George Washington Quote on Religion

By Got Shares? - K_Yew | March 10, 2010, 11:31 am

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From THIS LINK, General Washington's statement 'To the General Committee, representing the United Baptist Churches in Virginia':

If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the Convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it; and if I could now conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny and every species of religious persecution. For, you doubtless remember, I have often expressed my sentiments that any man, conducting himself as a good citizen and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshiping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience. While I recollect with satisfaction, that the religious society of which you are members have been, throughout America, uniformly and almost unanimously the firm friends to civil liberty, and the persevering promoters of our glorious revolution, I cannot hesitate to believe that they will be the faithful supporters of a free yet efficient general government. Under this pleasing expectation, I rejoice to assure them that they may rely upon my best wishes and endeavors to advance their prosperity,'

I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant, GEORGE WASHINGTON.'

"The horrors of spiritual tyranny"? I can't believe I haven't seen those words before. Beautiful language, isn't it?
About Got Shares? - K_Yew

Bottom line about the way I think: we are born the same, but create patterns over time based on our lives that make an open mind less of a possibility. The key is to try to place yourself in different situations as much as possible to shock your system and force it to think differently; otherwise, the brain's natural course will be to calcify the patterns it picks up from limited local experience and the media, instead of reality.
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