by Norman D. Fox -
America
obviously has a strong Christian heritage, dating from the first settlements of
this continent and extending, to some degree, to the present. (See Essay #3, Government and the Uniqueness of Christianity.) In recent decades, however, opponents of
Christianity have worked diligently to deny and suppress that heritage. (See Essay #13, Psalm 78 and America’s Lost History.)
Their success has engineered the outlawing, sometimes gradual and sometimes abrupt, of countless practices that all previous generations of Americans took for granted. These include the presence of war memorial crosses, nativity scenes, and representations of the Ten Commandments on public property, as well as prayers in public schools and at government-related events.
Such radical changes in our culture have not resulted from any change in the U.S. Constitution. Rather, judges have ruled many traditional practices “unconstitutional” despite the fact that the Constitution’s writers themselves did not consider them so, and neither had any courts or legislatures in the two centuries following the Founders. (See Essay #9, How Do We Know What Is Constitutional?)
The grim crusade against public acknowledgment of Christianity is far from over. The most visible new issue, since the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in June of 2002, has been whether to remove “under God” from the wording of our Pledge of Allegiance. The unfinished agenda still includes erasing our national motto, “In God We Trust,” from all public display, including its honored position on our money. Chaplains and prayers in Congress are under attack. The nationwide battle against the mere mention of Christmas is being pushed to new extremes every year. (See Essay #37, The Humbugging of Christmas.)
Our Founding Fathers were virtually unanimous in practicing and encouraging a public respect for the Bible and Christianity. Our national capitol building is full of this recognition, and the buildings and monuments around the city are covered with inscriptions of scripture and other God-honoring phrases. (See Essay #16, God’s Signature in Washington D.C.) These inscriptions would have to be literally sand-blasted out of existence if the goals of the militant secularists were to be fully achieved, but such a spectacle is not impossible if current trends are allowed to continue.
Thomas Jefferson, reputedly one of our “least Christian” Founders, said, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the Gift of God?” These words are inscribed in stone in Washington D.C.’s Jefferson Memorial to this day.
Benjamin Franklin, our other supposedly non-Christian Founder, insisted on official prayers at the Constitutional Convention. His formal motion concluded, “that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning, before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.” (See Essay #36, Public Prayer in America.)
John Adams wrote that he and the other Founders had publicly united on their only possible common ground, “the general Principles of Christianity… And the general Principles of English and American Liberty.” His son, John Quincy Adams, would later declare, “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; that it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” (Try to find the modern doctrine of the “separation of church and state” in that utterance. See Essay #12, Separation of Church and State.) John Adams’ cousin, Samuel Adams, “The Father of the American Revolution,” said that the “rights of the colonists as Christians” were best understood by reading the teachings of “The Great Lawgiver and Head of the Christian Church… in the New Testament.”
George Washington during his presidency wrote, “I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten… to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them.”
Washington and his generation would certainly “be pained” to see how God has been deliberately forgotten in so much of American government today. They knew the scriptures very well, including the fate of “nations that forget God” (Ps. 9:16-20, II Chron. 7:19ff). They acknowledged that all nations, not only Israel, were expected to worship God (Ps. 86:9) and to praise Him (Ps. 117:1). They recognized the Lord as “governor among the nations” (Ps. 22:28) and Christ as “the prince of the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5). They desired the blessing promised to “the nation whose God is the Lord” (Ps. 33:12). And they were rightly concerned that some day it would happen in America as it had in Israel (Judges 2:10) that “there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.” (See also Essay #42, Psalm 2: When Nations Defy God.)
Many concerned Christians wish to reverse the destructive trend toward extinguishing America’s Christian heritage. They should focus on restoring the original intent of the Constitution. Judges have no legitimate power to change laws and policies in sudden contradiction to two hundred years of precedent. Practices that have been acceptable since the beginning of the Republic cannot become unconstitutional overnight unless:
1) generations of American citizens and leaders have chronically misunderstood the Constitution and one court is suddenly illuminated with truth, or
2) the Constitution has been legitimately amended.
Judges are either elected by the people, or appointed and approved by other elected officials. Thus, our votes eventually produce our judges. Informed American voters must restore our nation’s respect for our Christian heritage and the rule of law, and not permit another generation of social engineering from the courts. (See Essay #32, Judicial Tyranny: Judges without Limits.)
For further study:
Catherine
Millard, The Rewriting of America’s History,
1991, Horizon Books, 3825, Hartzdale
Dr, Camp Hill, PA 17011,
www.cpi-horizon.com
John
W. Whitehead, The Second American
Revolution (Ch 3),
1982, David C. Cook Publishing Co, Elgin, IL 60120,
www.cookministries.com
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