me in any way. They believe in God as do I, they just choose to worship in a different way. We respect each other’s religious beliefs regardless of “what” we label ourselves.

Blessed Be!

Our Yule pic -  1998