The statement about a wall of separation between church and state was made in a letter on January 1, 1802, by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut. The congregation heard a widespread rumor that the Congregationalists, another denomination, were to become the national religion. This was very alarming to people who knew about religious persecution in England by the state established church. Jefferson made it clear in his letter to the Danbury Congregation that the separation was to be that government would not establish a national religion or dictate to men how to worship God. Jefferson’s letter from which the phrase “separation of church and state” was written to affirm first amendment rights, but has used by the globalist to remove prayer, the Bible, and all things ‘religious’ in nature from public schools and other government institutions while promoting immorality and other anti-Christian ideas and culture.
Think back. If you attended public school in the last few decades, you probably remember being taught that America was founded by a lively assortment of slaveholding Christians, deists and free-thinkers who insisted on instituting a “constitutional separation of church and state.” Thomas Jefferson, you were reminded, had famously affirmed this “wall of separation” in his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists.
You could be forgiven for inferring from all this “education” that, back in the good old days at least, government scrupulously kept religion at arms length. But that would be a truly deluded secularist fantasy. In reality, throughout the late 1700s – the era of the Revolutionary War and the subsequent adoption of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment – Christianity permeated America from top to bottom.
- In 1777, with the Revolutionary War threatening the flow of Bibles from England, Congress approved the purchase of 20,000 Bibles from Holland to give to the states.
- No fewer than six of the 13 original states had official, state-supported churches – “establishments of religion”! I’ll bet you didn’t know that. In fact, these states – Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and South Carolina – refused to ratify the new national Constitution unless it included a prohibition of federal meddling with their existing state “establishments of religion.”
- Still other states required those seeking elected office to be Christians.
- The Continental Congress routinely designated days of “fasting and prayer” and other religious observances, appointed government-funded chaplains, and appropriated money to pay for Christian missionaries to convert the Indians.In other words, the original American government under the Constitution would have driven the American Civil Liberties Union stark, raving mad.
What a difference 200 years can make. Today, for every big case that makes the evening news – like the banishment of the 10 Commandments from the Alabama courthouse, or the judicial ban on the “Under God” phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance – there are countless other smaller cases, every bit as mind-boggling:- A federal court ruled that a schoolteacher couldn’t be seen in school with his own personal Bible, and later ruled that a classroom library containing 237 books must remove from the library the two titles dealing with Christianity.The Continental Congress routinely designated days of “fasting and prayer” and other religious observances, appointed government-funded chaplains, and appropriated money to pay for Christian missionaries to convert the Indians.In other words, the original American government under the Constitution would have driven the American Civil Liberties Union stark, raving mad.
- A criminal, convicted and sentenced by a jury for brutally clubbing to death a 71-year-old woman with an axe handle so he could steal her Social Security check, got his sentence overturned. Why? The prosecuting attorney, in a statement lasting less than five seconds, mentioned a Bible verse in the courtroom.
- A public cemetery, ruled a federal court, couldn’t have a planter in the shape of a cross, since, as the court explained, the mere sight of it could cause “emotional distress” to a passerby and thus constitute “injury-in-fact.””Injury-in-fact”? From looking at a planter?
Isn’t it about time we face the painful truth – that we Americans have had our Constitution, and therefore the very reins of power, stolen from us while we were busy going to work, raising our kids, paying the bills and watching “Jeopardy”?
Anytime religion is mentioned within the confines of government today people cry, “Separation of Church and State”. Many people think this statement appears in the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution and therefore must be strictly enforced. However, the words: “separation”, “church”, and “state” do not even appear in the first amendment. The first amendment reads…
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
The statement about a wall of separation between church and state was made in a letter on January 1, 1802, by Thomas Jefferson to a church (the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut). The congregation heard a widespread rumor that the Congregationalists, another denomination, were to become the national religion. This was very alarming to people who knew about religious persecution in England by the state established church. Jefferson made it clear in his letter to the Danbury Congregation that the separation was to be that government would not establish a national religion or dictate to men how to worship God. Jefferson’s letter from which the phrase “separation of church and state” was written to affirm first amendment rights. Jefferson wrote:
I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. (1)
The reason Jefferson choose the expression “separation of church and state” was because he was addressing a Baptist congregation; a denomination of which he was not a member. Jefferson wanted to remove all fears that the state would make dictates to the church. He was establishing common ground with the Baptists by borrowing the words of Roger Williams, one of the Baptist’s own prominent preachers. Williams had said:
When they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the Church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the candlestick, and made his garden a wilderness, as at this day. And that therefore if He will ever please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world…(2)
The “wall” was understood as one-directional; its purpose was to protect the church from the state. The world was not to corrupt the church, yet the church was free to teach the people Biblical values.
I know all about the separation of church and state.
For seven years one of my relatives, Rev. John Greenwood, the half brother of my great (x13) grandfather, was confined in prison and finally on the sixth of April, 1593, was taken from jail in England and hanged for his belief and teaching of – the separation of church and state.
That little band of Pilgrims that landed at Plymouth, Mass., in 1620, were his followers — they had worshipped at the church he founded — that band of Puritans that landed in America and founded Boston were believers in the doctrine that John Greenwood was the first to publish and teach – the separation of church and state.
The Pilgrims at Plymouth brought to America the teachings of John Greenwood — including the separation of church and state — and if America owes its greatness, its progress, and its achievements to one principle in government more than another it is that in America every American can kneel at the altar of his own faith, and worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. The state in America is separated from the church. American government tolerates no single form of religious worship but shelters and protects alike all. John Greenwood taught that there could be but one head of the church and that head was not a King or Queen but Jesus Christ, and that there could be no law for the government of the church other than what the Scriptures contained.
Both the phrase and concept of the separation of chuch and state used by Thomas Jefferson and Roger Williams came directly from the teachings of Rev. John Greenwood.
The American people knew what would happen if the State established the Church like in England. Even though it was not recent history to them, they knew that England went so far as forbidding worship in private homes and sponsoring all church activities and keeping people under strict dictates. They were forced to go to the state established church and do things that were contrary to their conscience. No other churches were allowed, and mandatory attendance of the established church was compelled under the Conventicle Act of 1665. Failure to comply would result in imprisonment and torture.
John Adams reflected the view of the Founders in regard to the place of the Bible in society when he wrote:
Suppose a nation in some distant region, should take the Bible for their only law-book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited!…What a utopia; what a paradise would this region be!
The people did not want freedom FROM religion, but freedom OF religion.
The only real reason to separate the church from the state would be to instill a new morality and establish a new system of beliefs. Our founding fathers were God-fearing men who understood that for a country to stand it must have a solid foundation; the Bible was the source of this foundation. They believed that God’s ways were much higher than Man’s ways and held firmly that the Bible was the absolute standard of truth and used the Bible as a source to form our government.
There is no such thing as a pluralistic society. There will always be one dominant view, otherwise it will be in transition from one belief system to another. Therefore, to say Biblical principles should not be allowed in government and school is to either be ignorant of the historic intent of the founding fathers, or blatantly bigoted against Christianity.
Each form of government has a guiding principle: monarchy in which the guiding principle is honor; aristocracy in which the guiding principle is moderation; republican democracy in which the guiding principle is virtue; despotism in which the guiding principle is fear. Without people of the United States upholding good moral conduct, society soon degenerates into a corrupt system where people misuse the authority of government to obtain what they want at the expense of others. The U.S. Constitution is the form of our government, but the power is in the virtue of the people. The virtue desired of the people is shown in the Bible. This is why Biblical morality was taught in public schools until the early 1960’s. Government officials were required to declare their belief in God even to be allowed to hold a public office until a case in the U.S. Supreme Court called Torcaso v. Watkins (Oct. 1960). God was seen as the author of natural law and morality. If one did not believe in God one could not operate from a proper moral base. And by not having a foundation from which to work, one would destroy the community. The two primary places where morality is taught are the family and the church. The church was allowed to influence the government in righteousness an d justice so that virtue would be upheld. Not allowing the church to influence the state is detrimental to the country and destroys our foundation of righteousness and justice. It is absolutely necessary for the church to influence the state in virtue because without virtue our government will crumble — the representatives will look after their own good instead of the country’s.
Government was never meant to be our master as in a ruthless monarchy or dictatorship. Instead, it was to be our servant. The founding fathers believed that the people have full power to govern themselves and that people chose to give up some of their rights for the general good and the protection of rights. Each person should be self-governed and this is why virtue is so important. Government was meant to serve the people by protecting their liberty and rights, not serve by an enormous amount of social programs. The authors of the Constitution wanted the government to have as little power as possible so that if authority was misused it would not cause as much damage. Yet they wanted government to have enough authority to protect the rights of the people. The worldview at the time of the founding of our government was a view held by the Bible: that Man’s heart is corrupt and if the opportunity to advance oneself at the expense of another arose, more often than not, we would choose to do so. They firmly believed this and that’s why an enormous effort to set up checks and balances took place. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. They wanted to make certain that no man could take away rights given by God. They also did not set up the government as a true democracy, because they believed, as mentioned earlier, Man tends towards wickedness. Just because the majority wants something does not mean that it should be granted, because the majority could easily err. Government was not to be run by whatever the majority wanted but instead by principle, specifically the principles of the Bible.
Our U.S. Constitution was founded on Biblical principles and it was the intention of the authors for this to be a Christian nation. The Constitution had 55 people work upon it, of which 52 were evangelical Christians.(3) We can go back in history and look at what the founding fathers wrote to know where they were getting their ideas. This is exactly what two professors did. Donald Lutz and Charles Hyneman reviewed an estimated 15,000 items with explicit political content printed between 1760 and 1805 and from these items they identified 3,154 references to other sources. The source they most often quoted was the Bible, accounting for 34% of all citations. Sixty percent of all quotes came from men who used the Bible to form their conclusions. That means that 94% of all quotes by the founding fathers were based on the Bible. The founding fathers took ideas from the Bible and incorporated them into our government.
If it was their intention to separate the state and church they would never have taken principles from the Bible and put them into our government. An example of an idea taken from the Bible and then incorporated into our government is found in Isaiah 33:22 which says, “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king…” The founding fathers took this scripture and made three major branches in our government: judicial, legislative, and executive. As mentioned earlier, the founding fathers strongly believed that Man was by nature corrupt and therefore it was necessary to separate the powers of the government. For instance, the President has the power to execute laws but not make them, and Congress has the power to make laws but not to judge the people. The simple principle of checks and balances came from the Bible to protect people from tyranny. The President of the United States is free to influence Congress, although he can not exercise authority over it because they are separated. Since this is true, why should the church not be allowed to influence the state?
People have read too much into the phrase “separation of church and state”, which is to be a separation of civil authority from ecclesiastical authority, not moral values. Congress has passed laws that it is illegal to murder and steal, which is the legislation of morality. These standards of morality are found in the Bible. Should we remove them from law because the church should be separated from the state?
Our founding fathers who formed the government also formed the educational system of the day. John Witherspoon did not attend the Constitutional Convention although he was President of New Jersey College in 1768 (known as Princeton since 1896) and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His influence on the Constitution was far ranging in that he taught nine of fifty-five original delegates. He fought firmly for religious freedom and said…
“God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable and that unjust attempts to destroy the one may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both.”(4)
In October 1961 the Supreme Court of the United States removed prayer from schools in a case called Engel v. Vitale. The case said that because the U.S. Constitution prohibits any law respecting an establishment of religion officials of public schools may not compose public prayer even if the prayer is denominationally neutral, and that pupils may choose to remain silent or be excused while the prayer is being recited.
For 185 years prayer was allowed in public and the Constitutional Convention itself was opened with prayer. If the founding fathers didn’t want prayer in government why did they pray publicly in official meetings? It is sometimes said that it is permissible to pray in school as long as it is silent. Although, “In Omaha, Nebraska, 10-year old James Gierke was prohibited from reading his Bible silently during free time… the boy was forbidden by his teacher to open his Bible at school and was told doing so was against the law.”(4) The U.S. Supreme Court with no precedent in any court history said prayer will be removed from school. Yet the Supreme Court in January, 1844 in a case named Vidal v. Girard’s Executors, a school was to be built in which no ecclesiastic, missionary, or minister of any sect whatsoever was to be allowed to even step on the property of the school. They argued over whether a layman could teach or not, but they agreed that, “…there is an obligation to teach what the Bible alone can teach, viz. a pure system of morality.” This has been the precedent throughout 185 years. Although this case is from 1844, it illustrates the point. The prayer in question was not even lengthy or denominationally geared. It was this: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.”
What price have we paid by removing this simple acknowledgment of God’s protecting hand in our lives? Birth rates for unwed girls from 15-19; sexually transmitted diseases among 10-14 year olds; pre-marital sex increased; violent crime; adolescent homicide have all gone up considerably from 1961 to the 1990’s — even after taking into account population growth. The Bible, before 1961, was used extensively in curriculum. After the Bible was removed, scholastic aptitude test scores dropped considerably.
The below video is from 2008. The stats quoted by David Barton are even worse now!
Since 1963 following the removal of the Bible and prayer from schools, William Jeynes, a professor at California State College in Long Beach, said there have been five negative developments in the nation’s public schools:
- Academic achievement has plummeted, including SAT scores.
- Increased rate of out-of-wedlock births
- Increase in illegal drug use
- Increase in juvenile crime
- Deterioration of school behavior
“So we need to realize that these actions do have consequences,” said Jeynes, professor at California State College in Long Beach and senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J., “When we remove that moral fiber — that moral emphasis – this is what can result.”
Top 5 complaints of Teachers from 1940-62 before Bible & prayer were removed:
- talking
- chewing gum
- making noise
- running in the halls, and
- getting out of turn in line
And from 1963 to present.
- rape
- robbery
- assault
- burglary, and
- arson
When he was sworn in, George Washington said “it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe.”
Our Constitution, signed “in the year of our Lord” (referring to Jesus), is predicated on the Declaration of Independence, which says that our rights come from the Creator.
President Eisenhower said in 1955, “Without God, there could be no American form of Government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first – the most basic – expression of Americanism.”
His successor, John F. Kennedy, said, “The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”
But today, America has amnesia, and I believe the school prayer case was part of that forgetfulness. We have turned our back on God, and we are reaping the natural consequences.
After the Columbine massacre, Darryl Scott, father of a slain student, testified to Congress:
Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
your words are empty air.
You’ve stripped away our heritage,
you’ve outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms and
precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
and ask the question “why?”
You regulate restrictive laws
through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand
that God is what we need.
Satan is not a creator. He cannot create anything. All he can do is take that which God has created and ‘twist’ it upside-down and call it something else. God created good – Satan twisted it into evil. God created love – Satan twisted it into hate. God created faith – Satan twisted it into fear. Do you see how he works?
Satan also twists the good things that man has created as well. To the point – our founding fathers, many of which were ministers, created the constitution and it’s amendments including the First Amendment which provides for legal protection of the Church from the State (i.e. government) – Satan has now twisted that in the minds of the people to “protect” the State and all governmental entities, property, programs, etc… from the Church – banning the very freedoms that the First Amendment guarantees! The IRS has already go so far as to tell Pastors what they can and cannot preach and teach in their own churches – threatening to revoke their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status! Now. even though, President Trump, in support of religion freedoms, ordered all federal agencies to cease this and other similar practices, a future President could, just as easily, turn this on it’s head again.
There is no such thing as a pluralistic society; there will always be one dominant view. Someone’s morality is going to be taught — but whose? Secular Humanism is a religion that teaches that through Man’s ability we will reach universal peace and unity and make heaven on earth. They promote a way of life that systematically excludes God and all religion in the traditional sense. That Man is the highest point to which nature has evolved, and he can rely on only himself and that the universe was not created, but instead is self-existing. They believe that Man has the potential to be good in and of himself. All of this of course is in direct conflict with not only the teachings of the Bible but even the lessons of history.
In June 1961 in a case called Torcaso v. Watkins, the U.S. Supreme Court stated, “Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism and others.” The Supreme Court declared Secular Humanism to be a religion. The American Humanist Association certifies counselors who enjoy the same legal status as ordained ministers. Since the Supreme Court has said that Secular Humanism is a religion, why is it being allowed to be taught in schools? The removal of public prayer of those who wish to participate is, in effect, establishing the religion of Humanism over Christianity.
This my friends is exactly what our founding fathers tried to stop from happening with the first amendment.
Today in the United States, 90% of the population believes in God! 80% of those believe in the Judeo-Christian Ethic (i.e. believe in Jesus). But Hollywood and the media has convinced most Christians that they are – the vast minority! When in fact Christians are the “Silent Majority!” Alolph Hitler once said that if a well crafted lie is told often enough and long enough it will become as good as the the truth! For example, “the Religious Right” is a totally fictitious entity. There SHOULD be one, but there is no such thing! Christians just haven’t seemed to be able get together long enough to realize the strength they would have if they united politically. Now the “Religious Right” is just a straw-man to hide a REAL and very active movement – “the Atheist Left!”
“Separation of Church and State,” as touted by the left, is just a myth. But it’s a myth that if allowed to continue will continue to daily chip away our religious freedoms. We just cannot keep quiet about it any longer. Christians must be taught on this subject now – before it becomes illegal to do even that! All evil needs to flourish is for good men – to do (and say) nothing!
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