{"id":1458,"date":"2010-05-27T06:57:57","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T11:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/?p=1458"},"modified":"2010-05-27T06:57:57","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T11:57:57","slug":"rand-paul-and-the-christian-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/2010\/05\/27\/morality\/rand-paul-and-the-christian-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand Paul and the Christian Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Rand Paul, who recently defeated<\/a> conservative stalwart Trey Grayson in the GOP primary for a Senate seat in Kentucky, we would be better off if the US were a Christian nation.\u00a0 In his words<\/a>,<\/p>\n

I’m a Christian. We go to the Presbyterian Church. My wife\u2019s a Deacon there and we\u2019ve gone there ever since we came to town. I see that Christianity and values is the basis of our society. . . . 98% of us won\u2019t murder people, won\u2019t steal, won\u2019t break the law and it helps a society to have that religious underpinning. You still need to have the laws but I think it helps to have a people who believe in law and order and who have a moral compass or a moral basis for their day to day life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As an atheist, who must therefore, by implication, be an immoral murderer, thief, and subverter of law and order, I can only suggest that Mr. Paul consider how well the “Christian nation” thing has worked out for us in the past. The Albigensians<\/a> were mercilessly annihilated by the leaders of Christian nations at the behest of the leader of the world’s Christians at the time, Pope Innocent III. They carried out this act of law and order because they were Christians. The Hussites<\/a> were attacked and slaughtered by the leaders of Christian nations at the behest of the leader of the world’s Christians at the time, Pope Martin V, who called on<\/p>\n

all the kings, princes, dukes, barons, knights, states, and commonwealths of Christendom, adjured them, by “the wounds of Christ,” to unite their arms and exterminate that “sacrilegious and accursed nation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Exterminate they did, and countless thousands were killed in the many years of warfare between Christian nations that followed.\u00a0 Those who carried out these acts of law and order did so because they were Christians.\u00a0 In France, tens of thousands of Huguenots<\/a> were murdered on St. Bartholomew’s Day<\/a> in a Christian nation at the behest of Christian rulers by people who acted on behalf of Christianity. They carried out this act of law and order because they were Christians.\u00a0 Eight civil wars were fought between the Christian Huguenots and the Christian Catholics in Christian France.\u00a0 Tens of thousands died in these acts of law and order, fought by Christians to vindicate Christian principles.\u00a0 Eventually, hundreds of thousands of\u00a0Huguenots were forced to flee the country after being subjected to\u00a0countless acts of rape, pillage, and murder,\u00a0carried out by Christians to vindicate Christian principles at the behest of a Christian king.\u00a0 Very few of them remained in France after law and order had been restored in this way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The list goes on and on.\u00a0 I would be interested\u00a0in hearing\u00a0how the “libertarian” Paul would go about the task of creating a Christian utopia, with all the blessings of law and order set forth above.\u00a0 Normally, to create such utopias, it is necessary to use state power.\u00a0 I would also be interested in hearing how Paul\u00a0would insure equality before the law and equal rights for all citizens, regardless of their religious beliefs, in a country ruled by people who, like him, believe that those who are not religious are likely to murder, steal, and break the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paul’s detractors are right.\u00a0 He is a bigot.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Rand Paul, who recently defeated conservative stalwart Trey Grayson in the GOP primary for a Senate seat in Kentucky, we would be better off if the US were a Christian nation.\u00a0 In his words, I’m a Christian. We go to the Presbyterian Church. My wife\u2019s a Deacon there and we\u2019ve gone there ever … Continue reading “Rand Paul and the Christian Nation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[67,5,7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideology","category-morality","category-religion","category-us-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwEq0-nw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1459,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions\/1459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}