bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Your watch must have stopped works Beaver left the air in 1963. Nope been a huge change in behavior just a little at a time just so it wasn't noticed.

Lou Loc: Florida

Well it likely goes beyond beavers last show . I graduated H.S. in 1966 and all was well . And there were no school prayers up till then , except the Pledge Of Allegiance . Yes there's been a huge change of behavior and also a large change in population , back then I remember the stat of the US population was about 160 million . School Prayer's got nothing to do with the changes in society we see today .
Mutual respect has degraded and we can see it in our own halls of government .
As for crime , there's nothing new , we had it back then , no better or worse , it just increases proportionately with population ,and it's more widely known and publicized due to advances in media .

rumitoid

Crime of all sorts has mysteriously declined. Democrats in office? Probably not but possible with those that do such math, if puppets of the NWO. Our country's abysmal predilection to incarcerate for lenghty periods? No direct correlations. The "what if" is unknown.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

We were given 3 minutes for prayer, everyday.

Has nothing do with it, says you, I disagree big time. Prayer set the tone for the day but today's kids believe they'll have another of someone else's.

severed2009

We were a Christian nation and a s***eowning nation with many s***eowning Christians. That was the sort of Christian that founded our country, and they do not exist any more, thank God. There are no Christians in this country who would defend s***eowning or think a Christian could do such a thing.

This is not a Christian country in their sense of Christian or in yours. America was always a refuge for various people looking for freedom of worship, so American Christianity is tolerant -- of Christians, Jews, and also of the beliefs and moralities of the native Americans. If your Christianity is not tolerant, then it is not American Christianity, but it is still welcome here because we are tolerant.

rumitoid

It is my experience that each day beginning with gratitude and conscousness of God's grace always--always--made for my best days.

Lou Loc: Florida

I'm not doubting you ,[ that you did that ] however my school days roughly 1955- 1966 , we never had 3 minutes of prayer , at least not in the public school system . School prayer was not an issue , and if t***h be told many of the school days terrors were kids out of catholic school , as well as public school . I don't think crime statistics will support your theory . Not to mention that if school prayer is instituted , not all will pray . You can't legislate morality and you can't make people pray who are not inclined to do so . People who ARE inclined to pray , take far, far, more than 3 minutes of forced regimented public display .

teaman

“In the Year of Our Lord”
Christianity and the Constitution
Fireman Benjamin Franklin
58 The Case for America’s Christian Heritage
www.AmericanVision.org
tion, several of the last producing
as many noes as ayes, is methinks a
melancholy proof of the imperfection
of the Human Understanding.
We indeed seem to feel our own
want of political wisdom, since we
have been running about in search
of it. We have gone back to ancient
history for models of Government,
and examined the different forms of
those Republics which having been
formed with the seeds of their own
dissolution now no longer exist. And we have viewed
Modern States all round Europe, but find none of their
Constitutions suitable to our circumstances.
In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it
were in the dark to find political t***h, and scarce able
The Constitutional Convention
“In the Year of Our Lord” 59
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to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened,
Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of
humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate
our understandings?
In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain,
when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer
in this room for the Divine Protection.—Our prayers,
Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.
All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have
observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence
in our favor. To that kind providence we owe
this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the
means of establishing our future national felicity. And
have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we
imagine that we no longer need His assistance. I have
lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more
convincing proofs I see of this t***h—that God governs
in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the
ground without his notice [Matt. 10:29], is it probable
that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been
assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that “except the
Lord build they labor in vain that build it” [Ps. 127:1]
I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his
concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building
no better than the Builders of Babel. We shall be
divided by our little partial local interests; our projects
will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a
reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what
is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate
instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human
wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move-that henceforth
prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its
60 The Case for America’s Christian Heritage
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blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly
every morning before we proceed to business, and
that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested
to officiate in that Service.
The motion was immediately seconded by Roger Sherman. Alexander
Hamilton and “several others expressed their apprehensions that however
proper such a resolution might have been at the beginning of the convention,
it might at this late day . . . bring
on it some disagreeable [strong criticisms]
[that would] lead the public to believe
that the embarrassments and dissensions
within the Convention, had suggested this
measure.” Other objected to the argument
by stating “that the past omission of a duty
could not justify a further omission—that
the rejection of such a proposition would
expose the Convention to more unpleasant
[strong criticisms] than the adoption of it.
. . .” Another had argued that there were no
funds to bring a clergyman. In a word, the convention neither began nor
did it pause to take part in a time of prayer.
The Constitution is a document developed by a “mixed multitude”
of beliefs. There were disagreements about the Preamble. Patrick Henry
contended that it should begin with “We the States” rather than “We
the People,” since the national government was a creation of the states
and not the people generally. Henry had reservations about the Constitution.
When invited to attend, he told Madison that he “smelt a rat.”
While there are remnants of Christian principles in the Constitution,
there are some glaring omissions that are haunting us today.
Alexander Hamilton
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No Mention of God
A story has been told about a chance meeting between a minister
and Alexander Hamilton after the Philadelphia Convention had adjourned.
1 The minister asked Hamilton why “the Constitution has no
recognition of God or the Christian religion.” Hamilton is reported
to have said, “we forgot it.”2 Many now ask how is it possible that
men from states whose constitutions were not shy about acknowledging
God could leave out any mention of Him in the Federal Constitution?
Certainly biblical principles of limited and representative
government, a sound monetary policy, the establishment of justice,
the maintenance of liberty, and the preservation of peace are biblical
principles that ripple through the document.3 But is the Constitution
without any mention of God or the Christian religion?
A Political Document
As we have seen, the state constitutions were explicitly Christian in
their design. The Federal Constitution as a creation of the states did not
nullify the states’ rights to govern their religious affairs. The absence of
direct references to God and the Christian
religion in the Constitution, as compared
to the state constitutions, is due in part
from an understanding that it was drafted
for a very limited civil objective. Since
the thirteen colonies/states had their own
constitutions, governors, and representatives,
the newly created national government
would only do what the several
states could not do individually. Powers
not delegated to the national government
remained with the states. Church historian
Philip Schaff offers the following defense for the absence of references
to Providence, the Creator, nature and nature’s God, and the
Philip Schaff
62 The Case for America’s Christian Heritage
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Supreme Being in terms of the document’s political purpose:
The absence of the names of God and Christ, in a purely
political and legal document, no more proves denial
or irreverence than the absence of those names in a
mathematical treatise, or the statutes of a bank or railroad
corporation. The title “Holiness” does not make
the Pope of Rome any holier than he is. . . . The book
of Esther and the Song of Solomon are undoubtedly
productions of devout worshippers of Jehovah; and yet
the name of God does not occur once in them.4
The argument is that theology did not draw the delegates to Philadelphia
in 1787. These issues had already been settled at the state level.
Instead, the delegates came to debate and construct the best form of
civil government at the national level.
A Campaign to Dechristianize a Nation
There were two revolutions at the end of the eighteenth century, two
new constitutions drafted, and two different reactions to the Christian
religion. France was caught up in revolutionary fever in 1791, not
with a foreign power but with itself. The French revolutionaries were
self-conscious about their efforts to turn France into a secular state,
devoid of even a remnant of religion. Throughout the nation a “cam-
A depiction of the dechristianization
of the
French Republic with
Reason and Philosophy as
moral absolutes.
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paign to dechristianize France spread like wildfire.”5 The dechristianization
of the French Republic meant the crowning of a substitute
civil religion. The leaders of the Paris Commune demanded that the
former metropolitan church of Notre Dame be reconsecrated as a
“Temple of Reason.” On November 10, 1793, a civic festival was held
in the new temple, its façade bearing the words “To Philosophy.” In
Paris, the goddess Reason “was personified by an actress, Demoiselle
Candeille, carried shoulder‑high into the cathedral by men dressed
in Roman costumes.”6 The Commune ordered that all churches be
closed and converted into poor houses and schools. “Church bells
were melted down and used to cast cannons.”7
Blatant infidelity precipitated that storm of pitiless
fury. The National Assembly passed a resolution deliberately
declaring “There is no God;” vacated the throne
of Deity by simple resolution, abolished the Sabbath,
unfrocked her ministers of religion, turned temples of
spiritual worship into places of secular business, and
enthroned a vile woman as the Goddess of Reason.8
The French Revolution replaced the God of Revelation with the Goddess
of Reason, with disastrous results. Blood literally flowed in the
streets as day after day “enemies of the republic” met their death
under the sharp blade of Madam Guillotine. “France, in its terrific
“Blatant infidelity precipitated
that storm of
pitiless fury. The National
Assembly passed a resolution
deliberately declaring
‘There is no God.’”
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revolution, saw the violent culmination of theoretical and practical
infidelity.”9
The French calendar was also changed to reflect the new anti-
Christian spirit of the revolution. “The Convention v**ed on 5 October
1793 to abolish the Christian calendar and introduce a republican
calendar.”10 The new calendar divided
the day into ten hours each with one
hundred minutes which was further
sub-divided into one hundred seconds.
The founding of the Republic on
September 22, 1792, was the beginning
of the new era and a new “Year
One.” Instead of the birth of Jesus
Christ being the focal point of history,
the founding day of the new French
Republic would define how time
would be kept. While the year still had
twelve months, all were made thirty
days long with the remaining days
scattered throughout the year and celebrated
as festival days. The seven-day
week was replaced with a week of ten
days with the result that Sunday as a
day of rest and Christian worship was
eliminated.11
The French Republic went beyond
a new calendar by changing place names that had “reference to a
Christian past.” In addition, “children were named after republican
heroes such as Brutus and Cato, and observance of the new Revolutionary
calendar, which abolished Sunday and Christian Feast days,
was enforced.”12
While we moderns have not gone as far as the French Revolutionaries,
some tinkering has been done with the way dates are des-
Trying to keep track of the
French Revolutionary calendar.
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ignated. Most academic works no longer use B.C. (Before Christ) and
A.D. (anno domini, “in the year of our Lord”) but have adopted B.C.E.
(Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) in a self-conscious
effort to distance the study of history from the person and work of
Jesus Christ.
Christian Continuity
When compared to what the French did, the United States Constitution
establishes continuity with the nation’s Christian past by linking
it with the Christian calendar. Article 1, section 7 of our Constitution
exempts Sunday as a day to be counted within which the president
may veto legislation. If the framers had wanted to strip every vestige
of religion from the Constitution, why include a reference to an obvious
religious observance? Sunday observance remained under constitutional
protection at the federal and state levels for some time in
the United States. As Supreme Court Justice David Brewer observed,
the recognition of Sunday as a day of worship and rest is “a day peculiar
to [the Christian] faith, and known to no other.”13
The Constitution itself states that the drafting took place “in the
year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven.”
While this might seem insignificant to some, but when compared to
what the French did in creating a new “Year One,” it takes on special
meaning. The constitutional framers could have taken the direction
of the French Revolutionaries and created a “new order of the ages”
based on a new calendar if they had wanted to make a complete break
with the Christian past. They did not.
The Articles of Confederation include the phrase “it hath pleased
the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the legislatures
. . . to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles
of Confederation and perpetual Union.” Like the Constitution the Articles
close with “Done at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania
the ninth day of July in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven
Hundred and Seventy-Eight, and in the Third Year of the indepen66
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dence of America.”
The several states continued to follow the Christian calendar
where Jesus was placed at the center of history.
When John Hancock was Governor of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts he
issued “A Proclamation for a Day of Public
Thanksgiving” in 1791:
In consideration of the many undeserved
Blessings conferred upon us
by GOD, the Father of all Mercies; it
becomes us not only in our private and usual devotion,
to express our obligations to Him, as well as our dependence
upon Him; but also specially to set a part a Day
to be employed for this great and important Purpose.
. . . And above all, not only to continue to
us the enjoyment of our civil Rights and
Liberties; but the great and most important
Blessing, the Gospel of Jesus Christ:
And together with our cordial acknowledgments,
I do earnestly recommend,
that we may join the penitent confession
of our Sins, and implore the further continuance
of the Divine Protection, and
Blessings of Heaven upon this People;
especially that He would be graciously pleased to direct,
and prosper the Administration of the Federal
Government, and of this, and the other States in the
Union—to afford Him further Smiles on our Agriculture
and Fisheries, Commerce and Manufactures—To
prosper our University and all Seminaries of Learning—
To bless the virtuously struggling for the Rights
John Hancock
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of Men—so that universal
Happiness may be Allies of
the United States, and to afford
his Almighty Aid to all
People, who are established
in the World; that all may
bow to the Scepter of our
LORD JESUS CHRIST, and
the whole Earth be filled
with his Glory.14
Above Hancock’s signature,
we find the following: “Given at the
Council-Chamber, in Boston, the
fifth Day of October, in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven
Hundred and Ninety-One, and in the sixteenth Year of the Independence
of the United States of America. “In the Year of Our Lord” continued
to be used, even through Jefferson’s administration. In 1807,
Jefferson singed a federal passport that allowed the ship Hershel to
proceed on its Journey to London and dated the letter September 24,
1807 “in the year of our Lord Christ” (see page 68). Notice the addition
of “Christ.” There is no misunderstanding that “in the Year of Our
Lord” is a reference to Jesus Christ and no one else.
Religious Discord
and States Rights
One theory to explain why the Constitution addresses religion only in
an indirect way is that there were different Christian sects represented
at the constitutional convention in Philadelphia: Congregationalist,
Episcopalian, Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, Quaker, Lutheran,
Roman Catholic, and Methodist.15 “James Madison tells us there was
‘discord of religious opinions within the convention,’ which undoubtedly
kept theological controversy off the floor.”16 Some maintain that
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the proliferation of religious opinions among the delegates steered
the convention away from including specific religious language in the
Constitution.
A variation of Madison’s explanation is that the representatives
wanted to guard the states from federal intrusion, preserving the authority
of the states to establish their own religious parameters. Since
the religious issue was already settled at the state level, there was no
need for the federal government to meddle in an area in which the
national government would have no jurisdiction. The prohibition of a
religious test in Article VI, section 3 “as a qualification to any office or
public trust under the United States” applied only to national office
holders: congressmen, senators, the president, and Supreme Court
Justices. States were free to apply their own test and oath, which they
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did. Schaff maintained that the article’s inclusion secured “the freedom
and independence of the State from ecclesiastical domination
and interference.”17
The First Amendment as well as
the “no religious test” provision “are
expressly made to apply to the general
government alone. They do not
apply to the States. It may have been
the intent in framing the Constitution
to assign the matter of religion to the
domain of the States, rather than to accomplish
an elimination of all religious
character from our civil institutions.”18
In his Commentary on the Constitution
of the United States, Supreme Court
Justice Joseph Story (1779–1845) wrote, “Thus, the whole power over
the subject of religion was left exclusively to the State governments, to
be acted on according to their own sense of justice, and the State Constitutions.”
19
Story’s Commentary clearly shows that the First Amendment was
designed to prohibit the federal establishment of a national Church or
the official preference of a particular Christian sect over all others. The
First Amendment, according to Story, was not designed to disestablish
the Christian religion at the state level but only to insure that no single
Christian sect (denomination) would be established in terms of constitutional
preference:
Probably, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution,
and of the . . . [First Amendment], the general,
if not the universal, sentiment in America was, that
Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the
State, so far as such encouragement was not incompatible
with the private rights of conscience, and the
Justice Joseph Story
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freedom of religious worship. An attempt to level all
religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold
all in utter indifference, would have created universal
disapprobation, if not universal indignation.20
While the national government received new powers as a result of the
ratification of the Constitution, denying the states jurisdiction over
religious issues was not one of them. The Tenth Amendment supports
this view: “The powers, not delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to
the States, respectively, or to the people.” In the Circuit Court of Tennessee,
August 1, 1891, the Court said, “As a matter of fact they (the
founders of our government) left the States the most absolute power
on the subject, any of them might, if they chose, establish a creed and
a church and maintain them.”21
Christianity Assumed
Another argument put forth to explain the
Constitution’s lack of explicit religious language
“is that the Christian premises of the
American Constitution and the people’s
reliance on the Christian deity were assumed
by the framers, and thus explicit
reference was unnecessary. ‘The Bible,’
argued Robert Baird, the trailblazing
student of religion in America, ‘does not
begin with an argument to prove the exis-
“The powers, not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.”
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tence of God, but assumes the fact, as one [of] the t***h[s] of which
it needs no attempt to establish.’”22 Having said this, even Baird had to
acknowledge his regret at the absence of “something more explicit on
the subject. . . . Sure I am that, had the excellent men who framed the
Constitution foreseen the inferences that have been drawn from the
omission, they would have recognized, in a proper formula, the existence
of God, and the t***h and the importance of the Christian religion.”
23 The belief was that Christianity was so much a corner stone of
American thought and law that there was no need to make it an official
constitutional declaration. Cornelison expressed the prevailing Protestant
view of the time that “the government of these United States was
necessarily, rightfully, and lawfully Christian.”24
The National Reform Association
In 1861, a small Presbyterian denomination known as the Covenanters,
founded in 1809 in Western Pennsylvania, created a petition that
pointed out that the Constitution made
no reference to Jesus Christ and the law
of God. “The petition received initial
support from Senator Charles Sumner,
and in 1862 two Covenanter ministers
presented the document to President
Lincoln. Lincoln was noncommittal. . .
.”25 The Covenanters saw a causal relationship
between the sin of s***ery and
other national sins and the outbreak of
the “Civil War.” At a February 1863 conference
held in Xenia, Ohio, representatives
from eleven Protestant denominations
from seven northern states were in attendance. “On the second
day of the conference John Alexander, a local attorney, delivered a paper
on the topic ‘Religion in the Nation.’ . . . As a means of regaining
God’s favor, Alexander proposed” the following:
Senator Charles Sumner
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We regard the neglect of God and His law, by omitting
all acknowledgment of them in our Constitution,
as the crowning, original sin of the nation, and s***ery
as one of its natural outgrowths. Therefore, the most
important step remains to yet to be taken—to amend
the Constitution so as to acknowledge God and the
authority of His law; and the object of this paper is to
suggest to this Convention the propriety of considering
this subject, and of preparing such an amendment to
the Constitution as they may think proper to propose in
accordance with its provisions.26
A similar convention was being held in Sparta, Illinois, that same
month and came to a similar conclusion. “Representatives from both
conventions met in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, the following January to
organize the Christian Amendment Movement, soon to be called the
National Reform Association.
The Association elected
John Alexander its first president,
and in 1864 set out to
obtain an amendment to the
United States Constitution
to acknowledge God’s divine
authority and, in doing so,
establish a Christian basis
for popular government in
America.” The proposed revised
Preamble read as follows
(the additional wording
is in brackets and italicized):
We, the People of the
United States [recog“
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nizing the being and attributes of Almighty God, the Divine
Authority of the Holy Scriptures, the law of God as
the paramount rule, and Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior
and Lord of all], in order to form a more perfect union,
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and to our posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of America.
Little progress was made in getting the proposed emendation
before Congress for a v**e. A motion to discharge the Judiciary
committee from any further consideration
passed. Even so, efforts to get
the Amendment passed continued,
but they were continually stalled.
“One reason suggested for the lack of
action was that some Congressmen
were concerned about possible Free
Exercise of religion implications that
might arise with regards to a Christian
Amendment to the Constitution.”27 In
addition, the National Free Religious
Association was founded in 1867 and
presided over by Octavius Frothingham
(1822–1895) to oppose the Christian
Amendment efforts. Frothingham was pastor of the North
Unitarian Church of Salem, Massachusetts. He was a radical Unitarian
and an outspoken anti-supernaturalist.
Radical changes were taking place in Ohio public schools. In an
attempt to get students from parochial (Roman Catholic) schools to
attend public schools, “a group of school board members had two
resolutions prohibiting religious instruction and ‘reading of religious
books, including the Holy Bible,’ in the common schools.”28 Many Ro-
Octavius Frothingham
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man Catholic schools were started because the public schools were
thought to be too Protestant.
Conclusion
If the majority of the constitutional framers could get a glimpse of
America today, would they have rethought their decision only to make
passing reference to the lordship of Jesus Christ in the body of the
Constitution? Would they have been more specific in their mention
of God and the need for the nation’s reliance on Him in light of the
secularizing spirit that seems
to have America in its grip?
We will never know. But when
all the testimony is in, it is an
undeniable fact that Christianity
served as the foundation for
the political edifice we know
as America. In 1983 Congress
declared 1983 to be the “Year
of the Bible.” In his official pronouncement
Ronald Reagan
stated the following:
Of the many influences
that have shaped the
United States of America
into a distinctive
Nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental
and enduring than the Bible.
Deep religious beliefs stemming from the Old and
New Testaments of the Bible inspired many of the
early settlers of our country, providing them with the
strength, character, convictions, and faith necessary to
withstand great hardship and danger in this new and
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rugged land. These shared beliefs helped forge a sense
of common purpose among the widely dispersed colonies—
a sense of community which laid the foundation
for the spirit of nationhood that was to develop in later
decades.
The Bible and its teachings helped form the basis
for the Founding Fathers’ abiding belief in the inalienable
rights of the individual, rights which they found
implicit in the Bible’s teachings of the inherent worth
and dignity of each individual. This same sense of man
patterned the convictions of those who framed the
English system of law inherited by our own Nation, as
well as the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution.
For centuries the Bible’s emphasis on compassion
and love for our neighbor has inspired institutional
and governmental expressions of benevolent outreach
such as private charity, the establishment of schools
and hospitals, and the abolition of s***ery.29
NOTES
1. No one knows for sure the identity of the questioner or whether the encounter
actually took place. Benjamin F. Morris identifies him as the Rev. Dr. Miller, a distinguished
professor at Princeton College (The Christian Life and Character of
the Civil Institutions of the United States [Powder Springs, GA: American Vision,
(1864) 2006], 248). Isaac A. Cornelison identifies him as Rev. Dr. John Rogers, a
chaplain of the War of Independence and Presbyterian minister (The Relation of
Religion to Civil Government in the United States of America: A State without a
Church, but Not Without a Religion [New York: G.P Putnam’s Sons, 1895], 204).
2. George Duffield, Jr., The God of Our Fathers, An Historical Sermon, Preached
in the Coates’ Street Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, on Fast Day, January
4, 1861 (Philadelphia, PA: T.B. Pugh, 1861), 15. See Morris, Christian Life and
Character, 248. Further references can be found in Daniel L. Dreisbach, “God
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and the Constitution: Reflections on Selected Nineteenth Century Commentaries
on References to the Deity and the Christian Religion in the States Constitution,”
22, note 77. This paper is unpublished.
3. Gary DeMar, God and Government: A Biblical and Historical Study (Powder
Springs, GA: American Vision, 1990), 141–167 and Archie P. Jones, Christian
Principles in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (Marlborough, NH: Plymouth
Rock Foundation, 1994).
4. Philip Schaff, Church and State in the United States or The American Idea
of Religious Liberty And Its Practical Effects (New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons, 1889), 40.
5. Walter Grab, The French Revolution: The Beginning of Modern Democracy (London:
Bracken Books, 1989), 165.
6. Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? (1976) in The Complete Works
of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, 5 vols. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway
Books, 1984), 5:149.
7. Grab, The French Revolution, 166.
8. Charles B. Galloway, Christianity and the American Commonwealth; or, The Influence
of Christianity in making This Nation (Nashville, TN: Publishing House
Methodist Episcopal Church, 1898), 25.
9. Jesse T. Peck, The History of the Great Republic Considered from a Christian
Stand-Point (New York: Broughton and Wyman, 1868), 321.
10. Grab, The French Revolution, 165. Also see “Marking Time: Different Ways
to Count the Changing Seasons,” Did You Know? New Insight into the World
that is Full of Astonishing Stories and Astounding Facts (London: Reader’s
Digest, 1990), 267.
11. Grab, The French Revolution, 165.
12. Richard Cobb, gen. ed., Voices of the French Revolution (Topsfield, MA: Salem
House Publishers, 1988), 202. Also see Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of
the French Revolution (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), 771-80.
13. David J. Brewer, The United States: A Christian Nation (Philadelphia, PA: 1905), 26.
14. http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=18294
15. M.E. Bradford, A Worthy Company: The Dramatic Story of the Men Who founded
Our Country (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, [1982] 1988).
“In the Year of Our Lord” 77
www.AmericanVision.org
16. R. Kemp Morton, God in the Constitution (Nashville, TN: Cokesbury Press,
1933), 71.
17. Schaff, Church and State in the United States, 21.
18. Cornelison, Relation of Religion to Civil Government in the United States of
America, 94.
19. Joseph Story, Commentary on the Constitution of the United States (Boston, MA:
Hilliard, Gray, and Co., 1833), 702–703. Story served as a justice of the United
States Supreme Court from 1811 to 1845.
20. Joseph Story, A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States (Lake
Bluff, IL: Regnery Gateway, [1859] 1986), 316.
21. The Federal Reporter, 46:912. Quoted in Cornelison, Relation of Religion to Civil
Government in the United States of America, 95.
22. Dreisbach, “God and the Constitution,” 28.
23. Robert Baird, Religion in America; or, an Account of the Origin, Progress, Relation
to the State, and Present Condition of the Evangelical churches in the United
States. With Notices of the Unevangelical Denominations (New York: Harper &
Brothers, 1844), 119. Quoted in Dreisbach, “God and the Constitution,” 29.
24. Cornelison, The Relation of Religion to Civil Government in the United States of
America, 341.
25. Steven Keith Green, The National Reform Association and the Religious
Amendments to the Constitution, 1864–1876. An unpublished Master’s thesis.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1987), 14.
26. Green, The National Reform Association and the Religious Amendments to the
Constitution, 1864–1876, 1–2.
27. http://candst.tripod.com/nra.htm
28. The Rhetoric and Reality of the “Christian Nation” Maxim In American
Law:1810–1920, by Steven Keith Green, An unpublished Doctoral dissertation,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, (1997), 292.
29. Public Law No. 97-280, 96 Stat. 1211 (October 4, 1982): http://www.reagan.utexas.
edu/archives/speeches/1983/20383b.htm

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

This was public, cousin had prayer three times a day but that was Catholic but by me freshmen year prayer was gone and we thought it was because they didn't do that in high school, no idea that it had been removed by the courts.

Directly probably not but common sense. Of couse this is coupled with the lose of morals and common sense.

Lou Loc: Florida

teaman , you can fill the threads with all the letters , opinions and anecdotal stories you wish ....FIND THOSE WORDS JESUS and CHRISTIAN in the CONSTITUTION OR THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE .
No one is doubting , Christianity was the common religion in the colonies . After all even the Puritans were "christians of sorts " given to burning people at the stake and public corporal punishment .
As I said the Founding Fathers were wiser than you and your lot . They knew those words and knew what it would mean IF THEY WERE USED IN THE CONSTITUTION , that is precisely why THEY LEFT THEM OUT , so as not to mean or imply a state sponsored , favored or approved religion . If anything it was stating a believe in One God , One Creator , but with a tolerance for ALL beliefs .
Sorry but Christians can not co-opt the constitution , and then attempt to make legislation accordingly . Such attempts will not pass Constitutional Muster .

Lou Loc: Florida

So , lighten up teaman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzXM58qR1Es

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Founding fathers were smarter than most alive today and make out Senators look quite stupid. Nowhere will anyone find Jesus in any federal document, reference maybe.

Lou Loc: Florida

Well, they knew the difference between a Theocracy and a Democracy , something today's politicians easily forget while pandering v**es from specific groups . And those groups left to their own devices , would have a theocracy , as some of their failed legislative attempts have proven , but the Constitution itself , even on State levels have prevented this , and will continue to do so .

Lovable Curmudgeon

You who believe that this nation is not founded on Christian principles are all a bunch of laughable fools who don't what you are talking about! You neither understand Christianity, nor know the history of the United States!

For openers:
"and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." Act 11:26

I'll get to the history lesson later!

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Thought special interest was suppose to not be in this White House?