Rant Time

I the City I live in there is an Elementary school that has a parents group who holds a morning prayer at the beginning of school hours. In our Country we have a separation of Church and State....it's in our Constitution. A few parents complained and the ACLU has now got themselves involved. http://www.wtvf.com/Global/story.asp?S=7485715 Here's a link to the article. One of the parents was interviewed and he said "I don't have a problem with it. Our Country was founded on Christianity." Damn this makes me mad!!!! I hear this alot out here and I have one thing to say: YOU ARE WRONG!!!! The Constitution of these United States grants Freedom of Religion. In other words, you as a citizen are free to practice whatever Religion you want (yes this includes Scientology and Church of Satan). You are also free to NOT practice a religion. None whatsoever. It also means that you have the freedom to not have it shoved down your throat by State Run Facilities. i.e. Schools. If you willingly pay to enroll your child in a Religious school (Christian School, Catholic School, Jewish School) then you knowingly subject your child to a Faith Based, Dogmatic education. You have this right, because you are paying for it. The school gets no money from the State or Federal Government. Therefore not unconstitutional. Back to topic. The Colonization of North America began in the 1600's. A group of Puritans in England who didn't want to be part of the Government mandated Church (a Christian Church mind you) called the Church of England fled to Holland to practice their religion freely. The Dutch had religious freedom. Unfortunately for the Puritans, the Dutch had and still have to this day freedom to do a large number of things legally and openly. Prostitution, drugs all legal and openly displayed. The Puritans needed to find their own area to call home and they landed on Plymouth Rock in what they came to call New England. As the years went by more folks from England came to New England and established 13 British Colonies. They didn't do this for religious reasons like the Puritans, no they did it for the Crown and it's expansionist ways. England was expanding the United Kingdom and needed some room. See....nothing to do with Christianity....nothing at all. In fact, back then, Christianity was used as a weapon. The Spanish were trying to conquer the world any way they could. The King and Queen of Spain established the tactic called "The Sword and the Cross". The Conquistadors would invade the lands of savages and control them with the Sword. Then the Friars would keep them controlled with the Cross (the Bible and Religion). Meanwhile in the 13 Colonies, the wealthier colonists were getting peeved. It seems that King George in England was an absolute Loon and it was at this period of time that the Prime Minister and Parliament became the true Governing Body of England. The Crown became, and has stayed to this day, a Figurehead. Queen Elisabeth has no real power; it's all ceremonial. The PM and Parliament make the laws and govern the Country. Parliament in the 1760-1770's was hugely corrupt. Members of Parliament to keep their positions of lofty power made the people they represented love them by not taxing them so much. You see the MP's found a loophole; the Colonies of Britan still had to pay taxes to the Crown. The Colonies are not allowed to have a representative in Parliament because they aren't official English Boroughs. Kind of like Puerto Rican's can't vote in elections because it is still a US Territory and not a State. The MP's decided to tax the shit out of the Colonies, and there was nothing the Colonists could do about it. Or so they thought. Picture if you will Boston Harbor. Wooden masted sailing ships anchored at port loaded with tea. The tea is of course good English tea but with tariff stamps on the crates. Huge taxes the colonists had to pay to get their favorite drink; tea (this could be why Americans prefer Coffee to this day). It's late at night, a group of "indians" rows out to the waiting ships and slips aboard. These "indians" then proceed to make history by participating in the first act of Homegrown terrorism on US soil; the Boston Tea Party. Yep, the act of throwing crates of tea into Boston harbor was an act of terrorism. This is what started the events that lead up to 52 men meeting in secret in Independence Hall in Philadelphia and signing a piece of paper called "The Declaration of Independence"; an act of Treason against the legitimate Government of England. The day was July 4, 1776. The battle cries were "Don't tread on me!" and the real reason for the Revolution, the actual idea that our Country is based upon "No Taxation without representation." A simple term that basically says "if you want us to pay for the Government, we need to have a say in said Government." In other words if the English had allowed the Colonials to have MP's we'd still be British subjects. Our Country was founded on taxes. A revolution against a legitimate Government was started because wealthy Men didn't want to pay almost 50% of their income in taxes to a Government who was just using them as a cash cow. So where's the Christianity in all this? If you think about it, the Founding Fathers were Christians...a good portion of them. So why would they start a revolution over religion when they were free to practice whatever Religion they wanted to? See saying our Country was founded on Christianity is utter BS. Our laws are similar to the 10 Commandments (although it's not illegal to have an affair. You can't get arrested and thrown in jail for it. It's grounds for divorce, and the troubles that leads to, but it's not a criminal act. Let's examine that shall we: If our Country was founded on Christianity and one of the laws of Christianity makes it "illegal" to have an affair, then wouldn't it be a Federally Criminal offense??????) some of them anyway. Let's look at them. It's against the law to Murder someone in cold blood or for revenge. Killing an enemy of the "state" as a soldier, a Police Officer killing someone with deadly force if it is the last resort, or killing someone in defense of Self or Family is not against the law. Hmmm I know the 10 Commandments are not supposed to be flexible laws. Stealing something is against the law. Although the severity of the punishment is equal to the monetary value of the theft. Stealing a Snicker's bar will get you Community Service while robbing a Liquor Store will get you Jail Time. Lying is only against the law in this Country if you do it in front of a Grand Jury. Advertisers use creative Lies all the time. Hmm....if we were founded on Christianity there'd be no Gillette commercials saying "Gillette, the best a man can get". This is a lie. There is no factual basis for that statement. How do they know it's the "best a man can get"? So other than Murdering and stealing I don't see any other relation between the Laws of God (10 Commandments) and the Laws of Man. I don't see how people can say with a straight face that this Country was founded on Christianity when the words "In God We Trust" were added hundreds of years after the first US Currency was printed. Or the words "Under God" were added to the Pledge in 1950 to boost morale because of the Cold War. No, the simple fact is that our Country was founded on the idea that the Government should not have all the power. That the people should have a say in how they are Governed, and none of this has anything to do with Christianity.