Quote:
Originally Posted by mdmull
" A large number of the "founding fathers" were not Christians"? Really! How many FFs were there & what constitutes a "large number"? I think a little source info would pad the argument.
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There's two that I'm aware of. Jefferson and Franklin.
Jefferson believed in God, but didn't believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and also didn't believe in the Resurrection.
Franklin heard one of the great preachers of the time (I forget which one) and at the end of the message said something to the effect of "you almost convinced me to become a Christian."
Alot of people today like to point at Jefferson having an English version of the Qu'ran, but most won't go into the history of WHY he had it. He didn't have it when they were framing the Constitution because he was President when he got it. When Jefferson was President, U.S. ships were being attacked (sunk and captives taken as slaves) by the Barbary Pirates. He was told that in order to stop the attacks, to pay off the North African "Caliphs" (Muslim leaders). So the U.S. paid the Caliphs and the attacks didn't stop.
So Jefferson had their "holy book" translated into English (hence the reason Jefferson had a copy of the Qu'ran), read it and then understood that paying them off was not going to work. That's when he sent the Marines over to pay a little visit to these caliphs. (Hence the lyrics of the Marine song "From the Halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli"). See once Jefferson read how Muslims are allowed (commanded actually) to lie and deceive the "infidel" (that's us) he knew there was no bargaining with them, no peace agreement possible, no treaty possible; the only way to deal with them is to utterly defeat them.
Today people like to say that Jefferson was influenced by the Qu'ran, and that in turn influenced our Constitution. People can say it, but it isn't the truth; these people are just ignorant of history.