The Liberties of a Nation
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed 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?
– Thomas Jefferson, 1796
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Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1794, Query XVIII, p. 237
A Chaplain to Each Regiment
George Washington recorded in his Orderly Book on July 9th, 1776,
The honorable Continental Congress having been pleased to allow a chaplain to each regiment, the colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure chaplains accordingly, persons of good characters and exemplary lives, and to see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary, but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man will endeavour to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.*
*Jared Sparks. The Writings of George Washington. Vol. XII. Boston: Ferdinand Andrews, Publisher, 1838, at 401.
Changing History to Deny Prayer, Part 5
Real Patriots must call upon every state legislature to pass a new resolution that protects the right to declare the truth of our history instead of cowing to radical groups. One such group recently attacked the Commonwealth of Kentucky to deny our dependence upon Almighty God for our security. Their denial of God’s Providence in our history calls for the state to make a preemptive surrender of our most precious freedom—and censors the right to know the truth and to teach it publicly to future generations.
America’s founders recognized tyranny when they saw it. They were confident that real Americans would act when they heard the truth, so they listed their grievances, letting “Facts be submitted to a candid world.” America is no longer a candid world, because of the manipulation of truth by radical groups who seek to censor facts and history to remake America outside of churches into a God-free zone. When the gavel strikes in the next frivolous case, remember that behind the scenes, when the opinions are read, our history and our freedoms will be further eroded if we deny government officials the right to acknowledge the self-evident truth that we are “endowed by our Creator” with rights in this “One Nation Under God.”
This attack upon our history, sadly, is now creeping chaos in our Armed Forces, where suicide is now officially the second leading cause of death and yet daily prayers for the troops, by leaders and chaplains, as they seek to be sustained in battle, are being censored or denied.
Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, knew and believed in the power of prayer in the military institution and the nurture and succor it provided. He explained the relationship of our nation’s history to our military first principles of Exemplary Conduct and Prayer when he said:
“It remains the duty of all public officials to ensure that American Military Forces, including Service Academies, both state and federal, fully prepare future officers for the rigor and peril of combat – which must always include frequent chaplain and/or lead-led unit prayer. America’s Declaration of Independence officially recognizes the “Creator” as the source of our law and liberty. “The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” established a fixed standard, a higher discipline – a battle-tested standard – to restore and uphold against years of disturbing reports of multiple military crises arising from moral relativism and undemocratic changes, beginning during the Bush and Clinton administrations. These changes are contrary to America’s first military principles of virtue, honor, patriotism and subordination, called “Exemplary Conduct…Prayer for the common good and acknowledgment of Divine Providence is a central official and historical tenet of the combat leadership preparation of the American Military, particularly officer training in times of national peril or war.”
First Principles is proud to have worked closely with Admirals Moorer and Hill over the years and as they have now passed along to their eternal rewards, we remain committed in that great endeavor to support and sustain our troops by conveying the history of our men of valor who go in harm’s way for our liberty. We will not leave our troops without a prayer.
Changing History to Deny Prayer, Part 4
By transferring America’s official and permanent history of civil government to the category of “religion,” the courts attempt to establish a government free of absolute truth and based instead on humanism or moral relativism. Such an establishment will silence this uncomfortable view of truth that speaks from the graves of the signers of the Declaration.
History teachers have been fired for talking about the Declaration of Independence appeal “to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions” and “a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.” They cannot whisper that the Articles of Confederation of 1781 paid tribute to the “Great Governor of the World,” or that the Continental Congress printed and distributed an American edition of the Bible at government expense. What government school teacher, certified by the state as knowledgeable in education, would admit that public education began in Massachusetts in 1837 with a school board made up of mostly clergy, and whose president, Horace Mann, declared that curriculum should include study of the “lives of great and good men, especially the life and character of Jesus Christ, as the sublimest pattern of benevolence, of purity, of self-sacrifice, ever exhibited to mortals.”[1] This is not church history—it’s the history of public education! When is the last time a school age child read the first prayer in Congress? Does the public know there is a prayer room in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol containing an open Bible, and a stained-glass window of President Washington in prayer surrounded by Psalm 16:1, “Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust.”
It is obvious from the above examples, completely ignored in America’s history books that our past has been censored and our true history censored. We the people are responsible to preserve this great Republic. Every citizen needs to know the facts of history, and the freedom won through prayer and bloodshed. As Christians sit spiritually introverted in churches across the nation American History is ravished by radicals in the public arena who confuse and destroy the absolute truth of the country’s founding. If Americans continue to be complacent, we are certain to find more American History mislabeled as religion and unconstitutionally separated from the state and We the People.
[1] Steven B. Epstein, Rethinking the Constitutionality of Ceremonial Deism. 96 Columbia Law Review 2083, at 2102, citing to Horace Mann’s 1842 Fourth of July oration quoted in Anson Phelps Stokes, Church and State in the United States, 264-67 (1950).
Changing History to Deny Prayer, Part 3
Kentucky was the site of an undemocratic attempt to strike down a vital piece of America’s “one nation under God” history. It began in 1992, when the Kentucky General Assembly acted and Governor Brereton Jones signed KRS 158.195, which provided for:
Reading and posting in public schools of texts and documents on American history and heritage. Local boards may allow any teacher or administrator in a public school district of the Commonwealth to read or post in a public school building, classroom, or event any excerpts or portions of: the national motto; the national anthem; the pledge of allegiance; the preamble to the Kentucky Constitution; the Declaration of Independence; the Mayflower Compact; the writings and speeches, documents, and proclamations of the founding fathers and presidents of the United States, U.S. Supreme Court decisions; and acts of the U.S. Congress including the published text of the Congressional Record. There shall be no content-based censorship of American history or heritage in the Commonwealth based on religious references in these writings, document, and records.
From the view of a majority of Kentuckians, there is no wish to blot out the nation’s true history, but there are a few others who would write a completely different view of history to line up with their modern ideologies and humanist philosophies. These few rewriters populate well-entrenched radical groups and Kentucky was targeted, the first state to make it illegal to censor history based on its religious references to “the Creator” or “Almighty God” and yet again scarce taxpayer money and official energy was diverted to meritless lawsuits denying the true foundations of America’s law and civil government.
There is no legal case or precedent in American or Kentucky jurisdiction limiting or forbidding the display or quoting of any historical, legal or civil government documents because of a reference to “God” or “Divine Providence.” These expensive lawsuits are brought to the courts that courts might decide what American citizens may quote from our history largely dispensing with mention Almighty God. If the Court decides that posting these documents were promotion of religion and not quoting history, then posting such documents is unconstitutional! Attempts in the courts such as this to silence the Kentucky Legislature and the majority of Kentuckians affirms the ACLUs censorship of history and rewrites American History to suit an opposing and foreign ideology. The courts are the vehicle of choice used by such groups to silence both prayer and history in our great “One Nation under God,” because the people and their voice, the Kentucky legislature, would not have it so.
If you are interested in reading a post dedicated to our Country’s Independence Day, you can find it at Firstprinciplespress.org.
Changing History to Deny Prayer, Part 2
The two presidents most often associated with principles of establishment and free exercise of religion from the First Amendment are Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Unfortunately for those atheists who want Divine Providence thrown out, the inaugural addresses of these statesmen acknowledge divine Providence:
“I shall need too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are…who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with his wisdom and power,…”
Thomas Jefferson, Second Inaugural Address
“in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future.”
James Madison, First Inaugural Address
Our first president in his first inaugural address offered his “fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect.” As a matter of fact, every president without exception in his inaugural address has acknowledged the blessings of God on our country in the past and called upon His favor for our future. To wipe out that much of America’s official and permanent history is a daunting task, even for the activist courts!