For your convenience, I will discuss the template issue on your own blog, so you don’t have to jump around so many links.

I do have a completely unrelated question. Where did you get the template for this blog? With my new computer, I’ve discovered that mine has completely different colors than I thought, so I’m going to change it. As long as I’m doing that, I would very much like to go to a 3-column format like you have, but I don’t know where to find it. Help me out, new buddy?

It took me a while to understand what Adams was getting at by that portion of his quote too (only I wasn’t distracted by pizza ). However, I think what he was trying to say was that, the most basic principles of Christianity and liberty were understood by all Christians of all denominations, and even non-Christians, understood what those principles were. That doesn’t however mean that they all believed them. Adams wasn’t ignorant enough to make that kind of insinuation.

My point was 1) Adams was NOT saying that atheists, et. al, could hold the “general principles of Christianity,” and 2) Adams was saying that both the general principles of Christianity and the general principles of American and English liberty, formed the basis of the Founding. The fact that non-Christians were listening in the crowd, and would understand what he meant, is of little consequence to that statement itself.

He was speaking to a group of young men, who were honoring Adams and Jefferson for their role in establishing American independence, according to the context of this letter. These young men were probably not of the same generation that fought the Revolution, since they were apparently “young” 30 years after it ended. They were merely commemorating what the previous generation had accomplished. Adams was merely clarifying and specifying the “principles handed down by our ancestors” which had given momentum to the Cause. I think that’s what he was doing.

I hope that satisfactorily answers your question.

However, what Adams SEEMS to be saying is that DESPITE atheists and etc, they were ALL educated in the general principals or Christianity/liberty, and thus prepared for the war for liberty. Is this what you are saying?