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<DIV>Visionaries:</DIV>
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<DIV>Dale C. argues:</DIV>
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<DIV>"...there was no sense that preaching about political matters from the pulpit was a violation of church and state. Second, they had the belief that "all human activities fall under the jurisdiction of God's Word". The pietists would have us believe that only what happens between our two ears is what should be influencing us from the pulpit. Finally, the most politically and socially important members of the community processed to church and listened carefully to what the preacher said. Now, lest someone accuse me of trying to have all of Moscow's City Counsel march to a local congregation, that's not my point at all. My point is -- there's a historical precedent in American history for churches to have election day sermons; and to have political input and influence. Anything less is historical revisionism -- which our Intolerants are oh-so good at." <A title=http://right-mind.us/ href="http://right-mind.us/">http://right-mind.us/</A></DIV>
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<DIV> I (dimly) recall that a logical construction which relies on intellectual precedence may be a fallacy of authority (help me out here, Wayne) i.e. because someone thought or did something a certain way in the past does not necessarily justify presence actions or thoughts. It is hardly necessary to point out that during the same time period that Dale refers to, other activities in America were taking place that would probably not be invoked to justify continued application: slavery, debtor's prison, witch trials, genocide of Native Americans. All these unhappy activities, and frankly, in my opinion, sinful behaviors, were endorsed from the pulpit by the same folks who gave election day sermons. </DIV>
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<DIV>No trained historian would deny that these sermons (and other behaviors I listed) occurred. So where does the revisionism come in? </DIV>
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<DIV>Sorry, Dale. Poor argument, false conclusions, and gratuitous insults.</DIV>
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<DIV>Rose</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana size=2 PTSIZE="10" FAMILY="SANSSERIF">"One cannot level one's moral lance at every evil in the universe. There are just too many of them. But you can do something, and the difference between doing something and doing nothing is everything." Daniel Berrigan<BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 PTSIZE="10" FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>