Source: http://committeefortheconstitution.org/?m=200401
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 07:28:23+00:00

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The governments of the United States of America are established as republican democracies instituted on the order of law. The “supreme law of the land”, our Constitution is the foundation of all other law. In a republican democracy, it is critical that the intention of the lawmaker be preserved and protected for the will of the majority of its citizens to govern.
On September 25, 1789, when the first Congress, meeting in the City Hall of New York, submitted twelve amendments to the Constitution, they were responding to the pressures from the populations of every state to clearly protect the “unalienable Rights” understood by all as granted by God. During the debates on the adoption of the Constitution, opponents to adoption were very fearful that the Constitution as drafted would allow tyranny by the Federal government. Fresh on their minds was the British abridgement of civil rights leading to and during the Revolution. Citizens demanded a “bill of rights” that would spell out their individual immunities. Several state conventions in ratification of the Constitution requested such amendments, and others ratified the Constitution with the expressed condition that such amendments would be appended. Resulting in the ten amendments ratified, now known as the “Bill of Rights, Congress hoped to settle the people’s concerns over the tyranny of government power. Now, the branch intended by the framers to be the least powerful has usurped its authority and become as much of an unjust tyrant as any dictator or despot raising its ugly head in our entire history. Enabled by a Congress unwilling to fulfill its oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution from these traitors, some Senators have chosen to join forces with the enemy robbing us of our freedom. Recalling the words of our first president, George Washington to John Hancock in a letter from his headquarters in Newburgh, N.Y.on June 11th 1783, we the people must rise to defend our liberty from these traitors cloaked as judicial activists. It is also absolutely imperative that any elected official guilty of economic bribery while voting for murder in partial birth abortion, or allowing our children to be contaminated with filth and disease spread by a sick minority, be removed by the voters from office. Joining enemies only more brazen since September 11, these traitors in our midst, must be removed from office. Treason emanating from any position of “honor and trust” is even more despicable. Coming from the benches intended to administer “liberty, and justice for all”, it is intolerable.
Conspicuous in all of the assaults on our freedom are the perversions of the clear intention of the First Amendment that this Committee has previously referenced regarding the “establishment clause”. Beginning in 1947 with Everson v. Board of Education, and moving into Engel v. Vitale in 1962, to Abington Township v. Schempp in 1963, and to Stone v. Graham in 1980, the Supreme Court has replaced the intention of the Constitution with their own prejudices. The opinions in dissent are more telling of the Court’s repeated and ongoing error than any other argument. Here errant jurists, far less than the three-quarters necessary for the states to ratify amendment to the Constitution, dictate and impose their tyranny on the minority of their colleagues, and pass their injustice on to us. Originally concerned to avoid any governmental limit on the “free exercise” of religion, Congress and the people through ratification were intent on prohibiting the monetary support of any church by discriminate use of tax dollars. How any public display or prayer acknowledging our Christian heritage violates that intention or usurps the rights of those of differing views or religious beliefs is beyond comprehension. Reality suggests that the real issue is that the consciousness of those objecting to recognizing the “Creator” of all immutable law have their own denial of Truth exposed.
Mr. Justice Stewart, dissenting in Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) says it succinctly.
“With all respect, I think the Court has misapplied a great constitutional principle. I cannot see how an “official religion” is established by letting those who want to say a prayer say it. On the contrary, I think that to deny the wish of these school children to join in reciting this prayer is to deny them the opportunity of sharing in the spiritual heritage of our Nation.
The Court’s historical review of the quarrels over the Book of Common Prayer in England throws no light for me on the issue before us in this case. England had then and has now an established church. Equally unenlightening, I think, is the history of the early establishment and later rejection of an official church in our own States. For we deal here not with the establishment of a state church, which would, of course, be constitutionally impermissible, but with whether school children who want to begin their day by joining in prayer must be prohibited from doing so. Moreover, I think that the Court’s task, in this as in all areas of constitutional adjudication, is not responsibly aided by the uncritical invocation of metaphors like the “wall of separation,” a phrase nowhere to [370 U.S. 421, 446] be found in the Constitution. What is relevant to the issue here is not the history of an established church in sixteenth century England or in eighteenth century America, but the history of the religious traditions of our people, reflected in countless practices of the institutions and officials of our government.
In Alabama, their Supreme Court abandoned their Chief Justice to yield to their fraternity dictating injustice. Instead, calling themselves members of the congregations of the bar, jurists at every level yoke us with their false religion. Extending this intrusion to the other issues, it is evident that Congress has deserted us in our fight. As we previously proposed, under the authority of Article III, Section 2, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution, Congress could remove jurisdiction of the courts from any cause or matter they would so choose. This fulfillment of explicit Constitutional intention would relegate this branch of government to its intended weakest position, so “that this Nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom”. It is of significant note the even the doctrine of judicial review, instituted in 1803 in Marbury v. Madison originates from the court rather than from the Constitution.
Alternatively, legislatures could throttle the judicial tyranny by cutting off any funds for their nefarious schemes. Rarely has this very practical censure been applied, making impeachment of the traitors by their accomplices at bar resident in all levels of legislatures even more unlikely. Lawyers elected to a public trust must declare their allegiance to the Constitution or be removed.
The following article, “The Ten Commandments Controversy” by Michael Novak, is reprinted by permission from Imprimis, the national speech digest of Hillsdale College, .
On August 27 of this year, under the direction of U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson, a small monument (not even four feet high) of the Ten Commandments was removed from the back end of the towering rotunda in the Alabama state courthouse. Judge Thompson’s argument for removing the monument runs as follows: Any recognition by the Alabama Supreme Court of a special role for the God of Judaism and Christianity in this nation’s understanding of civil and political rights represents an establishment of religion, and thus violates the First Amendment.
Opposing this argument, now-suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy S. Moore pointed out that the Virginia Declaration of Rights, James Madison’s “Memorial and Remonstrance” and the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom – founding-era documents defining the idea of religious liberty that is embodied in the First Amendment – all appeal to a particular concept of God, with a fairly narrow range of characteristics. This God is almighty, and created the mind free. Further, He wishes to be worshiped by men and women who do so freely, under no duress or coercion, and solely according to the light of their own conscience. Any abuse of the right to religious liberty will have to be answered directly to Him in judgment, for it is an abuse against Him, not solely against humans. To worship Him, but solely as conscience directs, is a duty owed to Him as Creator and Judge. This duty owed Him grounds a personal responsibility and, therefore, a right. No one else can perform this responsibility in our place; therefore, the right is inalienable. In creating our minds both duty-bound and yet free, in other words, the Creator endowed us with certain rights, among them the right to religious liberty.
Judge Thompson explained this historical fact by asserting that such usage may have been fitting when most American citizens were Christians or Jews. Nowadays, however, that inference goes too far, because we see more clearly that rights are endowed also in Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, and indeed all humans. (Of course, the Founders expressly affirmed this universality too; it is also implicit in the doctrine of “natural rights.”) Among the many and varied religions, furthermore, Supreme Court precedents of the past half-century insist that the federal government ought not to show favoritism; not even to religion over non-religion. Indeed, the Court has developed an extreme, non-historical version of what constitutes “establishment.” Thus, either the Supreme Court jurisprudence of the past 50 years needed to be overhauled, or the monument had to be moved.
In thinking about who is right on this issue, it might be useful, first, to make some distinctions concerning the particulars of the case. For instance, on the outside wall of the federal courthouse in Montgomery is a much larger statue of Artemis, described in the Court’s brochure as the Greek goddess of justice. No one asserts that that statue represents an establishment of religion. Perhaps that is because no one still believes that Artemis is a real goddess. In any case, the mere stone embodiment of her image obliges no one’s conscience. But then, in similar fashion, Chief Justice Moore’s stone embodiment of a portion of a page from the Book of Exodus also puts no obligation upon the conscience of anyone who chooses not to accept that text as authoritative.
Second, the controversial text is from the Old Testament, not the New Testament. That made it less sectarian and broader. Furthermore, even if one does not take the Ten Commandments literally, as a gift by the Almighty to Moses, one may take them as a symbol of that higher law (“of Nature and Nature’s God”) reached by reason itself. Such a higher law has traditionally been seen (by Americans from the signers of the Declaration of Independence through Martin Luther King, Jr.) as infusing all man-made law, on the one hand, and upholding a standard beyond the power of governments to alter or abrogate, on the other. Only such a law is a sure foundation for our rights against the changing tempests of political fortune.
Third, the monument stood at least 90 feet distant, maybe more, from the front entrance of the Alabama state courthouse, all the way across the rotunda at the opposite wall. It was impossible at that distance even to make out what it was, let alone what was written upon it. No one was obliged to approach the small marble block close enough to be able to make out the words.
And finally, all 15 of the texts upon its sides were either already familiar or readily recognizable as classics of U.S. or Alabama law, or quotations from major American Founders. In the sense that Americans are expected to venerate the law, an air of veneration was present, but rather in the form of a history lesson on the American link between religion and law. The four dominant texts came from the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Judiciary Act of 1789, and the U.S. Code.
Still, the main point in this case was the unique character of the Jewish and Christian God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus is unlike any other God known to the ancient religions of Greece, Rome or the Middle East, or any other religion known to our Founders. Uniquely, this God wishes to be worshiped in spirit and truth, in whatsoever manner conscience directs, without coercion of any sort. This God reads hearts, and is satisfied only with purity of conscience and conviction. Those who belong to any other religion or tradition, or who count themselves among agnostics or atheists, are thereby given by this God equal freedom. They, too, must follow their individual consciences. This God wishes to be worshiped by men and women who are free, not under duress. Arising from His sovereignty, the rights He endows cannot be abrogated by a tyrannical majority among the people, or by the actions of the state in any of its branches.
This conception of religious liberty is spelled out directly in the founding-era documents mentioned above. For example, the Virginia Declaration of Rights affirms that religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.
This summarizes the classic American definition of religion and the foundation for religious liberty. To this definition, some make one or more objections. For instance, some point out that Christians (and Jews) have not always respected this principle, and thus try to discredit its Jewish and Christian origins. But human failure is no argument against the principle; human weakness is measured by it.
Second, one can say (as did Judge Thompson) that among Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others there have been examples of generations of “tolerance.” But tolerance is a different (and less profound) concept than the right to religious liberty. Tolerance may arise merely from a temporary lack of power to enforce conformity; it does not by itself invoke a natural right. The concept of religious liberty, on the other hand, depends upon a particular conception of God, a particular conception of the human person, and a particular conception of liberty. Reaching these conceptions took Jews and Christians many centuries. They had to be learned through failure and sin and error, and at great cost. But they were eventually learned.
Scholars today can easily point to texts in the American tradition for definitions of these concepts, but they would find it difficult to locate analogous texts in other traditions. Rightly did the authors of Federalist 14 call attention to their own originality, even as they exerted themselves to pay due respect to the opinions of past ages. For this reason, calling the attention of the public to the Jewish and Christian conception of God’s sovereignty, which grounds the principle of religious liberty, is not necessarily the same as “establishing” the Jewish or Christian religions.
In the first place, this conception is by its very nature public, not private, and has historically been invoked in the practice of existing public institutions in countless forms. The public life of our nation has been and is still remarkably religious, as is visible on public occasions such as the inaugural speeches of presidents, the swearing-in of judges, Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day and Memorial Day. The notion that the foundation of our rights lies in God’s work has been officially deployed in many congressional and presidential decrees and proclamations, which recommend religious observances such as fasting, prayers, thanksgiving and imploring pardon for the nation’s sins.
In the second place, the principle of religious liberty (as witnessed to in countless founding documents and in the public practices of the founding era) requires two courses of action: First, one must enunciate the principle clearly, understand it fully, and express it publicly for public guidance. Second, one must not coerce the conscience nor obstruct the free exercise of religion of any.
The specifically American principle of religious liberty, in and of itself, demands that each person’s decision about how (if at all) to worship God is inalienable, for it belongs to each alone in his or her own conscience. Everyone must be free in conscience and in public exercise to accept, or to reject, the Judeo-Christian God. Even if unbelievers choose not to recognize this conception of God, conscience and liberty, but rather to concentrate upon abuses of the principle committed by Christians or others, this particular conception guarantees their freedom of conscience. It is also precious for believers, who are obliged by it to grant to all others exactly the same right to religious liberty that they claim for themselves.
This was exactly the point made by Chief Justice Moore in his oral testimony at last year’s trial. He said again and again that he stood for two things, both of them derived from America’s founding principles. First, human rights are guaranteed by the sovereignty of God, with the result that any abuse of them will have to be answered for before God in Judgment (as Madison had pointed out). Second, he neither intended to nor could demand that others share these beliefs, since that would violate the principle of religious liberty itself. He wished only “to recur to fundamental principles” (a phrase from the Virginia Declaration of Rights) by calling attention again to the Founders’ beliefs about the grounding of our rights.
It is the special virtue of the Jewish and Christian conception of God that it allows us to make a twofold claim: to recognize in public the beliefs on which our rights are founded, and to refuse to mandate for others that they must hold the same beliefs. Thus we should be counted free to call public attention to the moral foundation of our rights, without by the same deed trying to force Jewish or Christian belief upon Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, or anyone else.
It is the duty of all Nations [note: not only individuals] to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor….
If both houses of Congress and the President of the United States could go so far in 1789, why is it forbidden by the Constitution for a mere Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama to do even less?
Chief Justice Moore has also cited Abraham Lincoln’s beautiful Decree of August 12, 1861, which also followed upon a resolution of both Houses of Congress: Recognizing that “it is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to acknowledge and revere the Supreme Government of God,” Lincoln proclaimed a National Fast Day to ask God’s favor. If all this was not an establishment of religion in 1861, why does doing far less barely a century and a half later constitute an attempt to establish a religion? Clearly, the meaning of “establish” has now swollen far beyond its historic meaning.
Starting about 60 years ago, the Supreme Court took a half-truth about the meaning of “establishment” and carried it by tortuous logic to conclusions that go against the whole of its own prior tradition and against the tradition of American public life. In shifting its focus from the constitutional term “religious liberty” to the much more recent and polemical slogan “separation of church and state,” the Court has come to seem radically anti-religious, and in particular, anti-Jewish and anti-Christian.
We should not want the Court to be pro-Jewish or pro-Christian. But we must insist that it show reverence for the moral foundations of the principle of religious liberty – foundations well located in Jewish and Christian conceptions by the classic documents of the American founding. It is not necessary to embrace these particular conceptions. Unavoidably, however, anyone wishing “to recur to fundamental principles” will have to measure rival conceptions by those historically agreed to in the founding era.
Chief Justice Moore is a profound believer in the principle of religious liberty, and an unusually thoughtful student of the origins and sources of that principle. Whatever one thinks of his early defiance of the Federal Court, the ideas he points to are public and traditional. He is a serious believer in the God who was written of with palpable reverence by our nation’s founders and later forebears. All he has sought to do, in a manner fully respectful of the religious liberty of the many new citizens who are of different faiths and traditions, is to underline the originality of America’s Founders in the matter of religious liberty – a principle which is not, after all, understood or accepted in all cultures of this planet. This idea of religious liberty is part of a precious conceptual heritage that needs to be set forth publicly so that all new immigrants might come easily to learn of it, even as they develop equivalent conceptions from the materials of their own traditions.
Someone might counter that although Chief Justice Moore is correct about the history of the American conception of religious liberty, he went too far by giving witness to the truth of this conception – thus to the truth of the sovereignty of God. But how does his official action differ from the official exercise of religion shown by Washington in his Proclamation of 1789 and Lincoln in his Decree of 1861?
The beauty of our forebears’ conception of religious liberty is that it can be held as a truth by most Americans, respected by all, commended to newcomers as a model, yet never forced upon the conscience of anyone. That is precisely what the principle of religious liberty demands: Cherish it, teach it, but do not force it upon anyone. In light of this, it seems clearly unreasonable to have equated the silent monument that stood in the Alabama state courthouse with an establishment of religion.

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