A student just regaled me with a statement that the US was “founded under Christian ideals.”
As much as I hate plagiarism, I’d just rather they plagiarized than offer something like this to me.
A colleague has nicknamed me “the eternal optimist.” Still, even an optimist like myself can’t help but feel that the planet is doomed when a college professor can’t avoid being exposed to this kind of statements as she sits quietly and inoffensively in her empty office.
I want my Ivory Tower!
Clarissa's Blog 
What if a student came to you and regaled you with the satatement, “The US was NOT founded under Christian ideals?” Would you feel the same way?
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I’d be as surprised as if they told me today is Friday. I always ask students not to inform me of the painfully obvious in their written work.
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Ah, but it wasn’t. Nothing in the Constitution says anything about religion, except to say that the government can make no policies for or against any religion.
Which means every politician who uses religion in a political capacity is essentially committing acts which are unconstitutional.
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I know plenty of Christians who use that as an argument for why we should interpret the constitution as Christians would have meant it to be interpreted. (i.e. gay people are evil and shouldn’t get rights. also, poor people, women, and black folk)
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As Kellen said, this kind of statement is less of a factual claim than a rhetorical move. But toward what? Was the student trying to give you a hint of some sort? (Did you respond by quoting Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport?)
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The student was writing an essay on Latin American identities and offering advice to Latin Americans on how they should be more like the US.
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Where does Christianity come into such an argument?
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“Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!”
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I have absolutely no idea. It just appeared with no connection to anything before or after it in the text.
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The student’s statement is one that is widely propagated in the white Protestant conservative evangelical / fundamentalist / Pentecostal / non-denominational church culture, religious radio and TV, and increasingly in “serious” political discussion. David Barton, a pseudo-scholar claiming to be a professional-grade historian, has made a 20+ year career out of writing “history books” about the supposedly uniformly pious Founders and other important Colonial-era Americans (including Washington, Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and other major figures). He edits the primary sources in such a way as to convey the impression that the personage in question was expressing statements that support state patronage of specific Christian doctrine. Great chunks of intervening material are left out, distorting the original meaning. See http://www.talk2action.org for examples. The goal is to reverse all separation of church and state – in other words to invalidate the First Amendment disestablishment clause and all other legal decisions dependent on it. Barton has had access to Pres. George W Bush, likely influenced Reagan, and is a significant player in the conservative Protestant religio-political movement that has spawned Pres. George W Bush, presidential candidates Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman, previous candidates such as Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin.
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“uniformly pious Founders and other important Colonial-era Americans (including Washington, Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and other major figures”
-I almost hit my head against my desk when I read this. The pious Franklin is. . . bizarre.
This is just tragic. Such people do all they can to subvert the constitution and destroy the very foundations of this country and they are the ones that screech so very loudly about patriotism.
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Yup. The conservative Protestant evangelicals/ fundamentalists/ Pentecostals fail to teach their children about ethics of argumentation and representation. Truth-stretching and outright lying are considered OK if done by Christians (Tm) intent on evangelism. “The Bible says it, I believe it, that’s the end of it.” Some people are content to let their pastor do the thinking for them. As much as the pastors harp on about “objective truth”, they and their flocks are reluctant to look at inconvenient truths.
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