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ESSAY 21
THE "SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE" MYTH
The First Amendment does not establish the separation of
church and state. The first Amendment states that "Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
This amendment was placed in our constitution by the
states in order that the Federal government might not
establish a national denominational church such as the
Anglican Church in England. It was designed to protect the
state-preferred Christian denominations or state-established
churches. In 1791, when the First Amendment was created, over
a third of the thirteen colonies had established churches.
According to Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, in his
COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 2nd
ed., pp. 593-595, the intent of the amendment was to provide
protection for and enable the Judeo-Christian belief to
flourish. It avoided a national church and protected the
Biblical basis of our legislation.
Our founding fathers intended that Christianity be the
foundation of our nation. Noah Webster expresses it well:
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, in-
justice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from
their despising or neglecting the precepts contain-
ed in the Bible.
Benjamin Franklin, in his address to the Constitutional
Convention, June 28, 1786, declared:
Have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do
we imagine that we no longer need his 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? We have been assured, Sir,
in the sacred writings, that "except the Lord build
the House they labour in vain that build it." I
firmly believe this; and I also believe that with-
out his concurring aid we shall succeed in this
political building no better than the Builders of
Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial
local interests; our projects will be confounded,
and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye
word down to future ages.
There is conflict in our judicial system. The
vacillating court decisions are based on social fads one time
and on biblical truths another time. The decisions are like
footballs--one never knows which way they will bounce next.
Hence, the need to return to the teachings of the great
American jurist, William Blackstone, whose basic theme was
that God is the source of all laws and that God revealed
those laws in the Holy Scriptures and in creation. John
Marshall, Supreme Court Justice, stated in 1833,
The American population is entirely Christian, and
with us, Christianity and Religion are identified.
IT WOULD BE STRANGE, INDEED, IF WITH SUCH A PEOPLE,
OUR INSTITUTIONS DID NOT PRESUPPOSE CHRISTIANITY,
AND DID NOT OFTEN REFER TO IT, AND EXHIBIT RELA-
TIONS WITH IT. Legislation on the subject is ad-
mitted to receive great delicacy, because freedom
of conscience and respect for our religion both
claim our most serious regard.
Men of great stature believed that God himself helped
found this great nation. Patrick Henry in his famous, "Give
me liberty or give me death" speech, proclaimed,
Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use
of those means which the God of nature hath placed
in our power. Three millions of people, armed with
the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country
as that which we possess, are invincible by any
force which our enemy can send against us. Besides,
sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. THERE
IS A JUST GOD WHO PRESIDES OVER THE DESTINIES OF
NATIONS, and who will raise up friends to fight
our battles for us.
Samuel Adams, on America's Independence, in 1776, tes-
tified,
The hand of Heaven appears to have led us on
to be, perhaps, humble instruments and means of the
great providential dispensation which is complet-
ing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us
not look back lest we perish and become a monument
of infamy and derision to the world. . . . The
hearts of your soldiers beat high with the spirit
of freedom; they are animated with the justice of
their cause, and while they grasp their swords CAN
LOOK UP TO HEAVEN FOR ASSISTANCE.
Presidents have willingly recognized the Lord as having
helped found and preserve our nation. Andrew Jackson, in his
second inaugural address, in 1833, petitioned the Lord,
Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that
Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and who HAS
KEPT US IN HIS HANDS FROM THE INFANCY OF OUR RE-
PUBLIC TO THE PRESENT DAY, that He will so overrule
all my intentions and actions and inspire the
hearts of my fellow citizens that we may be pre-
served from dangers of all kinds and continue for
ever a united and happy people.
Our beloved Abraham Lincoln so eloquently painted this
word picture:
Intelligence, patriotism, CHRISTIANITY, AND A
FIRM RELIANCE ON HIM who has never yet forsaken
this favored land, are still competent to adjust in
the best way all our present difficulty.
The terms, "wall of separation," and "church and state"
are not found in the U S Constitution. Thomas Jefferson, who
had nothing to do with composing the constitution, used the
phrase, "wall of separation between church and state" in
PERSONAL correspondence in 1802. To those who would place us
in bondage by destroying our godly and biblical foundation,
none other but Thomas Jefferson himself warns, in 1823,
Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we
remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the
minds of the people, THAT THESE LIBERTIES ARE THE
GIFT OF GOD? That they are not to be violated but
with His wrath?
George Washington, in his farewell address of 1796,
gives this solemn charge,
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.
Much later, Chief Justice Earl Warren says,
I believe no one can read the history of our
country. . .without realizing that the Good Book
and the spirit of the Saviour have from the begin-
ing been our guiding geniuses. . . . Whether we
look to the first Charter of Virginia. . .or to
the Charter of New England. . .or to the Charter of
Massachusetts Bay...or to the fundamental Orders of
Connecticut. . .the same objective is present: a
Christian land governed by Christian principles
. . . .
I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into
being because of the knowledge our forefathers had
of the Bible and their belief in it: freedom of
belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition,
the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the
home, equal justice under law, and the reservation
of powers to the people. . . .
I like to believe we are living today in the
spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to
believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can
come to our country. (TIME MAGAZINE, Feb. 15,
1954).
Former President Nixon failed in Watergate, yet was
acknowledged for his expertise in foreign affairs. He penned
these words shortly before his death:
The Soviet Union began by banishing God. The
United States began as a community of people who
wanted to worship God as they chose. Many factors
contributed to the outcome of the Cold War. One
crucial but underrated factor was that a system
that attempted to blunt, deny, and even punish the
spiritual aspirations of its people could not sur-
vive because it was fundamentally at odds with
human nature. Man does not live by bread alone.
Those in the United States whose desire to create
a strictly secular society is as strong as Lenin's
was should study this Cold War lesson closely.
Communism was defeated by an alliance spearheaded
by "one nation under God." [Richard Nixon, BEYOND
PEACE (New York: Random House, 1994), p. 20].
So let the radical left nihilists surrender to the
truth. In order to get their agenda translated into law and
practice, they will have to continue to trample underfoot the
Bible, the U S Constitution and reason!
(The central idea of this essay was based on the
classical work of Bill Gothard).
END