Separation of Church and State?

Supreme Court Associate Justice David Brewer wrote a landmark decision in 1892 in the case of The Church of the Holy Trinity vs. The United States. This historic decision declared unequivocally that the United States is indeed a Christian nation.

The Aitkens Bible, otherwise known as the Bible of the Revolution, the first Bible in English to be printed in America was issued to fill a need created by war, since no Bibles were being imported. In 1781 Aitkens petitioned Congress for endorsement and financial aid to issue this Bible.

On September 10, 1782, a resolution was passed - "The United States in Congress assembled highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitkens . . . they recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States..."

George Washington wrote a friend, "It would have pleased me well, if Congress had been pleased to make such an important present (a copy of this Bible) to the brave fellows, who have done so much for the security of their Country's rights and establishment." Only 32 complete copies are known to exist.

Abraham Lincoln said: "I believe the Bible' is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us through this Book."

George Washington said: "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible ."

Charles Dickens said: "The New Testament' is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world."

Daniel Webster said: "If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures. If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Does that mean "Separation of Church and Sate"? I believe it means exactly what it says! Our government cannot make any law which establishes a religion, nor prevent one from being established. But, does that mean we must divorce our government from God? Absolutely not! Historically our great country has depended upon God for its very existence, and should, and shall continue to do so.

The freedom of the first amendment from federal interference is not FROM religion, but FOR religion. One Nation - Under God

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The following text should clearly demonstrate to the reader that the original intent of our founding fathers is exactly what they wrote in the First Amendment to the Constitution. In recent years our courts and legislators have interpreted it to mean something entirely different! In so doing, they themselves have violated that same Amendment. They have forbidden the free exercise of religion in the public school, and with the same pen they allow the teaching of "humanism". In 1961 The Supreme Court defined "humanism" as a religion.

The First Amendment was written to prevent the establishment of a national denominational church - such as existed in England.

The phrase 'wall of separation' is not found in the Constitution , nor is the term 'church and state'. Thomas Jefferson used the phrase 'wall of separation between church and state' in a letter written in 1802. Jefferson later clarified his statement. Thomas Jefferson's 'wall of separation' has been grossly misinterpreted from its original context, and now is being tragically misapplied to mean departation of God from government.

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The voice of God can clearly be heard throughout our history. If we are to survive as the greatest nation on earth, we must make heard that voice again. Let's take a look at what Abraham Lincoln warned us about on April 30, 1863. President Lincoln's Proclamation for a national Day of Fasting, Humilation and Prayer.

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as not other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Today - especially today - we find more than ever the impact of Lincoln's Proclamation to be accurate. In our world where drugs are common, crime is rampant, people living off the income of other people, violence in our schools and streets and homes, immorality preached in all forms from all forms, pornography being claimed as a right - by the very same amendment we are discussing here, state licensed murder of innocent children still in (or partially in) their mother's womb, men desiring to marry men, and those thing which God calls an abomination such as seen on TV adds and magazines, the astrologers and psychics and other satanic occult activities, and finally - true separation of our nation from the God that created it.
Lincoln said it behooves us to repent. Webster defines behoove as that which is necessary for, duty or obligation, to be proper for or incumbent upon, to be needed!
There was never a time in our history where this was more true. As a nation we have fallen away from God. Shall He fall away from us as He did for nations of the past?
History shall tell, even as history has foretold.

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Remember This?

O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain! America! American! God shed His Grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!
by Katharine Lee Bates

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Every coin minted in the United States bears, along with the bust of a past hero, these words: LIBERTY - IN GOD WE TRUST

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Declaration of Independence

(at the end) And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor.

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Mayflower Compact

(at the beginning) In the name of God, Amen.

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Treaty of Paris

In the name of the most Holy and Undivided Trinity.

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This is the year '1996'. That means 1,996 years after what?

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The concept of a secular state was virtually non-existent in 1776 as well as in 1787, when the Constitution was written, and no less so when the Bill of Rights was adopted. To read the Constitution as the charter for a secular state is to radically misread history. What the Constitution did do was to remove government control of religion.

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Daniel Webster

Our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religions principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits.

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The concluding words of our National Anthem summarize the fact that the United States of America was born out of a commitment to God and His principles.

Blessed with victory and peace, may this Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just;
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

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The phrase, 'In God We Trust' appears opposite the President of the Senate, who is the Vice President of the United States. The same phrase, in large words inscribed in marble, backdrops the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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Above the head of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are the Ten Commandments. The crier who opens each session, closes with the words, 'God save the United States and the Honorable Court.'

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Engraved on the metal cap at the top of the Washington Monument are the words, 'Praise be to God'. Lining the walls of the stairwell are such Biblical phrases as 'Search the Scriptures' 'Holiness to the Lord'.

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In the Library of Congress there are numerous quotations from Scripture. One reminds each American of his responsibility to his Maker: "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God.' (Micah 6:8) Another quotes (John 1:5) 'The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.'

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Chiseled in the granite at Lincoln's Memorial, 'That this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'

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At the Jefferson Memorial, in his own words, 'God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.'

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From all our history, America is indeed a Nation Under God. It was built upon the principles of Judeo-Christian ethics. The primary seven of which are:

The principle of dignity of human life; Exodus 20:13, Matthew 5:21-22
The principle of a monogamous family; Genesis 2:21-24, Ephesians 5:3-5
The principle of common decency; Genesis 3:7-21, Matthew 5:27-28, Ephesians 5:3-5
The principle of work ethic; Genesis 3:19, Exodus 20:9-10, II Thessalonians 3:10
The principle of the Abrahamic covenant; Genesis 12:1-3, Romans 11:1-2
The principle of God-centered education; Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Ephesians 6:4
The principle of divinely ordained establishments; The home - Genesis 2:21-24, Ephesians 5:22-23, State or civil government - Genesis 10:32, Romans 13:1-7, Religious Institutions - Exodus 25:8-9, Matthew 16:17-19

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Abraham Lincoln said; 'He who affects public sentiment does a far greater service to society than he who enacts statutes. May God help us affect public sentiment to honor God and once again follow His commandments while we still have the freedom to do so.'

One of George Washington's early official acts was the first Thanksgiving Proclamation, which reads:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor... It goes on to call the nation to thankfulness to Almighty God.

It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.

continue His blessing upon this nation and its Government,

And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity.

in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations,

with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor.

and knowing that except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain, with fervent supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I commit with humble but fearless confidence my own fate and the future destinies of my country.

And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction.

Beyond that I only look to the gracious protection of the Divine Being whose strengthening support I humbly solicit, an whom I fervently pray to look down upon us all. May it be among the dispensations of His providence to bless our beloved country with honors and with length of days.

I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness; and to that good Being who has blessed us by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and prospered the labors of our fathers and has hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other people, let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time.

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

In conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another throughout the land, and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do his share toward cementing a happy union; and I ask the prayers of the nation to Almighty God in behalf of this consummation.

I pray God I may be given the wisdom and the prudence to do my duty in the true spirit of this great people.

I ask the help of Almighty God in this service to my country to which you have called me.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.

With God's help, the future of mankind will be assured in a world of justice, harmony, and peace.

This is the work that awaits us all, to be done with bravery, with charity, and with prayer to Almighty God.

With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

sustained by our confidence in the will of God,

,that we had remembered the words of Micah and renewed our search for humility, mercy, and justice, (President Carter was remembering Micah, a prophet from the old testament)

Thank you. God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

Thank you and God bless you all.

I could not close this page without sharing with you this thought; all over the Internet are displayed slogans and icons proclaiming "freedom of speech". What some are really wanting is to protect their imaginary right to utter filth and display pornography - all under the color of the First Amendment. Ironically, there are 'NO' banners to be found proclaiming 'freedom of religion'. I proclaim that to loose an alleged 'right' to promote filth will have far less impact than that of loosing the support of God in protecting our great country. I am confident our founding fathers would be shocked and horrified at what is happening today; while the criers are quick to cry 'freedom' , they do so without even a whisper of 'responsibility'.

Then, is the America that they founded now lost? No, certainly not! But it's certainly headed down the wrong path. Should we be shocked that one out of every one hundred sixty seven Americans are in prison today?

There ARE 'absolute' rights and wrongs. It's a good thing to defend the 'right' so long as we recognize the 'wrong'.