American Principle Eleven: Government and Union Monopolies Involving Education or Religion Are Prohibited--For Liberty's Sake

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

Constitution of the United States

 

Education that does not teach the timeless principles recorded in the Declaration of Independence empowers the enemies of life and liberty for the pursuit of happiness.  The delegates to the Constitutional Convention understood this, and they focused upon the fact that governments are by nature a nesting place for tyrants of the mind.

 

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. 

 

It is the competition of education suppliers that reduces inefficiencies in  government-run schools and helps restrain moral pollution by tenured government radicals.  The debasement of morality evident in the tragic church-state monopoly of Medieval Europe compares with the moral decline that started with government establishment of teacher unions.  First-amendment law intended to prevent the suppression of the right of parents to choose between competing education suppliers for their children's education are superior to all other laws--national, state, and local.

 

The indispensable role of education and religious liberty in the preservation of American principles for government is "self-evident."  Education that leaves new generations viewing government as some vague entity leaves them confused about truth.  They are then easy prey for manipulation by what Jefferson called "tyrants of the mind."  Definite and specific American principles for government of a responsible nature do exist.  Fifteen of them are my current focus of this blog.  

 

Education worthy of the name will emphasize that government is the servant of and for the people, the sovereigns under creation's God.

 

A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

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Tyranny

 

American Principle Ten: Government Must Be Decentralized

"…repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny [British King] over these States."

Declaration of Independence

 

Officials who bypass the principles of limited government are suppressing the supreme right of the people to rule.  Such officials have violated their duties as trustees and are in effect usurpers, oppressors and tyrants.

 

The American system is "a Republic--a federation, or combination, of central and state republics--under which: the different governments will control each other…  Within each republic there are two safeguarding features: (a) a division of powers, as well as (b) a system of checks and balances between separate departments: hence a double security arises [essential] to the rights of the people."

(James Madison, Federalist, No. 51, 1788)

 

Regarding the federal government usurping essential citizen rights, "True barriers [for] of our liberty are our State governments."

(President Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, 1801, http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/founders/jefferson/thomas-jefferson-first-...

 

"The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes.  To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them."

(George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796, http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=15)

 

"Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possesses their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression."

(President Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, 1801, http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/founders/jefferson/thomas-jefferson-first-... 

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American Principle Nine: Authoritarians in Government Are a Parasitic and Ever-Present Danger

"Taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws,

and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments [constitutions]."

Declaration of Independence

 

"In questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution" (Thomas Jefferson:  Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798, ME 17:388).

 

Two notable efforts by power-hungry authoritarians occurred near the end of the war for independence.  First, army officers were conspiring to take control of Congress.  Second was an effort to make George Washington king.  He squashed both of them abruptly.  After all, Americans had just been through a bloody war with England to get rid of rule by authoritarians, religious and secular.

 

An axiom for detecting the corrupt and evil use of power is to follow the flow of money to politicians inside and outside of government.  Chief among tactics for overriding the will of the people at the state and local levels is bad election finance law.  The importation of millions of campaign dollars from homosexual- and abortion-rights advocates from outside a region to fund the campaigns of radicals in the region to be represented is destructive of representative government.  This should be prohibited.


"The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.  A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position" (President Washington's Farewell Address, 1796, http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=15).

 

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George Washington

1732 - 1799

Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army (1775 - 1783)

First President of the United States (1789 - 1797)

 

 

American Principle Eight: The Overriding Concern When Writing the Constitution Was Imposing a Check on Man's Sin-Prone Behavior

"He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign

to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation."

Declaration of Independence

 

Man has a selfish nature, and those who achieve power tend to abuse it.  James Madison wrote, "The only distinction between freedom and slavery consists of this:  in the former state, man is governed by laws to which he has given his consent, either in person or, by his representative.  In the latter he is governed by the will of another… If men were angels, no government would be necessary" (cited by Forrest McDonald, The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution, Lawrence, Kansas, University of Kansas Press, 1985, pp. 160 and 205 respectively).

 

It is the evil ways of men that make this a dangerous world that requires freedom-loving individuals to be tough-minded.  It is a tough-minded refusal to compromise and negotiate away the timeless principles briefed in the Declaration that sends the enemy down losers' lane.

 

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Restoring Education Central to American Greatness

After reading only four chapters of Restoring Education Central to American Greatness, one teacher in Ames, Iowa, wrote in amazement about what she was NOT taught about American history.   Not only that, this book is being called a "victory strategy handbook" by some.

 

"A truly complete case for the godly biblical influences from which America’s unique government and set of laws were patterned. David Norris brings the reader up to today’s date on the history and status of the liberal educators and their philosophies so detrimental to our liberties. The deceptive retreat from reality and the invalid reasoning of postmodernists are exposed for what they are. Every God-honoring leader and Bible-believing church will benefit greatly by sharing the pro-American lexicon of this book. The well-cataloged references range from the Founding Fathers to today’s best conservative jurists, whose writings are very useful for young people and adults alike."

—Lowell D. Bond, MD

 

I have been posting blogs full of information that is found in the Introduction and just the first half of Chapter One ~ "Immortal Principles Central to Liberty and American Greatness".  My next blog entry will be American Principle Eight.

 

The following is the Table of Contents of Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

Part I: Government

Chapter 1

  • Immortal Principles Central to Liberty and American Greatness

Chapter 2

  • The Sovereignty of Man under the Impartial God of Creation over Government

Chapter 3

  • Man May Prosper in Freedom If He Chooses to Honor the Will of Creation’s God

Chapter 4

  • America’s Civic Religion and the Deeper Personal Faith of Our Nation’s Founders

Chapter 5

  • Government by Written and Permanent Law

Chapter 6

  • Defilement of the Judiciary

Part II: Education

Chapter 7

  • Academic Freedom and Teacher Tenure History

Chapter 8 

  • Consequences of the Unionization of Government Teachers

Chapter 9

  • The Education Nightmare

Chapter 10

  • Education That Is Profoundly American

Part III: Liberty and Responsibility

Chapter 11

  • Appeasement Will Not Work

Chapter 12

  • Our Strategy for Victory: Political Action—Citizen Power

Part IV: Supplemental Material

Appendix A

  • Grand Jury Presentment Problems in Higher Education

Appendix B

  • State of Iowa Bill of Rights

Appendix C

  • How Socialism Exploits Mankind

Appendix D

  • Citation Notes

 

 

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American Principle Seven: Interpreting the Constitution Is Predicated By Morality

"We hold these truths to be self-evident …"

Declaration of Independence

 

"Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.  Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with

indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?"

George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

 

Declaration-of-independence
The Founding Fathers wrote God-honoring natural-law philosophy into the Declaration of Independence.  Morality inherent in natural law is the underpinning of the Constitution.  Persistence in upholding this perspective separates the Constitution as a tool from defilement by the adherents of man-made law (Alexander Hamilton, Tully Papers, in Philadelphia newspapers 1794).

 

Natural law reflects the common-sense separation of wrong from what is right, as does man's God-given conscience.  In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 1, Paul rejoices in "the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward."

 

Provisions that distinguish the application of American Constitutional law include not destroying innocent life, not stealing and not being untruthful.  Following through on one example, lying when a person gives evidence in a court of law is the crime of perjury.  Liberal law professors avoid discussions about the origin of natural law because that requires an acknowledgment that the predicate for Constitutional interpretation--"government of laws, and not of men"-- resides in higher biblical authority.

 

The impartial "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"* are the moral connectors that uphold the work ethic, prosperity, and civil community.  When we speak of morality here, we are speaking of what John Marshall wrote in the Marbury v. Madison opinion.  He said, "The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men."

 

It is this bold rejection of the foundational history of law by atheistic-secular authoritarians and the elevation of natural-law philosophy that caused immigrants, by countless millions, to come to America.  And it is the ironclad benefit resulting from applying the impartial "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" that cause them to stay in America.

Prog1sm

*The phrase "Nature's God" used in the Declaration of Independence did not originate with Americans.  The laws of nature's God include the biblical standards of morality.  When the bond between God and man was broken in the Garden of Eden, the forces of evil that seek to defy creation's nature were unleashed.  "The law of nature was a common term used by historic legal writers such as Grotius, Burlamaqui, Blackstone and others.  The law of nature's God, a lesser used term, was more commonly called the divine law, or the revealed law"

(Loning Historical Reference Works).

 


 

 

A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

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American Principle Six: The Written Constitution Established By Americans Is a Tool For Governing

Governments derive "their just powers

from the consent of the governed."

Declaration of Independence

Image_consent_of_governed

We, the people, have as our guide God-honoring principles for directing the use of government power.  When, during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln dedicated the field where thousands gave their lives at Gettysburg, he concluded, "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" (The Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863).

 

Americans established government when covenanting to share a small portion of their God-given rights to use force and keep thieves out of the corncrib.  It is the tax revenues provided by the people that give government its power.  

 

The tool is to be used in ways to achieve the goals spelled out philosophically in the Preamble:  "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare [meaning common needs that do not conflict with or hamper the development of the work ethic and personal self-reliance] and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

 

Some delegates to the Constitutional Convention believed these principles of the Declaration of Independence for guiding government action would prevail without amending the Constitution because many states had already adopted a Bill of Rights.  Obviously the delegates did not anticipate the pervasiveness of the federal judiciary as it has since developed.  Ultimately the Founding Fathers at the state level made a most significant contribution by insisting that the nation's Constitution be amended by a Bill of Rights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

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American Principle Five: Liberty Is Vital

"Unalienable Rights,

That among these are … liberty."

Declaration of Independence

 

Liberty--from oppression by big government and nongovernment authoritarians--is vital.  "Liberty and life are the gratuitous gifts of heaven.   I shall certainly be excused from adducing any formal arguments to evince, that life, and whatever is necessary for the safest of life, are the natural rights of man.  Some things are so difficult; others are so plain, that they cannot be proved" (Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, Lectures, delivered in the College of Philadelphia 1790-1791, volume II, part II, chapter 1, Lorenzo Press, 1804).

 

Liberty and self-reliance for independence are God's gifts for man to claim.  Liberty in the context of the Declaration of Independence and Preamble to the Constitution means freedom from government activity that would undermine the development of citizen self-reliance.  Accepting promises of politicians who use the public treasury to provide things that replace personal responsibility is a trap. Helping those who are incapable for reasons beyond their control is, of course, man's duty and beneficial to all, but paternalistic government services attract and enlarge an irresponsible voting block. When reduced to dependence, this cannot be reversed.  

 

"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 a gift of God?  That they are not violated but with His wrath?  Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just:  that His justice cannot sleep forever" (Thomas Jefferson:  signer and principle author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Notes on Virginia Q.XVIII, 1782, ME 2:227).

Jefferson_quote1

 

The Jefferson Memorial

Thomas Jefferson's Quote From the Northeast Interior Wall


A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

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American Principle Four: All Men Are Equal In the Sight of God and the Law

"that all men are created equal …"

Declaration of Independence

 

People of different faiths, with different racial and cultural backgrounds, and people who are gifted in different ways are created equal and deserve to be treated equally by the civil and criminal justice systems.  Any concept of authoritarianism that presumes to override the sovereignty of man under God over government is a violation of "equal in the sight of God and the law."

 

"The multitude I am speaking of is the body of people--no contemptible multitude--for whose sake government is instituted; or rather, who have themselves erected it, solely for their own good--to whom even kings and all in subordination to them, are strictly speaking, servants and not masters" (Samuel Adams, essay in the Boston Gazette, 1771).

Samadams

Samuel Adams

1722-1803

Founding Father of the United States

 

 

 

 

A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.  For more information or to purchase the book:

 

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