From: jburrill@boi.hp.com (Jim Burrill)
Subject: The Health of a Great Nation....
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 14:00:29 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard / Boise, Idaho
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1.8 PL6]


The purpose of the following text is to explore the importance of God and
Christianity to the health of our nation, and the importance of respect for 
God and the Bible. 

- 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."


STATEMENT #1: Many important leaders since the forefathers have respected and
even acknowledged the power and necessity of the Bible in governing our nation.

QUOTES: 

"Our laws and institutions must necessarily be based on the teachings of 
The Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in
this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are 
emphatically Christian...This is a religious people. This is historically      
true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a
single voice making this affirmation...we find everywhere a clear            
recognition of the same truth...These, and many other matters which might
be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass organic 
utterances that this is a Christian nation."- Supreme Court, 1892 [1]

- George Washington: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the
invisible hand that conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the
United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of
an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of 
providential agency... We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious
smiles of heaven cannot be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal
rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained."[2]

- Abraham Lincoln: "It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own 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"
 
- Noah Webster: "The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the
religion of Christ and His apostles...to this we owe our free consitutions
of government."

QUESTION: Why does the education lobby so oppose to the teaching of our    
nation's Christian Heritage? The example is that of George Washington. There
is a stained glass window in the Chapel of the United States Senate in
Washington, D.C. depicting Washington kneeling in prayer before battle. It is
titled "Washington's Gethsemane". Another example is that of the Ten
Commandments on the wall in the Supreme court chambers. Yet, in public school
textbooks, these are never mentioned. Why is that?

- Noah Webster: "The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures
ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the 
miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice,
oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising of neglecting the
precepts contained in the Bible"         

OBSERVATION: Does this mean that by ruling out the Bible, can we expect more
of the same evils that we have attempted to eliminate in the past ?

"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" -Star spangled Banner


STATEMENT #2: Laws must be based on a higher authority than man.

QUOTES:

- John Quincy Adams: "The first and only book deserving of universal atten-
tion is the Bible"

- Abraham Lincoln: "All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated
through this book; but for the Book we could not know right from wrong. All
the things desirable to man are contained in it."

OBSERVATION: What has changed in the past 120 years or so to render Lincoln's
statement invalid?

- Woodrow Wilson: "...the Bible... is the one supreme source of revelation
of the meaning of life, the nature and need of men. It is the only guide of
life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation."

- Calvin Coolidge: "The foundations of our society and our government rest
so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support
them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in
our country"

QUESTION: What about the separation of Church and State? Doesn't the First 
Amendment guarantee it?

The words "wall, separation, church , or state" are not found anywhere in the
Consitution or the Bill of Rights. Those words orginated in a document sent
from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, thirteen
years after congress passed the First Amendment. The letter was in response to
a letter Jefferson had received from the group, telling about fears that the
United States Government was about to officially sponsor a "Church of the
United States", much similar to the "Church of England", or the Anglican
Church. This is what the First Amendment was made to prohibit.

"I contemplate with solemn reverence the act of the whole American people
which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting the 
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus
building a wall of separation between church and state."[3]

Thus he reminded them that the First Amendment prohibited government from
establishing the pre-eminence of any one denomination. But why the phrase
"separation of Church and state?" Roger Williams, founder of this Baptist
group had written that the "garden of the church" should be protected from
the "wilderness of the world" by a "wall of separation". This was a one-way
wall to keep the world out of the church, but never intended to keep the 
church out of the world.


Jefferson's text was not referenced for several years, until the year 1878, in
the case "REYNOLDS vs. UNITED STATES". The plaintiffs in this case were 
arguing that the laws against polygamy were unconstitutional according to the
establishment clause and the doctrine of separation of Church and State.[4]
At that time, the Court looked up the letter of Jefferson's, and concluded 
that they were obliged to legislate according to Christian Standards of 
Behavior. The CONSCIENCE of a citizen was protected (Denomination), but 
CONDUCT was a basis for legal ruling. Think about the ramifications of that
ruling as it applies to "claimed" religious practices today.
     Then in 1947, the Court reversed that ruling in the case of EVERSON vs.
BOARD of EDUCATION. In this case, though, the court used only 8 of Jefferson's
words to make a ruling, "a WALL of separation between CHURCH and STATE". These
words were taken out of context, and the meaning of the statement was changed.
[5]

The result of this action was to overturn actions taken by the court itself
on previous rulings. This was done by taking a very minor incident that 
occurred several years after the writing of the First Amendment, and use the
incident totally out of context. By deleting portions of the Letter, and  
ignoring to whom it was written, the Court was able to make it say what they
wanted it to say.

*** Conclusion ***
I submit to you that something occurred between 1898 and 1947 to change the
ruling of the Supreme Court, and the ruling of 1947 is invalid when placed in
the context of all the previous rulings, as well as the statements of other
great leaders of our past, and the context of Thomas Jefferson's letter upon
which the ruling is supposed to be based. It is invalid to base a court ruling 
on only 8 words of a letter. The quotes above, along with the previous quotes,
show that our Constitution and laws had their foundation in the Bible and      
from Biblical principles. To remove this foundation has sent the country in
an out-of-control mode, tossing to and fro with every storm that comes. 



FOOTNOTES:
[1] The case of Church of Holy Trinity vs. United States
[2] From Inaugural Address by George Washington
[3] "Reynolds vs. United States" U.S. 145 (1878)
[4] "Reynolds vs. United States"
[5] "Everson vs. Board of Education" 330 U.S. 1(1947)