America the Republic: Why We Were Never Constituted as a Pure Democracy

Plato

TweetShareShare Lately, there’s been a lot of chatter about our democracy or democratic  form of government. Some political commentators use fear to suggest our “democracy is in peril” if certain people from the opposing political party are elected. Unfortunately, this type of fear mongering has been around since America was constituted. The problem with that…

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Alexis De Tocqueville: The French Man Who Saw America’s Past, Present and Future

TweetShareShare “[It’s] the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written.”[1] That’s how one historian described Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America; a work many consider among the most influential literary works of the 19th century. Published in two volumes between 1835 and 1840,…

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America the Secular? Flipping the Script on the Founding of a Nation

Secular Amerca

TweetShareShareSince the 1980s, it’s been a popular refrain to refer to America’s founding as secular in nature. Proponents of secularism often use selective quotes to promote their nonreligious agendas (1). Many Founding Fathers are now considered “Deist” (read: agnostic, atheist). These include heavyweights like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and George Washington. Perhaps we…

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Nazism: How Hitler Used Fascism and Eugenics to Transform 1930s Germany

TweetShareShare Few four-letter words spark more fear, insult and outrage than Nazi. And well it should. Nazism carries a boatload of baggage, even for generations that never experienced the Holocaust and fascism of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. “Nazi” is a nickname linked to a political ideology characterized by dictatorial rule, forcible suppression of opponents and…

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“God Helps Those Who Helps Themselves”: The Eclectic Faith of Benjamin Franklin

TweetShareShareBenjamin Franklin was a scientist, patriot, politician, diplomat…and Deist. That’s a fact according to many modern historians. After all, Franklin himself advocated for Deism. He once wrote that his skepticism of Christianity made him “a thorough Deist.”[i] Of course it should be noted he wrote that conviction at the tender age of fifteen in a…

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The Santa Chronicles: How A Man Named Nicholas became Santa Claus (Part 1)

TweetShareShareHis name was Nikolaos or Nicholas…St. Nicholas in the Greek Orthodox tradition. You and I know him better as “St. Nick.” Around the world he has other names: Sinterklass (Dutch), Kris Kringle (English), Papa Noel (French/Spanish), Weihnachtsmann (German), Grandfather Frost (Russia)…and SANTA CLAUS. Most of what we know about this “jolly old elf” and his…

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John Locke: How a Great Philosopher Influenced the Founding of America

TweetShareShare The Founding Fathers of the United States of America had many influences, but possibly none more than John Locke (1632-1704). Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and John Madison revered Locke. John Quincy Adams penned, “The Declaration of Independence [was]…founded upon one and the same theory of government…expounded in the writings of Locke.” But who was…

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