Evangelical Apostasy

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At 01:29 AM 3/31/98 -0000, J. Michael McGill wrote:

>MCGILL

>GEORGE WASHINGTON approves the following official U.S. statement which 

>becomes Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli: "The Government of the 

>United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian 

>religion."-Encyclopedia of Philosophy, p.334


So? Just what do you imagine an "official U.S. statement" might
be? Are you aware that the President then and now does not 
"approve" "official statements"? Are you aware that the United
States government often lied in the past and now in treaties:
"as long as the sun shall shine and the rivers flow, this land
shall be yours". Washington approved this, but Jackson took
the Indians' land anyway.

The Government of the United States quite obviously was not in
any sense founded on the Christian religion, but *it was founded
by Christians for Christians*. Religion was at that time a State
matter, not a federal matter, and while Washington was President,
some States did have State religions.

Last but not necessarily least, your information is false.
The Treaty of Tripoli was approved by President John Adams, and
his Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, long after Washington
left office. The entire sentence reads: "As the Government of the
United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian
religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the
law, religion or tranquility of Musselmen; and as the states never
have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mohometan
nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from 
religious opinion shall ever produce an interruption of harmony
existing between the two countries." This clause is there for
political reasons to avoid a holy war with the Muslims. It was
dropped entirely when the Treaty was renegotiated in 1807.

Finally, no piece of paper has anything to do with the real events
of the time. Those in the Atheist religion place great emphasis
on written words, far more than those in the Christian religion.

Dick Jones

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