Election Night at Grant Park in Chicago

My partner, Martha, and I were there at Grant Park last night. It was an amazing experience to be with so many people, like us, who had felt that we were alone for many years in this country. It was a crowd of immense size, but immense diversity, solidarity and compassion. Young and old, all economic backgrounds, and all of the different hues of the human race. We had been marginalized because of our mature, nuanced love for the ideals of America, beyond the shallow self-proclaimed "values" that glossed over the old standards of racism, exclusivity, intolerance, sexism and greed. The wheels had come off of America for us. And now, they are being restored.

I do not know how someone can think of themselves as an American and yet be racist or sexist, or think that it is appropriate to hate people because they are gay, atheist, Hispanic, Muslim, highly educated or any other demographic category. This is unfathomable to so many of us, but we realize that these threads were once dominant in this nation, despite the ideals of our democracy, despite the herculean efforts of our founders, and we respect the efforts of people to "tolerate" or "respect" others as steps toward embracing all Americans as valuable and equal. All that we ask is that people recognize that there is not just one "right" way to live, and that those who preach hate and intolerance are most certainly not on God's side.

So, hope begins anew. This is a time for celebration, indeed, but what I feel most is that sigh of relief, that sense of peace when we know that we've been lost in a strange land, but we find the right map, and we see where we are, and we know where we need to go. To many of us, for the first time in 8 years, America has refound its bearings.

Congratulations to America!

Deism and America's "Founding Fathers"

Is America really a "Christian Nation?" Rather than make any assumptions, it may be instructive to look at the faith of a number of America's "Founding Fathers." While conservative christians may expect to find only bible thumping evangelicals, our founding fathers were more diverse and intellectual. Many of them had a world view that accepts god but rejects religion. It is called Deism and you can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deist.

Basically, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen and other major figures of the time were very much influenced by a world view that focused on rational inquiry and rejected belief in revealed truths and miracles of the bible and other religious texts. They may have been nominally "Christian" to avoid accusations of being atheist, but religious dogma is not a significant feature of these founding fathers. It was explicitly left out of the American Constitution, Bill of Rights and entire governmental system.

Were these beliefs the reason for the separation of church and state? Deism was a world view that made it easy to accept all religions as equals with a right to co-exist but not dominate America by becoming "established" as state religions. It is universalist in nature and rejects the notion that there is any "one true way" to god.

Deism is part of the Genius of American Democracy. And yet, many Americans do not know about it. Many of us just assume that America was founded as a "Christian Nation." Just one more example of the ability of an obsessed contingent in an undiscerning majority to obscure history and human nature. The truth is there, but is hidden in plain view, where the majority can't see it. The minorities often see the truth, but until the majority takes responsibility for curbing zealots, the juggernaut continues on and minorities feel disrespected and vulnerable.