In reality, throughout the late 1700s – the era of the Revolutionary War and the
subsequent adoption of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, including the
First Amendment – Christianity permeated America from top to bottom.
In 1777, with the
Revolutionary War threatening the flow of Bibles from England, Congress approved
the purchase of 20,000 Bibles from Holland to give to the states.
No fewer than six of the
13 original states had official, state-supported churches – "establishments of
religion"! I'll bet you didn't know that. In fact, these states – Connecticut,
Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and South Carolina – refused to
ratify the new national Constitution unless it included a prohibition of federal
meddling with their existing state "establishments of religion."
Still other states
required those seeking elected office to be Christians.
The Continental Congress
routinely designated days of "fasting and prayer" and other religious
observances, appointed government-funded chaplains, and appropriated money to
pay for Christian missionaries to convert the
Indians.
Patrick Henry -- 1775 -
Speech to the Virginia Convention
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to
be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know
not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me
death!
George Washington
--1793 - letter to the Members of the New Church in
Baltimore
We have abundant reason to rejoice that in
this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry
and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the
dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal
liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the
protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding
the highest Offices that are known in the United States.
Benjamin Franklin --1787 - Motion for Prayers
in the Constitutional Convention
And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? or do we
imagine we no longer need its 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?
George Washington's Thanksgiving Presidential
Proclamation -- 1789:
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the
26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the
service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the
good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering
unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the
people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and
manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the
course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility,
union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational
manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government
for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately
instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and
the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general,
for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon
us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our
prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech
Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether
in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties
properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the
people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws,
discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all
sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to
bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge
and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them
and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal
prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
A look at the First Amendment:
Excerpted from an article by David
Kupelian
"Congress …" – we know what that is.
"… shall make no law …" Well now, I'll bet you thought
you knew what that means. You thought it meant Congress shall make no law. But
what you didn't know was that in 1940, in the Supreme Court case of Cantwell v.
Connecticut, the justices decided – citing a mysterious legal principle called
"incorporation" – that the First Amendment applied not just to Congress, but to
state governments too. So now the federal government could force the states to
follow its dictates in regards to prohibiting the "establishment" or prohibiting
the "free exercise" of religion. This is obviously something the original 13
states would have rejected outright, given that half of them had state
"establishments" of religion.
"…respecting an establishment of religion …" For 150
years an "establishment of religion" in the context of the First Amendment meant
that a national church, a particular denomination, wouldn't be supported and
imposed on the states by the federal government. But with the decline of
Christianity in the U.S. and, indeed, increasing hostility toward it, the
meaning of "establishment of religion" has been radically changed – just like
the words in the Stephen Stills song. Today, "establishment of religion" means
the mere public mention of God, Christ, the Bible, the Ten Commandments, prayer
and so on. The "God Bless America" banner erected on a California public school
to honor those killed in the 9-11 terror attacks was attacked by the ACLU as an
unconstitutional establishment of religion.
But to make this seduction even more powerful, the
First Amendment religion clauses have been morphed into the phrase, "a wall of
separation between Church and State" – eight words taken out of context from an
incidental letter of courtesy Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802.
You rarely hear the actual wording of the First
Amendment anymore. But "separation of church and state" is one of those phrases
that roll off the tongues of judges and journalists so easily and so often, most
of us assume it's in the Constitution.
In fact, one of the justices on the New York Supreme
Court, back in a 1958 First Amendment case called Baer v. Kolmorgen, made this
very point when he commented: "Much has been written in recent years concerning
Thomas Jefferson's reference in 1802 to 'a wall of separation between church and
State.' ... Jefferson's figure of speech has received so much attention that one
would almost think at times that it is to be found somewhere in our
Constitution."
But there's a method to this constant repetition, as
marketers well know: Say it enough times, and people come to believe it.
The celebrated 18th century American philosopher
William James put it more pungently: "There is nothing so absurd but if you
repeat it often enough people will believe it."
Indeed, there are very few phrases more familiar to
Americans than "the separation of church and state." Marketers pay millions to
brand their product or make their political candidate a household name. But just
as with commercial or political marketing, widespread familiarity with a slogan
doesn't necessarily mean the message is true.
If Jefferson's "wall of separation" has come to mean
that any reference to God must be eliminated from government, schools and
anything the government funds, then what did the phrase originally mean, as
Jefferson used it?
Ironically, Jefferson intended for his letter to the
Danbury Baptists to reassure them that the new federal government would not
endanger the free expression of their religion. This is widely known. But what
is not well known is that Jefferson did not actually coin the phrase "separation
of church and state."
Rather, he borrowed the metaphor from the sermon, "The
Garden and the Wilderness," which was very familiar to Baptists of the time. As
Jim Henderson, senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice
explains it:
That sermon, rendered by Roger Williams (the
founder of the Rhode Island Plantation colony) and a Baptist, depicted the
church as a garden, the world as a wilderness, and the wall as a device of the
Creator's invention that protected the garden from being overrun by the
wilderness. Williams explained that, from time to time, for the purpose of
disciplining sin in the church, "it hath pleased" the Almighty to break down the
wall.
Thomas Jefferson, ever the politician, knew when he communicated with
the Baptists that "The Garden and The Wilderness" was well known and widely read
nearly two generations later. He appealed to them in the terms of their own
great man's idiom.
There you have it. The "wall of separation" was meant
to protect "the garden" of the church from being overrun by "the wilderness" of
government. No wonder Chief Justice Rehnquist has said, "The metaphor of a 'wall
of separation' is bad history and worse law. It has made a positive chaos out of
court rulings. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned."
Ps 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people
whom he hath chosen for his own
inheritance.