radical

POINT

Nobody has the right to worship on this planet any other God than Jehovah. And therefore the state does not have the responsibility to defend anybody's pseudo-right to worship an idol.
~ Rev. Joseph Morecraft, Chalcedon Presbyterian Church

We are to make Bible-obeying disciples of anybody that gets in our way.
~ Jay Grimstead, founder and president of Coalition on Revival

This is God's world, not Satan's. Christians are the lawful heirs, not non-Christians.
~ Gary North, author of Political Polytheism: The Myth of Pluralism

When I, or people like me, are running the country, you'd better flee, because we will find you, we will try you, and we'll execute you. I mean every word of it. I will make it part of my mission to see to it that they are tried and executed.
~ Randall Terry, founder of Christian Prolife organization Operation Rescue

I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.
~ Vice PResident George Bush Sr., press conference in Chicago on August 27, 1987

A struggle for the soul of America is under way, a struggle to determine whose views, values, beliefs and standards will serve as the basis of law.
~ Pat Buchanan, U.S. Senator and one-time presidential candidate

The 'Owner's Manual' for the Constitution is the Bible.
~ Tony Nassif, National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools

While it is true that the United States of America was founded on the sacred principle of religious freedom for all, that liberty was never intended to exalt other religions to the level that Christianity holds in our country's heritage. Our Founders expected that Christianity -- and no other religion -- would receive support from the government as long as that support did not violate peoples' consciences and their right to worship. They would have found utterly incredible the idea that all religions, including paganism, be treated with equal deference. As for our Hindu priest friend, the United States is a nation that has historically honored the one true God. Woe be to us on that day when we relegate him to being merely one among countless other deities in the pantheon of theologies.
~ Family Research Council, Culture Facts newsletter 9/21/2000, commenting on a Hindu priest giving the opening prayer in the House of Representatives

The Christian West, because of the superiority of its values and the civilization those values produced, has an inherent right to rule over other peoples.
~ Pat Buchanan, U.S. Senator and one-time presidential candidate

The god of Judaism is the devil. The Jew will not be recognized by God as one of His chosen people until he abandons his demonic religion and returns to the faith of his fathers--the faith which embraces Jesus Christ and His Gospel.
~ David Chilton, author of The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelations

The Church has through the centuries, understood that ideas are really more dangerous than other weapons. Their use should be restricted.
~ Francis J. Lally, U.S. Roman Catholic Monsignor, 1958

What this is coming down to is who runs the country. It's us against them. It's the good guys versus the bad guys. It's the God-fearing people against the pagans, and some of the pagans are going to church.
~ Randall Terry, founder of Christian Prolife organization Operation Rescue

If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being.
~ Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority

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COUNTERPOINT

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.
~ Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814

As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?
~ John Adams, in a letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, December 27, 1816

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.
~ Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom

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 laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims] ... it is declared ... that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever product an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.... The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.
~ Treaty of Tripoli (1797), carried unanimously by the Senate and signed into law by John Adams (the original language is by Joel Barlow, U.S. Consul)

I've been in politics long enough to expect criticism and hostility. But I was unprepared for the hatred I get from Christians. Why do Christians hate so much?
~ Bill Clinton quoted in Washington Times, August 23, 1997

I and the public know
What all school children learn
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return
~ W.H. Auden

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EPILOGUE

Some of the first colonists of the United States of America were seeking to escape religious persecution. The constitutions of several of the early U.S. states prohibited public support of religion (though some explicitly supported or demanded adherence to Christianity). Above all, the many varying sects of Christianity in America required that to be fair to all, there could be preference to none. It would have been disgraceful for anyone to wish to leave the newly-founded United States because of religious persecution. So the authors of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights decided it best to keep the government out of religion. In the years between 1776 and 1833, every single one of the original thirteen states followed suit, revising their own state constitutions to include clauses for religious freedom.

No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
~ U.S. Constitution, Article VI

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
~ U.S. Constitution, Amendment 1 (which, in my opinion, should be the final word on the subject)