Restoring Education Central to American Greatness http://davidanorris.posterous.com David A. Norris Blog posterous.com Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:31:00 -0800 Introduction IV: Truth or Consequences Applies to Nations http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-iv-truth-or-consequences-applies http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-iv-truth-or-consequences-applies

What are the consequences that befall nations when partisan authoritarians take God, with moral accountability, out of education?  Typical of empires that have cluttered cemeteries throughout human history, the Soviets had flooded their empire with propaganda.  Darwin's theory for human origins had become the basis for education.  The consequences included growing alcoholism, youthful insolence and irresponsible attitudes toward work and self-support.

 

At a United Nations forum on December 7, 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev, atheist leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, acknowledged that the God-rejecting dogma of Karl Marx and Charles Darwin was an utter failure (evil).  Reflecting upon the disintegration under the secular progressive government, Gorbachev said: “The compelling necessity of the principle of freedom of choice is … clear to us.  The failure to recognize this … is fraught with very dire consequences …  Freedom of choice is a universal principle to which there should be no exceptions.  We have not come to the conclusion of the immutability of this principle simply through good motives.  We have been led to it through impartial analysis of the objective processes of our time.  This objective fact presupposes respect for other people’s views“ (George P. Schultz, Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, Turmoil and Triumph, New York: Macmillan, 1993, p. 1107.  This book traces the moral and economic collapse of the Soviet Socialist Empire).

 

Gorbachev tried to prevent the collapse of truth-trashing socialistic rule.  To do this, he adopted Perestroika, which allowed the people to be informed and free to communicate.  He also legalized property rights, but socialism had gone too far.  Beginning in 1989, the puppet Communist governments in captive countries controlled by the Soviets were overthrown by the people.  The Soviet Union fell apart when captive countries quit contributing the revenue required to keep the socialist economy going. 

 

Whether or not Gorbachev realized it, the Soviet empire was being forced to acknowledge that those who reject the sovereignty of man under God over government run into the immutable laws of creation’s nature.  Those laws support life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  In contrast, the vacillating laws of man lead to exploitation, cultural decay, poverty and tyranny.

 

Writing of Perestroika, Gorbachev’s wife Raisa said:  “Our society has set out on the path of renewal and of demolishing totalitarianism and the obsolete command system of administering the country” (Raisa Gorbachev, Reminiscences and Reflections, Harper Collins, 1991, p. 174).  (See Appendix C, "How Socialism Exploits Mankind," Part IV--Supplemental Material, in this book.)

 

Both the Webster and Random House dictionaries identify socialism as a “Marxist theory.”  Winston Churchill stated: “Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the object worship of the state.”  He also said, “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

 

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu164131.html

 

When majorities on the Supreme Court force changes in our laws that reject the moral and God-honoring predicate of the United States Constitution, they have, in effect, empowered truth-trashing by radicals in government schools.  Separation of the right of church clergy to dictate (separation of church and state) does not justify the removal of "In God We Trust" as a publicly held standard.  "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).

 

 

 

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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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Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:07:00 -0800 The Morality of Civility http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-morality-of-civility http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-morality-of-civility

"'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).*

 

The Northwest Ordinance is a rock-solid example of the nonsectarian religious predicate embraced as constitutional law.  When the Articles of Confederation was replaced by the new Constitution, the Northwest Ordinance was passed again and became effective under the new Constitution.  George Washington signed the Northwest Ordinance back into law on August 7, 1789.  Article III specified "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged."**  During this same period of time (July 17 to August 7, 1789), the same men who had implemented the Northwest Ordinance were writing the First Amendment to the Constitution [prohibiting government officials from interfering with religious freedom, printing press and education competition].

 

Even some atheists and skeptics realize the inviolate nature of what Americans call the "laws of God and creation's nature."  Ernest Renan, the agnostic, warned his friends: "Let us enjoy the liberty of the sons of God, but let us take care lest we become accomplices in the diminution of virtue which would menace society if Christianity were to grow weak.  What should we do without it?  If Rationalism wishes to govern the world without regard to the religious needs of the soul, the experience of the French Revolution is there to teach us the consequences of such a blunder."***

 

History summarizes the nature of war against responsible citizen self-rule and liberty.  When Whittaker Chambers left the Communist party, he feared that the world would succumb to the parasitic nature of socialistic promises.  He said that the only hope was to discover "a power of faith which will provide mans' mind, at an intensity, with the same two certainties: a reason to live and reason to die."**** President Reagan angered leftist sympathizers in American media and universities by using the word "evil."  On March 8, 1983, Reagan said the Cold War would "never be decided by bombs and rockets…"  We would prevail because of belief in God.  What is teaching moral revisionism (objected to by over 90 percent of taxpayers, teachers, and administrators) now accomplishing in student minds' in captive public schools?  Reagan concluded, the strength to prevail "is not material but spiritual."*****

 

*http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp

**http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=48

***http://www.scribd.com/doc/79320764/HISTORY-OF-CHRISTIANITY

****http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2001/04/whittaker-chambers-man-of-co...

*****http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/speeches/evilempire.htm

Northwest_ordinance_of_1787_card-p137813764267429633bhc2d_325

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Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:21:49 -0700 The Prescription For Citizen Paralysis: Knowledge and Action http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-prescription-for-citizen-paralysis-knowle http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-prescription-for-citizen-paralysis-knowle

Liberty with prosperity came to America because the Founding Fathers had it right.  They took self and all pretender gods off the throne, and they placed the King of Kings, the impartial, nonsectarian God of life and creation's nature, on the throne.

 

"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. 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, Vice-President under George Washington, and 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).

 

Parents, guardians and grandparents who can afford it should support the enrollment of their children in God-honoring private schools or, if able, homeschool them.  This is the most powerful political statement that Americans can make.  That is the vanguard for a nationwide competitive school system enabling citizen choice.

 

Promote the election of candidates for public office who unabashedly oppose government tolerance for teacher union tenure laws.  Good teachers have always had tenure by virtue of the quality of their work alone.

 

Teachers do have rights, but ultimately they answer to those who pay their salaries.  Teachers who cannot accept a contract with a school district that requires respect for the family and morality have but one alternative, which is to establish, fund, and teach in their own private schools.

 

"Because of the obvious potential for abuse even labor union advocates like AFL-CIO President George Meany and Franklin D. Roosevelt viewed unionization of the public employees as unthinkable.*

 

When tenure establishment privileges for government teachers are prohibited, good teachers can again safely support the traditional family and historic American principles without having their patriotism dirtied by secular gossips.

 

"We've been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something--for liberty and freedom and fairness.  And these are things worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to.  And we have good reason to be hopeful and optimistic… so, let us go forth with good cheer and stout hearts--happy warriors out to seize back a country and a world to freedom."**

 

Liberty-bell1

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Sat, 01 Sep 2012 09:12:53 -0700 The Prognosis of Citizen Paralysis http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-prognosis-of-citizen-paralysis http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-prognosis-of-citizen-paralysis

Our duty as Americans is clear.  Defending what is right is a cost of freedom that must be paid.  It is the all-important principles advanced in the God-honoring Declaration that provide the moral predicate essential to restrain the use of oppressive government.  Had leaders and educators failed to convey with boldness the God-honoring principles from the beginning, America would be just another of the hapless nations that has flitted in and then out of history.

 

Under the providence of God, we have pushed back the frontiers of tyranny and evil time and again.  America has freed more human beings from the clutches of evil than any nation on earth and we are a relatively young country.  Even though continental Europe, in its posture of pseudo-sophistication, might consider us the country cousin in the family of nations, when those same Europeans needed to be rescued--often from themselves.  We were there to rescue them.  We have done it many times and in many ways around the world.  At enormous cost to ourselves, we have gone into and out of dozens of nations in order to make the world a better place--even those nations that were our deadliest enemies, like Germany and Japan after World War II.  What MacArthur did in Japan, and what the Marshall Plan accomplished in Europe, are without historical equal and they indicate what we believe is our high calling on the planet (Dr. Jack Wheeler, The Ugly Liberal American, page 4, quoted by The Schwarz Report, May 2008, Volume 48, number 5).

 

Ernest Renan, the agnostic, warned his friends that were promoting a socialist utopia:  "Let us enjoy the liberty of the sons of God, but let us take care lest we become accomplices in the diminution of virtue which would menace society if Christianity were to grow weak.  What should we do without it?  If Rationalism wishes to govern the world without regard to the religious needs of the soul, the experience of the French Revolution is there to teach us the consequences of such a blunder."*

 

Rabbi Daniel Lapin is quoted as saying, "Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the west is doomed.  Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah, and Israel am so terrified of American Christianity caving in."**

 

Appeasement will not work.  There is no valid reason for the complaint of leftists that conservatives are one-sided and unreasonable in support of their basic principles.  Secular militants do not compromise their atheistic dogma.  The hope that they will change is foolish.  To be at peace with their belief in atheistic exclusivity, they must have control over and displace those who project higher standards.  The struggle between the forces of liberty and those who want an atheistic-secular world is a war of wills.  If we win, they will still be free to fund and promote their own schools.  If they win, we will be slaves to Godless authoritarian rule.

 

Image_cartoon_-_government_control

*Ernest Renan's appeal to his agnostic friends, 1866 (http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002045047).

** Rabbi Daniel Lapin, noted rabbinic scholar and radio and television host (http://jpfo.org/articles-assd02/christian-nation.htm).>

 

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Mon, 27 Aug 2012 07:34:00 -0700 A Suggested Letter to the Editor of Your Local Newspaper http://davidanorris.posterous.com/a-letter-to-the-editor-of-the-ames-tribune-77979 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/a-letter-to-the-editor-of-the-ames-tribune-77979

Applicable today, the confusion of many now trying to decide which candidates for government service best represent the civic and economic interests of our families and businesses is understandable.  The decline in the quality of what is taught about American history, morality, government and free enterprise comes at no surprise with the secularization of government education and, in my opinion, this is NOT the fault of the great majority of teachers.

 

Articles in the local Ames Tribune* opinion page by an atheistic professor in the religion department of Iowa State University suggest that he MAY not understand two things.  One is the Judeo-Christian Bible and the other is American history.

 

The tone of one's deeply felt religious belief, be it God-honoring or otherwise, and values sought for government, law and education, ARE INSEPARABLE.  Much older than any other text, the Bible has remained intact down throughout history.  The reasons are many, but one is that it resonates with human life experience.  The moral law, John 3:16 and Psalm 23 have no equal.  The Bible tells the truth and it DOES NOT GLOSS OVER the evil done in the name of religion.

 

The power of government comes from the people who fund the gigantic bank called the Public Treasury.  We pay for courthouses, schools, highways, salaries of public servants, etc.  Good government is a tool for protecting life and liberty for the pursuit of happiness.  The God-honoring American Declaration of Independence is universal and immortal in scope.  That Declaration and Bill of Rights, added later to the Constitution, are the design, and the Constitution is the tool for implementing that design.

 

Patriotic Americans applaud diversity.  They recognize, however, that worldly concoctions for diversity that tear down family values, morality and appreciation for the American idea, IN GOD WE TRUST, are evil and totally unacceptable.

 

"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."

 

The above essay on patriotism by Dr. Benjamin Rush was published in 1773.  He was a delegate to the Continental Congress 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.

 

This particular blog entry is not under copyright, and we encourage you to use it as a template to write a letter to the editor of your own local newspaper.  Use of the blog is increasing by over 1,000 repeat users per month.  You can help restore the American dynamic by informing your friends about this refreshing review of American values provided by Heartland Foundation, Inc.

In-god-we-trust-1

*http://amestrib.com/

 

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Tue, 21 Aug 2012 08:14:00 -0700 Outcome-Based Education That Is Profoundly American http://davidanorris.posterous.com/outcome-based-education-that-is-profoundly-am http://davidanorris.posterous.com/outcome-based-education-that-is-profoundly-am

Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, the second president of the United States, wrote to her young son, John Quincy, who would later become our sixth president:  "Great learning and superior abilities, should you ever possess them, will be of little value and small estimation, unless virtue, honor, truth, and integrity are added to them.  Adhere to those religious sentiments and principles that were early installed into your mind and remember that you are accountable to your Maker for all your words and actions.  Let me enjoin it upon you to attend constantly and steadfastly to the precepts and instructions of your father, as you value the happiness of your mother and your own welfare. His care and attention to you render many things unnecessary for me to write which I might otherwise do, but the inadvertency and heedlessness of youth, requires line upon line and precept upon precept, and when enforced by the joint efforts of both parents will, I hope, have a due influence upon your conduct; for dear as you are to me, I would much rather you should have found your grave in the ocean you have crossed, or that an untimely death crop you in your infant years, than see you an immoral, profligate, or graceless child.*

 

Children are not the property of the government or the state.  The authority and responsibility for what children are taught rests with parents.

 

A Well-Educated Student:

Speaks and writes accurately.

Listens attentively.

Is a reader.

Is honest at all times.

Is a person of prayer.

Has God-honoring goals.

Upholds the traditional family.

Is sensitive to the Word and to the will of God.

Is sensitive to the needs of others.

Handles success and defeat with grace.

Has convictions and stands for them.

Fulfills citizen duties to family, church and country.

Is polite in his dealings with others.

Uses resources responsibly.

Recognizes the existence of absolute truth which never changes and, applied, 

     serves as a very sure means for personal development and success.

Uses gentle yet persuasive words, not physical force, to communicate his position.

 

Woodrow Wilson, in his election campaign for President, stated "A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do.  We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about…  America was born a Christian nation.  America was born to exemplify that devotion to the tenets of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture."**

 


Abigail_adams

Abigail Adams

1744-1818

 

 

 

*Abigail Adams, Letter to John Quincy Adams, June 10, 1778, Butterfield Adams Family Correspondence, 3:37, http://books.google.com/books?id=59dQoRNSwxMC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq...&q=butterfield%20adams%20family%20correspondence%20his%20care%20and%20attention%20to%20you%20render&f=false

**http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20120802/NEWS03/120802024/Chris-McDaniel...

 

Image from http://everythingtoshare.com/abigail-adams-lost-letter-discovered/


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http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

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Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:12:00 -0800 A Letter To My Grandchildren http://davidanorris.posterous.com/a-letter-to-my-grandchildren-46243 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/a-letter-to-my-grandchildren-46243

More than one of you have faced a challenge from your college professors or spiritual mentors that the War of Independence was "throwing off the government that God has placed upon you."  Some theologians do take that position according to Daniel 2:21, "He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings …"  A similar reference to this is, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.  For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God…" (Romans 13:1,2).

 

I would agree ~ IF the King of England had been proceeding according to written law.  

 

Following the British "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 and the ascension of William and Mary as joint monarchs, the proposal to draw up a declaration of subjects' rights and liberties was made in the House of Commons.   The completed declaration was codified as the British citizens' Bill of Rights in 1689.  Among the "ancient rights and liberties" asserted were "the right of the subject to petition the king and prosecutions for petitioning are illegal" as well as "subjects may have arms for their defense suitable to their conditions and allowed by law" and "excessive bail and fines shall not be required and cruel and unusual punishments are not to be inflicted."  There was an internal change of constitution following the excesses of James II.*

 

These laws protected the citizens' right to petition the King without fear of retribution.  He and his subordinates were repeatedly violating this and the citizens' right to freedom.

 

One hundred years later, Edmund Burke (1729-1797), a British statesman and orator, commented on this internal change of the British constitution by saying, "The Revolution was made to preserve our ancient indisputable laws and liberties, and that ancient constitution of government which is our only security for law and liberty."*  He opposed the King's efforts to suppress American independence.  

 

For years our Founding Fathers tried to negotiate reasonableness; but the British response was an iron fist, including the placing of troops on the coast.  Eventually negotiations between the colonists and the King collapsed.  Written like a legal brief, the Declaration of Independence detailed how their rights as British citizens were being violated.  They are "… taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments" (Declaration of Independence).

 

"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 George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796).

 

Government employees are servants of the people who are the sovereigns under God over government.  The American Declaration of Independence and citizens' Bill of Rights, added later to the Constitution, provides the God-honoring design for government, and the Constitution is the tool for implementing that design.

 

Americans concurred with written law resting upon the British references to the Laws of Nature.  It is the governing character of Laws of Nature such as humility, the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments, that lead to 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).

 

I identify with and support the several Norris ancestors who fought for independence.  Keep up the good work as students, my children.  I love you.  

 

Grandpa

M__d_army_in_front_of_house

Grandpa and Grandma Norris

Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas

1952

 

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

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*http://constitution.org/bor/eng_bor.htm

**http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1478-0542.003/abstract

 

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Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:15:00 -0800 American Principle Seven: Interpreting the Constitution Is Predicated By Morality http://davidanorris.posterous.com/american-principle-seven-interpreting-the-con http://davidanorris.posterous.com/american-principle-seven-interpreting-the-con

"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.

 

For more information or to purchase the book:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

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Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:08:00 -0700 Yesterday's Foundation for Today's Liberty http://davidanorris.posterous.com/yesterdays-foundation-for-todays-liberty http://davidanorris.posterous.com/yesterdays-foundation-for-todays-liberty

From the beginning, Judeo-Christian principles have been the

foundation for American public dialogue and government policy. They

serve as the solid basis for political activism in support of a better

socioeconomic environment. Found in American homes, truth from

the Hebrew Christian Bible has enabled individual liberty to prevail

over secular empires because it is a practical message about reality from

man’s Creator.

 

In their quest for liberty, Americans focused upon the conspicuously

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 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 Cor. 3:17).

First

 

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