Mark Small

Rev Beckwith’s assertion of a monopoly on morality is amplified when he notes you can’t B moral if you’re a “Hindu, an atheist or a Jew.” WARNING: We should fear our - I side with Hindus, atheists and Jews - rights being taken away. 3/19

1) I spoke, yrs ago, w/a woman who said under theocracy her church envisioned, I could have whatever religious belief I want. She clarified: hers wasnt a religious belief because “we believe in god.” Do non-believers go to re-education camps? 4/19

Rev Beckwith is the person who doesnt understand history. As Jefferson states in his 1785 “Notes on Virginia,” on Virginia laws against heresy, then in effect, could result in a “father's right to the custody of his own children ... being taken away ...” 5/19

In Indiana, a Beckwith-driven DCS could claim a child abused because that child was not properly baptized. Maybe Betsy DeVos is formulating - and carrying out - such policies now. 6/19

2) Ours is a secular govt Franklin proposed prayer start ea session 1787 Constl Convention: voted down. Collier, Decision at Philadelphia. “...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Const. Art. VI. 7/19

3) Framers proscribed affirmation to a deity as part of the oath of office for members of Congress and the judiciary. U.S. Const., http://Art.VI , cl 3. The oath of office for the President, likewise, contains no avowal to a deity. U.S. Const. Art. II, sec. 1. 8/19

4) founders of this country had many beliefs. Of 55 delegates at 1787 Convention, many were deists: denied Divinity, Incarnation, & Atonement of Christ, amongst other aspects. Holmes, “The Faiths of the Founding Fathers,” 2006 ed., pp. 39-40. 9/19

The founders had to include indigenous peoples and people held in slavery, all of whom held many religious beliefs. 10/19