"The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts." ~ John Jay, President of the Continental Congress, author of the Federalist Papers.
"No book in the world deserves to be so unceasingly studied and so profoundly meditated upon as the Bible. The first and almost the only book deserving such universal recommendation is the Bible." ~ John Quincy Adams, President of the United States.
"I believe the Bible to be the written Word of God and to contain in it the whole rule of faith and manners." ~ Robert Treat Paine, Signer of the Declaration
"Remember . . . that you are the redeemed of the Lord, that you are bought with a price, even the inestimable price of the precious blood of the Son of God. . . . Acquaint yourselves with Him in His word and holy ordinances." ~ William Samuel Johnson, Signer of the Constitution
"Our all gracious Creator, Preserver, and Ruler has been pleased to discover and enforce His laws by a revelation given to us immediately and directly from Himself. This revelation is contained in the Holy Scriptures." ~ James Wilson, Signer of the Constitution; Signer of the Declaration
"All of the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from them despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." ~ Noah Webster, Schoolmaster to America
"The Holy Scriptures . . . can alone secure to society order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability, and usefulness. . . . Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience." ~ James McHenry, Signer of the Constitution
United States Supreme Court 1844, Vidal vs. Girard's Executors, 43 U.S. 126, 132: "The plan of education proposed is anti-christian, and therefore repugnant to the law. . . . The purest principles of morality are to be taught. Where are they found? Whoever searches for them must go to the source from which a Christian man derives his faith, the Bible. . . . There is an obligation to teach what the Bible alone can teach, viz. a pure system of morality. . . . Both in the Old and New Testaments importance is recognized. In the Old it is said, 'Thou shalt diligently teach them to thy children,' and the New, 'Suffer the little children to come to me and forbid them not. . . .' No fault can be found with Girard for wishing a marble college to bear his name forever, but it is not valuable unless it has a fragrance of Christianity about it."
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1963, Abington School District v. Schempp
The court found that "state-sponsored devotional Bible readings in public schools constitute an impermissible religious exercise by the government.
1985, Wallace v. Jaffree
This case addressed whether schools can set aside a time for meditation or personal reflection. In Alabama, schools had “a period of silence for meditation.” It did not endorse a specific religion or even specify that the silent time should be used for religious reasons, but instead set it as a time of reflection. But later, state legislators changed the statute to read a “period of silence for meditation or silent prayer.”
With that addition, the Supreme Court ruled that the amendment to the law violated the Establishment Clause.
1992, Lee v. Weisman
This case challenged a middle school practice of inviting a clergyman to offer an opening invocation and a closing benediction at a graduation ceremony. With a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court said such practices violate the First Amendment.
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What you have read above reflects two different nations, two different governments, and two different peoples. The people who lived in the first nation, and governed in the first government, are at odds with the people who live in the second nation and governed by the second government. These two people groups will never agree upon government and society. They will of necessity form two different nations with two different worldviews. Their understanding of life and purpose as a people and a nation will take two different paths. Those paths are going in opposite directions and will arrive at destinations of which have nothing in common.
We hear the phase today, "Make America Great Again!" but to which America are we referring? Are we really wanting to become the Nation we once were, or just become more of what we are? The first nation you read about would not be considered great today, they were too closed minded and religious. Yet we claim we are living by the principles they established for us, but they would perceive our principles as not so great.
These two nations really have nothing in common, we lie to ourselves when we look to the Constitutions of governments that were established in the beginning and apply them as support for our society today. We would be most honest with ourselves if we simply stated we despise what this nation stood for in its beginnings. That what we really want is to cast those bonds off and form a new government with better freedoms and greater purposes.
You might be inclined to disagree, to say I exaggerate. Consider, would any politician have a chance of being elected to office running on the platform which agrees with the statements of the men above who crafted and formed the original government of the United States of America? Anyone of those statements would be extremely damaging to their campaign. So, when you hear the statement, "Let's Make America Great Again" ask to which America are they referring.
May the Grace of God be upon each of you,
David
