The Godly foundation of the United States part two

"There is no free lunch.   Washington is not supposed to be Robin Hood.  The road to dystopia is paved with the bricks of false "rights" and things that are "deserved" rather than earned." - Radar


I give up!  More on the Christian foundation of this United States of America.   That the United States was formed on the basis of Christian morality and the laws derived from primarily Bible sources and others who referenced the Bible is an historical fact.  Facts do not often seem to convince Darwinists, however, so...

As I told a commenter:

Truly I cannot fathom your lack of perception? The article I posted with all the quotes from the Founding Fathers, the research done that produced the linked article and then you say I cannot answer? I have answered quite clearly, the question is why is it you cannot comprehend it? To quote the Founders when they declared Independence and began to form the new nation:


"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness..."


The Founders made it clear that they were forming a "...new Government, laying its foundation on such principles..." Those principles were stated clearly as resting upon the foundation that God created man and gave man inherent rights and that the new government would be built based on these principles. Furthermore, research shows us that the documents they studied and upon which they depended to help them write the Constitution were first the Bible and then Montesquieu, Blackstone and Locke and that these three men often referenced scripture in their works.


Quoting David Barton: "The individual who was cited most often in the writings of the Founding Era was political philosopher Charles Montesquieu, with 8.3 percent of the quotes being taken from his writings. Legal scholar William Blackstone was next, with 7.9 percent of the quotes; and political philosopher and theologian John Locke was third, with 2.9 percent. These were the three most frequently-cited individuals during the Founding Era, but the single most-cited source was the Bible, with 34 percent of the quotes coming from the Scriptures. Significantly, that percentage is even higher when the source of the ideas used by individuals such as Montesquieu, Blackstone, and Locke are identified and included. Consider, for example, a primary source of Blackstone’s ideas."


I have led the horse to water and even pushed his head down into the stuff. Whether he chooses to drink or not, the water is obviously there!

Why my exasperation? Because after posting on the Christian foundation of the Nation recently, commenters clearly refuse to see what is right before their eyes!   Just one article from David Barton's very good site about the historical links between Christianity and the United States, among other things, should clear things up for those who are willing to stop and think for just a minute?


America’s Godly Heritage Part 7 by David Barton

Political science professors believed that this question could be answered by examining a broad spectrum of writings from the Founding Era with the goal of identifying the sources cited in those writings. The researchers assembled 15,000 representative writings from that period and isolated 3,154 direct quotes in those writings. At the end of ten years, they had traced the quotes back to their original sources, thereby identifying the most frequently-cited sources of the Founding Era. (The results of that study may be found in the book The Origins of American Constitutionalism)


The individual who was cited most often in the writings of the Founding Era was political philosopher Charles Montesquieu, with 8.3 percent of the quotes being taken from his writings. 46 Legal scholar William Blackstone was next, with 7.9 percent of the quotes; 47 and political philosopher and theologian John Locke was third, with 2.9 percent. 48 These were the three most frequently-cited individuals during the Founding Era, but the single most-cited source was the Bible, with 34 percent of the quotes coming from the Scriptures.


Significantly, that percentage is even higher when the source of the ideas used by individuals such as Montesquieu, Blackstone, and Locke are identified and included. Consider, for example, a primary source of Blackstone’s ideas.


montesquieu (left), blackstone (middle), and locke (right)


Blackstone’s most famous work was his Commentaries on the Laws. First introduced in 1766, it became the final word in American courts and remained a primary legal authority until well into the twentieth century: it was quoted to define words, establish procedure, and settle disputes. A primary source of Blackstone’s ideas is evident even through a superficial examination of his writings, but the testimony of Charles Finney (1792-1875) also provides a clear confirmation. Finney, a university president, educator, and civil rights leader, was probably best known as a famous revivalist during America’s Second Great Awakening of the early 1800s. In his autobiography, Finney recounted his early desire to become an attorney, so like all other law students at that time, he commenced a study of Blackstone’s Commentaries. As Blackstone covered the various legal concepts, he frequently presented the Biblical ideas on which the laws were based. Finney stated that in the process of studying Blackstone, he read so much of the Bible that he became a Christian and received his call to the ministry.


Clearly, then, a primary source of Blackstone’s ideas was the Bible; and a survey of the writings of Montesquieu and Locke confirms a similar (and sometime even stronger) Biblical influence on their writings. Therefore, while thirty-four percent of the quotes in the representative writings of the Founding Era came directly from the Bible, many of the other quotes were taken from writers who, like Blackstone, had used the Bible to help arrive at their own conclusions. The Bible therefore was far and away the most influential source of ideas in the Founding Era.


Consequently, it is not surprising that the Constitution reflects many Biblical principles. For example, Isaiah 33:22 sets forth three distinct branches of government; the logic for the separation of powers was based on teachings derived from Jeremiah 17:9; the basis of tax exemptions for churches (exemptions originated by the Founding Fathers 51) can be found in Ezra 7:24; and there are many other examples of American government applying Biblical patterns and precedents.


The Biblical underpinnings of America were so obvious to previous generations that in 1892, even the U. S. Supreme Court had no difficulty in rendering a unanimous decision declaring:

No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people. . . . This is a Christian nation.



What would lead the U. S. Supreme Court to conclude that America was a Christian nation? The simple answer is, America’s own history.


The Court’s decision was only sixteen pages long, but even in that short span, the Court provided almost eighty different historical precedents. The Court cited statements of the Founding Fathers, acts of Congress and state governments, and numerous others official documents, even noting that there were many additional volumes of historical precedents also proving that America was a Christian nation. Eighty precedents in a case is not only impressive but it is also important, for courts seek to base their decisions on precedent; this enables them to be consistent from ruling to ruling, thus contributing to a stable society.


Significantly, that 1892 Court decision was by no means the only Supreme Court decision that recognized and preserved America’s Biblical heritage; similar decisions were rendered both before and after that ruling. For example, in 1844, a school run by the city of Philadelphia adopted a policy prohibiting Christian ministers from setting foot on campus. That school, originally founded by a wealthy French immigrant, was operated on the philosophy dominant in France during the French Enlightenment (and embraced by many public schools today) that students could successfully learn morality apart from Christianity or the Bible.


This policy, perceived as an attempt to keep the Bible from students, became an issue at the U. S. Supreme Court. The Court’s ruling on that subject was animous and was delivered by Justice Joseph Story, called a “Father of American jurisprudence” and placed on the Court by President James Madison. In that decision, the Court declared:

Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament . . . be read and taught as a divine revelation in the school – its general precepts expounded . . . and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? . . . Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sadly, the First Amendment is being frustrated by a misused phrase written by Jefferson to a friend that was never to be part of either the Constitution or to be applied to American law, the "separation of church and state."   Our Founders made us a Christian nation but one not beholden to any one church, branch of church or denomination.   Christianity was the default setting but it was written into the laws intrinsically and expected as normal morality amongst the citizenry.   The Founders did not want a State Church or a State Religion per se.    They could not have imagined that we would now be a secular nation with a State Church aka Humanism!   Yet that is what has happened over the many generations between George Washington and Barack Obama. 

Not Madison nor Adams nor even Jefferson could have imagined lawsuits challenging a public display of a cross or a menorah or a manger scene, or the Ten Commandments being chased from a public building!   Ben Franklin would nod sagely and recall his words that ended "...a republic, if you can keep it!"





Ben?  We may not be able to keep it.  We barely have it at all now.   America has come to resemble the England that we freed ourselves from back in the 18th Century although we are far worse than the England we once rebelled against.   Christianity is not only not the default setting, it is under attack from the elitist Humanists who wish to rule by fiat while presenting a Socialist State to the public and hoping they do not see the chains wrapped within all the bread and circuses being offered to them.

We are not so far from falling under tyranny yet again.  But until the time comes that our freedoms are all yanked away and I am led off in chains I will continue to cry out for freedom and Truth!   At this moment we remain the land of the free and the home of the brave.    Time is coming for the brave to stand up and be certain to hold on to the freedoms, for there are many who crave them and seek to snatch them away!


There is no free lunch.   Washington is not supposed to be Robin Hood.  The road to dystopia is paved with the bricks of false "rights" and things that are "deserved" rather than earned.

dys·to·pi·a  (All below sourced from Free Online Dictionary)
n.
1. An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.
2. A work describing such a place or state: "dystopias such as Brave New World" (Times Literary Supplement).

 
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

dystopia [dɪsˈtəʊpɪə]
n
(Literary & Literary Critical Terms) an imaginary place where everything is as bad as it can be
[C19 (coined by John Stuart Mill (1806-73), English philosopher and economist): from dys- + Utopia]
 
dystopian  adj & n
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

dystopia
an imaginary place where the conditions and quality of life are unpleasant. The opposite of Utopia.
See also: Utopia
 
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.