Posts
post 054
Continued from Post Jan. 19, 2010 Titled; "Separation of Church and State"
Our founding fathers gave to us a system of government which is now the worlds longest ongoing constitutional republic, 200 years under the same document, and one form of government. And this has not been an unhappy, or hopeless nation, we have enjoyed financial and personal successes beyond the imagination of any other nation before it.
In 200 years France has gone through 7 completely different forms of government,
Italy is now in its 51st
What would make free men have a propensity to degrade into following people less successful, less happy, less free? Provide for me one good example showing this to be a better course.
Yet, in spite of our nations past glories, our current generation is experiencing unrest, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and fear.
Only in recent times has America failed to continue a generally forward direction toward more peace, success, wealth and power.
Why?
Re-writing America’s History:
In spite of the very clear perspective of the founders as found in the official Congressional Record of the time they framed the Constitution; June 7-September 25, 1789, America has now accepted the opposite intent of the constitution than the founders intended. Annals of Congress
June 7 Beginning here on page 439
In the 1947 case Everson v. Board of Education:
The phrase “a wall of separation between church and state” was the only part of Jefferson’s letter quoted, allowing them to utterly change the interpretation and intent of the original letter. This was a new strategy from the court, and began the trend of the court to abandon precedent over personal interpretation.
For 141 years the courts upheld the intent of the founders to keep religion involved in our government and government schools. Yet from this case in 1947 we see a diametrically opposing value of the courts through inventing a new precedent overturning the founders clear and time proven intent. It is this writers opinion that this case is where Progressivism took root in America,
more on this later.
This new trend continued so aggressively that in the 1958 case Baer v. Kolmorgen, a dissenting judge, warned that continuing talk by the court about the “separation of church and state” would make people think it was a part of the Constitution.
Yet the trend continued until the June 25, 1962 case Engel v. Vitale when the court, for the first time, used virtually NO PRECEDENTS, and quoted NO previous legal cases, or historical incidents to support its findings. For the first time in history the court completely separated Christian principles from education, and struck down school prayer. Even the secular ‘Worldbook Encyclopedia 1963 yearbook’ noted that this case was the first time there had been a separation of church and state in American education.
Within 12 more months this same court removed Bible reading, religious classes and religious instruction… without precedent, without historical support of any kind, simply by their independent personal opinion. (Abington v. Schempp & Murray v. Curlett June 17, 1963) This was a radical reversal of the courts long history of consistency (until 1947), and this, by unprecedented means. The 1962 decision opened a floodgate of court findings which, now without showing precedent, were able to make arbitrary declarations, in essence they took the power to manage the nation away from Congress.
Congress can still write the laws, but the laws now only mean whatever the Supreme Court says they mean. Without the need to show historical support, they were able to conclude findings such as; “If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be and… had been psychologically harmful to the child.” (Abington v. Schempp & Murray v. Curlett June 17, 1963) Strangely the court also had a study done in this case, and reported the findings that only 3% of the nation did not believe in religion or God. Was this the view of our founders? Where is the precedent to show this was the intent of the law of our land? The Foundational laws of the land were rejected, the will of the founders rejected, the precedent of the nations history rejected, the will of the public at that time…REJECTED. This court clearly wanted to independently take America in a new, Godless direction! This began a new era, The God of our founders had been removed from our schools, and our government, Republicanism had been unseated, and a strange democracy of 9 judges had begun.
What might have been the reaction if the Supreme Court was to have instead ruled: “We feel the founders, and the past 145 years of courts, were in error when they repeatedly and intentionally worked to ensure government, and especially the schools, would remain influenced by religion. Therefore we choose to abandon their course provided, and will now lead the nation in the opposite direction.”?
In 1962 this would have been reason for a lynching! The people would not have tolerated such a reckless abandonment of the very foundations of America. Americans still believed in the America the founders gave us.
But since then, Congress and the Supreme Court have done just that in clear and open intentions by forcing upon us the values of Progressivism against the will of the people and in direct opposition of the government provided to us by the founders.
Why then, would America now flounder in confused uncertainty as to how to react? Because since 1962 we have raised a generation who has not been educated in the ways of our founders. They do not know the God of our founders. Having abandon the foundations of our former laws, our lawmakers now have no solid foundation on which to make law.
What is the result?
Before 1962 America was the worlds greatest lender nation, with so much wealth and benevolence the entire globe knew us as “the protector of the world”. Sure we had our issues and struggle, but we spread the values of peace and freedom and the Gospel of Christ to the world.
Today, only 47 years later, we are the worlds greatest debtor nation, our people are confused, tormented, and afraid. Crime is skyrocketing off the charts, every form of vice and evil is growing exponentially. The world is now mocking our weak and floundering state. Yet because we have thrown the God of logic and truth out of our education and government establishments, we have a people unable to figure out the simple logic;
Our nation was the greatest nation on earth under the laws and values of our founders.
Our nation is now led by Marxists, Socialists, Communists, Progressives, and people who turn to Mow Se Tong, a mass murderer. Are we now getting better and better? Is this a course we are pleased to continue? Obama ran on a platform of “Change”.
Foolish Americans were willing to place America in the hands of undeclared, undefined, “Change” and voted him in. They were willing to do that because they were not educated with the values of our forefathers. Shortsightedness can only look back a few years to lay the blame, when the real cause of the problems we are trying to fix today began nearly 50 years ago.
I for one, doing the “logic” thing, don’t like where we are, or the direction we are going.
I want to return to whatever values and laws our founders gave us, because that seemed to work pretty well.
What I don’t want is a government willing to secretly sensor George Washington’s Farewell address, by removing all the religious content because it now conflicts with their new goals.
I don’t want the bill of Rights printed without the preamble now mysteriously missing.
I don’t want a government willing to secretly changing our lawbooks without clearly identifying the changes through “editions” and explanation for the changes.
I don’t want a government willing to sensor and re-write 200 years of national history so that they can take us in a new direction without our knowing it.
The courts have not just removed God from our schools and government, they have attempted to erase all history influenced by God, and that is pretty much the entire first 150 years of America!
Why is that OK to you?
Might it be because you were educated by this ‘New’, historically Un-American education system?
Mr. Indeap is a lawyer. He was educated in this new Godless school of law. He now has 40 years of Godless precedent to occupy his time searching for relevance to his cases. It is not a surprise that he has not stumbled upon the older history. The reason for the “curse” is not at first for punishment, but an attention grabber. It should cause us to take a second look at why things are not going well now. But shortsightedness tends to only look back a few years to lay the blame.
Have I not shown in my 4 point argument, that the first Amendment was NOT written to exclude religion from government?
Have I not given a reasonable explanation for our present condition?
Have I not used Precedent to show the founders believed this too?
So what’s the big deal?
The SAT has been a consistent record of measuring academic achievements, placed in 1941 on the same scale we use today.
In that chart we see 22 years where there were never more than 2 consecutive years in which the scores rose or fell. For 22 years the scores remained very much the same… until 1963.
Then there was a dramatic crash is scores where they fell consistently for 18 years.
Is this the only evidence of a dramatic change in America?
No.
After 1963 a violent upturn occurred on every chart in every moral measurement, (and there are a lot of charts!)
America can now take pride knowing we are finally #1 in the world regarding;
Violent Crime
Divorce
Voluntary Abortions
Illegal Drug Use
And # in the Western world in;
Teenage Pregnancies
And Illiteracy.
The volumes of evidence of National problems is enormous.
Remember George Mason’s Speech on the floor of the Constitutional Convention?
“As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, so they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities.”
I am not suggesting that any one national calamity is proof of God’s displeasure.
But the collection, increase and clear trends cannot be denied.
Remember Benjamin Franklin’s speech on the same floor?
“We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel…”
Our courts have not merely ignored God, they have driven him from our Schools and our Government, and are now working to drive him from our very land. Whatever we are building now, we can be confident our founders firmly believed that we will fail just as the builders of Babel failed.
Abraham Lincoln, during the civil war, in reply to a man hoping ‘the Lord was on our (the Union) side’:
“Sir, I am not at all concerned about that, for I know the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.”
“ And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis - a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever.” - Thomas Jefferson
Monday, February 1, 2010
Part 4 of 4 Religion in Government Trial
post 053
Continued from Post Jan. 19, 2010 Titled; "Separation of Church and State"
Part 4. Our founders knew that if religion was to be removed from our government that it would fall.
George Mason: father of the Bill of Rights.
Speech on the floor of the Constitutional Convention:
“As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, so they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities.”
George Washington’s prayer in his resignation letter to all the state governors on June 8, 1783
“I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in His holy protection…that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our Blessed religion, without an humble invitation of Whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”
Three months later on September 8, 1783 the formal peace treaty with Great Britain was signed. That document opens with the words;
“In the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity.”
Are you beginning to see that these words dispersed liberally through many, many early documents, are not just flower and meaningless glitter, but very genuine and earnestly proclaimed sentiments of the authors?
From George Washington’s COMPLETE farewell address: (modern reprints of this speech have censored the four religious warnings)
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars.”
Unfortunately this is exactly what Mr. Indeap had encouraged every ‘patriot’ to do!
“Efforts to transform our secular government into some form of religion-government partnership should be resisted by every patriot.”
What is even more disturbing is that Mr. Indeap is a lawyer in this nation. He of all men should know the law, but sadly he in honest ignorance of the law, has declared the opposite intention for this nation that his forefather George Washington strongly urged. George Washington himself said that Mr. Indeap cannot claim to be a patriot.
George Washington’s Address continued:
“Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds... reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
More Farewell Address:
“Let it simply be asked, ‘Where is the security for life, for reputation and for property, if the sense of religious obligation desert (is abandon)?”
Noah Webster:
“The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society- the best book for regulating the temporal (that is secular) concerns of men.”
“All of the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from them despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”
Noah Webster’s schoolbook; ‘The History of the United States’ 1832
Cause and effect:
In People v. Ruggles 1811: (also sited by the US Supreme Court)
“Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government.”
Interestingly this case was regarding a man who maliciously and capriciously attacked Jesus Christ with profanity in his writing. The court explained that an attack on Jesus Christ was an attack on Christianity, and an attack on Christianity was an attack on the foundation of the country! This man was sentenced to 3 months in prison and $500.00 fine, for attacking the country by attacking Jesus Christ!
Note that this ruling was nearly 20 years after the first amendment was in place. Clearly the first amendment was never intended to separate Christian principles from government.
Why the bible should be the primary textbook in school.
Dr. Benjamin Rush, a founding father, signer of Declaration, wrote Americas first chemistry textbook, Started the Sunday school movement, founded 5 colleges, promoted academic education for women and African Americans, wrote an entire book regarding why the Bible should be the primary textbook in schools, in it he wrote:
“In contemplating the political institutions of this United States, I lament that (if we remove the Bible from schools) we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of (our government).” Dr. Benjamin Rush 1791
On the vanity of increased penal laws in absence of the Bible:
“The Holy Scriptures…can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability, and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw (protections) around our institutions.” - James McHenry, Signer of the Constitution, Secretary of War under Washington and Adams.
The Logic of our Founders:
I have shown in my first argument, that our founders were very familiar with its contents, and in my second argument showed they held great regard for what it said.
So what does the Bible say about a nation that follows God?
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice:…” Proverbs 29:2a
“Keep therefore and do (the statutes and judgments of the LORD); for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law…” Deuteronomy 4:6-8
“Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice:
And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken.” Deuteronomy 26:17-19
“And I will bless them that bless thee (God’s people) and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3
“… ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.” Deuteronomy 20:3-4
“For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.” Deuteronomy 15:6
“And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD they God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.” Deuteronomy 28:1-2
Then follows a list of 10 specific blessing; blessing on the cities and the country,
The children, crops, cattle, and flocks, produce and goods, whether leaving town or returning home, enemies will fall before you, warehouses full and safe, and success in everything you choose to do. The entire nation successful and established. (v. 3-9) IF thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; …” Psalm 33:12
“But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, …” Romans 2:10
What about the nation that turns from God?
“…But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” Proverbs 29:2b
“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One… unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more: … Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers…” Isaiah 1:4-7
“…But the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. The King shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.” Ezekiel 7:26b-27
“Hath a nation changed their god, which (really are) no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doeth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns (containers), broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13
Paraphrase: the people have forsaken their God that provided them with abundant life, and replaced him with worthless illusions that can provide nothing.
“Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?” Jeremiah 2:17
“But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:” Deuteronomy 28:15-16
Then a list of curses on the same things God promised to bless, if we follow him. And further he adds; “The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of they doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land,…” v. And on and on for 48 verses of every kind of torment imaginable. Deuteronomy 28:20-68
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3
“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” Proverbs 14:34
“Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, … spue you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nations which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.” Leviticus 20:22-23
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness:” Romans 1:18 The remainder of the chapter outlines the progressively destructive results of starting off religious, but turn from following Gods ways.
“Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;” Romans 2:9
From the little I have already shown in my argument, we are forced by reason, to conclude that our founders must have known the Bible holds these views.
Frankly, the entire Bible is written capitalizing these two values. I have listed just a few passages to show how clear the scriptures have made this issue.
Since our founders themselves have stated such high regard for the Bible, and made a point of including the Bible in our schools in an effort to ensure their children also became familiar with it, we begin to see what they had in mind.
We are then obliged, by the historical record, to conclude that those founders therefore believed these verses. It is upon belief of verses like these, that our founders established this nation.
your rejection of their views and beliefs should not cloud the understanding of their intent. The question must be asked, Did the government they gave us, work successfully in the 147 years prior to the Courts changing our foundations in 1962-63?
Has our nation improved or deteriorated since then?
A genuine answer will take more than a cursory look. every American has the duty to investigate these questions.
Continued from Post Jan. 19, 2010 Titled; "Separation of Church and State"
Part 4. Our founders knew that if religion was to be removed from our government that it would fall.
George Mason: father of the Bill of Rights.
Speech on the floor of the Constitutional Convention:
“As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, so they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities.”
George Washington’s prayer in his resignation letter to all the state governors on June 8, 1783
“I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in His holy protection…that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our Blessed religion, without an humble invitation of Whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”
Three months later on September 8, 1783 the formal peace treaty with Great Britain was signed. That document opens with the words;
“In the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity.”
Are you beginning to see that these words dispersed liberally through many, many early documents, are not just flower and meaningless glitter, but very genuine and earnestly proclaimed sentiments of the authors?
From George Washington’s COMPLETE farewell address: (modern reprints of this speech have censored the four religious warnings)
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars.”
Unfortunately this is exactly what Mr. Indeap had encouraged every ‘patriot’ to do!
“Efforts to transform our secular government into some form of religion-government partnership should be resisted by every patriot.”
What is even more disturbing is that Mr. Indeap is a lawyer in this nation. He of all men should know the law, but sadly he in honest ignorance of the law, has declared the opposite intention for this nation that his forefather George Washington strongly urged. George Washington himself said that Mr. Indeap cannot claim to be a patriot.
George Washington’s Address continued:
“Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds... reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
More Farewell Address:
“Let it simply be asked, ‘Where is the security for life, for reputation and for property, if the sense of religious obligation desert (is abandon)?”
Noah Webster:
“The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society- the best book for regulating the temporal (that is secular) concerns of men.”
“All of the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from them despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”
Noah Webster’s schoolbook; ‘The History of the United States’ 1832
Cause and effect:
In People v. Ruggles 1811: (also sited by the US Supreme Court)
“Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government.”
Interestingly this case was regarding a man who maliciously and capriciously attacked Jesus Christ with profanity in his writing. The court explained that an attack on Jesus Christ was an attack on Christianity, and an attack on Christianity was an attack on the foundation of the country! This man was sentenced to 3 months in prison and $500.00 fine, for attacking the country by attacking Jesus Christ!
Note that this ruling was nearly 20 years after the first amendment was in place. Clearly the first amendment was never intended to separate Christian principles from government.
Why the bible should be the primary textbook in school.
Dr. Benjamin Rush, a founding father, signer of Declaration, wrote Americas first chemistry textbook, Started the Sunday school movement, founded 5 colleges, promoted academic education for women and African Americans, wrote an entire book regarding why the Bible should be the primary textbook in schools, in it he wrote:
“In contemplating the political institutions of this United States, I lament that (if we remove the Bible from schools) we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of (our government).” Dr. Benjamin Rush 1791
On the vanity of increased penal laws in absence of the Bible:
“The Holy Scriptures…can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability, and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw (protections) around our institutions.” - James McHenry, Signer of the Constitution, Secretary of War under Washington and Adams.
The Logic of our Founders:
I have shown in my first argument, that our founders were very familiar with its contents, and in my second argument showed they held great regard for what it said.
So what does the Bible say about a nation that follows God?
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice:…” Proverbs 29:2a
“Keep therefore and do (the statutes and judgments of the LORD); for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law…” Deuteronomy 4:6-8
“Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice:
And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken.” Deuteronomy 26:17-19
“And I will bless them that bless thee (God’s people) and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3
“… ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.” Deuteronomy 20:3-4
“For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.” Deuteronomy 15:6
“And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD they God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.” Deuteronomy 28:1-2
Then follows a list of 10 specific blessing; blessing on the cities and the country,
The children, crops, cattle, and flocks, produce and goods, whether leaving town or returning home, enemies will fall before you, warehouses full and safe, and success in everything you choose to do. The entire nation successful and established. (v. 3-9) IF thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; …” Psalm 33:12
“But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, …” Romans 2:10
What about the nation that turns from God?
“…But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” Proverbs 29:2b
“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One… unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more: … Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers…” Isaiah 1:4-7
“…But the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. The King shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.” Ezekiel 7:26b-27
“Hath a nation changed their god, which (really are) no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doeth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns (containers), broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13
Paraphrase: the people have forsaken their God that provided them with abundant life, and replaced him with worthless illusions that can provide nothing.
“Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?” Jeremiah 2:17
“But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:” Deuteronomy 28:15-16
Then a list of curses on the same things God promised to bless, if we follow him. And further he adds; “The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of they doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land,…” v. And on and on for 48 verses of every kind of torment imaginable. Deuteronomy 28:20-68
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3
“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” Proverbs 14:34
“Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, … spue you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nations which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.” Leviticus 20:22-23
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness:” Romans 1:18 The remainder of the chapter outlines the progressively destructive results of starting off religious, but turn from following Gods ways.
“Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;” Romans 2:9
From the little I have already shown in my argument, we are forced by reason, to conclude that our founders must have known the Bible holds these views.
Frankly, the entire Bible is written capitalizing these two values. I have listed just a few passages to show how clear the scriptures have made this issue.
Since our founders themselves have stated such high regard for the Bible, and made a point of including the Bible in our schools in an effort to ensure their children also became familiar with it, we begin to see what they had in mind.
We are then obliged, by the historical record, to conclude that those founders therefore believed these verses. It is upon belief of verses like these, that our founders established this nation.
your rejection of their views and beliefs should not cloud the understanding of their intent. The question must be asked, Did the government they gave us, work successfully in the 147 years prior to the Courts changing our foundations in 1962-63?
Has our nation improved or deteriorated since then?
A genuine answer will take more than a cursory look. every American has the duty to investigate these questions.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Part 3 of 4 - Religion in Government Trial
post 052
Continued from Post Jan. 19, 2010 Titled; "Separation of Church and State"
Part 3. Our founders expected us to intentionally use religion to keep our government healthy.
God’s Help earnestly requested in the work of the Continental Congress:
“Let us enter on this important business under the idea that we are Christians on whom the eyes of the world are now turned… let us in the first lace… humbly and penitently implore the aid of the Almighty God whom we profess to serve - let us earnestly call and beseech him for Christ’s sake to preside in our councils.” - Elias Boudinot, President of the Continental Congress.
Only religion can stop crime before it starts:
“The precepts of philosophy laid hold of actions only… (but Jesus) pushed his scrutinizes into the heart of man, erecting his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountainhead.” - Thomas Jefferson
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.”
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and a religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” - John Adams
One of America’s first education laws:
From The Code of 1650:
“It being one chief project of that old deluder Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so that at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers; and to the end that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors.
It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to fifty households, shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants general…
And it is further ordered, that when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammer school, the master thereof being able to instruct the youth so far as they may be fitted for the university.”
The Old Deluder Act: From Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England II: 203
Clearly this law states that the purpose of public education is that its students might have a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, believing that Satan used the government sponsored church of England to keep the Scriptures from the common man, which resulted in the suffering of the times prior to the Reformation which they had so recently become free of.
40 years later, The 1690 Connecticut Illiteracy Law:
“This (legislature) observing that not withstanding our former orders made for the education of children… there are many persons unable to read the English tongue, and thereby incapable of reading the Holy Word of God or the good laws of this (state).”
The New England Primer:
The first and longest lasting text book in America.
First published in 1690 in Boston by Benjamin Harris, it lasted continuously until the 1900s.
The 1900 edition described the impact of the Primer:
“The New England Primer was one of the greatest books ever published. It went through innumerable editions; it reflected in a marvelous way the spirit of the age that produced it, and contributed, perhaps more than any other book except the Bible, to the molding of those sturdy generations that gave to America its liberty and its institutions.”
Our founders were educated at an early age from teachings such as are found in the New England Primer. From cover to cover the Primer is more a book of Sunday school lessons than what you would think to find in public schools. It is clear from the Primer alone that our founders had no thought of separating religion and government, because the primer shows that early Americans revered God in everything done in life and therefore expected to pass that value on to latter generations through the public schools.
A faithful reprint of the 1777 Primer can be obtained at http://www.wallbuilders.com
Although this textbook was published by a private individual, it was the staple of young children educated in government established schools.
Congress enacts the printing of the Bible:
The last major battle of the American Revolution, (the war with the British crown) ended in 1781, thus turning the idea of independence from theory to reality. With this new established freedom from the laws of England, even before England signed an official peace treaty, Congress enacted in the same year, the printing of the first English language Bible printed in America, called “The Bible of the Revolution”.
On September 12, 1782 the full congress approved this bible and 20,000 copies were published making the U.S. Congress the first American Bible Society.
Printed in the front of that bible is a Congressional Endorsement; “Resolved, that the United States in Congress Assembled… recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States.”
The Congressional Record refers to this bible as; “A neat addition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of our schools.”
Why does Congress pray each morning before work?:
After weeks of heated deliberation for the writing of the United States Constitution,
Benjamin Franklin, one of the eldest statesmen present, made a speech to George Washington, the president of the constitutional Convention:
“Mr. President: In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor…And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel… I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business.”
Benjamin Franklin June 28, 1787
It is remarkable that this man, whom today is called; ‘one of the least religious founders’ was able to invoke from memory passages of scripture from James 1:17, Genesis 11, Psalm 127:1 and Matthew 10:29 in order to make his point.
The result of this convention was a uniquely American document with ideas never before collected into a written constitution. As a result out nation has endured over 230 years, longer than any other government under a single document.
Religion in our Law schools:
James Wilson, signer of both Declaration and Constitution, an original Justice on the US Supreme Court, Started the first organized legal training in America, teaching his law school at the same time sitting on the bench of the Supreme Court.
In his legal textbook for his students he wrote:
“Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine… Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other… Our all-gracious Creator, Preserver, and Ruler has been pleased to discover and enforce His laws by a revelation given to us immediately and directly from Himself. This revelation is contained in the Holy Scriptures.” - James Wilson
Because Divine law was the basis of American law, the 10 Commandments were more frequently found in civil buildings than in religious buildings.
Fisher Ames:
A framer of the Bill of Rights, and the Congressional member who proposed the final wording of the 1st amendment as passed in 1789.
In 1801 he wrote:
“It has been the custom of late years to put a number of little books into the hands of children, containing fables and moral lessons. This is very well because it is right first to raise curiosity and then to guide…
Why then, if these books for children must be retained, as they will be, should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure; its examples, captivating and noble. The reverence for the Sacred Book that is thus early impressed lasts long, and probably, if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the mind.” - Fisher Ames in 1801 book titled Schoolbooks
This from the man who carefully proposed the final wording of the 1st amendment in question!
The basis of all our laws:
“The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws…”
Noah Webster’s schoolbook; ‘The History of the United States’ 1832
Supreme Court rules; Religion must be kept in our public schools:
In the generation following the founding fathers, we have an example of how the courts interpreted the intent of the founders regarding religion’s influence in the public schools.
In this case a Philadelphia school announced that it would teach morality but not religion in that it would not allow ministers on campus.
Daniel Webster argued this case before the Supreme Court.
Mr. Webster’s argument was based on the idea that this provision was an attempt to prevent religious instruction at the school. In his argument, he told the court;
“when little children were brought into the presence of the Son of God, His disciples proposed to send them away, but (Jesus) said, “Suffer little children to come unto me (Matthew 19:14). Unto me!...And that injunction is of perpetual obligation; it addresses itself today with the same earnestness and the same authority which attended its fist utterance to the Christian world. It is of force everywhere and at all times; it extends to the ends of the earth, it will reach to the end of time always and everywhere sounding in the ears of men with an… authority which nothing can supersede. “Suffer little children to come unto Me.”
Daniel Webster 1844 - ‘Mr. Webster’s speech in defense of the Christian ministry and in favor of the religious instruction of the young, Delivered in the Supreme Court of the United States February 10th 1844’ in the case; Vidal v. Girard
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Webster’s argument, written by Justice Joseph Story the Supreme Court declared;
“Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a Divine revelation in the (schools) - Its general precepts expounded… and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament? Where are benevolence, the love of truth, sobriety, and industry, so powerfully and irresistibly inculcated as in the Sacred Volume?”
I include this here even though this was not from the founders, because being a generation removed from the founders, it clearly shows that after the founders documents were well established, But near enough to the authors generation, this Court above any other is perhaps best qualified to show the true intent, in action, of the Laws the founders established. This case shows nearly the identical efforts of some to remove religion from the government schools that we see today, but the court ruled in favor of religion then, but opposed to religion today. In recent times the courts have clearly changed, but the law, and the intent has not.
1892 'Columbian History on Education in Kansas’ by the Kansas Teachers Association:
“If the study of the Bible is to be excluded from all State schools - if the inculcation of the principles of Christianity is to have no place in the daily program - if the worship of God is to form no part of the general exercises of these public elementary schools - then the good of the State would be better served by restoring all schools to church control.”
State Superintendent of Public Instruction 1892.
What were the three points which the writer thought important to remain in the schools? Teach the Bible.
Inculcate the principles of Christianity.
Incorporate the daily worship of God.
The founders desire to keep religion in the government institutions was so well seated that nearly 100 years after the writing of the 1st Amendment, the attempt to remove religion from public schools had not yet been successful!
We have a duty to elect Christians to public office:
“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty - as well as the privilege and interest - of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” John Jay - original Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
It is clear that the Christian religion has been intentionally an integral part of government from its formation, and that until recently, it has constantly fended off the perpetual attempts to remove religion from government, rather than fended off attempts to include religion in government as our present generation assumes.
What element is vital to our system?
In 1853 a group petitioned congress to separate Christian principles from government.
The House Judiciary Committee Report came back March 27, 1854
“Had the people (the founding fathers), during the Revolution, a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle… At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and its amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, but not any one sect (denomination). In this age, there is no substitute fore Christianity... That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.”
Two months later they added:
“The great vital and conservative element in our system (the thing that holds our system together) is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Only time and limited space keeps me from adding 150 years of American history here showing that our founders were convinced that religion must remain a guiding authority in our government.
Continued from Post Jan. 19, 2010 Titled; "Separation of Church and State"
Part 3. Our founders expected us to intentionally use religion to keep our government healthy.
God’s Help earnestly requested in the work of the Continental Congress:
“Let us enter on this important business under the idea that we are Christians on whom the eyes of the world are now turned… let us in the first lace… humbly and penitently implore the aid of the Almighty God whom we profess to serve - let us earnestly call and beseech him for Christ’s sake to preside in our councils.” - Elias Boudinot, President of the Continental Congress.
Only religion can stop crime before it starts:
“The precepts of philosophy laid hold of actions only… (but Jesus) pushed his scrutinizes into the heart of man, erecting his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountainhead.” - Thomas Jefferson
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.”
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and a religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” - John Adams
One of America’s first education laws:
From The Code of 1650:
“It being one chief project of that old deluder Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so that at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers; and to the end that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors.
It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to fifty households, shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants general…
And it is further ordered, that when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammer school, the master thereof being able to instruct the youth so far as they may be fitted for the university.”
The Old Deluder Act: From Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England II: 203
Clearly this law states that the purpose of public education is that its students might have a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, believing that Satan used the government sponsored church of England to keep the Scriptures from the common man, which resulted in the suffering of the times prior to the Reformation which they had so recently become free of.
40 years later, The 1690 Connecticut Illiteracy Law:
“This (legislature) observing that not withstanding our former orders made for the education of children… there are many persons unable to read the English tongue, and thereby incapable of reading the Holy Word of God or the good laws of this (state).”
The New England Primer:
The first and longest lasting text book in America.
First published in 1690 in Boston by Benjamin Harris, it lasted continuously until the 1900s.
The 1900 edition described the impact of the Primer:
“The New England Primer was one of the greatest books ever published. It went through innumerable editions; it reflected in a marvelous way the spirit of the age that produced it, and contributed, perhaps more than any other book except the Bible, to the molding of those sturdy generations that gave to America its liberty and its institutions.”
Our founders were educated at an early age from teachings such as are found in the New England Primer. From cover to cover the Primer is more a book of Sunday school lessons than what you would think to find in public schools. It is clear from the Primer alone that our founders had no thought of separating religion and government, because the primer shows that early Americans revered God in everything done in life and therefore expected to pass that value on to latter generations through the public schools.
A faithful reprint of the 1777 Primer can be obtained at http://www.wallbuilders.com
Although this textbook was published by a private individual, it was the staple of young children educated in government established schools.
Congress enacts the printing of the Bible:
The last major battle of the American Revolution, (the war with the British crown) ended in 1781, thus turning the idea of independence from theory to reality. With this new established freedom from the laws of England, even before England signed an official peace treaty, Congress enacted in the same year, the printing of the first English language Bible printed in America, called “The Bible of the Revolution”.
On September 12, 1782 the full congress approved this bible and 20,000 copies were published making the U.S. Congress the first American Bible Society.
Printed in the front of that bible is a Congressional Endorsement; “Resolved, that the United States in Congress Assembled… recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States.”
The Congressional Record refers to this bible as; “A neat addition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of our schools.”
Why does Congress pray each morning before work?:
After weeks of heated deliberation for the writing of the United States Constitution,
Benjamin Franklin, one of the eldest statesmen present, made a speech to George Washington, the president of the constitutional Convention:
“Mr. President: In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor…And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel… I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business.”
Benjamin Franklin June 28, 1787
It is remarkable that this man, whom today is called; ‘one of the least religious founders’ was able to invoke from memory passages of scripture from James 1:17, Genesis 11, Psalm 127:1 and Matthew 10:29 in order to make his point.
The result of this convention was a uniquely American document with ideas never before collected into a written constitution. As a result out nation has endured over 230 years, longer than any other government under a single document.
Religion in our Law schools:
James Wilson, signer of both Declaration and Constitution, an original Justice on the US Supreme Court, Started the first organized legal training in America, teaching his law school at the same time sitting on the bench of the Supreme Court.
In his legal textbook for his students he wrote:
“Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine… Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other… Our all-gracious Creator, Preserver, and Ruler has been pleased to discover and enforce His laws by a revelation given to us immediately and directly from Himself. This revelation is contained in the Holy Scriptures.” - James Wilson
Because Divine law was the basis of American law, the 10 Commandments were more frequently found in civil buildings than in religious buildings.
Fisher Ames:
A framer of the Bill of Rights, and the Congressional member who proposed the final wording of the 1st amendment as passed in 1789.
In 1801 he wrote:
“It has been the custom of late years to put a number of little books into the hands of children, containing fables and moral lessons. This is very well because it is right first to raise curiosity and then to guide…
Why then, if these books for children must be retained, as they will be, should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure; its examples, captivating and noble. The reverence for the Sacred Book that is thus early impressed lasts long, and probably, if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the mind.” - Fisher Ames in 1801 book titled Schoolbooks
This from the man who carefully proposed the final wording of the 1st amendment in question!
The basis of all our laws:
“The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws…”
Noah Webster’s schoolbook; ‘The History of the United States’ 1832
Supreme Court rules; Religion must be kept in our public schools:
In the generation following the founding fathers, we have an example of how the courts interpreted the intent of the founders regarding religion’s influence in the public schools.
In this case a Philadelphia school announced that it would teach morality but not religion in that it would not allow ministers on campus.
Daniel Webster argued this case before the Supreme Court.
Mr. Webster’s argument was based on the idea that this provision was an attempt to prevent religious instruction at the school. In his argument, he told the court;
“when little children were brought into the presence of the Son of God, His disciples proposed to send them away, but (Jesus) said, “Suffer little children to come unto me (Matthew 19:14). Unto me!...And that injunction is of perpetual obligation; it addresses itself today with the same earnestness and the same authority which attended its fist utterance to the Christian world. It is of force everywhere and at all times; it extends to the ends of the earth, it will reach to the end of time always and everywhere sounding in the ears of men with an… authority which nothing can supersede. “Suffer little children to come unto Me.”
Daniel Webster 1844 - ‘Mr. Webster’s speech in defense of the Christian ministry and in favor of the religious instruction of the young, Delivered in the Supreme Court of the United States February 10th 1844’ in the case; Vidal v. Girard
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Webster’s argument, written by Justice Joseph Story the Supreme Court declared;
“Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a Divine revelation in the (schools) - Its general precepts expounded… and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament? Where are benevolence, the love of truth, sobriety, and industry, so powerfully and irresistibly inculcated as in the Sacred Volume?”
I include this here even though this was not from the founders, because being a generation removed from the founders, it clearly shows that after the founders documents were well established, But near enough to the authors generation, this Court above any other is perhaps best qualified to show the true intent, in action, of the Laws the founders established. This case shows nearly the identical efforts of some to remove religion from the government schools that we see today, but the court ruled in favor of religion then, but opposed to religion today. In recent times the courts have clearly changed, but the law, and the intent has not.
1892 'Columbian History on Education in Kansas’ by the Kansas Teachers Association:
“If the study of the Bible is to be excluded from all State schools - if the inculcation of the principles of Christianity is to have no place in the daily program - if the worship of God is to form no part of the general exercises of these public elementary schools - then the good of the State would be better served by restoring all schools to church control.”
State Superintendent of Public Instruction 1892.
What were the three points which the writer thought important to remain in the schools? Teach the Bible.
Inculcate the principles of Christianity.
Incorporate the daily worship of God.
The founders desire to keep religion in the government institutions was so well seated that nearly 100 years after the writing of the 1st Amendment, the attempt to remove religion from public schools had not yet been successful!
We have a duty to elect Christians to public office:
“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty - as well as the privilege and interest - of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” John Jay - original Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
It is clear that the Christian religion has been intentionally an integral part of government from its formation, and that until recently, it has constantly fended off the perpetual attempts to remove religion from government, rather than fended off attempts to include religion in government as our present generation assumes.
What element is vital to our system?
In 1853 a group petitioned congress to separate Christian principles from government.
The House Judiciary Committee Report came back March 27, 1854
“Had the people (the founding fathers), during the Revolution, a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle… At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and its amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, but not any one sect (denomination). In this age, there is no substitute fore Christianity... That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.”
Two months later they added:
“The great vital and conservative element in our system (the thing that holds our system together) is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Only time and limited space keeps me from adding 150 years of American history here showing that our founders were convinced that religion must remain a guiding authority in our government.
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