Restoring Education Central to American Greatness http://davidanorris.posterous.com David A. Norris Blog posterous.com Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:30:00 -0700 Part I: Government/Chapter 2, P 38-40 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-governmentchapter-2-p-38-40 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-governmentchapter-2-p-38-40

The Process Toward Independence

From Authoritarian Rule To a New Government

 

Objections by the original colonies regarding the rule of the British king began when he imposed a series of unjust laws that violated the colonists' rights as British citizens.  The colonists objected most vehemently to taxation without representation.

 

The December 16, 1773, Tea Party:  The Colonists were refusing to pay taxes required by the British Parliament because their representatives had not been allowed to participate in tax enforcement decisions.  If Americans paid the duty tax on the imported tea they would be acknowledging Parliament's right to tax them.  On December 16, 1773, when three shipments of tea were in the Boston harbor the crisis came to a head.  The Colonists liked their tea, but in the early evening about 200 descended upon the three ships and dumped the expensive shipments of tea into the harbor waters.  This act was monumental and there could no longer be any misunderstanding about the political will of Americans.

 

In 1774, on September 5, the First Continental Congress came together in Philadelphia with hopes of reaching an agreement with the British king.  Alexander Hamilton expressed the colonists' concern in a published pamphlet:  "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.*

 

In 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened May 10.  The goal of the colonies was justice, not independence.  On July 5, 1775, the Continental Congress approved the Olive Branch Petition and appealed "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, Most Gracious Sovereign" for reconciliation.  The English Parliament responded to this appeal on December 22, 1775, with the American Prohibitory Act--a declaration of unrestricted war against the colonists, claiming the right to confiscate their property.  Freedom for Americans at that point becomes a matter of self-defense and necessitated a new republican (republic) government.

http://www.founding.com/timeline/pageID.2462/default.asp

 

*Forrest McDonald, Novus Ordo Seclorum:  The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution (Lawrence, KS:  University of Kansas Press, 1985), 160.

 

 

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Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:35:16 -0700 Part I: Government/Chapter 2, P 35, 36 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-governmentchapter-2-p-35-36-31136 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-governmentchapter-2-p-35-36-31136

The Sovereignty Of Man

Under the Impartial God Of Creation Over Government

 

 

In this chapter we can see the rich orthodoxy that brought the universal principles of the Declaration to the American mind.  That the nation was founded upon the principles of God's Word is well documented by the founding compacts, covenants and constitutions.

 

In 1620, the Pilgrims drafted our nation's first self-governing document, the Mayflower Compact: "We . . . having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, do . . . solemnly and mutually in ye presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politic . . .. And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."

http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/mayflower_compact_text.htm

 

The King of England left the colonists alone for 150 years.  Without the albatross of paternalistic authoritarianism, the colonists experienced the benefits of personal responsibility and hard work.  People would come together with their pastor or a prominent student of the Bible as moderator and search the Scriptures for principles of government that would uphold civility in their community.

 

In 1630, the famous sermon by John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, reflected the great sense of purpose that has prevailed since the arrival of the Pilgrims.  Later quoted repeatedly by Ronald Reagan, Winthrop declared: "We are to be 'a City upon a hill,' a beacon of light for the world to follow."  He continued, "The eyes of all people are upon us.  So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world."*

 

In 1638, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut stated: "[We] enter into a combination and confederation together to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which we now profess."

http://www.constitution.org/bcp/fo_1639.htm

 

*Robert C. Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity," discourse written aboard the Arbella during the voyage to Massachusetts, 1630, In Life and Letters of John Winthrop, 1867, 19.

 

 

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Tue, 02 Apr 2013 06:21:44 -0700 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-61143 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-61143

Conclusion (Part II)

 

Immortal Principles Central To Liberty and American Greatness

 

 

The tragic support for radical teacher privilege can be traced to changes in what many law students are being taught.  In the 1870s, Christopher C. Langdell, Dean of the Harvard Law School, discarded the foundational basis for law upon which greatness has been achieved in America: "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…"

 

Langdell's fellow travelers are themselves victims of bad education.  According to them, no lasting absolutes upon which laws can be framed exist.  Instruction that fortifies the enemies of William Blackstone's Commentaries on Common Law is BAD education.  Blackstone's Commentaries were used by law students up through Abraham Lincoln's time.  It took several decades for the secularized instruction in law schools to compromise American jurisprudence.  The Commission on Excellence in Education emphasizes what is happening, "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 de-construct of the moral and spiritual strengths which knit together the very fabric of our society" (A Nation At Risk, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 26, 1983).

 

"Human history records the ongoing effort by men to substitute man-made law for the [unrelenting] laws of God and creation's nature."  Laws contrived by men end in disaster because they reject the existence of moral absolutes.  The consequences of this are clearly apparent today in America.  Quoting Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who documented the extermination of tens of millions of innocent victims in order to create a socialistic utopia in his homeland, "man has forgotten God" (quotes in this paragraph are from Understanding the Times, an exceptional resource, by David A. Noebel, Harvest House Publishers).

 

Enslavement by authoritarians' regulations and excessive taxation could not occur if Americans were being taught American history.  Renewed exposure to the God-honoring principles of the American Declaration of Independence is our most powerful weapon.  The light of truth fortifies the minds of men and women, boys and girls.  We believe these principles because they reflect the unrelenting power of creation's God.

 

We serve God.  The most significant change that came from the American war for independence is that the people were recognized by law to be sovereigns under God, over government.  Citizen self-rule replaced self-anointed authoritarians.  Government officials were recognized for what they are--servants of the people.

 

The Spiritual Awakening of 1740 through 1780 drove the selfless dedication that brought the American Revolution to a successful conclusion.  We have this promise, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).

 

 

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Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:56:37 -0700 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-2233 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-2233

Conclusion (Part I)

 

Immortal Principles Central To Liberty and American Greatness

 

 

"Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal" (Dr. Benjamin Rush, Essay, 1786).

 

Our families and nation are at risk.  Where moral law ends, tyranny begins.  Some sixty years ago, public schools were still circulating the A Golden Treasury From The BIBLE pamphlet full of wholesome character-building Bible verses.  The God-rejecting secular worldview imposed upon education by control of just a few militant teachers, protected by union contract negotiators, has undoubtedly put our nation "conceived in liberty" to the ultimate test.

 

The tactics of a small group of tenured teachers have forcibly elevated sexual promiscuity, infanticide and other practices devastating to students and society to the status of education legitimacy.  Because of the tactics of secular militants, good teachers, students and even the taxpayers who pay the teachers' salaries, are afraid to object.  These few radicals have the power to totally disrupt the education process.  School administrators know this.  Teacher tenure laws, approved by current state laws, force administrators to leave bad teachers in control of the God-rejecting anti-Christian education climate.

 

This is not a strictly religious matter.  The consequences of rejecting the life-enhancing Laws of Nature are easily seen in daily experience.  Even though some parents do not give creation's God credit for life-enhancing standards, they take their children out of government public schools to avoid exposing them to evil suggestiveness.

 

What do we mean by LIBERTY?  We do not need new principles to solve our problems.  We need America; meaning, we need to advance again and apply the civic values of the American Judeo-Christian heritage.  The Preamble (purpose) for the Constitution reads to "… secure the BLESSINGS of LIBERTY to ourselves and our posterity…"  If we do not succeed in alerting our young people, our friends and others, to what the enemies of American liberty are accomplishing, there will no longer be the kind of liberty that inspires the "BLESSINGS of LIBERTY for our posterity [descendants]."  The purpose of the Constitution includes "… 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 citizen self-reliance).  If we do not succeed in alerting others, ill-advised politicians will, at the expense of taxpayers, justify benefits for voters from birth to grave.

 

 

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Tue, 26 Mar 2013 07:13:00 -0700 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-74472 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-74472

American Principle Fifteen 

 

The Benevolent Provision and Heart Of God For Mankind

Are Recognized By Our Founding Fathers

 

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

It is the deeply felt expression of faith in the God who gave us life and the respect for unchanging laws of creation's nature that reversed the historic tide of oppression by government officials.

 

Our duty is to be public about the fact that reliable standards for law come with knowledge of the non-sectarian Creator-based meaning of the Declaration of Independence and the First Amendment.  In 1835, the significance of this connection was observed by Alexis de Tocqueville, "… in America religion is the road to knowledge, and the observance of the divine laws leads man to civil freedom…"

 

We must be honest.  There is an imperative need to restore American law that upheld the impartial life-enhancing morality, known then as Common Law and will always be known as the Laws of Nature.  The Declaration of Independence reads "… the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind…"  This is not only the basis for our nation's charters, it is also the unifier of our immigrant nation for the greatness that has been achieved.  

 

The wisdom of leaders who drafted the American charters is illustrated by the recommendation made for the American Seal.  Originally Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams proposed that the Seal pay tribute to the benevolent provision and heart of God for mankind.  Their design depicted the Old Testament journey of the Israelites who were guided by God through the wilderness.  The other side displayed Anglo-Saxons from Germanic tribes who descended to England and influenced the making of laws.  The Anglo-Saxons introduced morality for law comparable to the values of right and wrong identified by the human conscience at birth.  Undoubtedly, the most significant guide for law chosen by Americans was the Ten Commandments presented by God to Moses at Mount Sinai.

 

Secular authoritarians who abuse citizen sovereignty in practice and the Constitutional concept of unalienable God-given human rights have always menaced society.  "I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations" (James Madison, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788).  The quest for power is reflected in their tax and spend authoritarian militancy.  While claiming patriotism, they promote fear and employ every conceivable means to remove any knowledge of America's Judeo-Christian heritage and the principles of the Declaration of Independence that gave birth to the United States of America.

 

The Declaration of Independence concludes: "We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.  And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor" (the final paragraph from the Declaration of Independence unanimously adopted by the thirteen United States of America, CONGRESS, July 4, 1776).

 

The Constitution concludes: "Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present on the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the independence [Declaration of Independence] of the United States of America the Twelfth [adopted earlier] In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our names."

 

 

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Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:42:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-50006 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-50006

American Principle Eleven (Part I)

 

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.'"

First Amendment, Constitution of the United States

 

 

The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were concerned about the use of government power by what Thomas Jefferson called "Tyrants of the Mind."  Instead of government being the servant of the people, tyrants override the people's authority and gradually take control of what schools teach.  The family and the teaching of American history become early victims.  Students are dumbed down.  Secular open-minded morality and class envy divide families and communities.  Fellow travelers in the judiciary reject the historical application of First Amendment law.  In later chapters we document the inroads of harmful law.

 

Government-sanctioned teacher tenure guarantees are a violation of the First Amendment.  Privileged government teachers lead toward the same devastating consequences as the government-sanctioned church imposed on medieval Europe.  Experience with tyrants of the mind is the reason for the First Amendment.

 

Tyrants of the mind are bullies.  The creation of fear enables the few to overpower school administrators hired by the people to run schools in the public interest.  The weapons used include bad-mouthing and the ruin of the reputations of good administrators and teachers who dare to challenge leftist "politically correct" militants.

 

Editors of the book Speeches That Changed the World started with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and Christ's Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).  These editors recognized the good that believers have contributed to society and the superior quality of the Bible as literature.  Speeches That Changed the World included speeches by two Darwinian evolutionists, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.  Their leadership did influence the world.  The murder of millions of innocent people demonstrates the depths to which the open-mindedness of Darwin's God-rejecting Origin of the Species dogma can take men.

 

As always happens, those who reject the envelope of the life-enhancing "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" eventually self-destruct.  The problem now in America is the damage being done to the minds of millions of our youth who will soon be leaders.

 

"Educators have recognized the processes by which thought and behavioral patterns acquired in youth become the basis for adult motivation.  In modern times thoughtful observers have become progressively aware that moral, social, and political concepts implanted during the time of mental immaturity not only participate in the conduct of later life, but, once acquired, such concepts become dominant and often unalterable in the adult" (Grand Jury study of problems in higher education for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa, chaired by David A. Norris).

 

"The first national study of four common sexually transmitted diseases among girls and young women has found that one in four [is] infected with at least one of the diseases, U.S. health officials reported Tuesday" (Lawrence K. Altman, New York Times, March 11, 2008).  One in four U.S. teenage girls have STDs.  The diseases, which are infections caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites, can produce acute symptoms… and potentially fatal pregnancy… and cervical cancer.  The two most common sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs, among all the participants tested were HPB at 18 percent, and chlamydia at 4 percent, according to the analysis portion of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

 

An honest evolutionist: "Evolution is unproved and unprovable.  We believe it only because the only alternative is special creation which is unthinkable" (Sir Arthur Keith, citation in Wallie A. Criswell's Did Man Just Happen?, Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 1973).

 

Education worthy of the name will emphasize that the president, congress and the judiciary are servants of, by and for the people who are the sovereigns under creation's God.

 

 

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Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:36:11 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-85354 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-85354

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" (The Federalist No. 51, by James Madison).

 

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).

 

"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" (President George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796).

 

"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).

 

 

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Fri, 01 Mar 2013 08:21:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-9912 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-9912

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

 

 

"They know from experience… beset as they continually are by the wiles of parasites and sycophants [self-seeking] by the snares of the ambitious, the avaricious [greed for money], the desperate; by the artifices of men, who possess their confidence more than they deserve it, and of those who seek to possess, rather than to deserve it" (The Federalist No. 71, by Alexander Hamilton).

 

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.  Washington 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 in and outside of government.  Chief among tactics for overriding the will of the people is fraudulent election finance law.  The importation of millions of campaign dollars from homosexual and abortion rights advocates from outside a region to be represented, given to those who would make the laws, is destructive of representative government.  The people and representative governments must be protected from the importation of campaign funds from outside the region served by an elected government official.  This is not a violation of free speech.  Failure to do so is a crime against republican (not political party) government.  Such violations call for severe punishment.

 

"For it is a truth which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger, when the means of injuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion" (The Federalist No. 25, by Alexander Hamilton).

 

 

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Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:18:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-13277 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-13277

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 jurisdiction [control] foreign to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

A high priority when framing the Constitution was to expose government officials who persist in rejecting the message of their own conscience for the short-lived benefits of dishonesty and immoral conduct.

 

Upholding the responsibilities of civility is the necessary predicate for a liberty-friendly Constitution; liberty being the absence of authoritarian oppression.  This dictates the values that must be upheld by legislators, judges and administrators.  These values include sacredness of the family - one man and one woman in marriage; upholding the right to life and liberty, meaning citizen self-rule; equal treatment by law for all, leaders and non-leaders; protecting the labors of citizens' property rights, meaning to keep thieves out of the corn crib and taxes low; respect for God-honoring leaders.  And absolutely no government involvement in education and church except supporting unfettered competition among education and religion providers.  This protects the people's right as sovereigns to choose.  The people can be trusted (historic "rule of law"); government officials cannot be trusted (historic "rule of man").  The clear lesson from history is that government-established education, church authorities, and sanctioned monopoly unions empower tyrants who confuse, exploit and enslave.

 

The testimony of the Constitutional Fathers reminds us that government must be continually restored to the control of law-abiding citizens.

 

"But there is a Degree of Watchfulness over all Men possessed of Power or influence upon which the liberties of mankind much depend.  It is necessary to guard against the Infirmities of the best as well as the Wickedness of the worst of Men.  Such is the Weakness of human Nature that Tyranny has oftener sprang from than any other Source.  It is this that unravels the Mystery of Millions being enslaved by a few" (Samuel Adams, Letter to Elbridge Gerry, 1784, emphasis by Adams, Samuel Adams was a Delegate to the First Continental Congress, 1774; signed the Declaration of Independence, 1776: member of Massachusetts State Constitutional Convention, 1781).

 

"Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty!  I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt" (Patrick Henry, Virginia Convention for accepting or rejecting the Federal Constitution, 1788).

 

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, 160 and 205 respectively).

 

 

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Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:16:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-99555 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-99555

American Principle Seven (Part I)

 

The Moral Duties Of Civility Are Also a Predicate

For Interpreting Constitutional Meaning

 

"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, 1796

 

 

"Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"* morality fits into the behavioral envelope that supports life, truthfulness and the Golden Rule, meaning treating others in ways that one would like to be treated and would like loved ones to be treated.  Immorality includes those traits called sin that fall outside the envelope of life.

 

Together, morality and work ethic is the engine that liberates mankind from the tyranny of aggressive government employees.  Liberty from intrusive government makes it possible for the people to market their skills to own property essential for maintaining independence and happiness.

 

"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains on their own appetites.  Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere… men of intemperate minds cannot be free.  Their passions forget their fetters" (Edmund Burke, British supporter of the American Revolution, November 3, 1774, speech to the electors of Bristol, England, quoted by HIllsdale College, Imprimis, Vol. 20, No. 9).

 

The atheistic-secular philosophy for law identifies with what Solon of Athens described as "government by incalculable and changeable decrees" (Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. II, The Life of Greece, Simon and Schuster, 1939, 118).  Secularism is an evil repudiation of the solid basis for prosperity and citizen self-government intended by Constitutional law.

 

Government potential for power as well as the lucrative public treasury attract politicians who are intent on self-aggrandizement and conquest.  Expressed by President Ronald Reagan: "Government is not the solution to our problems, it is the problem" (Inaugural Address, 1981).  "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.  The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, 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, Farewell Address, 1796).

 

*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" (Lonang Historical Reference Works).

http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/index.html

 

 

 

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Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:07:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-21804 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-21804

American Principle Six (Part III)

 

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

 

 

Constitutional law, before it was amended, protected the public treasury from being raided by government employees.  It is important that we the people know and support the retention of honorable legislators, administrators and judges.  Honorable officials do not dole out money flippantly, promote character-destructive legislation, and provide administrative favors or prejudicial judgments to privilege-seeking voters.  This means no "quid pro quo."

 

Secondly, the basis for the Bill of Rights amendment details how the tool, albeit the people's treasury, must NOT be used to interfere with a citizen's freedom to learn, think, worship and work independently.  This principle from the Bible, declaring that people have the right to view competing sources of knowledge and are free to choose, speaks to the tremendous value of the American Judeo-Christian heritage.  This never before used basis for a nation's laws came from the Judeo-Christian beliefs of our Founders.

 

Called natural law, the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" from the Declaration of Independence, reflect man's inherent ability to distinguish between right and wrong.  These beliefs are also supported by man's conscience.  Paul rejoices that "… 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…" (2 Corinthians 1:12).

 

The original laws adopted by Americans uphold life and equal justice.  They include the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman as well as the Ten Commandments.  When natural law was adopted by the judiciary and legislators, it became known as the Common Law basis for the rule of law.  Clearly superior to the vacillating rule of man, American law is traceable from the Bible to the Magna Carta (citizen sovereignty under God) to the Declaration of Independence and the citizens' Bill of Rights.

 

Common Law, resting on God-honoring values, caused immigrants by countless millions to flee authoritarian rule and come to America.  It is the conspicuous benefits flowing out from the impartial "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" that unified our immigrant nation.  That bond is reflected in the USA Today/Gallup Poll, May, 2010.  Ninety-two percent of Americans believe in God and only five percent say they oppose the National Day of Prayer.

 

The Commission on Excellence in Education remains the premier American study of problems in public education.  It states:  "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 de-construct of the moral and spiritual strengths which knit together the very fabric of our society" (A Nation at Risk, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 26, 1983).

 

The meaning of diversity, applauded by American immigrant society, has now been perverted by laws, requiring citizens and public schools to assent publicly to sodomy, infanticide and atheistic education exclusivity, all of which are outside the envelope of life.

 

Americans had not sought to amend the Constitution, yet Langdell (dean of Harvard Law School, 1870-95) determined that the original intent and meaning for our written Constitution be scrapped.  As long as the people's lawmakers in Congress willingly sit idly by, liberal judges will continue to modify or sanction laws that are outside the envelope of life and then endorse their own opinions.  Secular militants who discount the Common Law moral fabric that powered American greatness speaks to the evil consequences of secularism which lead men and nations to self destruct.


 

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Tue, 12 Feb 2013 06:21:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-57375 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-57375

American Principle Six (Part II)

 

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

 

 

The people as sovereigns have no right to delegate powers to government that are unjust.  Citizens have the right to the fruits of their labor from irrational and confiscatory taxes.  Those in the judiciary have the very serious responsibility to uphold lawsuits, finding that legislators or government administrators are violating the unalienable rights to equal treatment under the law intended by the Constitution.

 

The limited uses of government powers are addressed in the Preamble to the Constitution:  "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 citizen self-reliance], and secure the Blessings of Liberty [from oppression] to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

 

In Abraham Lincoln's immortal speech, he emphasized that we, as a people, look to God's law for justice and liberty.  He dedicated the field where thousands gave their lives at Gettysburg, saying, "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).

 

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 adopted a Bill of Rights.  Framers at the national level felt the Constitution was adequate because they just spent four months designing ways to expose and remove evil men from government and encourage honorable employees to stay.  Obviously the delegates did not anticipate the pervasiveness of the federal judiciary as it has since developed.  Ultimately the Founders at the state level made a most significant contribution by insisting that the nation's Constitution be amended by a Bill of Rights.

 

Regardless of the rank of those in government, they are the servants, and the citizens who established the Constitution are the sovereigns.  Having it any other way is a return to the long history of tyranny from the hands of evil men powered by government.

 

 

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Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:00:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-54471 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-54471

American Principle Six (Part I)

 

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

 

 

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.  The tax revenues provided by the people, as sovereigns under God, give government its power to function.

 

George Washington, who chaired the Constitutional Convention, wrote about the dangers of government:  "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force.  Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."  The original unamended Constitution provides the nuts and bolts needed to curtail the abuse of power by government employees.  The Constitution was tailored to expose and remove government employees who use the people's treasury to purchase fame for themselves and twist the liberating self-government role of the people as intended by constitutional law.  The delegates identified the self-serving principles used by dishonest men and built in many compliant checks between officials and departments whose limited powers are detailed.

 

In like manner, automobiles need nuts and bolts such as brakes, accelerator control and lights to work safely.  Tools need a second set of laws to maintain their limited use and purpose.  The predicate limiting the use of automobiles includes speed limits, stop signs and no-travel zones.  The predicate limiting the use of government power includes the Creator-based Declaration of Independence and the Bill of [unalienable God-given human] Rights law.  The emphasis of these charters is that the monopoly power of government must never be granted to church or religious leaders, education, media or other privilege-seeking unions.  Permitting government establishment of these entities ALWAYS ends up with power-seeking authoritarians leveraged by law.  They then confuse, mislead and control the people with distorted versions of truth and morality.  It is the people at the grassroots of society who are the diviners of truth and morality, not government-established bosses.  This can only occur when knowledge providers (teachers, religious leaders, media or privilege-seeking unions) are required to compete against one another for the support of citizens in the public arena of ideas.

0478-0611-1413-4904_george_washington_at_valley_forge_m

 

Image from http://www.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_free_images/0478-0611-1413-4904_george...

 

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Tue, 05 Feb 2013 07:28:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-99382 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-99382

American Principle Five

 

Liberty--From Oppression By Big Government

and Nongovernment Authoritarians--Is Vital

 

"unalienable Rights, that among these are … liberty."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

"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).

 

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.  Not only must those in the judicial branch of government support the meaning and intent of the Constitution for God-honoring education curriculum, the people's money should not be used to buy political advantage.  When politicians continually manage to have welfare payments given to healthy people when jobs remain available, they are promoting a growing block of dependent citizens within the population.  Once reduced to dependence on government, the fiscal and sociological consequences to society become permanent.  These people soon figure out that by electing liberals, they can become work-free.  Helping those who are incapable for reasons beyond their control is, of course, man's duty and beneficial to all.

 

"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, Notes on Virginia Q.XVIII, 1782. ME 2:227).  Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States.

 

The Constitution, starting with We the people, was designed to identify and remove authoritarian cheats from power in government.  Many of those cheats remain unpunished, but, in the recent past, one president of the United States was forced to resign because of dishonest claims.  Another president was required to testify before a citizen grand jury and later found to be guilty of perjury (telling lies under oath) and obstruction of justice, and was impeached by the House of Representatives.  This only works when all men are equal in the sight of God and the law, and when the laws reflect justice.

 

Leaders are important, but leaders must be held accountable to the judgment of the people.

 

 

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Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:24:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-94240 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-94240

American Principle Four (Part I)

 

All Men Are Equal

In the Sight Of God and the Law

 

"that all men are created equal ..."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

All persons, regardless of their religious, racial, and cultural backgrounds, have human rights that are equal in value.  These rights, which include the right to life, start with the inception of life and the God-given right to equal treatment by the civil and criminal justice systems.

 

"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).

 

The Creator-based Declaration of Independence is a monumental reversal of the idea that leaders as a class have divine rights, are superior to and entitled to rule others.  The constitutional Fathers believed the Bible, which is a history book, and they recognized how respect for the values of Creation's God supported the work ethic and self-government.  The Founders were students of historic experiments in governments that led to tyranny.  Although they themselves were leaders, they wisely concluded that the people are more trustworthy and discerning in matters of government than are leaders.  Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights" (Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Richard Price, January 8, 1789).

 

As has been the case throughout history, determined enemies of citizen self-government are now fighting day and night to achieve unequal and superior standing by law for control over education.  Removing respect for Creation's God from curriculum and de-emphasizing the fact that immoral practices lead to harmful consequences are not education.  The consequence of taking Creation's God out of education is apparent from the huge increase in births by unwed teenage girls, infectious diseases and violent crime (even in homes and on school campuses).  Also, S.A.T. scores have declined and the God-honoring family values upon which American greatness was achieved are brought into question, Chapters 7-10.  Pointed instruction for reliance upon the divine nature and breadth of God-given human equality would also reverse support for baby genocide and the appetite for racial prejudice.


 

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Fri, 18 Jan 2013 07:46:19 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/174285831 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/174285831

 

American Principle One

 

The Spiritual Nature Of Man Is Supreme

 

"All men are created … endowed by their Creator …"

Declaration of Independence

 

Foundational to liberty and the American approach to government is the fact that man is of divine origin.  His spiritual or God-honoring nature is held as being of supreme importance.  Upholding man’s God-given “rights” from abuses sanctioned by governments makes liberty possible.  The divine quality of these rights calls for the unequivocal rejection of the authoritarian entitlements claimed by elitists of all stripes—kings, authoritarian politicians, clergy, educators and militarists.  This principle enshrines certain limits that must, for the sake of liberty, be placed upon the use of the law and government power.

 

Humble support for the sovereignty of man under God over government is the guarantor of freedom for family wholeness, self-reliance and prosperity.  People who know the truth can reject, without fear, the alarming chatter of atheistic sectarians.

 

 

 

 

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Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:29:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-38003 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-38003

Part I

Government

Chapters 1 to 6

 

Chapter 1

 

Immortal Principles Central

to Liberty and American Greatness I

 

What is the common bond that enabled Americans to establish the greatest nation on earth?  The USA Today/Gallup Poll published May 6, 2010 reports that 92 percent of Americans believe in God and only 5 percent said they oppose the National Day of Prayer.  The problem is that public schools stopped teaching how the basic American belief “In God We Trust” translates into principles for political decisions that made America the overwhelming choice of immigrants from around the world.  

 

Having confronted the barriers to success imposed by the British Crown at the First Continental Congress, the Founding Fathers needed to address the following questions:


  1. How do we bring into focus the justification for independence that can, in fact, support the life, liberty and happiness that the colonists found possible?
  2. How do we declare the sovereignty of man under God over government, upon which respect for impartial law, citizen self-rule and liberty are justified?
  3. How do we emphasize the need for strict separation from the British king and other pretender gods, who have managed to betray and exploit mankind down through history?
  4. What must we proclaim that will convince other nations to have confidence in the United States as a sovereign entity?

 

The answers to these questions became the basis for the unique principles for government in America.  The Declaration of Independence provided a moral and just basis for law as no other document before or since.  These principles were adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress on July 2, 1776.  On July 4, 1776, the delegates signed their names to the Declaration, and the new nation—independent from Great Britain—was born.

 

The people of England were not the issue.  Americans were fond of the people and valued their trade relationships.  At issue was limiting the oppressive ways of British government and the need for tough-minded rejection of practices that violated liberty and citizen incentive to be self-governing.

 

 

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Mon, 31 Dec 2012 06:18:00 -0800 Introduction VII http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-vii-78068 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-vii-78068

There are three achievements of secular progressives that have enabled leftist radicals to control behavioral instruction in public schools (see Chapters 7 and 9).  Their first big achievement came when Supreme Court majorities began to impose mandates for law that rejected the unique God-honoring basis for law advanced by the Magna Carta and the American Declaration of Independence.  When secular mandates by the court for future laws are allowed to stand, the historic absolutes resident in the "rule of law" and moral priorities are no longer binding.  Consequently, our Constitution becomes a mere political document.  The center of power shifted foolishly from the people and Congress subject to the Constitution, to the political preferences of judges.  Among the first of many twists away from our Constitution and the First Amendment was the Everson v. Board of Education decision.  The second achievement of leftist radicals was the takeover, beginning in the 1960s, of the then-conservative National Education Association (see Chapters 7 through 10).  Also in the 1960s, secular progressives, committed to the elimination of self-government and liberty, reached their third achievement--the unionization of government teachers.

A government-established union monopoly, like an established state church, undermines the people's right to choose between providers that must compete for a following.  Union monopolies have always been power-corrupting institutions. Whatever their agenda by subject or region, accountability to competition is removed and evil prevails.  Union monopolies are in diametrical opposition to government of, by and for the people.  It is the collective political power foolishly granted to autoworker unions that brought the American auto industry to its knees.  It is the collective political advantage of unionism that makes it possible for radicals to impose their atheistic worldview over the objections to both the vast majority of parents and the millions of excellent teachers caught in the union web.  Violation of citizen authority (government of, by and for the people) is the radical politics of fascism--authoritarian hierarchical government.

Detailed in Chapter 7, the loss of citizen control over what our nation's youth are taught in the behavioral studies hinges on two teachers' tenure contract paragraphs demanded by union bosses when negotiating with local school boards.  The first devastating paragraph provides teacher tenure guarantees that supersede the authority of school administrators to replace employees.  The second harmful paragraph makes it a crime to disclose bad teacher performance to the public or to other schools that are considering hiring the teacher until costly and lengthy legal proceedings have approved such disclosure.

 

Professionals like medical doctors, engineers, plumbers and airline pilots--vital to our society--do NOT have tenure guarantees.  Yet what is being taught to America's youth is of even greater importance.

Some repetition has been used for emphasis and to tie the chapters together.

 

Benjamin_franklin_4

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin, a delegate from Pennsylvania to the second Continental Congress and signer of the Constitution of the United States, wrote about the First Principle in his Articles of Belief:  "I believe there is one supreme, most perfect Being … Also when I stretch my imagination through and beyond our system of planets, beyond the visible fixed stars themselves, into that space that is [in] every way infinite, and conceive it filled with suns like ours, each with a chorus of worlds forever moving around him; then this little ball on which we move, seems, even in my narrow imagination, to be almost nothing, and myself less than nothing, and of no sort of consequence … That I may be preserved from atheism … Help me, O Father! … For all thy innumerable benefits; for life, and reason … My good God, I thank thee!" (Benjamin Franklin, "Articles of Belief," in The American Ideal of 1776, ed. Hamilton Albert Long {Philadelphia: Heritage Books, 1963}, 5).

Is it too late for America?  Not at all.

 

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Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:33:00 -0800 Introduction III http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-iii http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-iii

Historically, public schools salvaged many students from homes where parenting was failing. Now students from good homes are abandoning the values that made America such a great nation.  This problem is ongoing even though most teachers are doing their best to counter the incursion of secular absolutism (atheism) in the soft sciences of our schools.

 

John Adams' quote:  "But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.  And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.  Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents, attorneys, and trustees. And the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks, is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country."  John Adams was a direct descendant of Puritan colonists from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  A Harvard graduate, he served on the First Continental Congress and helped to draft the Declaration of Independence.  John Adams was vice-president under George Washington and the second president of the United States  (A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1766 from The Works of John Adams, …by his grandson, Charles F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 10 volumes).


 

Truth or Consequences

 

Knowledge of and acceptance of the Bible, the Great Reformation (1500-1570) and American history empower conscientious individuals to be self-governing and, on a broader scale, inspire communities and the nation as a whole to overcome the tyranny of moral confusion.  Identifying with the first principle (God of Creation is Man's Benefactor) enables believers to avoid the deception and confusion advanced by truth-trashers.

 

Strangely, even the German atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche, accepted the message from human history and understood the source of freedom for his way of life.  He wrote:  "Remove Christianity and the ideas fall too."*

 

*http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2008&month=11

 

The American Founding Fathers understood human history and identified the distinction of good as self-evident Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.  It is the governing character of these principles (laws), such as humility, the Golden Rule, and the Ten Commandments, that leads to lasting success.  This is the sure foundation upon which man's right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" rests.  Called "virtue" by America's Founding Fathers, the impartial and divine element frees man to do what is right.  "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17).

 

 

 

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Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:37:00 -0800 Introduction II http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-ii http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-ii

Ideas for decision making have one of two origins—either materialistic and mortal or based upon the reality of everlasting truth, according to the design of Creation's God.  From the beginning, Americans reached beyond the failed practices of man to immortal values that make stability, liberty and prosperity possible.  Judeo-Christian principles have been the foundation for public dialogue and government policy.  Truth from the Hebrew Christian Bible has enabled citizen self-government and individual liberty.

 

William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England were used by Abraham Lincoln and were continued to be used by students of law into the 1920s.  Blackstone said: “Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws [principles] of his Creator …  These laws laid down by God are the eternal immutable laws of good and evil … This law of nature dictated by God Himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other.  It is binding over the entire globe, in all countries, and at all times:  no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this.”*

 

*http://www.constitution.org/tb/tb-1102.htm

 

First Principle

The God of Creation is Man's Benefactor

 

That the God of creation is man's benefactor is so foundational it cannot be arrived at by any other proposition.  It is the basic principle upon which all other principles follow.  When man chooses to walk according to God's benevolent law, he learns of the power that is God's alone and by which God grants him victory over evil.  This reality about creation's nature reveals God's protection.

 

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for support of societies as the natural affection is for the support of families.  The Amor Patriae is both moral and a religious duty.  It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors but millions of our fellow creatures, not only the present but of future generations.  This virtue we find constitutes a part of the first character of history."**

 

--Dr. Benjamin Rush, essay on patriotism published in 1773.  He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Pennsylvania and signed the Declaration of Independence.  A devout Christian, Rush established Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and served as professor of medical theory and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania from 1791 to 1813.

 

**http://www.whatwouldthefoundersdo.org/showQuote.aspx?q=403

 

In fact, the American colonies did not become united until the constitutional delegates agreed to amendments that were specific about religious and educational freedom from government and non-government dictation.  The first ten amendments included the codification of the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence (separation from authoritarian rule).  Far from being secular, all aspects of human endeavor, including government, fall under the purview of creation’s God.  The values for determining the proper role of laws and the use of government power are clear.  We ought to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).  Adoption of this impartial, nonsectarian, God-honoring predicate for society has served as a marvelous unifier for our diverse immigrant nation.

 

An elaboration of "In God We Trust" is found in Proverbs 3:5,6:  "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."

 

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