Noble Comment on Treaty of Tripoli – Michael’s Defense

Noble has a comment to “Michael Defends Atheism in Comment”. The comment relates to the Treaty of Peace and Friendship (or Tripoli) in 1797. I handle this substantiation of atheism attributed to the Founding Fathers with the post “Annoying Atheists”. Below is the comment which is followed by the segment I wrote about this Treaty.

JRH 2/6/12

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Noble Comment on Treaty of Tripoli – Michael’s Defense

Sent: Feb 2, 2012 at 9:42 PM

Comment: My comment follows what "Michael defends atheism" says. My comment concerns the intents of our founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson is the man to whom Michael was referring when he said, "One of them wrote their own bible." Thomas Jefferson, like Benjamin Franklin, were deists, not Christians. Thomas Jefferson removed all the supernatural acts which were in the bible and used that as his bible. Thomas Jefferson's predecessor as President of the United States, John Adams had this to say about the United States' stand on religion. You may look this up and verify it quite easily. It is in the wording of the treaty the US made with Tripoli in the Barbary in the year 1797. I will give you an excerpt from the Treaty:

... It was submitted to the Senate by President John Adams, receiving ratification unanimously from the U.S. Senate on June 7, 1797 and signed by Adams, taking effect as the law of the land on June 10, 1797. The treaty was a routine diplomatic agreement but has attracted later attention because the English version included a clause about religion in America.

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. Any more questions?

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I have a different take on the whole of Article XI of the Treaty:

The Constitution of the United States of America in the First Amendment forbids Congress to establish a State Church; ergo America is a Secular Nation with a Christian cultural heritage. The treaty was signed with a State that had an established religion in Islam; however note the wording implies the secular USA has no beef with any Muslim (Musselmen) or Mehomitan (Muslim) nation. Article XI merely states that this treaty is not between religious faiths but rather between a non-established Church secular State of the USA and those of the Muslim faith or nations embracing the Muslim faith.

… So what? It still doesn’t change the fact that the treaty is between the USA where there is no established Christian religion (i.e. Denomination) and a nation (specifically Morocco) or nations wholly devoted to Islam. Adam’s is not repudiating Christianity!

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