Part 1 of 4 - Religion in Government Trial

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Continued from Post Jan. 19, 2010 Titled; "Separation of Church and State"


A very short history:
In the 1620s-1630s the pilgrims left all they had to embark on a dangerous journey to seek not only civil liberty but also to worship God without fear of a government church in opposition.
The reformation they had just experienced was a bloody struggle between a people of faith, and a government sponsored church, whose biblical views were un-reconcilable; as epitomized by the life and writings of Martin Luther. Great persecution of “the dissenters” resulted.
The pre-reformation Church of England kept the Bible in Latin and only in the churches, thereby making it inaccessible to the common man.
The two primary concerns of the dissenters were these;
• Access of the common people to a Bible they could read themselves.
• The conforming of culture to God’s word, rather than visa versa.
The Geneva Bible was the Bible of the reformation and was the common Bible among the early settlers. With just this little history we see far more important meaning to the public paintings of the early years. The Geneva Bible is shown prominently in many of the early paintings of the pilgrims, and is clearly displayed in the huge painting of “the embarkation of the pilgrims”, which is hanging in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. http://www.aoc.gov/cc/photo-gallery/ptgs_rotunda.cfm
(as a side note, another of those paintings is the “Baptism of Pocahontas”, both paintings, hardly just random decoration, were placed there by a people with much attachment to the events shown.)
During the time of American settlers, before the Declaration of independence, the king of England made it unlawful for America to publish any Bible in the English language.
One of the very first acts of Congress after the Declaration of Independence was to enact law allowing the printing of a Bible in the English language, effectively making congress the first American Bible Society.



Part 1. Our founding fathers were in deed religious, and believers in a responsibility to their Creator.

Patrick Henry:
“The Bible is a book worth more than all the other books that were ever printed.”

Jefferson’s Danbury letter:
“I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man,”

Dr. Benjamin Rush:
“The Bible…should be read in our schools in preference to all other books from it’s containing the greatest portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and public happiness.”

Daniel Webster:
“To the free and universal reading of the Bible… men (are) much indebted for right views of civil liberty. The Bible is… a book which teaches man his own individual responsibility, his own dignity, and his equality with his fellow man.”

Elias Boudinot:
“Were you to ask me to recommend the most valuable book in the world, I should fix on the Bible as the most instructive - both to the wise and the ignorant.”

The Founders and Administrators of the first American Bible Society:
Elias Boudinot: President of Congress during the American Revolution, a Framer of the Bill of Rights, and of the first Attorneys to practice before the Supreme Court.
John Jay: the original Chief Justice to the Supreme Court, author of the Federalist Papers.
Matthew Clarkson: Major General in the American Revolution.
Smith Thompson: Secretary of the Navy, and Justice on the US Supreme Court.
John Langdon: Signer of the US Constitution, and Governor of New Hampshire.
Caleb Strong: member of the Constitutional Convention, and Governor of Massachusetts.
Bushrod Washington: US Supreme Court Justice.
William Worth: Attorney General of the United States.
Charles C. Pinkney: Major General in the American Revolution, and Constitution signer.
John Quincy Adams: President of the United States
John Marshal: Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.

Noah Webster:
Used a high percentage of Bible verses to define the words of his 1828 An American Dictionary of the English Language.

John Quincy Adams: Secretary of State, United States Representative, US Senator, President of the US.
“The first and almost the only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible. I have myself for many years made it a practice to read the Bible once every year. I have always endeavored to read it with the same spirit and with the same temper of mind which I now recommend to you: that is, with the intention and desire that it may contribute to my advance in wisdom and virtue.”

John Jay: original Supreme Court Chief Justice, President of Congress during the revolution, writer of the Federalist Papers.
“The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.”

John Adams: signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the bill of rights, law maker and attorney, vice president and president of the United States.
“Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited… what a utopia - what a paradise would this region be.”


I have not included here, isolated unknown men with ideas I wish to push. all these men were greatly influential in the creation of the United States.
The difficulty is not in finding enough data, the hard part is leaving out so much! Being a blog I find it hard to limit my input to only as much as the average person will read.
I have shown that the thinking of our founders was rooted in the Bible. There is abundant documentation showing that the pilgrims and early Americans spent several hours a day reading and studying the Bible.
It was not a nice book they read for an hour on Sunday as a religious duty, it was a life manual, practical for day to day living. They were very familiar with the writings and teaching of the bible and gave much honor to the importance of following it.

The Supreme Court of 1892:
The intent of the founding fathers and the 1st amendment was so sure that in 1892 the Supreme Court ruled in; the Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States
“No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people… This is a Christian nation.”
To give explanation for this finding they provided 87 different historical precedents that this was indeed a Christian nation. They quoted the founding fathers, the acts of the founding fathers, the acts of the Congresses, the acts of the State governments, and others. The Court noted they could quote many more but found 87 to be sufficient to establish clear precedents.

I rest my first point on the findings of the Supreme Court.