A lot of Americans really think that there is a clause in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution that says that there is a "separation of church and state". Larry King on CNN was flabbergasted one evening when a preacher told him that it was not there.
So what does the Declaration of Independence actually state? It says the following:
"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."
In other words, in America, our rights come from God, our Creator, and not from a political party or the government. The Founding Fathers put this in there to differentiate the American model from the European model of government. In Europe, they had something called "the divine right of kings", which meant that God bestowed his blessings and rights on the King, who then doled them out to the populace as he saw fit. In America, however, the people were bestowed rights from God, and they in turned gave them to the government as they saw fit. In other words, the European model of governance was turned on its head.
The Declaration of Independence closes with these words:
"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."
The Founding Fathers knew that things would be tough, so they invoked God and His divine providence. The atheists in this country who go around saying that all of the Founding Fathers were more like them than religious people are dead wrong.
And what about the US Constitution, what does it say about religion? The First Amendment in the Bill of Rights to it says the following:
"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."
What it plainly says is that Congress shall not pass a law mandating the establishment of a national religion. The framers were very cognizant of the laws of England, and how the Church of England (The Anglican Church) was the national Church, with the King of England being its head. It had been started by Henry VIII, when the Pope refused to grant him an annulment from Catherine of Aragon. The murderous reign of Henry VIII and his successors who killed Catholics by the thousands in the name of God was something that the Founding Fathers did not want for America.
However, years later, the so-called "Supreme" Court twisted its meaning and reinterpreted it to mean there shall be no religious displays or religious speech in or around government buildings, including the 10 Commandments on state property, prayer in public schools, or pastors/preacher endorsing political candidates. This bastardization of the religion clause of the First Amendment, which is grouped with the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom to peaceable assembly, and the right to petition the government, has led to the most hypocritical government stance ever. Why? Well, the 10 Commandments are on the wall of the Supreme Court, but evidently cannot be in a STATE courtroom in Alabama. Vocal prayer in public schools is forbidden, but Congress opens every session with a prayer by a federally supported CHAPLAIN. No religious symbols of any kind are allowed in public schools or courthouses, but there are crosses and stars of David on many tombstones, paid for with your tax dollars, in Veterans Administration cemeteries across the country. Additionally, every Army Post and Air Force Base has a federally funded chapel, with federally funded chaplains, that use federally funded bibles, candles, and communion hosts for their services.
The loud atheists among us would have you really believe that most of the founding fathers were something called "Deists", which are people who acknowledged some kind of deity, but not Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of us all. But, the last line of the Constitution reads as follows:
Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names...
The phrase, "The Year of our Lord" can only refer to Jesus Christ, so the Deist argument is clearly erroneous.
In George Washington's farewell address, he states the following:
"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 of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And 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 of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
Here the Father of our Country plainly states that religion and morality are not only necessary for America's success, but that you cannot separate one from the other. A lot of people today are trying to do just that. But once you slice morality away from the basic tenets of the Bible, then anything goes, based on the charisma of the person espousing the latest craze, or the amount of advertising and propaganda being spewed forth on TV, or by how good it sounds on the surface, without taking into account the long range effects of it.
And then there is Honest Abe Lincoln and the civil war. His credo and that of the entire abolitionist movement was summed up in their battle anthem, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", which is a truly Christian Hymn if there ever was one.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.
I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
"As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal";
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;
[originally ...let us die to make men free]
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.
Hallelujah means "Praise the Lord. It mentions " a fiery gospel" and grace. "In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea". "Crush the serpent" is a reference to Genesis 3:15. The final judgement. Anyone who doesn't recognize the US government invoking Jesus in the battle to free the slaves is clearly blind.
In our time, a Baptist preacher, The Reverend Martin Luther King, led the battle for civil rights. This is all seen as right and good by just about everyone in America, and the fact that he invoked Jesus Christ from the pulpit to fulfill his mission for governmental civil rights is never even seen as a conflict of the "separation of church and state". But let preachers or priests today mention the candidates today who support the evils of abortion and 48 million innocent deaths from the pulpit, and a group calling itself the "Americans United for the Separation of Church and State" will try to haul them into court. It is indeed a hypocritical stance by the radical left in our country.
And then there are the official US government holidays of CHRISTmas and Thanksgiving, two religious holidays officially sanctioned by the US government. Millions of dollars of leave time are paid to government employees to not work on those days.
AND....The US Motto is "In GOD We Trust". It is on our money. In US courtrooms across the land, witnesses are sworn in with their hand on the Bible, taking an oath to tell the truth, followed by the words, "So Help Me GOD". The President of the USA takes the Oath of Office with his hand on the Bible, and swears on it to uphold the Constitution.
In summary, the alleged separation of church and state, a phrase used by Thomas Jefferson in a PRIVATE letter to the Danbury Baptist Church, is found no place in official government documents, except in a tortured reinterpretation of the Constitution by the courts.
Would that America trust in the Supreme Being more than in the Supreme Court!
http://www.CatholicBible101.com
What Happens To Nonbelieving
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