Filed under: public education

Everson v. Board of Education

The 1947 Everson v. Board of Education decision was a departure from American legal foundations, striking at the very heart of self-government and liberty.  Within fifteen years, radicals on American campuses were gleefully rejecting and attacking core American belief for law.  Everson v. Board of Education appears to have been by far the most harmful court action taken against individual liberty since the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision ninety years earlier.

 

The Everson v. Board of Education decision twisted the meaning of the First Amendment of the Constitution in two ways.  According to Daniel L. Dreisbach, "First, the phrase emphasizes separation of church and state--unlike the First Amendment, which speaks in terms of non-establishment and free exercise of religion.  Second, a wall [term used by the Court] is a bilateral barrier that inhibits the activities of both civil government and religion--unlike the First Amendment, which imposes restrictions on civil government only [not on religious freedom]."*

 

Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation" metaphor was totally misrepresented by the judges.  He adamantly objected to any such tyranny against religious liberty.  Engraved on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC are his own words:  "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."  He was a religious seeker and regularly attended church services held on Sundays in the United States Capitol building.**

 

Instead of upholding their oath to abide by the Constitution, judges ruled by "incalculable and changeable decrees."  Rule by men replaced government by established law.  The reasoning behind their decision reflects the old European secular doctrine of open-mindedness for dumbing the people down and transforming society.  Instead of being umpires, unelected judges are trampling on the sacred rights of the people by legislating superior rights for the enemies of responsible liberty.

 

First_amend

*Daniel L. Dreisbach, Professor of Justice, Law, and Society at American University in Washington, DC, "How a Misused Metaphor Changed Church-State Law, Policy, and Discourse," essay, Heritage Foundation publication, June 23, 2006, http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles

**Hutson, Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, 84.

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John Adams: A Government of Laws and Not of Men

John Adams used the words "government of laws, and not of men" when he wrote the Bill of Rights for the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780.*  The preamble to the Massachusetts Constitution includes:  "We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the great Legislator of the universe, in affording us, in the course of His providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence or surprise, of entering into an original, explicit, and solemn compact with each other; and of forming a new constitution of civil government, for ourselves and posterity; and devoutly imploring His direction in so interesting a design, do agree upon, ordain and establish the following Declaration of Rights, and Frame of Government, as the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."  The Massachusetts Bill of Rights goes on to read like the principles in the non-sectarian Creator-based Declaration of Independence.**

 

In contrast, a government "of men" rests upon revisionist morality, which makes the Constitution meaningless.  Contemporary liberals who reject the God-honoring meaning for "government of laws, and not of men" are aided by militant atheists, who not only reject "government of law," but work feverishly to eliminate all references to God in education and public discourse.  Described by Solon of Athens as "government by incalculable and changeable decrees," the religious justification for revisionist morality is a strongly held belief about life's origin, meaning and purpose:  atheistic Darwinism.***  Sold as absolute science, the demand for education exclusivity is, in reality, the religion of scientific fascism.  Liberals are constantly revising Darwin's theory because the absurdity of their science is continually being exposed.  The underlying cause of the anger and militancy for their demands becomes clear.  They must prevent any ideological competition in the taxpayer-funded classroom.  Secular militants must have total control in order to dumb the students down.

 

Elected representatives make laws and serve by the "consent of the governed," who are "endowed by their Creator" with certain unalienable rights.  This claim reaches the very heart of American society and law.  Conservative Supreme Court justices have cited the Declaration as support for their decisions over two hundred times.  The Federalist Papers, written to promote acceptance of the Constitution by the people, cited the Declaration thirty-seven times.

 

When confronting the greatest crisis since the War for Independence, Abraham Lincoln turned to the Declaration to assert the "sacred right of self-government."****

 

When the Founding Fathers undertook a long war for independence, the did not dither, knowing full well that there were huge problems such as slavery and harmful citizen voting restrictions.  Citizen awareness, prayer and the Declaration of Independence resonates with people and by the grace of God those problems in 1776 were remedied.  With citizen awareness, which we are working on, and prayer, the cancer of socialistic paternalism can be removed.

 

Stuart_adams_john_c1800_15_ngdc

John Adams

2nd President of the United States

1735 - 1826

 

*www2.bartleby.com/73/991.html

**http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/Constitution#cp00s00.htm

***Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. II, The Life of Greece, Simon and Schuster, 1939, 118. 

****Abraham Lincoln, October 10, 1854, Peoria, Illinois, http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/peoriaspeech.htm

 

 

From Chapter 6, The Defilement of the Judiciary

Definite and specific American principles for law do exist.  Under the influence of these principles, our nation became the overwhelming choice of immigrants throughout the world.  Chief among the foundations of the American philosophy for governing is the belief that man is the beneficiary of unalienable rights which come from God and that are superior to secular claims, governments, and things material.

 

The law given from Sinai [Ten Commandments] was civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code; it contained many statutes… of universal application--laws essential to the existence of men in society and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws" (John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States).*

 

Under the false premise that professors must be independent from the values of taxpayers and parents for determination of the truth to be used in the behavioral and political sciences, leftist union bosses demand that teachers be sheltered from the people by tenure laws.  This violation of government by and for the people has enabled secular militants to take moral law, which makes liberty achievable, out of soft science curriculums.  Consequently small cadres of atheistic teachers bully the good teachers and dumb down American youth.  The all-out war against the nonsectarian God of life, liberty and human decency is clear.

 

Failure of public schools to teach respect for "In God We Trust," along with the self-evident laws of creation's nature, and emphasize the principles of the Declaration of Independence raises a pertinent question:  "How does this classroom strategy differ from that of the Fascists and the Communists?"

 

Our Federalist approach, which divides and limits the authority of the national government, the states, and thirdly, the authority for controlling the policies of local units, such as counties, cities and schools belongs to the people therein.  Central government authority is needed to facilitate harmony between the states in such matters as interstate commerce, transportation, foreign policy, and national defense.  This protects the nation as a whole.  The central government, however, is not to get involved in domestic policy unless there was a trend in a region of the country that threatened the unity and survival of the nation as a whole.  Because needs within individual states, counties and cities differ and are better resolved locally, the right to make such laws belongs to the individual states and local citizens.  Failure of legislators and judges to respect the superior value of local control in domestic matters leads to a citizen-to-government disconnect and the tyranny of centralized authoritarian rule.

 

In his Farewell Address to the nation, President Washington expressed what has proven to be of vital importance:  "If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates.  But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.  The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield."

 

In-god-we-trust-coin1

*Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son, www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/48640.>

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Government by Written and Permanent Law: Stability vs Manipulation

The most significant correction that came with the American Revolution was that citizens themselves were recognized as sovereigns under God over government.  In the United States, people looked to creation's God for higher authority.  The First Amendment rejection of power, claimed by government authoritarians, kings, academians, clergy, etc., unleashed competition for religion, education and speech among the people that enabled America to become the greatest nation in world history.

 

William Ellery Channing wrote, "Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man.  Appetite knowing no restraint, and poverty and suffering having no solace or hope, man would trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws.  Virtue, duty, principle would be moved and scorned as unmeaning sounds.  A sordid self-interest would supplant every feeling, and man would become… a companion of brutes."*

 

"Government by written and permanent law" is not complicated.  No matter what one's religion, birthright or political view, the principles of the Declaration and universal absolutes shown here clearly distinguish right from wrong.  Stealing property that belongs to another is violating an unalienable right upon which liberty depends.  Adultery is a violation of the sacred obligations of marriage and family, creating stress and shortening life.  Dishonesty cheats the victim out of an unalienable, God-given right and undermines the reliable communication upon which commerce and community depend.  Deliberately stopping the heart of an unborn child is an horrific offense to the God of life as well as to society.

 

How then can the people protect themselves from cavalier authoritarians who manipulate changes in laws that enable radicals to dumb down students and, by extension, over time, manipulate society?

 

Historians Will and Ariel Durant pointed out Solon of Athens' recognition of the critical procedural choice that is directly related to limiting the options for political deception.  Do we insist upon "government by written and permanent law," or do we permit "government by incalculable and changeable decrees?"**

 

Impressions of Solon of Athens and other lawmakers from different cultures, with the focus on Moses and the Ten Commandments, are displayed on the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC.  Although Solon did not support his understanding with references to the Old Testament for reliable standards, he did recognize the ongoing dangers of deception by authoritarians who manage to dominate soft sciences.

 

"Government by written and permanent law" provides long-term stability.  Mankind is protected from short-lived popular fantasies and preserved from the inroads of political deception.  Secular elitists who insist that the American charter for the use of government power is a "living constitution" now artfully advance "government by incalculable and changeable decrees."  To retain respect for the family and liberty, the Constitution must be anchored to the political truth adopted by the Founding Fathers.

 

Thomas_jefferson_quote_from_karen

 

*William Ellery Channing, 1820, The Great Doctrine of Retribution: The Founders' Views of the Social Utility of Religion, cited by James H. Hutson in a presentation to the John Courtney Murray Seminar at the American Enterprise Institute, 1150 Seventeenth Street, NW, Washington, DC, June 6, 2000.

**Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, the Solon of Athens "government by incalculable and changeable decrees" Vol. II, The Life of Greece, 1939, 118.

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Finding the Place of Personal Faith in Government

The two classifications of religion, civic and personal, can live openly side by side.  The fact that Americans are free to share their personal religious convictions in public is indispensable.  Different beliefs can then be known, evaluated and decided upon by individuals.  Citizens are to be trusted with this freedom to know and choose.  This is to be respected.

 

The morality in one's personal faith and beliefs about education, government, politics and law are inseparable.  Personal faith is primary, and the nonsectarian American civic religion which is so vital to public education is the composite result.  The purity of America's civic religion that advances individual liberty is totally dependent on religious freedom, which in turn requires freedom from intimidation by government-established ideologues (educators, clergy, etc.).

 

The Founding Fathers were not only avid Creationists; they were members of many different church denominations, and the vast majority of them were, in their personal faith, born-again Christians.*

 

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:

old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

2 Corinthians 5:17

 

For you have been "born again, not of corruptible seed,

but of incorruptible, by the word of God,

which liveth and abideth for ever."

1 Peter 1:23

 

The Founding Fathers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution came from eleven Christian groups that held different views about church ordinances, baptism, communion, church polity, discipline, worship and so on.  Alexander Hamilton said in an essay published soon after the Constitutional Convention adjourned: "For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system, which, without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests."**  Madison expressed the same belief in The Federalist No. 37.

 

"Hast thou not known?  Hast thou not heard, [that] the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?  [There is] no searching of his understanding.  He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no might he increaseth strength."

Isaiah 10:28-29

 

Colonial churches were clearly Biblical.  Schools such as Harvard and the local public grade schools were Bible-based and evangelical.  Noah Webster (1758-1843), a contributor to the Constitution and widely acknowledged as the most influential educator for over a hundred years, unabashedly proclaimed his conversion to Christ during a campus revival at Yale.***

 

Webster, who was skilled in six languages, published the American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828.  In 1833, he said, "It is extremely important to our nation, in a political as well as religious view, that all possible authority and influence should be given to the scriptures, for these furnish the best principles of civil liberty and the most effectual support of republican [meaning republic] government."

 

Public school students must be taught to understand and appreciate the importance of the all-encompassing concept of an impartial, nonsectarian God of creation's nature.  This is America's civic religion.  Inculcation, however, in the personal faith relating to worship and a denomination's specific religious doctrine must not be allowed to become a function of government education.

 

64167_338209979564091_133149703403454_1001074_1990975054_n

 

 

*http://www.adherents.com/gov/Founding_Fathers_Religion.html

**http://www.zeios.com/OurRepublic/Author/22

***http://www.yalestandard.com/tidbits/voices-of-yales-past/

Image from https://ioan17.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/where-you-ats/

 

Note:  In the Judeo-Christian Bible, we learn of the personal faith shared by many different Christian denominations:  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).

 

Justice and grace meet at the cross of Calvary, where the price of sin was paid by Christ, Who loves us more than we love ourselves (see also Romans 5:8-9; 10:9-13 for more context of the phrase "born again").  When individuals acknowledge their need for forgiveness and humbly accept God's gift of salvation from the penalty of sin, a divine God-to-man cooperative becomes a reality.

 

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America's Civic Religion in Light of Its Judges

In times past, our nation's judges recognized that America has a civic religion.  In 1952, Justice William O. Douglas wrote, "We are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being."*  Civic religion is different than the personal faith of individuals--their manner of worship, fellowship and practice.

 

American courts and judges honored the benevolent providence of God unabashedly.  "On Monday last the Circuit Court [Portsmouth, NH, May 24, 1800] of the United States was opened in this town.  The Hon. Judge Paterson presided.  After the Jury was impaneled, the Judge delivered a most elegant and appropriate charge…  Religion and morality were pleasingly inculcated and enforced as being necessary to good government, good order, and good laws, for 'when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice [Proverbs 29:2]'…  After the charge was delivered, the Rev. Mr. [Timothy] Alden addressed the Throne of Grace in an excellent, well adapted prayer."**

 

In 1892, the Supreme Court of the United States cited eighty-seven precedents and proclaimed:  "Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of Mankind.  It is impossible that it should be otherwise:  and in this sense and to the extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian…  This is a religious people.  This is historically true.  From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation… we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth."***

 

The Supreme Court had reviewed eighty-seven decisions for settling disputes by previous courts and they all followed Biblical principles of right and wrong.  Respect for this truth can be traced historically to the founders' Christian faith.  Human authoritarianism was rejected.  The principles of the nonsectarian God of creation, spoken of in the American Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights were viewed as supreme.

 

Legislation drafted by the United States Senate and House of Representatives adding the words "under God" to the American Pledge of Allegiance was signed by President Eisenhower in 1954.  In 1964, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the law.

 

The obligations that apply to theistic religions also apply to atheistic religions.  By refusing to admit that faith-dependent atheism is religious (concerned with beliefs about origin, meaning and purpose of life), secular militants hope to escape responsibility for civil standards of morality.  While demanding supremacy for their God-rejecting faith, they deny public freedom for the Creator-based civic creed in the soft sciences, most particularly in the study of biology, economics, American government, history and judicial foundations.  When secular militants succeed here, they then move to deny belief in God--period--even as the basis for personal faith.

 

Student understanding of American civic religion in taxpayer-funded schools is a foremost curriculum requirement.  By excluding the denominational creeds and biases that tend to be divisive, the people unify in support of governments that honor "In God We Trust" as a nonsectarian creed.

 

"Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine…  Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants.  Indeed, these two sciences run into each other."

James Wilson

Signer of the Constitution

U.S. Supreme Court Justice

 

Under_god

 

 

*Zorach v. Clauson, Docket 431, citation 343 US 306, 1952.

**Barton, Original Intent, 118-19.  See also The Documentary History of the Supreme Court, Vol. III, 436.

***Ibid.

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America's Civic Religion in Light of Congress

Even Congress has recognized that America has a civic religion. 

 

Presidents, as well as many other citizens, attended church services held on Sundays in the United States Capitol building.  President Thomas Jefferson, "during his whole administration, 1801-1809, was a most regular church attendant," documents James H. Hutson in Religion and the Founding of the American Republic.  Ministers of several Christian denominations conducted the services.  Honoring the nonsectarian God of creation in public and on government property is an important manifestation of civic faith.  In addition to attending church services in the Capitol building, Thomas Jefferson made significant financial contributions to that ministry.

 

"After the Civil War, from 1865-1868, the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., permitted the newly organized First Congregational Church of Washington to use its chambers for church and Sunday school services.  During that same time, specifically on June 13, 1866, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment which, according to some later judicial foolishness, forbids religious activities on public property."*

 

Addressing Congress, Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, proclaimed:  "I anticipate nothing but suffering to the human race while the present systems of paganism, deism and atheism prevail in the world."**

 

English language Bibles had to be imported from England until 1782 when Congress authorized Robert Aitken to commence the first American printing of the Bible in English.   Aitken was also the official printer of the Journals of Congress for the United States Congress.  The following year, George Washington wrote a letter of commendation to Robert Aitken for his "Bible of the American Revolution."***

 

On September 25, 1789, Congress requested unanimously that President Washington proclaim a national day of thanksgiving and prayer.  This is the same Congress that on the same day approved the final draft of the First Amendment to protect the people's rights to religious freedom from suppression by government administrators, judges and legislators.  President Washington proclaimed on October 3, 1798:  "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor…  Now, therefore, I do recommend… that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed…  And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions… And to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue."****

 

In 1954, Congress ordered that "a room with facilities for prayer and meditation…" be made available in the United States Capitol.  The seventh edition of The Capitol, an official publication of the United States Congress, describes the stained-glass window of the Congressional Prayer Room:

 

"The history that gives this room its inspirational lift is centered in the stained glass window.  George Washington kneeling in prayer… is the focus of the composition…  Behind Washington a prayer is etched:  'Preserve me, O God, for in Thee I put my trust,' the first verse of the sixteenth Psalm.  There are upper and lower medallions representing the two sides of the Great Seal of the United States.  On these are inscribed the phrases:  annuit coeptis--'God has favored our undertakings'--and novas order seclorum--'A new order of the ages is born.'  Under the upper medallion is the phrase from Lincoln's immortal Gettysburg Address, 'This Nation under God'…  The two lower corners of the window each show the Holy Scriptures, an open book and a candle, signifying the light from God's law, 'Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path' [Psalm 119:105]."*****

 

A primary duty of government officials and most certainly the duty of professors and teachers whose salaries are funded by taxpayers is to promote the liberating principles of the nonsectarian American civic creed that has been discussed in this and earlier blog posts.

 

1

 

 

*James H. Hutson, Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1998, 84.  The entire book is available at lastingsuccessedu.org

**Benjamin Rush, Annals of Congress 1834, vol. I (September 25, 1789), 949-50.

***http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/

and

http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/colonial-bibles.html

****http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/GW/gw004.html

*****http://www.wallbuilders.com/downloads/newsletter/H.Res.888.pdf

 

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America's Civic Religion in Light of Its Documents

America has a civic religion.  In 1952, Justice William O. Douglas wrote, "We are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being."*  Note that this is different from the personal faith of individuals--their manner of worship, fellowship and practice.  This is civic religion--religion embedded in our government.

 

The natural-law philosophy, our civic religion foundational to the American constitution, is in direct conflict with secular law.  An example of this would be the secular law of open-mindedness required of teachers by Professor John Dewey (John S. Brubacher and Willis Rudy, Higher Education Transition, New York: Harper and Row, 1958, 310).  It blindsides students to the horrific differences between good and evil and causes them to go along with the pagan laws of man contrived by liberal judges, legislators and educators.

 

The Declaration of Independence (1776), the Articles of Confederation (drafted 1777, ratified 1781) and the Constitution (ratified 1788) have been classified as the most important American charters.  Collectively they received a total of 143 signatures from 118 people.  By their affirmations, these individuals represented themselves to be believers in the providence of God, and they did so at the risk of being hung by British soldiers.

 

In a letter from Benjamin Rush to John Adams, Rush says of that fateful day when the Declaration of Independence was signed, "Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants?  The silence and the gloom of the morning were interrupted, I well recollect, only for a moment by Colonel [Benjamin] Harrison of Virginia, who said to Mr. [Elbridge] Gerry at the table:  'I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing.  From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.'  This speech procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was conducted…"**  Out of the 56 signers of the Declaration, 29 held seminary degrees.***

 

Professor Donald S. Lutz of the University of Houston describes a ten-year study during which he and others assembled the writings and deliberations of the American Founding Fathers.****  The study brought into focus important sources that were used when determining priorities for the American constitution.  Aside from quotations from the Bible, the writings of Montesquieu, Blackstone and Locke were the sources relied upon most by the Founding Fathers.

 

Montesquieu's best-known work was The Spirit of Laws.  He emphasized the importance of separating personnel and duties for the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.  The purpose of this separation of power was to prevent abuse of the people's rights as sovereigns over government (Isaiah 33:22; Jeremiah 17).  Blackstone emphasized the Law of Nature (man's nature both before and after the fall) and Revealed Law (Scripture).  His Commentaries on the Common Law of England was especially practical for the new nation.  Locke,  born into a Puritan family and son of a lawyer, provided the "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" and two treatises "On Civil Government."  His "life, liberty, or property" phrase is in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

 

The chief source for the Founding Fathers' understanding was the Bible.  It was cited three times more often than were these three men combined.  Thirty-four percent of all ideas referred to by the constitutional delegates came directly from the Old and New Testament books.  Furthermore, 60 percent of the references to opinions of Montesquieu, Blackstone and Locke were drawn from the Bible.  The most frequently quoted book was the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy.

 

"The fundamental basis of this Nation's law was given to Moses on the Mount.  The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul.  I don't think we emphasize that enough these days."*****

Harry S. Truman

 

Governments and authoritarians are not the source of man's rights.  Government is but a tool that should be used to protect man's right to worship creation's God.  This impartial Creator of life ordained and established the unalienable human rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence that demand representative governments to follow the rule of established law, not the arbitrary rule of man.  Legislators, administrators and judges who use laws (the power of government) to establish religious, ideological or employee union monopolies are fascistic.****** 

 

 

"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.  I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."*******

John Adams

 

Backoftwo

 

 

*Zorach v. Clauson, Docket 431, citation 343 US 306, 1952.

**http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/rushadams.html

***http://rodchaney2012.org/2012/02/11/a-message-from-rod/

****Donald S. Lutz, The Origins of American Constitutionalism (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1988).

*****http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=13707#axzz1t9qVQzTQ

******Fascism is a word used to identify the enemies of representative governments and governments limited for the protection of the people's freedom to be informed and to choose.

*******http://christianity.about.com/od/independenceday/a/foundingfathers.htm

 

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Old European Secular Philosophy vs Education

There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible

than in any profane history.*

Sir Isaac Newton

 

Backed by the 1947 Supreme Court decision Everson v. Board of Education, militant objectors to American principles and the American creed bullied their way into controlling the atmosphere of American public schools.  Instead of upholding their oath to abide by the Constitution, judges rule by "incalculable and changeable decrees."  Rule by men replaced government by established law.  The reasoning behind their decision reflects the old European secular doctrine of open-mindedness for dumbing the people down and transforming society.  Instead of being umpires, unelected judges are trampling on the sacred rights of the people by legislating superior rights for the enemies of responsible liberty.

 

A report by the nonpartisan Commission on Excellence in Education remains the premier American study of problems in public education.  It states:  "The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people… If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."  The report laments "the deconstruct of the moral and spiritual strengths which knit together the very fabric of our society."**

 

Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores have declined, and today the United States ranks academically near the bottom of the world's industrialized nations.  College seniors have no better grasp of general cultural knowledge than did high school graduates in the 1950s.  The average correct responses for modern college seniors on a series of questions was 53.5 percent, compared to 54.5 percent of high school graduates in 1955 (survey by Zogby International, April 2002, for the Princeton, New Jersey-based National Association of Scholars, presented by NAS President Stephen H. Balch in December 2002).

 

In the fall of 2005, researchers at the University of Connecticut's National Civic Literacy Board conducted a survey of some 14,000 freshmen and seniors at fifty colleges and universities.  Students were asked sixty multiple-choice questions to measure their knowledge in four subject areas:  American history, government, international relations and market economy.  Seniors, on average, failed all four subjects and their overall average score was 53.2 percent.***

 

The abuse of academic freedom and teacher tenure guarantees is rooted in the old European secular philosophy.  John S. Brubacher and Willis Rudy point out that, when Darwinian advocates coupled their "origin and destiny of man" theory with the authoritarianism of "German graduate methods [faculty independence]… academic freedom became a cause celebre [highly controversial]."   According to Darwinian militants, "There is no fixed limit or perfect form of knowledge and, that on the contrary, truth is always tentative" (John S. Brubacher, and Willis Rudy, Higher Education Transition, New York:  Harper and Row, 1958, 296 and 306).

 

"I believe that religion is the only solid base of morals and that morals are the only possible support of free governments.  Therefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God."

Gouverneur Morris

Signer of the Constitution

 

Claybennett

 

 

 

*Halley's Bible Handbook authored by Henry H. Halley and published by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI (republished since 1924).

**A Nation at Risk, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 26, 1983, http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html

***The Coming Crisis in Citizenship:  Higher Education's Failure to Teach America's History and Institutions, 09/26/2006, Intercollegiate Studies Institute's National Civic Board Report.  See http://content.usatoday.com/community/tags/topic.aspx?req=tag&tag=Interco...

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Old European Secular Philosophy vs Family

Karl Marx attacked the family.  He appealed to academia and others for the "abolition of the family."  "The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed correlation of parent and child" is "disgusting."*

 

Dr. John Dewey, a proponent of teacher employment guarantees at taxpayer expense, is the acknowledged father of modern-day public education.  He was an admirer of Margaret Sanger, Humanist of the Year in 1967 and the founder of Planned Parenthood.  Sanger also founded the publication The Woman Rebel, whose slogan was "No Gods! No Masters!"  Her first edition denounced marriage as a "degenerate institution" and sexual modesty as "obscene prudery" (George Grant, Legacy of Planned Parenthood, Wolgemuth & Hyatt Publishers, Inc).

 

Judith Stacey, a highly regarded member of the public school primary and secondary education faculty at the University of California (Davis campus), declared:  "The 'family' is not here to stay.  All democratic people, whatever their kinship preferences, should work to hasten its demise" ("Rights and Rites," The Washington Times, March 29 1993). Since the Supreme Court decision Everson v. Board of Education in 1947, tenured radical teachers have sought to take God out of education and ultimately turn the tide of education against the family.  

 

It is the collective political power granted to monopoly teacher unions and the establishment of tenure laws that empower the enemies of the family, human dignity, and self-government.  Tenured secular authoritarians have achieved control of curriculum used in the soft sciences and the study of law taught in government schools.  The weapons they use to enforce what must be taught include the ridicule and denigration of the reputation of anyone who dares to challenge leftist political correctness.  The use of the word "science" is code for their atheistic human origins, meaning and purpose; "diversity" is code for demanding the approval of evil life practices; and "social justice" is code for using government power to force the transfer of wealth from the thrifty to their own block of voters. 

 

"These [atheist] teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist [atheistic] values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the education level--preschool, daycare or large state university.  The classroom must and will become an area of conflict between the old and the new--the rotting corpse of Christianity" (The Humanist, January/February, 1983).

 

The change in the American family since the 1947 Supreme Court decision in Everson v. Board of Education, teacher unionization and tenure law has led to a colossal increase in family breakdown (See April 6 2012 blog entitled "Public Education Shuns Reality").

 

 

Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible

are so interwoven and intertwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally, I do not mean figuratively, but literally impossible for us to figure what the loss would be if these teachings were removed.  We would lose all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals;

all the standards toward which we, with more or less resolution,

strive to raise ourselves.**

Theodore Roosevelt

Teddy_roosevelt_and_family

President Theodore Roosevelt and Family

1903

 

 

*Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848, http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html

**http://www.prayerforceone.com/hailtothechief.asp

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