The Religious Roots of the United States of America

Ignorance of the religious roots of the United States is so prevalent that lot of Americans really think that there is a clause in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution that says that there is a “separation of church and state”. Larry King on CNN was flabbergasted one evening when a preacher told him that it was not there.

Religious Roots and The Declaration of Independence

So what does the Declaration of Independence actually state? It says the following:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

In other words, in America, our rights come from God, who is our Creator, and not from a political party or the government. The founding fathers of the USA thereby differentiated the American model of government from the European model of government. In Europe, they had something called “the divine right of kings,”which meant that God bestowed his blessings and rights on the King, who then doled them out to the populace as he saw fit. In America, however, the people would have their rights bestowed on them from God, and then, they in turn would give them back to the government as needed. In other words, the European model of governance would now be turned on its head.

The Declaration of Independence closes with these words:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The founding fathers knew that things would get tough, so they invoked God as well as His divine providence for protection from our enemies. The atheists in this country who go around saying that all of the founding fathers were more like them than religious people are dead wrong. We have the words of the Declaration of Independence as proof of this.

The Constitution

And what about the US Constitution, what does it say about religion? The First Amendment in the Bill of Rights says the following:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What it plainly says is that Congress shall not pass a law mandating the establishment of a national religion. The framers were very cognizant of the laws of England, and how the Church of England (The Anglican Church) was the national Church, with the King of England as its head. It had been started by King Henry VIII, when the Pope refused to grant him an annulment from Catherine of Aragon. The murderous and adulterous reign of Henry VIII and his successors (who killed Catholics by the thousands) was something that the founding fathers did not want for America.

The Supreme Court’s Reinterpretation

However, years later, in 1962, the Supreme Court in league with the atheist Madeleine Murray O’Hair twisted its meaning and reinterpreted it to mean that there shall be no religious displays or prayer in public schools, including prohibiting the Ten Commandments on state property. Later on, President Johnson forbade pastors/preacher from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit, or they would lose their tax exemption. This bastardization of the religion clause of the First Amendment, which is grouped with the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press (why doesn’t the Supreme Court limit the freedom of the press as well?), the freedom to peaceable assembly, and the right to petition the government, has led to the most hypocritical government stance ever. Why? Well, the Ten Commandments are on the wall of the Supreme Court, but evidently cannot be on state courthouse grounds. Vocal prayer in public schools is forbidden, but Congress opens every session with a prayer by a federally supported Chaplain. No religious symbols of any kind are allowed in public schools or state courthouses, but there are crosses and stars of David on many tombstones, paid for with your tax dollars, in Veterans Administration cemeteries across the country. Additionally, every Army Post, Naval Base, and Air Force Base has a federally funded chapel, with federally funded chaplains, that use federally funded bibles, candles, and communion hosts for their services.

Deism

Some anti-Christians among us would have us believe that most of the founding fathers were something called “Deists”, those who acknowledge a deity who doesn’t interfere in the day-to-day affairs of the world. They do not recognize Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of us all, or God the Father as revealed to us all in the Bible. Yet, the last line of the Constitution reads as follows:

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth. In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names

The phrase, “The Year of our Lord” can only refer to Jesus Christ, so the Deist argument is clearly erroneous.

George Washington

In his farewell address, George Washington states the following:

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. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Here the Father of our Country plainly states that religion and morality are not only necessary for America’s success, but that you cannot separate one from the other. A lot of people today are trying to do just that. But once you slice morality away from the religious tenets of the Bible, then anything goes, without taking into account the long range effects of doing this. Things that were once considered evil, like homosexuality and abortion, all of a sudden become wonderful things, once you jettison God from your thinking.

Abraham Lincoln

And then there is President Abe Lincoln and the civil war. For the record, Abe Lincoln was a Republican, and Jefferson Davis was a Democrat. His credo and that of the entire abolitionist movement was summed up in their battle anthem, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which is a truly Christian Hymn if there ever was one:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

Hallelujah means “Praise the Lord.” It mentions “a fiery gospel” and grace. It mentions Jesus Himself with the phrase “In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea.” “Crush the serpent” is a reference to Genesis 3:15. The final judgement of Christ is also referenced. Anyone who doesn’t recognize the Republican Party and the US government invoking Jesus in the battle to free the slaves is clearly blind.

Civil Rights

In our time, a Baptist preacher, The Reverend Martin Luther King, led the battle for civil rights. This is all seen as right and good by just about everyone in America, and the fact that he invoked Jesus Christ from the pulpit to fulfill his mission for governmental civil rights is never even seen as a conflict of the “separation of church and state.” But if from the pulpit preachers or priests today mention by name the candidates who support the evils of abortion and 60 million innocent deaths, the outcry from the left would be huge.

Government Acknowledgment of God

And then there are the official US government holidays of CHRISTmas and Thanksgiving, two religious holidays officially sanctioned by the US government. Millions of dollars of leave time are paid to government employees not to work on those days honoring the birth of Jesus and the giving of thanks to our Creator for His blessings. So many people now refer to these religious days as the “holidays,” to avoid mentioning the religious aspect involved. But even that is erroneous, because “holidays” is a contraction of the two words “holy days.”

Additionally, the US motto is “In GOD We Trust”. It is on our money. In US courtrooms across the land, witnesses are sworn in with their hand on the Bible, taking an oath to tell the truth, followed by the words, “So Help Me GOD”. The President of the USA takes the Oath of Office with his hand on the Bible, and swears on it to uphold the Constitution.

Summary

“The separation of church and state,” a phrase used by Thomas Jefferson in a private letter to the Danbury Baptist Church, is found no place in the Constitution. It was invented in a tortured reinterpretation of the Constitution by the Supreme Court. This philosophy was originally championed by the Freemasons, and President Franklin Roosevelt and his successors made sure that the Supreme Court had lots of Freemasons on it. The result is that this way of thinking eventually overcame the original intent of the founding fathers. What it means is that the original “freedom of religion” is now being changed to “freedom from religion” in America.

Would that America trust in the Supreme Being more than in the Supreme Court!