Today is "Constitution Day" here in the US -- formerly known as 'citizenship day,' it's a day during which we're encouraged to celebrate and acknowledge that special piece of paper written all those years ago: The backbone of our country, the Constitution.  Federal facilities (mail) and banks do not close, nor do schools.  However, all educational institutes are mandated to provide lessons and programming on the history of the Constitution today

Ultimately its one of those holidays where, unless someone specifically points it out to you, you may not know it occurred -- or you'll hear about it a week later (if not for thecarpetbaggerreport.com, I certainly wouldn't have known).

So is this what has me riled up today?  Not quite, though it was the catalyst for my anger.  It stems mostly from a survey done by The First Amendment Center-- their tenth annual survey on the 'State of the First Amendment.'  According to the results, there are many people out there with a skewed perception of what the Constitution means, versus what it CLEARLY says in writing.

Take this into consideration: Sixty-five percent of Americans believe that the founding fathers intended the U.S. to be a Christian nation and Fifty-five percent believe that the Constitution establishes this country as a Christian nation.

And yet, what are the five freedoms declared by this piece of paper?  Freedom of speech, Freedom of Press, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Petition.  And of course freedom of religion.

Read that again folks.  Freedom of RELIGION.

Not once ANYWHERE in the constitution do the founding fathers make reference to Christianity, God, any sort of holy book or any specific religious icons.  The document is totally secular.  One would imagine, given how strongly these men felt about their newly created rights and privileges, had they wanted to declare the United States to have one religion and one religion only, they would have named it.  And yet these individuals, who lived two hundred years ago, seem to show more progressive thinking than people living today.

Strangely enough and seemingly in contrast with the above, the same survey results indicate that 97% polled said that the right to practice one's own religion was 'essential' or 'important.'  Apparently the caveat must be "so long as your religion is Christianity" or "So long as when asked you say you're Christian."  I guess 'don't ask, don't tell' doesn't just apply to the military.

Incidentally the majority of those polled couldn't even tell what the five freedoms were.  Most got "Freedom of Speech" right, but stumbled on the others.

I know it seems like I'm constantly bashing religion (or Christianity) here.  In truth, I'm not.  I'm bashing two groups here -- the truth-warpers: Those that know exactly what things like the Bible and the Constitution say and mean and yet take advantage of the scared, the impressionable, the uninformed and warp their perceptions.  And I'm bashing the idiots: Those who listen to this claptrap without attempting to educate themselves to the truth. 

You can find all the results of the survey here.  As the blogger of the Carpet Bagger said, "Happy Constitution Day. We have a lot of work to do."