To all those who still hold on to the myth of church/state separation which continues to be propagated in our public schools; to those who continue to believe the likes of Madalyn Murray O'Hair and other atheists who claim the United States was formed as a secular nation; to all those who believe the vast majority of our founding fathers were religiously neutral, asserting faith has no business in politics; let me slap you upside your ignorant head with a dose of reality. I offer you the following quotes for your consideration which, by the way, are a matter of public record; you may look them up yourself if you don't believe me. Anyway, here they are:
"Whereupon, Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled...recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, and hereby authorize [Robert Aitken] to publish this recommendation in the manner he shall think proper." (The Congress of the Confederation's endorsement subsequently printed on the 1st page of the Bible of the Revolution, 09/10/1782)
"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; I also firmly believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel..." (Benjamin Franklin in his address to the squabbling Constitutional Convention, 6/28/1787)
"We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps finally, staked on the experiment..." (Pres. George Washington, in his Inaugural Speech to Congress, 4/30/1789)
"Article III Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools, and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." (From the Northwest Ordinance; passed by Congress and signed by Pres. Washington, 08/04/1789)
"Day of Thanksgiving. Resolved. That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God...." (U.S. Congress, in a resolution to establish a National Day of Thanksgiving, 9/25/1789 [just 2 weeks after the 1st amendment to the Constitution was approved by Congress])
"The great vital and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ." (U.S. Congressional Resolution passed in May, 1854)
Friends, I could go on and on with the quotes, filling hundreds of pages if not thousands. You get the point, I'm sure. But let me just bring one more thing to your attention in order to clarify this church/state separation myth. The original draft of the Constitution's "establishment clause" stated:
"The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, be infringed."
This original draft went through dozens of revisions and counter-proposals as many of our founding fathers feared it gave government far too much latitude to regulate religion, the common belief being that as long as government doesn't establish and enforce a national religion it was free to otherwise regulate it. The final wording of the establishment clause was Divinely inspired, I believe, to be so broad in scope as to deny the government from making or enforcing any laws that pertain to, affect, support, or suppress religious belief and practice. In other words, the final wording of the establishment clause says to the government: "Hands off in any and all matters of religion. You cannot make any laws, either for or against, in any manner."
What this means is that government has no jurisdiction to determine anything in regard to religious belief and practice; that jurisdiction is left entirely up to the people. To believe otherwise is to then assume our founding fathers, having acted contrary to the language of the establishment clause before it was written, then changed their mind while constructing the Bill of Rights, then changed their mind again, violating the very language they wrote just weeks after it was written.
C'mon folks, are we so stupid as to believe that?
The founding fathers did not intend for the establishment clause to purge the government or our society of religious influence. Rather, it was intended to limit the government's jurisdiction in regulating religious thought and practice. They demonstrated through their own words and actions the importance of faith in the lives of the citizenry and its elected officials, education systems, public institutions, and the like. Only a willfully ignorant or intellectually dishonest person could read the words of our founding fathers and still deny the reality.
I for one will proudly stand on our rich Judeo-Christian heritage. I will proclaim the blessings of the Almighty God on our land while admonishing our people to be grave and sober, seeking God's forgiveness, protection, guidance, and continued favor. I know with whom the security of my life and soul rest even if the rest of the nation does not.
"We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps finally, staked on the experiment..." (Pres. George Washington, in his Inaugural Speech to Congress, 4/30/1789)
"Article III Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools, and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." (From the Northwest Ordinance; passed by Congress and signed by Pres. Washington, 08/04/1789)
"Day of Thanksgiving. Resolved. That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God...." (U.S. Congress, in a resolution to establish a National Day of Thanksgiving, 9/25/1789 [just 2 weeks after the 1st amendment to the Constitution was approved by Congress])
"The great vital and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ." (U.S. Congressional Resolution passed in May, 1854)
Friends, I could go on and on with the quotes, filling hundreds of pages if not thousands. You get the point, I'm sure. But let me just bring one more thing to your attention in order to clarify this church/state separation myth. The original draft of the Constitution's "establishment clause" stated:
"The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, be infringed."
This original draft went through dozens of revisions and counter-proposals as many of our founding fathers feared it gave government far too much latitude to regulate religion, the common belief being that as long as government doesn't establish and enforce a national religion it was free to otherwise regulate it. The final wording of the establishment clause was Divinely inspired, I believe, to be so broad in scope as to deny the government from making or enforcing any laws that pertain to, affect, support, or suppress religious belief and practice. In other words, the final wording of the establishment clause says to the government: "Hands off in any and all matters of religion. You cannot make any laws, either for or against, in any manner."
What this means is that government has no jurisdiction to determine anything in regard to religious belief and practice; that jurisdiction is left entirely up to the people. To believe otherwise is to then assume our founding fathers, having acted contrary to the language of the establishment clause before it was written, then changed their mind while constructing the Bill of Rights, then changed their mind again, violating the very language they wrote just weeks after it was written.
C'mon folks, are we so stupid as to believe that?
The founding fathers did not intend for the establishment clause to purge the government or our society of religious influence. Rather, it was intended to limit the government's jurisdiction in regulating religious thought and practice. They demonstrated through their own words and actions the importance of faith in the lives of the citizenry and its elected officials, education systems, public institutions, and the like. Only a willfully ignorant or intellectually dishonest person could read the words of our founding fathers and still deny the reality.
I for one will proudly stand on our rich Judeo-Christian heritage. I will proclaim the blessings of the Almighty God on our land while admonishing our people to be grave and sober, seeking God's forgiveness, protection, guidance, and continued favor. I know with whom the security of my life and soul rest even if the rest of the nation does not.
The phrase “separation of church and state” is but a metaphor to describe the underlying principle of the First Amendment and the no-religious-test clause of the Constitution. The absence of the phrase in the text of the Constitution assumes much importance, it seems, only to those who may have once labored under the misimpression the words appeared there and later learned of their mistake. To those familiar with the Constitution, the absence of the metaphor commonly used to describe one of its principles is no more consequential than the absence of other phrases (e.g., Bill of Rights, separation of powers, checks and balances, fair trial, religious liberty) used to describe other undoubted Constitutional principles.
ReplyDeleteSome try to pass off the Supreme Court's decision in Everson v. Board of Education as simply a misreading of Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists. That letter, though, played but a small part in the Court's decision. Indeed, the Court mentioned it only in passing after stating its conclusion based on a lengthy and detailed discussion (encompassing many pages and many footnotes) of the historical context in which the First Amendment was developed. The metaphor "separation of church and state" was but a handy catch phrase to describe the upshot of its conclusion. The Court's reading of the First Amendment in this regard was unanimous; all nine Justices agreed on that much, but split 5-4 on whether the Amendment precludes states from paying for transportation of students to religious schools.
Perhaps even more than Thomas Jefferson, James Madison influenced the Court's view. Madison, who had a central role in drafting the Constitution and the First Amendment, confirmed that he understood them to "[s]trongly guard[] . . . the separation between Religion and Government." Madison, Detached Memoranda (~1820). He made plain, too, that they guarded against more than just laws creating state sponsored churches or imposing a state religion. Mindful that old habits die hard and that tendencies of citizens and politicians could and sometimes did lead them to entangle government and religion (e.g., "the appointment of chaplains to the two houses of Congress" and "for the army and navy" and "[r]eligious proclamations by the Executive recommending thanksgivings and fasts"), he considered the question whether these were "consistent with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom" and responded: "In strictness the answer on both points must be in the negative. The Constitution of the United States forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion."
The First Amendment embodies the simple, just idea that each of us should be free to exercise his or her religious views without expecting that the government will endorse or promote those views and without fearing that the government will endorse or promote the religious views of others. By keeping government and religion separate, the establishment clause serves to protect the freedom of all to exercise their religion. Reasonable people may differ, of course, on how these principles should be applied in particular situations, but the principles are hardly to be doubted. Moreover, they are good, sound principles that should be nurtured and defended, not attacked. Efforts to transform our secular government into some form of religion-government partnership should be resisted by every patriot.
“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”
ReplyDelete–John Quincy Adams [July 4th, 1821]
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison proposed the plan to divide the;
central government into three branches.
He discovered this model of government from the Perfect Governor, as he read Isaiah 33:22;
“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver,
the LORD is our king;
He will save us.”
Lord have mercy on us, to profess to know God and let the dogs rend what we profess to be sacred.
Matt, I think you ARE "spot on" AND the world needs more Matt Gerwitz's to pass the message on to America's people, who are being deceived into believing anything other than, our history & its Consitution.
ReplyDeletetwitter.com/EvangelistTXOKL