This blog post summarizes my thoughts about a recent New York Times article, How Christian Were the Founders? It’s a long article, but definitely worth the read.

There is a battle going on in the state of Texas that may shape the Church/State/Classroom relationship across the country for decades to come. Texas sets the educational guidelines for most of the states in the US. Their Board of Education sets the direction of the content that is printed in textbooks that are adopted by 46 other states. And right now there is a huge fight going on about how Christianity fits into the historical context of our country.

Christian Conservatives, myself included, believe that because our country was founded as “One Nation Under God” we should work to merge Christian beliefs into our educational system.  We believe that the Bible and Mosaic law provide foundations for American law and therefore should be taught as such.

David Barton, leader of WallBuilders, continues the argument and suggests that the following points are derived directly from the Declaration of Independence, and therefore should be included in American history lessons.

1. There is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature.
2. There is a Creator.
3. The Creator gives to man certain unalienable rights.
4. Government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual.
5. Below God-given rights and moral laws, government is directed by the consent of the governed.

Liberals will argue that the First Amendment clearly strong arms a separation between church and state, but I agree with David Barton. The founders were all Christians, and the purpose of the First Amendment was merely to ensure that no single Christian denomination be elevated to the role of state church.

I believe that every American is free to choose their own religion and their own God (or none at all). It’s not my place to tell you what to believe. But I think we would be overlooking a very important part of our history if we ignored the forefathers beliefs in our understanding of the framework of our democracy.

“Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.”

- William Penn

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• Chris Rodda: Glenn Beck’s new BFF — David Barton (huffingtonpost.com)
• America: A Christian Heritage…to be Reclaimed (dakotavoice.com)
• Do we really need a religious bill of rights? (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
• Texas Schoolbooks – Changing History? (lockergnome.com)
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The White House issued a press release yesterday documenting that 1.3 million people watched President Barack Obama deliver the annual State of the Union address via a live stream on Whitehouse.gov.

Many GOP and press websites were doing live blogging during the event and engaging users to participate in the discussion, in real-time.

Congressman Joe Wilson used Facebook to issue a video rebuttal minutes after the conclusion of the event.

Quite a contrast to the same event just 20 years ago.

State of the Union – 2010

State of the Union – 1990

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Five journalists will embark on a Real World like journey for five days in an old farmhouse in France. They will report the news to their respective agencies using only Facebook and Twitter as sources. No web surfing, tv, radio, phone or print information is allowed. They can only click on Facebook and Twitter links directing them to online sources.

“This experiment will enable us to take a hard look at all the myths that exist about Facebook and Twitter,” said Helene Jouan, a senior editor at France Inter.

Because of the viral nature of the social networks, Twitter and Facebook have proven to be catalysts to spread news quickly and effectively. They have also been known to spread rumors and falsehoods. I think it will be interesting to watch the continued shift away from mainstream media to social media for news. I stopped reading the newspaper and watching the nightly news about 5 years ago. DrudgeReport, Google News and local/industry specific websites are all I use.

What do you think?

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