Sacrilege Break from the B-Graders

20 Aug, 2010 | Australian Values

In the IVth Crusade the western Christian countries, rather than defeating Islamic Egypt, decided to sack the Greek Christian city of Constantinople instead.
For which they were excommunicated by Pope Innocent III. Own goal?

 

Christian Nations

 

J ust like to mention to one or two American religious patriots (like Sarah Palin) who know even less about their own country’s birth and history than a simple person like oneself, and who insist that the United States is a “Christian nation”

In the US Constitution  Article VI proscribes the use of any religious tests as a requisite qualification for public service. The First Amendment begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the most influential of the Founding Fathers, wrote in a letter to John Adams:

“  The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.

and James Madison, fourth President of the United States, wrote

“  During almost fifteen centuries the legal establishment of Christianity has been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.”

which leads us to what someone else (unknown) said, conjuring that most American of entertaining pastimes:

“  Humanity without religion is like a serial killer without a chainsaw.

 

And in case there are those who think that Australia is ‘a Christian country’,  the Australian Constitution says, at Section 116,

“ The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

 

(Just for a little break from all the B-Grade politics that is swirling around us here like grey water.)

 

Thank you for reading this far!  You might think producing a post like this takes a bit of work. 
It does! If you’ve appreciated it you might consider encouraging me. ( We all like validation! )   

Buy Me A Coffee

All posts

Categories

You might also like:

Sir Roger: Archived in Perpetuity

  Fame of a Sort?   Can Lordship be far behind . . .    ir Roger has just received a request from Canberra saying that the National Library of Australia wished permission to include ValuesAustralia.com in the PANDORA Archive of...

Ordinary Australians Lose Automatic Citizenship

Ordinary Australians are terrified by a new test the Australian Government is planning to introduce.

The Liars and the Other Liars

This morning, at the breakfast board ...   ir Roger seemed agitated. Sucking the grease of a plump peasant pheasant thigh from his fingers, he suddenly ejaculated, “Did he bury the bloody thing before he cremated it‽ Or did he cremate it...

Mothers Delighted at First Bogan PM!

Deffernishun: he Values Australian Dictionary of Slang defines a Bogan as: One who lives elsewhere than, or has interests different from, oneself. Melbournite. Dickhead.” Mothers and farters right around Australia are hailing...

ANZAC Reflections

  We’re made of “Digger” stuff   M y father was in WWII. He went to Borneo, landed at Balikpapan. Like most of those who went, he didn’t tell us much about the War. But he did tell us one story. They landed on the beach and because he was a Major he had a jeep...

You Are a Threat to US Security

Boulleda HadjIf you can use a computer, you are a threat to the United States    elissa Hoffer is one of those lawyers intentionally slandered in January by Charles Stimson, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, the subject of our...

Porter Loo

The GuardianWhen Christian Is a Dirty Word   This won't take long. The Department of Home Affairs ("the Potatocracy")  stirringly asserts that people love to come to Australia because:  " ​​​​​​​​Australian values are based on freedom, respect, fairness and...

Expertology

  How the Experts Won the Iraq War in Weeks Rather Than Years   he newest Bill Moyers Journal episode includes an interview with Victor Navasky and Christopher Cerf, whose new book MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! OR HOW WE WON THE WAR IN IRAQ looks...

Happy Saturnalia

  Absolute relaxation and unrestrained merriment     his time of year is a traditional celebration of the birth of an extraordinary man – a long-haired mystic who revealed the secrets of the universe and forever changed the way we see the...

Education and Life

   Be Normal and Fit In    ir Roger’s close confidante writes: My mother used to ask me if I wouldn’t prefer to work in a bank. In those days it was a safe occupation – safe as a bank, literally. A job for life with almost guaranteed...

Assessment of Current Australian Politics

  Executive Summary     ir Roger has been absent from his adoring public. He has been busy, of course, and apologises from the bottom of what is left of his heart; from what is left of Australian politics by the Australian politicians who have...

A Moron in a Hurry – Part 4

Mollified? Stupefied? Unutterably Bored?   en and Whitlam of Australia, not to forget the moron in a hurry, it’s time to bid farewell to old plinth-bound, red-taped Goth the Whittler, his soul, his vision and his legacy chained and frozen in...

Rude Britannia & Australian Values

How Very Dare You!  Yes, we know, the British are the world leaders in "la politesse"  and "cortesia" (ironically*). They will never be impolite to anyone. They would never call a black person a "nig-nog". Not to their face. They would never call an Australian a...

Wikileaks Cablegate and Hunter S. Thompson

  unter S. Thompson said it, and he wasn’t a traitor: America…just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to...

Jefferson Says – Reboot

President Kennedy told a gathering of Nobel Prize winners at the White House, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas...

The Ancient Marinara

  He's a Legend, and our friend   e wish he wouldn’t describe himself as “ancient”. That tends to put us at the edge of a category we fiercely resist. Richard Neville, one of the founders of homepagedaily.com, was the infamous, notorious...

Black Breath of the Nazgûl

AKA Phillip Ruddock  AKA 'Dock Vader How dare ordinary 'people' have "views!"    sked on Southern Cross radio whether the case was a mess, he replied: "No, what I think has happened is that people who have views about the nature of the law are...

Such Is Life

"Unemployed at last!"    e think this is the best Australian novel ever written. Yes, we know there are many contenders and perhaps The Tree of Man comes a close second. But to us, at least, Such Is Life by “Tom Collins” (Joseph Furphy),...

Israel’s Bogus Claims

  [About Article 67(a)]   sraeli spokespeople are cheerfully quoting the “San Remo Agreement” or the “San Remo Accord” as if it gives their recent action legitimacy; that Article 67(a) confers on them the special right to board civilian...

Lex Australia

  ame across an old post at Gavin Putland’s Leges Dubiae blog which coincides with what we tried to say way back when Haneef was the name on everyone’s lips. Given the change of government and all, it seems timely to question this preposterous...

The Man of Mode

  or Sir Fopling Flutter – “God Almighty’s Fool”    Most modern wits such monstrous fools have shown, They seem’d not of heaven’s making, but their own. Those nauseous harlequins in farce may pass, But there goes more to a substantial ass; Something of man...

‘this pathetic bleating for shelter from skepticism’

Atheists need a little woman to calm them down   es, we know it is a bit late in the day to be discovering Pharyngula but we did and there is nothing to be done but fall down and worship. No, we mean sit down and learn. PZ Myers is a prolific,...

Bhutto

t wasn’t such a surprise, we suppose, but Benazir Bhutto’s reported assassination, while it saddens us as another display of humanity’s inability to grow up, confirms our contempt for religion in general and that one in particular. Let those who...

Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and the Red Cordial

Ptthpphthphthppthphtthpphpth! ir Roger supposes that, given he is the default custodian of Australian Values, he is bound to comment on the recent burst of enthusiasm in Canberra. The lesson to be learnt from it all is Don’t Let Unionists and the...

Delaying the Economic Apocalypse

  Who ultimately pays?   ir Roger is not an economist. He is (therefore) not a marxist. Nevertheless he has long been confused and at the same time fascinated by the doctrine of endless economic growth and has wondered from where and how,...

Why Turnbull is Wrong

  Isslikadreemcumtroo   urnbull is wrong because it is foolhardy to stand between 20 million people and a shitload of money. (Thanks Paul) Turnbull is wrong because he thinks that there is any debate to be won about whether the pile of money...

Goldman Sachs: Bloodsucking Vampire Aliens?

Goldman Sachs - covering the face of humanity?   oldman Sachs is furious at what Matt Taibbi has written in Rolling Stone. This is apparently not absolutely fresh news but we heard the magic phrase for the first time this morning. It’s from...

The Ascent of Man & Descent of the DLP

Draining the Swamp   This is by way of ridding ourselves of the bible-bashers,    he deluded believers in absolute truths and faiths built on fairy stories and long-disproven assertions about the universe and how it works, who have lately...

Power

The Bit Biden Got Wrong (but not as wrong as @PsychoTrump) and the importance for Australian Values   J oe Biden said—on 14 December when the Electoral College anointed him President Elect—what everyone would think. Makes sense yeah?  "In America, politicians don't...

Jefferson Says

  We the People   homas Jefferson was the third President of the United States, a man of the Enlightenment, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, one of the most influential Founding Fathers, who envisioned America as...

0 Comments