Every so often, a family member forwards something to me by mail that I have to respond to. The latest was something my Dad sent under the heading "Interesting to be an American." The text (without the strange formatting and without the many pictures) follows:

Andy Rooney

DID YOU KNOW? As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S. Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW? As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.

DID YOU KNOW? As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW? There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington , D.C.

DID YOU KNOW? James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement: "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

DID YOU KNOW? Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ".

DID YOU KNOW? Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.

DID YOU KNOW? Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.

DID YOU KNOW? Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of interpreting the law would begin making law an oligarchy .. the rule of few over many.

DID YOU KNOW? The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said: "Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."

How, then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 220 years in this country is now suddenly wrong and unconstitutional? Lets put it around the world and let the world see and remember what this great country was built on.

I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete if I didn't. Now it is your turn...
It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it is very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having the Ten Commandments on display or "In God We Trust" on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why DO WE LET THE 14% DICTATE WHAT WE SAY AND DO???!!!

If you agree, pass this on

To which, instead of "passing it on," I respond:

Two misconceptions in the conclusion to this diatribe (recopied below).

#1) 86% of Americans may state that they believe in God, but I doubt that any 1% agree on the "same" God. If they did, we wouldn't have hundreds of thousands of different churches and thousands of denominations. Also, simply because these people state that they "believe in God," it does not therefore follow that they believe in the rest of the statements in the forwarded email.

#2) Even if we take this statement on its face (i.e., that 14% of Americans don't believe in God, and therefore "dictate" actions to remove God and the Ten Commandments of Moses from public works), you only have to review your Constitution to note that while majority rules, the minorities have rights, including freedom of religion, which includes freedom from religion. If you want state-sponsorship of religion, move to the United Kingdom or, better yet, Iran. Our country is great not because we worship God, but because we believe people have the right to or not to worship God. It was a radical and liberating concept 220 years ago, and it remains one today.

EXTRA BONUS REBUTTAL

As a Christian, you really don't want the Ten Commandments to be the basis for your system of laws. Actually, if you do, I suspect you'd be happier if you converted to Judaism and move to Israel, which does advocate for this. As a Christian, however, you should recall from your Bible study that Jesus replaced the Ten Commandments with a much simpler and all-encompassing law: The Golden Rule ("Do unto others what you want them to do to you."). Perhaps if we reviewed all our actions in the U.S. against this rule, we'd be much better off than worrying about who or what is engraved on our public buildings.

I'm just saying.

EDIT 2007-07-15: Mike Sumbera points out, Snopes is your friend for this kind of thing.