Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life

All-American Misinformation

I happened across a message posted via Twitter that I felt required a response. @Clergywomen, a "Clergy-Community and Political Activist," wrote "Americans now understand R forefathers fought socialism, communism & atheism 2 protect faith in God 4 R future. -me"

Aside from the fact that she simply can't know what all Americans understand, the founding fathers weren't fighting "socialism, communism & atheism" and their purpose in breaking away from England had nothing to do with faith or God. Now, I'm certainly no expert in American Revolutionary History, but my understanding was that the reasons for declaring independence were primarily economic. Certainly, England was not a socialist or communist country, nor was it atheist. England was, at the time, a monarchy linked heavily to the Church of England.

So, really, a more accurate statement might be that our forefathers fought monarchism and Christianity to protect their financial interests. Except that they weren't really fighting Christianity, of course. Many of the founding fathers were, indeed, Christians. Of course, many were also Deists. Religion, however, was not their concern when setting up a new country.

Naturally, I responded: "Our forefathers could see the future? Communism came about 75 years after Decl/Independence." and "And the constitution was written so as to protect the country (and its citizenry) FROM religion. Old, tired misinformation." Seventy-five years refers to the Communist Manifesto and, although the idea did not spring forth fully formed from Marx's pen, it was hardly in a state to have been fought off in the late 18th century.

The response came quickly. The communism comment garnered "R U serious? -me" while my constitutional analysis prompted a more strident query along with its answer: "And the constitution (snip) --FromClergywomen: Where do these people come from?? HELL. -me"

Apparently, protecting the constitution is proof positive that you are a former denizen of the underworld. Still, I wasn't quite clear whether it was I who came from Hell or the founding fathers, so I asked. "Are you saying our forefathers came from hell or that I did? Allow me to remind you... judge not lest ye be judged."

Alas, I guess once I was identified as being a minion of the dark one, she had nothing more to say to me. That was the last I heard from her.

Note: I would link to ClergyWomen's specific tweets, but she has them "protected." I guess she doesn't want to be held accountable for her nonsense.