Sarah Palin - Liberty University Convocation

This was extremely painful to sit an listen to; I painfully sat through all 32 minutes. At about the 3 minute mark my IQ dropped about 50 points. The men with the white coats are now on their way; I shall be safely tucked away in a safe comfy padded room within the hour.  While I'm waiting, some thoughts that came to mind whilst listen to the word salad of Ms. Palin.

No, Thomas Jefferson would not be complaining about the war on Christmas, he would be leading it as he did not believe in the virgin birth narrative.  No virgin birth, no Christmas.

“And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.” (Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823)

Some one needs to inform Ms. Palin that David Barton is not a historian and the ideas he puts forth in regards to our nation's founding are incorrect.  To imply that our Constitution was written by and only for moral (to be read as "real Christian folk") people, is disingenuous.  Her ethnocentric view of the world clouds her (“biblical”) view of America’s history.  The founding of our country is not linked to, or even a continuation of the New Testament; an “Exodus” for the new world as many of her ilk tend to believe.

Regretfully Ms, Palin it is you that is the revisionist.  It is you that ignores what our founders actually thought, felt and wrote about.  When the founding fathers spoke of religious freedom, that’s exactly what they meant; it was not a mandate for the supremacy of Christianity over all other religions.

Liberty University was founded in 1971, not 1791. "Thomas Jefferson and his thinking, I believe that much of it fundamentally came from this area, having spent his summers here, having spent influential years here, two miles away from Liberty University,,,"

Obviously, Ms Palin is not familiar with the Jefferson Bible (aka,The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth),  in which our esteemed former President cut and pasted numerous sections from the New Testament. Jefferson's condensed composition excludes all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, including sections of the four gospels (sections which dealt with the Resurrection, most miracles, and passages indicating Jesus was divine.)

"In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves,,,There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill. The result is an octavo of forty-six pages, of pure and unsophisticated doctrines." (Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, John Adams Oct. 12, 1813)

No ma'm, I have no issue with what a private individual does on their own property, “Why is it they get to claim some offense taken when they see a plastic Jewish family on somebody’s lawn,,,."  What I have issue with is when a government entity endorses one religion to the detriment of others.  You are creating a false  equivalency confusing complaints about religious displays on public spaces with privately own property.

Jesus is not the reason for the season!!  As David Silverman of American Atheist points out, "Christianity has been trying to claim ownership of the season for hundreds of years. But the winter solstice came first and so did its traditions. The season belongs to everybody."  Our Christmas traditions are not Christian, do your homework before opening your maw to speak.

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus." (Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp, 30 July, 1816)