Independence Day is not a religious holiday

[cleanhippie]

Best refutation of the "America is a Christian Nation" claim I have ever seen.


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It is beautiful, bright Tuesday morning, the 6th of July, and the extended holiday weekend is over. The barbeque grills are covered, the parties are over, the spent fireworks are neatly swept up and Alabama is back to it's normal, day-to-day life along with the rest of the Nation. This past weekend our Nation celebrated Independence Day. Unfortunately, many of our citizens have little or no understanding of why we fought the American Revolutionary War, enduring those bloody battles to separate ourselves from the Monarchy of United Kingdom. There are many in this country that either ignore, were taught incorrectly or were simply never told why we felt it mandatory to dissolve our connection to the British Crown and it’s history of repeated violations to the basic human rights of those under its rule.


http://www.examiner.com/x-57388-Birmingham-Atheism-Examiner~y2010m7d6-Independence-Day-Is-Not-A-Religious-Holiday

[liberal N proud]

1. A few years ago, at an Independence Day celebration in DC...

I was walking through the hoards of people, on one side of the walk, near the Vietnam War Memorial, was a guy standing waving his bible trying to save all our wretched souls while on the other side was a war protest. The guy walking in front of me was outraged at the war protesters.

I said to the man, what makes the man on the left any different than the one on the right. He said, this is a Christian nation and the man on the right is exercising his right to free speech.

I responded with So it the man on the left, and by the way, the soldiers whose names are etched on that wall over died so both of those men could do what they are doing. Happy 4th of July.

He couldn't disagree.

[LiberalFighter]

2. If the churches had had their way many of them probably would had been against the war.

Weren't many of the churches authorized by England?

[ashling]

3. If America really was a Christian nation, as in

giving everything to the poor, and other social teachings of Jesus, these people would leave. They wouldn't be able to stand it.

[tanyev]

4. Regular church-goer, here, but I never go to church on the Sunday nearest July 4th.

Bugs the bejeebers out of me when they ignore the 6th Sunday after Pentecost (or whichever one it's supposed to be that year) to replace it with a patriotic hoe-down.

[Igel]

5. For nobody?

Seems an overbroad statement.

Just like, "Christmas is a religious holiday" is overbroad. My wife's an atheist and is really into Xmas, from presents to baking to decorations to Xmas carols; at my most religious--going to church weekly, tithing, etc., etc.--I never spent a minute observing Xmas, and still don't.

Both are what you make them.

For those that believe that Nature's God is the source of our rights and local governments are kludges, for those that believe that God sets up and deposes kings and rulers and is present in the affairs of men, the Fourth of July shows God's hand. One has to wonder what agent the several founding fathers would have supplied for the passive in "governments are instituted among men." "Governments are instituted by men among men"?

Note that el cuarto de julio has no intrinsic meaning; the only meaning is what we give it, not what meaning people gave it in 1776 or 1876 or 1976. Otherwise everybody in the world, since man first left Africa, would have observed that date. In fact, I suspect that many in the "colonies" greeted the Declaration with dread and unease: Those who weren't in favor of independence, those who were in favor of independence but not in favor of the war that would inevitably come. Many others greeted it with derision.