America’s Christian Heritage
by Dr. Phil Stringer (Florida)
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD;
and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance" (Psalms
33:12)
SECULAR NEUTRALITY
For more than 30 years the American public has been bombarded with
the concept that the American republic was founded in "secular
neutrality." This concept says that the government cannot recognize
any religious principles (or moral principles that correspond with
religious teachings) and that any government institution, organization,
or activity that acknowledges any Christian influence is in violation of
the Constitution.
This philosophy has led to removing prayer and Bible study from
public schools, banning Christmas displays from public property, legal
challenges to abstinence curriculums in the public schools, and legal
battles over prayer at high school graduations. Political candidates
have been criticized for mentioning their religious faith in public, the
Ten Commandments and, on occasion, the Declaration of Independence, have
been removed from school walls, and myths are taught in our public
schools about the purpose of Thanksgiving.
Anyone who suggests that we acknowledge a Christian influence in
America’s origin is branded as a dangerous fanatic, a neo-Nazi, or
worse. But does the "politically correct" concept of secular
neutrality have an historical foundation?
THE FOUNDING FATHERS RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION
Thomas Jefferson did use the phrase "wall of separation between
church and state." This was not in a legal document but in a
personal letter to a fellowship of Baptist churches. They had thanked
him for his work on behalf of religious freedom. He acknowledged their
thanks and made reference to his feeling that the First Amendment would
effectively prohibit the Federal Government from interfering with the
activities of churches. Though this may come as a shock to many liberal
politicians and modern educators, the phrase "Separation of church
and state" does not appear in any of our founding documents.
It is true that our Founding Fathers did not intend to establish
Christianity as the official state religion of the new republic. This is
made clear by the establishment clause of the First Amendment; but, this
was not because Christianity was not crucial to the founding of the
republic or because they had doubts about its importance or
truthfulness. They simply understood Christianity well enough to know
that government cannot successfully establish it. It is a religion of
the heart, of private study, of an infallible revelation, and personal
obedience.
It is clear, however, that our Founders did not take an attitude of
"secular neutrality." They did not assume that secular
neutrality or state establishment were the only two options.
The Founders understood that the principles of Christianity created
the republic. They understood that a majority of the population
characterized by Christian morality was necessary to make this new
system of government work. They clearly saw the role of the Federal
government as that of encouraging Christianity, promoting the influence
of the Bible and Christian morality.
Of necessity, concepts were promoted in a very general way (precise
definitions were up to churches and individuals). They understood that
obedience to all points of Christian truth could not and should not be
enforced by the Federal government. Nevertheless, they also understood
that some basic moral principles taught by Christianity were necessary
as a basis for a common legal code. They understood that some basic
principle of "common public morality" were necessary to
prevent national chaos.
This practice of encouraging Christianity is seen throughout our
nation’s history (prior to the 1960's). Until recently, our nation’s
early Christian history was clearly understood by both our government
and the general public.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The Declaration of Independence (our first national legal document)
begins with a reference to the Laws of nature and of Nature’s God. It
formally states that we hold these truths to be self evident, that all
men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights.
The Declaration ends with an appeal to the "Supreme Judge of the
World" and declares "a firm reliance on the Protection of
Divine Providence."
What offensive words these must be to the modern religious left, the
secular humanists, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). These
groups seem to think that the Founders of our country intended to create
a government where billions of dollars of tax money could be spent to
teach evolution and socialism, but where the mere mention of God or
prayer in a school classroom or graduation is a threat to the Republic.
PURCHASE OF BIBLES
The First Congress appointed a chaplain, instituted daily prayers,
and made arrangements to import 20,000 Bibles -- what a shock for people
who thought their purpose was to create a country where they could not
read the Bible in a public school or quote it in a public forum or
courtroom.
The Congress continues to appoint a chaplain and open sessions with
prayer. The Congress that approved the wording of the First Amendment
later ordered another 20,000 Bibles.
THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION
On September 24, 1789, the same day it approved the First Amendment,
the Congress called on President Washington to proclaim a national day
of prayer and Thanksgiving. Their proclamation said:
That said joint committees of both Houses are directed to wait upon
the President of the United States to request that he would recommend
to the people of the United States a day of public Thanksgiving and
prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the
many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an
opportunity peaceably to establish a Constitution of government of
their safety and happiness.
In response, President Washington called for a national day of
Thanksgiving. His proclamation said:
I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend
to all religious societies and denominations, and to all persons
whomsoever, within the United States to set apart and observe
Thursday, the nineteenth day of February next, as a day of public
Thanksgiving and prayer, and on that day to meet together and render
sincere and hearty thanks to the great Ruler of nations for the
manifold and signal mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation;
particularly for the possession of constitutions of government which
unite and, and by their union, establish liberty with order; for the
preservation of our peace, foreign and domestic; for reasonable
control that they have given to a spirit of disorder and the
suppression of the late insurrection, and generally for the prosperous
condition of our affairs, public and private, and at the same time
humbly and fervently beseech the kind Author of these blessings
graciously to prolong them to us; to imprint on our hearts a deep and
solemn sense of our obligations to Him, for them to teach us rightly
to estimate their immense value; to preserve us from the arrogance of
prosperity, and from hazarding the advantages we enjoy by delusive
pursuits, to dispose us to merit the continuance of His favors by not
abusing them, by our gratitude for them, and by a corresponding
conduct as citizens and as men to render this country more and more a
sage and propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries; to
extend among us true and useful knowledge; to diffuse and establish
habits of sobriety, order, morality, and piety, and finally, to impart
all the blessings we possess or ask for ourselves to the whole family
of mankind. In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United
States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same
with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia the first day of
January, 1795.
How different this is from the current "politically
correct" view which holds that the purpose of the First Amendment
was to totally separate religion from public life and the government in
America.
THANKSGIVING
Abraham Lincoln, on October 3, 1863, proclaimed Thanksgiving a yearly
national holiday. His proclamation reveals a purpose for Thanksgiving
far different from the ideas of the multiculturalists (who think that
Thanksgiving exists for the purpose of thanking Native American Indians
or for honoring the earth):
It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence
upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and
transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine
repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime
truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history,
that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
We know that, by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are
subjected to punishment and chastisement in this world. May we now
justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war that now desolates
the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous
sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole
people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we
have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have
grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand that
preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us,
and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that
all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue
of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too
self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving
grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly,
reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one
voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow
citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are at sea
and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and
observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and
praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.
THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE
On July 13, 1787, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance concerning
the new territories comprising the modern Midwest. Article III reads as
follows:
Religion, morality, knowledge being necessary to good government
and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall
forever be encouraged.
Compare this thinking to those today who think that the Constitution
mandates that schools be neutral or even hostile to religion.
TRINITARIAN TREATIES
The Treaty of Paris, which ended the War for Independence with Great
Britain, begins with the words, "In the name of the most Holy and
undivided Trinity." In 1822, the United States, Ireland, and Great
Britain signed a treaty concerning relations with Russia. It began,
"In the name of the most Holy and Indivisible Trinity." Does
anyone know of any system of religious belief, besides Christianity,
which acknowledges a Trinity?
Dr. Phil Stringer is Executive Vice President at
Landmark Baptist College, Haines City, Florida.
