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Terry Penn

Absolutely agree the candidate for President can be of any religion or none at all. But if they declare Muslim, Atheist or even Mormon in the case of Mitt Romney,they are probably going to lose. No doubt Barack Obama is not the first to deceive the electorate but when they are exposed, their days are most likely numbered.

You might want to give the rest of the story along with the Treaty you mentioned. This was done in a time when US merchant ships were being captured, plundered and Christians captured and enslaved by Muslim pirates along the Barbary Coast of North Africa. At a time when the US had no standing Navy and ransoms were being paid to free those captured and insure safe passage. Eight years later when Jefferson sent war ships to the area, the treaty was rescinded and renegotiated. Interpet it any way you like.

To somehow imply that Adams was not a Christian is also misleading. He debated on becoming a minister before becoming a lawyer. He was a Puritan and lived his life based on those principals. The following is a quote attributed to him.
In 1796, Adams denounced political opponent Thomas Paine's criticisms of Christianity, saying, "The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity, let the Blackguard Paine say what he will."

Bill Pelland · Posted: 04 Sep 2010 07:45 am Post Subject: Re: Bearing false witness

Terry - It wasn't about Adams - The treaty was about legislative affirmation that this country was founded on Religious Freedom and was not founded as a Christian nation.

Many founding fathers believed in Christianity it is true. It is just as true that some were probably agnostics.

The problem here is that there are many sects within the Christian faith alone and thus we must preserve religious freedom less one group or another take power and enforce their brand of religion on all.

You would not want Baptists enforcing their rules on Catholics or the other way around.
Still this whole arguement about our Presidents faith is merely a diversion so we, the American people, will not look at the real issues and problems facing the nation and once again vote against our own self interests.

BILL WHITE FOR GOVERNOR
Bill Pelland

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Bill, The United States of America was established as a nation of predominately Christians on Christian values with a guarantee of freedom of religion. That there would be no state religion as there was in England and no litmus test or requirement that anyone profess any religion at all. References to Christianity are intertwined with most every founding document. Each of the original 13 colonies made reference to a higher power in their respective constitutions. Both houses of Congress were and still are today opened with a Christian prayer and most often in the name of Jesus Christ. Not Allah, Buddha, Thor or any other non Christian possibility. The oath of office is customarily administered with a Bible and contains the words "so help me God". Not required but that is the way we started and the way we have continued. To somehow deny this is nothing more than an attempt to re-write history or mislead the unknowing.

You and I are not going to change the beliefs and views of each other or those of like mind. The only ones that can sway an election are the 10% or so that are unsure of what their beliefs and morals are. Politicians know that and invariably pander to them based on what looks like at the moment will give them that vote. Obama did it when he promised to get rid or earmarks, close Gitmo, no tax increase of any kind for those making less than $250k, health care debates broadcast on C-Span to name a few. All sounded good but never happened.
Perry has done it and now Bill White is trying it with his plan to secure the border. This after operating Houston as a sanctuary city for six years and only having a conversion after several HPD officers had been shot by illegals. That and a public and national outcry caused him to do a 180,,,, the prospect of running for a statewide race might have also played a roll I would guess. Anything to distract from the fact he left Houston on the verge of bankruptcy and his relocation of tens of thousands of Katrina refugees that resulted in a skyrocketing crime wave and murders.
As bad as the opportunist Democrat turned Republican Perry is, Bill White is far far worse.

agere sequitur credere

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Terry - Erin Burnett is the financial anchor on cnbc. She pretty much has her pulse on Wall street and things financial. Paul Krugman is a pulitzer prize winning economist. Thomas Friedman is with the NY Times, and Mary Jordon, was the former london bureau chief and now editor with the Washinton Post. These people were on This Week with Christian Amanpour this week. Of course George Will was there also. What was brought out by Will was that the American consumer lost over 10 trillion dollars in personal wealth because of this recession and still were loaded down with 2.4 trillion dollars of debt.

All seemed to agree that the Republicans had no plan other than to return to the same policies of the past; you know the ones that got us into this mess.

Erin Burnett, Tom Friedman, and Paul Krugman said the stimulus worked and David Plouffe stated that without the stimulus the unemployment rate would have been in the high teens. 3 million jobs were created.

Erin Burnett made the statement that the recovery from this recession started faster than any other recovery in the past 25 years. Krugman pointed out that the financial institutions are sitting on more money that was used in the stimulus and Jordon pointed out that it is uncertainty that is causing a stall in the recovery.

The Rebulicans have promised to try to undo what has been done and to launch endless investigations; in effect crippling the government. We cannot afford this. It is time to keep moving forward. Electing Republicans so they can return to the failed policies of the past is not the answer.

Bill White has a plan for the future. Rick Perry has a 18 billion deficit. College tuitions have increase 63% since 2003 at a time when our future relies on improving education. It is time to see what new leadership can do for Texas and time to give the Democrats we elected in 2008 two more years to work on fixing the mess they inheritied when coming into office.

You are correct when you say it is the independents that will decide this election. Let's hope they chose wisely.

BILL WHITE FOR GOVERNOR - VOTE FOR A NEW WAY FORWARD.

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You and I are not going to change the beliefs and views of each other or those of like mind. The only ones that can sway an election are the 10% or so that are unsure of what their beliefs and morals are.

Terry - Your 10% figure is way low and you do people a disservice when you tie morals to voting. I believe in the people of Texas.
The last time I reviewed the numbers about the number of Republicans vrs Democrats in Texas I found that at one time most people in Texas were Democrats, conservative Democrats to be sure, but Democrats none the less. Then people began to move away from the party and the percentage of Democrats in the state dropped into the low 30% area. However, they did not join the Republicans en masse. The Republican percent was slightly higher but still in the 30% range. About 30-40% became independents.
Then the Republicans turned away from their conservative fiscal views and began basing their platform on religion. Now they are cow-towing to the Tea Party. They claim they are now willing to return to the fiscal policies they abandon long ago. For the life of me I cannot understand why they should be trusted when all they stand for lately is based on politics - the politics of stopping this administration from accomplishing anything. They promise to return us to the policies of the past; you remember the policies that brought us the greatest recession since the great depression of the 1920's and 30's.
Yes voters are unsure but not of their beliefs or morals. They are unsure because of all the diversion the Republicans are putting out there; diversions like immigration, birth certificates, religious beliefs of our President, misinformation about the health reform bill passed. What we need is to educated people about how many bills have been passed that protect the Americans from unscupulous practices of the Health insurance industry and the finacial sector.
I saw Bill White in Tyler yesterday. He was telling me about pre-k education in OKklahoma. That state voted for universal pre-k education. Texas did also except in Texas Perry vetoed the bill.
We need new leadership in Austin and that new leader is Bill White.

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