misinterpretation

So one of my bible thumping cousins sent the following to my dad and several other relatives:

A Trivia question in Sunday School: How long is the beast allowed to have authority in Revelations? Revelations Chapter 13 tells us it is 42 months, and you know that is almost a four-year term of a Presidency. According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything. I STRONGLY URGE each one of you to post this as many times as you can! Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet..do it!I refuse to take a chance on this unknown candidate who came out of nowhere.

Next, in the same email, came this little nugget from a Dr. John Tisdale:

Dear Friends, As I was listening to a news program last night, I watched in horror as Barack Obama made the statement with pride. . .'"we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists" As with so many other statements I've heard him (and his wife) make, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd hear something like that from a presidential candidate in this nation. To think our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian nation--and to have this man say with pride that we are no longer that. How far this nation has come from what our founding fathers intended it to be...With God's help, and He is still in control of this nation and all else, we can show this man and the world in November that we are, indeed, still a Christian nation! Please pray for our nation!

My dad responded with: Following eight years of the criminal Bush administration, most Americans have come to recognize the fruits of false prophets and the lies of political operatives. As for me, give me liberty from xenophobic divisiveness or give me boils, sores, locusts and frogs. May our new President have the conviction to lead in accordance with our Constitution, the Rule of Law and with the spiritual guidance of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

And I replied with

amen to that...whichEVER guy wins, we, as AMERICANS, have to support him, no matter our personal beliefs.

HOWEVER, the original email dropped ONE word from what Barack Obama said in this June 2006 speech: He actually said, Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.

He goes on to say, And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application?

Care to read the rest of the speech - it is surprisingly enlightening as to his religious beliefs: http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/

Your vote is NOT your key to Heaven, and they will NOT know we are christian (or muslim or jew or gay or heterosexual or anything else) by our vote. Do unto others as you would have done to you, and leave the judging to those with a higher pay grade.< I don't know what Dr. Tisdale is all in a flurry about - our forefathers came to this country to ESCAPE religious persecution and to worship the way they saw fit, and not the way the government told them to do. Our founding fathers did NOT die for the right for our nation to be a "Christian only" nation. They left their old country because they did not want to fear being EXECUTED or labeled a heretic just for wanting to practice their religion differently than how the King said! (It didn't work so good for the so-called "witches" of Salem, did it?) That is what happens when government takes over religion and tries to impose it on everyone to save their souls from eternal damnation! They came HERE to be free, and THAT is what our forefathers fought for - freedom.

George Washington wrote to a Jewish synagogue in 1790: All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it were by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm006.html

Thomas Jefferson, in the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom, wrote:
Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/vsrf.htm

Article VI of our Constitution says:
The Senators and Representatives...and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Article6

All of this even came before the Bill of Rights, the first Ammendment of which says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

This country IS America, not AmericaChristianLand, and it is home to jewish and muslim and catholic and christian AND gay and straight and ugly and beautiful and everything else. The only thing we ALL share is we are all really obese!

Am I reading the words of my forefathers wrong??