Repost - Obama's Inaugural Speech Pisses of the Xians

***ORIGINALLY POSTED 23JAN09***

So during Obama's inaugural speech, he actually said something that gave me a modicum of respect for him.

"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers."

Holy rusted metal, Batman! This sent the Xians (specifically African-American ones, interestingly enough) into a fucking tizzy. They are repeating that our country was founded on Christianity alone. Last I checked (which was right now) the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence says nothing about the Christian religion. The Declaration refers to a Creator and Nature's God. Neither of those are specifically Judeo-Christian, lots of religions - in fact almost all of them - have a creator of some sort. The words God or Christ(ian) do not appear anywhere in the Constitution. Oh, and the Pledge of Allegiance? Yeah, the words "under God" weren't added until 22 April 1951 and it wasn't done by the gov't, it was done by the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternity of wannabe Masons). It wasn't made law until 14 June 1954. LONG after the founding of our country.

I'm also pretty sure that this nation was specifically founded so that it's people could be free to practice religion they way they saw fit, which includes not at all. Not just Christianity. If that was the case, Catholics wouldn't be allowed either (seeing as how it was the Catholic church they were running from). Although it's funny that they make comments like this:

The Rev. Cecil Blye, pastor of More Grace Ministries Church in Louisville, Ky., said the president's reference to nonbelievers also set off major alarm bells for him. "It's important to understand the heritage of our country, and it's a Judeo-Christian tradition,"’ period.

The heritage of our country was actually non-Judeo-Christian. About as far from J-C as you can be, as a matter of fact. Apparently it's easy to forget that our "founding fathers" were actually immigrants to begin with. The original heritage of our country is Native American and they worshiped their ancestors and animal spirits. Some worshiped a "Great Spirit" but it sure as fuck wasn't the Judeo-Christian "God". It was probably a lot friendlier and less narcissistic. So before we start spouting off about the "heritage of our country" lets try to remember the truth of the matter. It was your God in whose name the conquistadors and the puritans enslaved and destroyed indigenous peoples from Canada to Argentina and back again.

Oh, and that was just this continent. Let's not forget St. Patrick. Or the Inquisitions, any one of 'em. What about the holocaust? Yeah, Hitler tried to eradicate the Jews in God's name, too. Actually, pretty much every atrocity and major war since the origin of your religion has been done in God's name. So before you get all sanctimonious about this country having a Judeo-Christian heritage, why don't you think about what that has wrought. Hell, maybe we need some non-believers running things for a while, we might actually get something worthwhile accomplished. Look what happened the last time we had an Evangelical in office. Oh yeah, that was Bush and we've been at war pretty much his entire tenure... interesting.