Congress, Religion, & Racism

Submitted by Robert (United States), Mar 14, 2017 at 12:24

Dear Michael S,

Whether we ultimately disagree or not, I do not know. But one one point you misunderstood me, and on another you didn't hear me, I think.

1. Congress is our law-making body, and it is prohibited not only from laws affecting Religion, but also it is prohibited from choosing a religion to Establish it as the Religion of the USA. I only used the 2 days, Saturday and Sunday to emphasis the Private Practice thereof - I should have, by the way, included Friday, when Muslims go to their Mosques. One thing I love about our Country is that it leaves it up to the Person and God as to what is Moral; the Government doesn't get involved. And when the Government wishes to prohibit any conduct it never cites a Religious text; except, of course, on the Dollar Bill where it says "In God We Trust; but even their it doesn't say whose version og God; but it obviously discriminates against the Atheist who cannot trust God because she believes He doesn't exist.

2. You seem well versed in the Bible. Yet you seem to confuse Nations with Races. The Bible does discuss different Nations and Countries. But Race, as the Racists uses it, is a 19th Century concept. It did, at times mean a People. But changed in the 19th Century with the introduction of Blood, and later Genetics which were inherited. And when you discusses Skin Color, that is NEVER discussed explicitly as you do that. You also obliterate the Jewish Canon (Law): you are automatically Jewish if you're mother was Jewish; however, ANYONE may CONVERT to Judaism merely by Practicing it, and by Proving to the satisfaction of a Rabbi that one has learned one's judaism, and is prepared to practice the 613 Mitzvot ("Commandments). No better evidence of the total lack of Racism in Judaism can be asked for. If you take the meaning of Racism - that the DNA carries something from parent to child - and that this is in the Bible, you are correct only in one respect: Christians do believe that the Original Sin of Adam is inherited throughout the generations. But you seem to have another notion of Race beyond this. Maybe you know the Bible, but you do not know the Racist Theory of people like Julius Evola, Alfred Rosenberg, and Hitler. The word "Racism" itself only entered our English language in 1902:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism

Its root, "Race3," entered English in the 15th century:

1. 1 : a breeding stock of animals
2. 2a : a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stockb : a class or kind of people unified by shared interests, habits, or characteristics
3. 3a : an actually or potentially interbreeding group within a species; also : a taxonomic category (such as a subspecies) representing such a groupb : breedc : a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits
4. 4 obsolete : inherited temperament or disposition
5. 5 : distinctive flavor, taste, or strength

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/race#h3

Landlords, gentry and farmer obviously were familiar with "a breeding stock of animals" in Great Britain. And it seems that our Southern Slavemasters before 1863 acquired some sense of "breeding" their African American slaves not unlike their experience with Cattle, since Slaves were Chattel. But you seem to read the experiences of Southern Slavery, perhaps unknowingly, and find it in the Bible mistakenly. The Bible had Slavery. But that was not based on Race as such.

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