One of Mom’s for Liberty videos is a quote from Thomas Paine: “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day that my child may have peace.”
Let’s assume that Moms for Liberty agrees with what Thomas Paine has to say and maybe most conservatives do too. After all, he was a founding father.
His 47-page pamphlet Common Sense helped to instigate the American Revolution against the British Monarchy.
Let’s see what Thomas Paine has to say about religion and government:
“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church. Nor of any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
Genesis is nothing but an anonymous book of stories, fables and traditionary, or invented absurdities, or of downright lies. The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.”
This is what Thomas Paine has to say about the history of this kind of use of the Bible or reading of the Bible:
“It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind. And for my part, I sincerely detest it as I detest everything cruel.”
And that’s the point, isn’t it?
This is why he was such an important founding father, is that religion should not be used to create cruelty. To ban books that help children who are not necessarily straight white Christian children to feel welcome and accepted in our society and our public school system.