Tea party in Lansing, Michigan (AP/Al Goldis)
Today, the date when all Americans’ federal and state tax returns are due, thousands of citizens across the country took part in “tea parties” protesting the massive government spending taking place at both the state and federal level. The tea parties are in reference to the Boston Tea Party where colonists resisted the oppressive British rule by dumping tea off ships into the harbor on December 16, 1773.
Some tea parties that took place today were inspired by a very influential writer of the Revolutionary era; Thomas Paine (1737-1809). He was an intellectual and radical of his time who wrote the powerful pamphlet Common Sense calling for the independence from Britain.
Many Americans invoked Paine’s memory for today’s protests. New videos circulating on the internet have a character actor dressed up as Paine calling for present day Americans to petition their governments for a redress of grievances. In one video the actor portraying Paine states:
“Is it ‘common sense’ to allow your activist judges to ignore your history, your culture… to remove God from public life? … Separation of church and state? Yes. Separation from God and public life? Never intended by your founding fathers!”
Is this an accurate portrayal of what Paine really believed concerning religion?
Here are some actual quotes from the real Thomas Paine about religion:
“It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.”
“One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.”
“Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities?”
About the Catholic Church, Paine said:
“The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.”
He also commented on the Holy Land:
“The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.”
While the real Thomas Paine would’ve advocated for the reduction of government and its spending today, he would’ve also wanted the influence of religion to be at a minimum.
This is the only “common sense” that Paine lacked.
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Comments
DC tea party was awesome. It was raining and everyone was coming on their lunch break, but hey, somebody's got to earn money to then pay the government right? ***DC Tea Party 2009***
I love that the people most ready to cite the opinions of writers and thinkers from 200+ years ago have never actually read the writing. No one who has read more than a high school textbook's excerpting of "Common Sense" would actually think to associate him with what I gather to be the sentiment behind the modern American right.
Turn off the radio, pick up the source material at your nearest tax subsidized library, then get back to me.
Hopefully some of the people who would think of making those videos will read this. Maybe that would help to give liberals less ammunition to use against us. We have enough ground to defend without having to worry about certain individuals spouting fallacies.
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