Jayson Manship » United States

Sign The Mount Vernon Statement

Jayson — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:08:17 +0000

Read The Mount Vernon Statement in it’s entirety at www.themountvernonstatement.com. Please note the site has been overloaded and may be down.

“The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

I believe in:

Limited government
Individual liberty
Entrepreneurship and free enterprise
Opposing tyranny and advancing freedom
Defending family, neighborhood, community & faith

What about you?

Activtsts To Sign Mt. Vernon Statement: Conservative Manifesto Coming Soon (huffingtonpost.com)
Conservatives Unveil New Action Manifesto (usnews.com)

Christianity in the Classroom – A History Lesson?

Jayson — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:52:25 +0000

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.

There is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature.
There is a Creator.
The Creator gives to man certain unalienable rights.
Government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual.
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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How Christian Conservatives Are Getting Their Version Of History Into Classrooms (alan.com)
Texas Textbooks Battle Is Actually an American War (news.slashdot.org)
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)
Texas Prepares to Re-Write History (trueslant.com)

Did you watch the POTUS deliver the SOTUS online?

Jayson — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:09:40 +0000

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

Obama’s state of the union: live blog (guardian.co.uk)
Whitehouse.gov Streamed The State Of The Union Live To 1.3 Million People (techcrunch.com)
State of the Union 2.0 (one.org)
State of the Union: Ds and Rs Polish Their Web Strategies (blogs.wsj.com)
SOTU Live-blogging (washingtonmonthly.com)