"One Nation Under God!" A history lesson

[azsnowman]

Came across this email this early morning.....thought y'all might enjoy reading this!!

This is worth remembering, because it is true. It's familiar territory, but..... Those of you that graduated from school after the early 60's were probably never taught this. Our courts have seen to that!

Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of "The Declaration of Independence" were orthodox, deeply committed, Christians? The other three all believed in the Bible as the divine truth, the God of scripture, and His personal intervention. It is the same Congress that formed the American Bible Society, immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of Scripture for the people of this nation.

Patrick Henry, who is called the firebrand of the American Revolution, is still remembered for his words, "Give me liberty or give me death"; but in current textbooks, the context of these words is omitted. Here is what he actually said: "An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death."

These sentences have been erased from our textbooks. Was Patrick Henry a Christian? The following year, 1776, he wrote this: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."

Consider these words that Thomas Jefferson wrote in the front of his well-worn Bible: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our creator." He was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest and most important role.

On July 4, 1821, President Adams said, "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: "It connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President of the United States reaffirmed this truth when he wrote, "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."

In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools."

William Holmes McGuffey is the author of the McGuffey Reader, which was used for over 100 years in our public schools with over 125 million copies sold until it was stopped in 1963. President Lincoln called him the "Schoolmaster of the Nation." Listen to these word of Mr. McGuffey: "The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our nation, on the character of God, on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free Institutions. From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. From all these extracts from the Bible, I make no apology."

Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636. In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number 1 was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the Scriptures: "Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies, is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."

James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: "We have staked the whole future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."

Today, we are asking God to bless America. But, how can He bless a Nation that has departed so far from Him? Prior to September 11, He was not welcome in America. Most of what you read in this article has been erased from our textbooks. Revisionists have rewritten history to remove the truth about our country's Christian roots.

You are encouraged to share with others, so that the truth of our nation's history will be told.

John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life!

This information shared is only a drop of cement to help secure a foundation that is crumbling daily in a losing war that most of the country doesn't even know is raging on, in, and around them...

Please do your bit and share this with as many as possible and make the ill-informed aware of what they once had.



Dennis

[azsnowman]

I would LOVE to see them try to get Bibles back in school like they did in 1782 and make it *required* reading!

Dennis

[Lindaloo]

This will all be a big regret one day and I am sure you know what I mean. I just heard that the ACLU is suing in GA now to have the Ten Commandments removed from a government building there.

[DaylilyDawn]

When the Bibles came out of the schools, the schools went downhill and students became juvenile criminals, in my opionion.

[JCT777]

Good post, Dennis. I went to a Catholic school, so the bible was definitely required reading. One of the problems today is that a lot of Christian children have never opened a bible once.

[opera ghost]

See the only problem that I see with all of this and the "deterioration of christian principals" is a point that the last poster brought up very short and to the point- a lot of Christian children have never opened a bible once.

We condemn courts for dictating the course of a family- (See the cell phone post earlier this week) and we condemn schools for the quality of the education our children are receiving...

But it is in the heart of the family unit where the greatest fault for the abandonment of god and Christian principals should lie. I know of families that preach the word of god so loudly that their neighbors get headaches from the AMEN!'s- They go to church 3 or 4 days of the week- they preach god wherever they go as the messengers of Christ.

And their children fare no better, and sometimes worse, than a family raising their children with the strong but quiet morality of decades past. It's easier -then- to blame society, to blame the schools, to blame the corruption of the American government.

But Christianity isn't about being the best little Christian. It isn't about making the world bow to your feet and understand that we are the supreme religion that all others should aspire to. Christianity was meant to be the sparrow in the field- who's song is so sweet that people don't turn from it- so sweet that people walk towards it subconsciously, smiling the whole while... and loving both the freedom and the song.

But in recent decades an astounding thing has occurred to our little sparrow- instead of singing sweetly in the fields and drawing followers- it has become a nightingale in a cage. It sings... and sings.. and sings... and it is heard so often that it begins to grate on the nerves and become nothing more than background noise. The songs turn sour as it suffers through it's captivity and those who still proclaim to love it, only love it from habit of saying they do... they no longer truly hear the sound of the song- and they no longer walk towards it with the innocence of a child in a field. Instead they listen because that's what you should do with a nightingale in a cage- listen to its "beautiful" song. Everyone is so busy pretending to admire the tired refrain... that the sparrow in the field is forgotten- and we become jaded.

It's not that God has been driven out of our schools and government- it's that we insist that the sparrow- free and sweet is nothing compared to the caged nightingale that we would have the religion become. Daily prayers in schools. Required reading of the bible. The Ten Commandments displayed in a place of Government justice. The "devout" Christians have lost the true message in trying to make it heard.

Freedom of religion was instituted in this country by the founders because they believed that Christianity would always be taught in the home, taught in the moral fabric of the nation they loved- especially if it was brought into the laws, brought into the basis of the constitution. They gave us our freedom because only with true freedom to decide can ANYONE follow the tenants of Christianity. They gave the country room to grow- room to change. But for every person who proclaims they'd be horrified at the removal of Christianity from the schools and government- I counter that they'd be horrified at the crusade that Christianity has become.

Christianity was meant to be taught with a child’s first steps- with a child’s first words and actions. The bible was meant to be read at home- as a family... and up into the last few generations- it has. A strict moral fabric was kept in the home and children were guided- NOT through the schools- but from the homes. WHY have so few children read the bible? It's not because schools have taken it from their curriculum- it's because bibles at home were never opened. The stories of the bible have been lost to children of the last generation- possibly the last 2 generations because good little Christians were so busy converting people, fighting for prayer in the schools, fighting for the government to take Christianity by the hand... that they have neglected the home.

Prayer should not be required in school- Christians should be taught from birth to pray on their own. Taught to establish a relationship with god, independent of the government and schooling. There shouldn’t HAVE to be required prayer in schools! We are so busy protesting that no one can hear Christianity that the children are being lost- bussed off to bible camp, taken to Sunday school... and the lessons they hear from the voices of strangers make no impact. Sunday school was once Sunday dinner at home where the parents read the bible to children- taught them the moral fiber of right and wrong. Bible camp would have never been needed since they would have heard the stories growing up and been taught that they were a part of the FIBER of their life instead of a lesson to be learned at school.

Is it any wonder that those children grow up to break the laws? To discard the morals? They are taught instead that what's REALLY important is showing up and being counted- the display of the nightingale. The tired old song. Christianity was never about oppression... it was never about chains that bound the Christians- it was the freedom to love and to worship a god who loved and whom was loved in return. When a child says that they love god- is it a simple parroting of their parents? Or is it the honest love for the religion that is passed through the actions and not the words?

These days it's little more than parroting. And those children become jaded adults when they learn that there is nothing to demand that morality but themselves- and they were never taught to respect themselves and the people around them enough to CARE.

So sure- there's a deterioration of our society. Years ago society embraced the ability to let the religious instruction of their children be the responsibility of a stranger... but they never cared enough to listen to what was being learned- to make a difference in their children’s lives by living the principals they taught. Hypocrites, relieved of the pressure to build the moral character of their children, raised hypocrites.

It's not within society as a concept that we have lost god. It's not in the schools. It's not in the statues that we tear down, and it's not in the people who are silenced. Christianity flourished in silence. It has always triumphed in the face of adversity. Why? Because it is held close to the heart- and the people believe in it truly. When Patrick Henry said those words they were a declaration from the soul to the souls of his compatriots- the kind of declaration that few people in this day and age could make themselves... and even fewer could truly understand. Most people look at him and would say- He was a religious man. But he was more than just a religious man by our standards today... Those words were not the parroting of god and country that we see in today’s leaders. They were not to inspire his men or to lift their spirits- they were said for no other reason than HE believed in them. THAT was enough.

Someday... I pray that it is enough for the Christians of this country to believe that it is enough that they believe. That they teach- that they give. Turn the other cheek, hold a child’s hand and teach them form the cradle, worship god in the trees- in the water, in a storm, or wherever they feel most comfortable doing so- for god is always with you.

Many atheists and agnostics still follow the teachings that God has given us. Wiccans believe in many of the core principals- Buddhists, Muslims... all of these religions are a reflection of a core belief in the world that we, as humans, are given by whatever god we worship.

But some people have freed the sparrow from his gilded cage.

Keep prayer out of my schools- I don't want it there. Keep religion out of my justice system- I don't want it there. I will teach my children that God is Great and God is Good. If I am the teacher- I can be sure that they are learning from the heart- and not just repeating the words. God doesn't belong in my children’s schools- science and theory and history belong there.... God belongs in my home- and in my personal life.

The truth of our nation’s history is not forgotten. The beliefs of a handful of men should NOT be remembered over the core principals of our constitution, and the things that they created. Their religion did not matter. God does not listen to only the special or the privileged- he didn't listen to only those in text books. He certainly doesn't listen when we parrot the words of men long gone.

But he does when declaring our own words... softly. In our hearts... and in our homes.

[streetsoldier]

May I introduce a comment from the venerable Dr. Benjamin Franklin?

This Constitution was designed for a just and moral people; it will not do for any other.

He may be
"food for worms" now...but he still cooks up food for thought.

[GalvestonDuck]

Great post!

Bit of trivia - Patrick Henry kept his wife locked and chained in the basement because she was mentally ill. He cared for her and fed her and otherwise treated her well. But it's just ironic, isn't it?

My 8th grade history teacher loved to read from Paul Harvey's "The Rest Of The Story" once every week. I've since searched for it on Snopes to make sure it wasn't an urban legend. Haven't found anything to dispute it. We learned part of the speech from that story -- from "Is life so dear....?" to "...or give me death."

The other story I still remember is the one she read to us about how Superman, who was faster than a speeding bullet and could stop them with his chest, died from a single bullet to the head. Paul Harvey was, of course, referring to George Reeves.