re: #26 Ming

Well, I guess we won’t find anything in Tennessee school textbooks about the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, [Link: en.wikipedia.org…] According to Wikipedia, the treaty was signed by President John Adams, was ratified unanimously by the United States Senate, and included the words: “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion”

Not surprisingly, from what I see with Google, this treaty has provoked some right-wing denial-outrage in recent years.

It’s rather funny. The TofT is interesting, and provides some insight into the mindset of the Founders as they wrestled with the piracy issue, but it’s not a particularly important document.

Unfortunately, it contains two explosive items—one, a clear statement that the United States is not founded on Christianity, and two, a rather warm attitude toward “Mahometans”.

The entire narrative has been taken up by the wingnuts, who see it as a resounding lesson in the abiding evil of Islam learned by a naive U.S., which we oughta have remembered, obsessively, for all the intervening time, and…profit. I forget the middle part.