Should we not leave the history up to the historian?

Question

Why is that Texans thinks that history written by an history is not accurate, but history written by an conservative politician is accurate.

Thomas Jefferson was not Christian

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology."
--Thomas Jefferson

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."
- James Madison

"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."
— Ben Franklin

"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth."
- Thomas Jefferson

"It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe. It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime."
- Thomas Paine

Hay Texas this is what some of our founding father have said about religion, in particular Christianity so to take this out of history and not teach the truth to our child is dishonorable. Doesn't the bible say thou shall not lie, and thou shell not bare false witness.

Answer 1

Agreed. :)



Of course they want to "edit out" Jefferson: so they can tell their own Christo-centric revisionist history. It was bad enough when it was just in the churches, but to be put in the public schools?! We already have a generation of people so ignorant that they accept this phony "history" as matter-of-fact; we don't need it given any credibility by being taught in public school.



Quite frankly, it is factually wrong to say that the US is a "Christian Nation." It is factually wrong to suggest that there was not a clear intention to create separation of church & state (and nowhere is that more clear than in the writings of Jefferson!). It is factually wrong to claim that some religions are "more equal" than others under the laws of our country. They don't like the facts, so they're attempting to rewrite them.



Some other notable Jefferson quotes:

"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."



"Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."



"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."



http://www.nobeliefs.com/jefferson.htm

Answer 2

Your talking about the Texas Textbook committee - The State of Texas buys in bulk Textbooks which are made available FREE to all Texas public Schools. There is no requirement for ANYONE to purchase these textbooks.



- Reasons the committee exist and why it is needed.



The Liberal Left has worked to rewrite history and this is a reaction to stop this.



FDR regarded as a great President who got us out of Depression

FACT- HE did not end the depression WW2 did

FACT - His tax increases and make work programs did NOT work

FACT - He had active Communist and Soviet spies in his administration

FACT - He tried to pack the Supreme Court first asking for resignations then trying to have it expanded to 15.



Lastly there is only so much time for the teaching and it has to be streamlined to make it the most relevant & accurate as possible.

Answer 3

It's not like Thomas Jefferson was *that* important. I mean, Ronald Reagan was a much larger figure in American history.

Answer 4

Many historians would agree with the Texas conservative slant.



Anyone can pull quotes from anyone to skew it to look like they agree with them. It doesnt prove anything except that liberals can skew history just as much as you think conservatives in Texas are trying to.





edit

lol

So the person that pulls out quotes that go against what you people think gets all the thumbs down



Now who is closeminded?

Do you just pick and choose which quotes you are going to believe?



History is so easily skewed based on the motives and perceptions of the person teaching it. There is something really wrong with you if you only think it gets skewed in one direction.

Answer 5

Any history that is written is usually written by the victors or the powerful, therefore it is mostly biased.

Answer 6

Do you have links to a credible website for your quotes? I have government websites for my evidence. The Library of Congress has the original documents that show the founding of this country was done by deeply religious men. From the first meeting of the Continental Congress that opened with prayer to the church services they held in Congress until after the Civil War. Jefferson, Madison, John Quincy Adams have all been to church sevices in the congress. Our founders held church services in the Congress, the Supreme Court and held communion services in the treasury building. Congress and presidents Washington and Adams declared days of fasting and prayer.



First Prayer of the Contintental Congress

http://chaplain.house.gov/archive/continental.html



http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel04.html

The Continental-Confederation Congress, a legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, contained an extraordinary number of deeply religious men. The amount of energy that Congress invested in encouraging the practice of religion in the new nation exceeded that expended by any subsequent American national government. Although the Articles of Confederation did not officially authorize Congress to concern itself with religion, the citizenry did not object to such activities. This lack of objection suggests that both the legislators and the public considered it appropriate for the national government to promote a nondenominational, nonpolemical Christianity.



Congress appointed chaplains for itself and the armed forces, sponsored the publication of a Bible, imposed Christian morality on the armed forces, and granted public lands to promote Christianity among the Indians. National days of thanksgiving and of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer" were proclaimed by Congress at least twice a year throughout the war. Congress was guided by "covenant theology,"



http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06.html

John Adams continued the practice, begun in 1775 and adopted under the new federal government by Washington, of issuing fast and thanksgiving day proclamations. In this proclamation, issued at a time when the nation appeared to be on the brink of a war with France, Adams urged the citizens to "acknowledge before God the manifold sins and transgressions with which we are justly chargeable as individuals and as a nation; beseeching him at the same time, of His infinite grace, through the Redeemer of the World, freely to remit all our offences, and to incline us, by His Holy Spirit, to that sincere repentance and reformation which may afford us reason to hope for his inestimable favor and heavenly benediction."

Fast Day Proclamation, March 23, 1798.



http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06-2.html

Reserved Seats at Capitol Services

Here is a description, by an early Washington "insider," Margaret Bayard Smith (1778-1844), a writer and social critic and wife of Samuel Harrison Smith, publisher of the National Intelligencer, of Jefferson's attendance at church services in the House of Representatives: "Jefferson during his whole administration was a most regular attendant. The seat he chose the first day sabbath, and the adjoining one, which his private secretary occupied, were ever afterwards by the courtesy of the congregation, left for him."



Madison Seen at House Church Service

Abijah Bigelow, a Federalist congressman from Massachusetts, describes President James Madison at a church service in the House on December 27, 1812, as well as an incident that had occurred when Jefferson was in attendance some years earlier.



Communion Service in the Treasury Building

Manasseh Cutler here describes a four-hour communion service in the Treasury Building, conducted by a Presbyterian minister, the Reverend James Laurie: "Attended worship at the Treasury. Mr. Laurie alone. Sacrament. Full assembly. Three tables; service very solemn; nearly four hours."



Adams's Description of a Church Service in the Supreme Court

John Quincy Adams here describes the Reverend James Laurie, pastor of a Presbyterian Church that had settled into the Treasury Building, preaching to an overflow audience in the Supreme Court Chamber, which in 1806 was located on the ground floor of the Capitol.



The Old Supreme Court Chamber

Description of church services in the Supreme Court chamber by Manasseh Cutler (1804) and John Quincy Adams (1806) indicate that services were held in the Court soon after the government moved to Washington in 1800.



Treaty of Paris (1783)

This treaty, signed on September 3, 1783, between the American colonies and Great Britain, ended the American Revolution and formally recognized the United States as an independent nation.

The Definitive Treaty of Peace 1783

In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity.

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=6



Proposed seal of the United States from Thomas Jefferson

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/images/vc100.jpg

Answer 7

Historians are to record the events of historical relevance and not Write them.That's the job of intellectuals and social leaders.

Answer 8

you must also be only posting part truths



Benjamin Franklin: | Portrait of Ben Franklin

“ God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel” –Constitutional Convention of 1787 | original manuscript of this speech





“In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered… do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?” [Constitutional Convention, Thursday June 28, 1787]



In Benjamin Franklin's 1749 plan of education for public schools in Pennsylvania, he insisted that schools teach "the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern."



In 1787 when Franklin helped found Benjamin Franklin University, it was dedicated as "a nursery of religion and learning, built on Christ, the Cornerstone."





Thomas Jefferson:

“ The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.”



“Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appears to me so pure as that of Jesus.”



"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."



“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” (excerpts are inscribed on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in the nations capital) [Source: Merrill . D. Peterson, ed., Jefferson Writings, (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1984), Vol. IV, p. 289. From Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, 1781.]





arolina Ratifying Convention]



James Madison

“ We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart.”



“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” [1778 to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia]



• I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare the unsatisfactoriness [of temportal enjoyments] by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way.

Letter by Madison to William Bradford (September 25, 1773)

• In 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided the Bible Society of Philadelphia in its goal of the mass distribution of the Bible.

“ An Act for the relief of the Bible Society of Philadelphia” Approved February 2, 1813 by Congress



“It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.”



• A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven. [Letter by Madison to William Bradford [urging him to make sure of his own salvation] November 9, 1772]



At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison proposed the plan to divide the central government into three branches. He discovered this model of government from the Perfect Governor, as he read Isaiah 33:22;

“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver,

the LORD is our king;

He will save us.

Answer 9

I guess you believe in dinosaurs!!!