"a country founded on the bible" ???

a friend of mine claimed once again today that "the foundation for American society is the Bible". He made this claim in defense of the ideology that passes for Christianity these days...the Pat Robertson type.

This is my response:

My point is that to claim the Deists of Virginia, the Calvinists in
Massachusetts, the religious toleration (and belief in complete separation of
Church and State) of Roger Williams in Rhode Island, the tenets of the Quakers
and William Penn in Pennsylvania, the secular capitalism of the Dutch in New
York, the Catholics in Maryland and assorted Jews, Muslims, atheists, Mennonites
and whoever else, agreed on religion’s role in society and government is to show
an ignorance of the history of this country.

They couldn’t even
agree on what the Bible said, let alone that is should dictate how society
should operate (Rhode Island banned slavery on religious grounds before the
Revolution, and yet the Southern states defended slavery on religious grounds
until 1865 and beyond)

And they sure as shit didn’t agree
with the current crop of “Christians” led by the intolerance and hatred of the
Pat Robertsons and Eric Rudolphs that believe they hold a monopoly on what
Christianity means today, while acting in very Unchristian ways. After all
these are the ones who do all the chest beating about the down trodden majority
and how they are so oppressed while they shout it from their TV networks,
Magazines, newspapers, the floor of the Senate and a ranch in Crawford.