I didn’t get the first part, nor the other thread if you replied to it. It seems we are hitting the limit of kbin/lemmy at the moment with the bugs it currently has.
you’d need to be far outside the traditional political spectrum to think anything negative about the American flag.
I don’t think so. The american flag represents the countries history as well, and there are many dark sections of history to this country. You don’t have to be that far from the center to recognize that.
as what’s truly deserved is far more violent and lethal
You are suggesting the death penalty for people’s beliefs. That is antithetical to the principles of our nation.
We’ll see those numbers quickly return to a natural 100% “love it” if we enforce “love it or leave it”.
And it would be immensely harmful to the country to do that. Once you permit the government to punish people for their beliefs, you open the flood gates to a tyrannical government.
Um, no. We all have a natural relationship with God
There is simply no evidence for that. And forcing children to partake in religion is a form of forcing religion. There isn’t any way I can explain it other than that, as this is an issue so straightforward as ‘square goes in square hole’.
it’s just acknowledging that we’re a Christian country at heart, and we always have been, founded on Christian values
That is objectively false.
“As the government of the United States of America is not on any sense founded on the Christian Religion" ~ Treaty of Tripoli; initiated under President George Washington, 1796, signed into law by President John Adams, 1797, ratified unanimously by the Senate, 1797, published in full in all 13 states, with no record of complaint or dissent.
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship… I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State.” –Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT
“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.” –Thomas Jefferson to Baron von Humboldt, 1813
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.” –James Madison, letter to William Bradford, April 1, 1774
“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?”– James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, addressed to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of VA, 1795
“What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people… A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not.” –James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785 .
“He had no faith, in the Christian sense of the term– he had faith in laws, principles, causes and effects.” –Supreme Court Justice David Davis, on Abraham Lincoln
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” –First Amendment, Constitution of the United States
“I have found Christian dogma unintelligible…Some books on Deism fell into my hands…It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared much stronger than the refutations; in short I soon became a thorough deist.” -Benjamin Franklin, “Toward the Mystery” (autobiography)
"When the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure from the government, it was observed in their consultation, that he had never, on any occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief in the Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their address, as to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a Christian or not. They did so. However, the old fox was too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address particularly except that, which he passed over without notice…he never did say a word of it in any of his public papers…Governor Morris has often told me that General Washington believed no more of that (Christian) system than he himself did. -Thomas Jefferson, diary entry, 2/1/1799
“Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man”- Thomas Jefferson
“There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.”- Thomas Jefferson
“Lighthouses are more useful than churches.”- Ben Franklin7. “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”- Ben Franklin
“In the affairs of the world, men are saved not by faith, but by the lack of it.”- Ben Franklin
“This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it”- John Adams
“Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.”- Thomas Paine
“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”-Thomas Paine
“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”- Thomas Paine
“The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession.”- Abraham Lincoln
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.”- James Madison
“In no instance have the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.” ― James Madison
"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. " ~ Thomas Jefferson
That’s wholly incorrect.
It’s a pledge (promise) of allegiance (loyalty). My description of the pledge is accurate.
If you find that dystopian or creepy
I find it dystopian and creepy because it’s the same sort of thing that North Korea does, China does, and Nazi Germany did. Forcing people to swear loyalty to the state is a gross misuse of the power of the government.
I have to wonder if you know your neighbors very well. Honest question: do you?
That depends upon what you mean by “neighbors”, and “know”. Sorry, that’s just a very broad question. Can you elaborate?