More Things That Are Not True

Looks like the Christian Right will have another martyr persecuted by the unamerican atheist conspiracy that demands that students in public schools be taught "facts":

A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

"It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson.

The Teacher in question is wrong about this "christian nation" business, so very very wrong. The historical record is quite clear on this point. To cite one rather obscure example, Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, which has a treaty is the highest law of the land, which was signed by President John Adams (one of the more religious Founders) and ratified by the US Senate:

"the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion"

Even my younger brother's High School history textbook agrees that the Founders were not especially religious and were enthusiastic supporters of tolerance for all varities of religious belief and non-belief.