OUR FOUNDING FATHERS
America is now in it's 3rd generation of school children, since modern day judicial activism, has systematically removed historical TRUTH from the text books. And what is this truth that is supposedly so damaging to our children? The simple truth that America was founded by primarily Godly men, to be a Godly Country, run by a God Fearing Government! The Bible was important to the Continental Congress and our Founding Fathers. On September 11, 1777, they recommended that 20,000 copies of the Bible be imported from outside the colonies because there was a great shortage of Bibles due to the interruptions in trade with England. The Bibles were ordered and paid for by the newly formed government. The first page of each Bible was inscribed, "Approved for the American people." A few years later, Congress approved a distinctly American Bible, Aitken's Bible, published under Congressional patronage. Until the mid 1900's, our government continually sought for ways to integrate religious principles into our nation, and even paid for it most of the time! Obviously, there was no such thing as "Separation of Church and State" until our radical modern era. Today's children are being lied to and brain washed into believing just the opposite. There will be very little commentary throughout the rest of this article, as my aim is to present to you the actual quotations from our Founders, and let you decide for yourself. I have also included some quotations towards the end from some of our nation's leaders since the Founding Era. Hear now, as America's Founders speak.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
"It is hoped that by God's assistance, some of the continents in the Ocean will be discovered....for the Glory of God." And, at his famous landing, "It was the Lord who put into my mind--I could feel His hand upon me--the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project recited it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspirations from the Holy Spirit."
THE PILGRIMS MAYFLOWER COMPACT
"Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian Faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia,"
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
NEW HAMPSHIRE CONSTITUTION, 1776
"That morality and piety, rightly grounded on evangelical principles, would give the best and greatest security to government....therefore the legislature is empowered to adopt measures for the support and maintenance of public Christian teachers of piety, religion, and morality."
WILLIAM PENN
"If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants."
JOHN JAY - First Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court
"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. COMMENTARY: If our Founding Fathers really intended for there to be such a thing as "Separation of Church and State", don't you just have to believe that this man would have known about it?
BENJAMIN RUSH
"Let the children...be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education. The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effectual means of extirpating [removing] Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools."
Dr. Rush wrote his Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic, 1786: "_I proceed...to inquire what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all of the advantagesthat are to be derived from the proper instruction of the youth; and here I beg leave to remark that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid on the foundation of religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments...But the religion I mean to recommend in this place is that of the New Testament...Its doctrines and precepts are calculated to promote the happiness of society and the safety and well-being of civil government."
NOAH WEBSTER
"Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the christian religion......The religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and his apostles......This is genuine christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government." AND "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed....No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."
DANIEL WEBSTER
"God intends you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God...If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupt."
GEORGE MASON
Mason was known as "The Father of the Bill of Rights." He was one of 55 who wrote the U.S. Constitution, but was also one of 16 who refused to sign it because it did not limit the power of the Federal Government. It was through Mason's insistence that, in the first session of Congress, ten limitations were put on the Federal Government. Mason had suggested the wording of the First Amendment be: "All men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that no particular sect or society of Christians ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others."
PATRICK HENRY
In a 1796 letter to his daughter Henry stated: " Amongst other strange things said of me, I hear it is said by the deists that I am one of their number; and, indeed, that some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives me much more pain than the appelation of Tory; because I think religion of infinitely higher importance than politics; and I find much cause to reproach myself that I have lived so long and have given no decided and public proofs of my being a Christian. But, indeed, my dear child, this is a character which I prize far above all this world has, or can boast."
SAMUEL ADAMS
"The rights of the colonists as Christians...may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament."
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
"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."
JOHN MARSHALL, FOURTH CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT
Justice Marshall wrote in a letter to Jasper Adams, May 9, 1833: "The American population is entirely Christian, and with us Christianity and Religion are identified. It would be strange indeed, if with such a people, our institutidid not presuppose Christianity, and did not often refer to it, and exhibit relations with it."
SUPREME COURT JUSTICE JOSEPH STORY
Having been appointed to the Supreme Court by the person who introduced the First Amendment in Congress, James Madison, stated: "The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects."
THOMAS COOLEY
Cooley's legal commentaries have had a major impact on law in America. In his General Principles of Constitutional Law (1890), Cooley wrote: "It was never intended by the Constitution that the government should be prohibited from recognizing religion, or that religious worship should never be provided for in cases where a proper recognition of Divine Providence in the working of government might seem to require it...The Christian religion was always recognized in the administration of the common law of the land, the fundamental principles of that religion must continue to be recognized in the same cases and to the same extent as formerly."
PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."
JAMES MADISON
"Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. Religion is the basis and foundation of government."
Madison was called the Father of the Constitution, and in 1788 he commented on the role of the Supreme Court: "As the courts are generally the last in making the decision, it results to them, by refusing or not refusing to execute a law, to stamp it with its final character. This makes the Judiciary department paramount in fact to the Legislature, which was never intended, and can never be proper."
JOHN ADAMS, 1798
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." AND "It must be felt that there is no security but in the nation's humble acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence."
THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1803
"My views...are the result of a lifetime of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others..."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
When presented with the gift of a Bible, President Lincoln said: "In regard to this great book, I have to say, it is the best gift God has given to men. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it."
ULYSSES S. GRANT
"I believe in the Holy Scriptures and whoso lives by them will be benefited thereby. Men may differ as to the interpretation, which is human, but the Scriptures are man's best guide. Yes, I know, and I feel very grateful to the Christian people of the land for their prayers on my behalf. There is no sect or religion, as shown in the Old or New Testament, to which this does not apply. God gave us Lincoln and liberty. Let's fight for both."
PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND
"Above all, I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek His powerful aid."
PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON
"A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about..."
"The Bible is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and needs of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation. America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture."
PRESIDENT CALVIN COOLIDGE
"They [the Founding Fathers] were intent upon establishing a Christian commonwealth in accordance with the principle of self-government. They were an inspired body of men. It has been said that God sifted the nations that He might send choice grain into the wilderness. Who can fail to see in it the hand of destiny? Who can doubt that it has been guided by a Divine Providence?"
PRESIDENT HERBERT HOOVER
"When there is a lack of honor in Government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned. Our strength lies in spiritual concepts. It lies in public sensitiveness to evil. Our greatest danger is not from invasion by foreign armies. Our dangers are that we may commit suicide from within by complaisance with evil, or by public tolerance of scandalous behavior."
PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN
"The fundamental basis of this nation's law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teaching we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul."
PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
"Without God there could be no American form of government nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first--the most basic--expression of Americanism."
On June 14, 1954, President Eisenhower signed the Joint Resolution of Congress (Public Law 396) adding the phrase "One Nation Under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. Eisenhower stated: "From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty. To anyone who truly loves America, nothing can be more inspiring than to contemplate this rededication of our youth, on each school morning, to our country's true meaning." Eisenhower concluded: "In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shaconstantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most poerful resource, in peace or in war."
WILLIAM ORVILLE DOUGLAS
He was a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for 36 years, after teaching law at Yale and Columbia University.
In the 1952 case of Zorach v. Clauson, Justice William Douglas asserted:
"The First Amendment, however, does not say that in every respect there shall be a separation of Church and State...
Otherwise the state and religion would be aliens to each other - hostile, suspicious, and even unfriendly."
Justice Douglas continued:
"We are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being....
When the state encourages religious instruction...it follows the best of our traditions_ We find no constitutional requirement makes it necessary for government to be hostile to religion and to throw its weight against the efforts to widen the scope of religious influence...
We cannot read into the Bill of Rights such a philosophy of hostility to religion_ The state may not establish a _religion of secularism_ in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion, thus preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe."