|
Faking the American theocracy |
|
|
|
|
Saturday, 27 October 2007 |
|
Mike Huckabee on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 during the Republican debate in Orlando claimed that the signers of the Declaration of Independence were "brave people, most of whom, by the way, were clergymen." One out of 56 equals 'most'? No, it doesn't. Not even close. Only one of the 56 was an active clergyman, and that was John Witherspoon. Witherspoon was a Presbyterian minister and president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). A few more of the signers were former clergymen, though it's a little unclear just how many. The conservative Heritage Foundation said two other signers were former clergymen. The religion web site Adherents.com said four signers of the declaration were current or former full-time preachers. But everyone agrees only Witherspoon was an active minister when he signed the Declaration of Independence. We'd like to give Huckabee every benefit of the doubt, but even if you consider former clergymen among the signers the best you could come up with is four. Out of 56. That's not "most," that's Pants-on-Fire wrong.
|