The Christian Seniors Association were not best pleased with Congressman Pete Stark’s declaration on the floor of the house…

According to Christianity Today, Congressman Pete Stark (D-California) became the first member of Congress to deny the existence of God.  “When the Secular Coalition asked me to complete a survey on my religious beliefs, I indicated I am a Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being.”

Are Unitarians more Christianly than Deists, I wonder?

“It is time for religious members of Congress to push back.  A simple declaration of a belief in God by members of Congress on the House floor will be greatly informative for the American people.   Members who wish to expand could use the ‘special orders’ portion of the House calendar to elaborate but a simple “I believe in God” will suffice.

“We have long recognized that all of this hot air about ‘separation of church and state’ has been a veiled effort to intimidate and silence religious voices in public policy matters.

What do the Christian Seniors have to say about the people who made these statements?

When Franklin was given some books written to refute deism, the deists’ arguments “appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough deist.”

He would not kneel to pray, and when his pastor rebuked him for setting a bad example by leaving services before communion, Washington mended his ways in his austere manner: he stayed away from church on communion Sundays.

Madison, always common-sensical, briskly explained — essentially, explained away — religion as an innate appetite: “The mind prefers at once the idea of a self-existing cause to that of an infinite series of cause & effect.” When Congress hired a chaplain, he said “it was not with my approbation.”

In 1781, the Articles of Confederation acknowledged “the Great Governor of the World,” but six years later the Constitution made no mention of God. When Hamilton was asked why, he jauntily said, “We forgot.” Ten years after the Constitutional Convention, the Senate unanimously ratified a treaty with Islamic Tripoli that declared the United States government “is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

Jefferson, writing as a laconic utilitarian, urged his nephew to inquire into the truthfulness of Christianity without fear of consequences: “If it ends in a belief that there is no god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comforts and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you.”

Adams declared that “phylosophy looks with an impartial Eye on all terrestrial religions,” and told a correspondent that if they had been on Mount Sinai with Moses and had been told the doctrine of the Trinity, “We might not have had courage to deny it, but We could not have believed it.”

When I was a lad, the cheapest place to buy beer was the local Working Man’s Club. My dad played in the dart’s team and could get Guinness for about 80p per pint. A few years later, we moved and the cheapest Guinness was to be had at the Conservative Club. It was a cool place to hang out. They had snooker and darts and a disco every Saturday. I played my first ever game of Space Invaders there.
I expect that, had he been around in the late 18th century, my dad would have hung out at the local Episcopalian Church with George Washington.

In the comments at In the confident hope of a miracle, Matt suggested that the founding fathers were - or at least appeared to be - devout Christians and added

It would have been heresy to elect someone who wasn’t a Good Christian at that time, I’d expect.

I wonder how many of them were actually Christians and how many of them would be electable today.

I have a bunch of games that have a multiplayer option but my ISP (SBC Yahoo) does not allow inbound socket connections unless you have a business account (which costs $$$$$$).

What do other people do? Does your ISP allow inbound connections? Which? How much?
Seems like it would be easy to write a little port-forwarding thingie to run on my Dreamhost shell account and then connect to it from my house to fake local connections. Anyone know if such a thingie exists, before I write it? Seem like a good idea?

The defeat of the Spanish Armada, in 1588, marked the end of Spain as a global power. Before sailing, one Spanish commander “reasoned” as follows: “It is well known that we fight in God’s cause. So when we meet the English, God will surely arrange matters so that we can grapple and board them, either by sending some strange freak of weather, or more likely, just be depriving the English of their wits. … But unless God helps us by making a miracle, the English, who have faster guns and handier ships than ours, and many more long-range guns, and who know their advantage as well as we do, will … blow us to pieces with culverins, without our being able to do them any serious hurt. … So, we are sailing against England in the confident hope of a miracle.”

Professor Baresh argues that America should beware of going the way of the Spanish Armada…

Is America ready to elect a devout Mormon? I certainly hope the answer is No. Indeed, here is a controversial suggestion: it is high time for the electorate to reject a devout Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Shinto, Wicken, or committed practitioner of any other faith or creed. Our problem isn’t too much prejudice against devoutly religious presidential candidates (e.g., Mr. Romney) but not enough.

This sounds like fun.

You will be given a maximum of 3 minutes in which to impress the judges. They are looking for exciting and engaging talks that can be understood by a general public adult audience. Props are allowed but there is no set up time or assistance. PowerPoint presentations are not permitted…Successful contestants from the first round will go through to the regional final later in the day. For this you will need to present a different 3 minute talk to the judges and a public audience. This presentation can be on the same topic, but must be a different talk. The judges will be able to question you after each presentation and will also give you feedback where possible…At the heats you only have 3 minutes to impress the judges by giving an entertaining and original talk that is scientifically accurate but also engaging to a non-scientific audience. The judges are looking for three qualities: content, clarity and charisma. So make sure your subject matter is well chosen, and clearly put across, that your facts are right, and that you let your passion for your subject shine through!

Senator Levin’s amendment called for United Nations approval before force could be authorized. It was unambiguous and compatible with international law. Acutely cognizant of the dangers of the time, and the reality that diplomatic options could at some point be exhausted, Senator Levin wrote an amendment that was nimble: it affirmed that Congress would stand at the ready to reconsider the use of force if, in the judgment of the president, a United Nations resolution was not “promptly adopted” or enforced. Ceding no rights or sovereignty to an international body, the amendment explicitly avowed America’s right to defend itself if threatened.

[snip]

Those of us who supported the Levin amendment argued against a rush to war. We asserted that the Iraqi regime, though undeniably heinous, did not constitute an imminent threat to United States security, and that our campaign to renew weapons inspections in Iraq — whether by force or diplomacy — would succeed only if we enlisted a broad coalition that included Arab states.

We also urged our colleagues to take seriously the admonitions of our allies in the region — Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. As King Abdullah of Jordan warned, “A miscalculation in Iraq would throw the whole area into turmoil.”

[snip]

The Senate had the opportunity to support a more deliberate, multilateral approach, one that still would have empowered the United States to respond to any imminent threat posed by Saddam Hussein. We must not sidestep the fact that a sensible alternative did exist, but it was rejected. Candidates — Democrat and Republican — should be called to account for their vote on the Levin amendment.

Lincoln D. Chafee, a Republican senator from Rhode Island from 1999 to 2006

Exactly.

It begins with a painful realization about the United States: We can’t be the country those Iraqis wanted us to be. We lack the wisdom and the virtue to remake the world through preventive war. That’s why a liberal international order, like a liberal domestic one, restrains the use of force–because it assumes that no nation is governed by angels, including our own. And it’s why liberals must be anti-utopian, because the United States cannot be a benign power and a messianic one at the same time.

Exactly.