AMERICA - a Christian Nation?
by Charley Clements

12/25/03

"For the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith."

These were the reasons the Pilgrims stated for their decision to leave England and establish a colony in North America. In fact, most of the North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled throughout the 17th century by Christians fleeing religious persecution in Europe.

By the early 1700's Christianity had taken firm roots in America, and when the religious revival that came to be know as the Great Awakening swept through the colonies just before mid-century, it served to strengthen the already deeply felt Christianity of the colonists, and the generation that fought the Revolutionary War and founded the new nation of the United States of America grew up in an atmosphere of strong Christian beliefs reinforced by the events of the Great Awakening.

The First Continental Congress was made up to a large degree of deeply religious men who believed that "public prosperity of a society depended on the vitality of its religion." This first governing body of the soon to be new nation went to great lengths to promote Christianity, and the public considered that to be quite appropriate.

On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft a declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson completed the first draft, and the document was edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. In the declaration, the writers referred to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" and the "Creator" and "the Supreme Judge of the world." This document announced our independence from Great Britain, but at the same time it clearly emphasized our total dependence upon Almighty God.

At the end of his second term as president, George Washington published a "farewell address" to the nation in which he offered advice for the future governance of our country. The document was drafted by Alexander Hamilton, and then revised by Washington. Included in the address was the following advice from our first president:

"Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

John Adams, our second president, offered the following observation: ""We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Clearly, the men and women who first settled this land of ours and then went on to fight a bloody revolutionary war and form a new nation with a new form of government were deeply religious people, and their religion was Christianity.

It was our third president who quite unintentionally created the battle cry for today's atheists and the anti-Christianity crowd when he coined the infamous phrase which has been used for the last fifty years by those who wish to deny and denigrate our Christian heritage and foundations.

In his reply to a letter from the Danbury Baptists expressing their concerns over the potential for government regulation of religion, Thomas Jefferson wrote "I contemplate with sovereign 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".

The primary subject of Jefferson's statement above was the "act...which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,'. Jefferson was, of course, quoting the First Amendment which had been enacted some ten years previously, "thus building a wall of separation between church and State."

What Jefferson was saying was that he was in sympathy with the Baptists' concerns; he was in complete agreement with the First Amendment, and was of the opinion that the First Amendment, in and of itself, was the "wall of separation between church and State" and that the "wall" was intended to fence out the government, rather than fence in the church.

To further illustrate Jefferson's feelings and position on the issue of "separation of church and state", it is significant to note that Jefferson regularly attended church services in the House of Representatives, and throughout his administration he allowed church services by preachers of every Protestant denomination to be held in government buildings including executive branch buildings, the Treasury Building, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court chambers.

To reiterate, the so called "wall of separation between church and State" is absolutely, totally and only defined in the religious clause of the First Amendment, which simply states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Webster's 1828 Dictionary defined the word "Law" as: "A rule, particularly an established or permanent rule, prescribed by the supreme power of a state to its subjects, for regulating their actions, particularly their social actions. Laws are imperative or mandatory, commanding what shall be done; prohibitory, restraining from what is to be forborn; or permissive, declaring what may be done without incurring a penalty."

There are no existing laws--mandatory, prohibitory or permissive--that dictate, promote, or favor any religion over another in the United States of America, therefore our government is in complete compliance with the establishment clause of the First Amendment. On the other hand, there are a multitude of prohibitory laws now in existence that absolutely and indisputably violate the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.

No citizen's First Amendment rights are violated by the display of the Ten Commandments in government buildings, or school children saying a prayer over their lunch, or prayers at football games and other functions, or even Christians daring to become involved in our nations politics. Our government has made no mandatory laws commanding that these things shall be done, nor permissive laws declaring that they may be done.

But the First Amendment rights of 78% of our population (professing Christians) are violated on a daily basis by the prohibition of their free exercise rights. Our government HAS made prohibitory laws, primarily by means of judicial declarations, restricting the display and observance of our Christian faith, in obvious and direct violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

These laws are in violation of the First Amendment, but what is even more outrageous is that they are in total contempt of our history and our Christian heritage, and the Christian beliefs and values that formed the very foundation of our form of government and the character of our nation.

America was settled by Christian men and women, fought for by Christian men and women, built by Christian men and women, and the overwhelming majority of our population has always been, and still is, Christian.

So why is it that Christianity is under attack in America, and how is it that the attackers have made so much progress in undermining and restricting the free exercise of religion in recent years?

Well, the secular humanists and atheists spearheading the attack on Christianity in America, while being a minute portion of the population, unfortunately have a great deal of power and influence in several areas that are of prime importance in spreading propaganda -- including the media, entertainment industries and our educational institutions.

It is no coincidence that the vast majority of non-believers, atheists and secular humanists are those younger generations that grew up in the era of "anything goes" television and movies, and were educated in schools controlled by the NEA and staffed for the most part by radical left-wing socialists. We have allowed these organizations and institutions to recruit, brainwash and train our young people to not only deny their heritage, but to also join in the effort to deny all Americans the right to freely worship and obey our Creator and to promote our Christian heritage and Christian values.

Unfortunately, unless the 78% of Americans who still profess to be Christians decide to stand up and say enough is enough, we will continue to lose more and more of our religious freedoms. As future generations continue to be brainwashed by the secularists and socialists, and the flood of legal and illegal immigrants of different cultures continues to dilute our American society, fewer and fewer of the population of our once great nation will remember or care about our heritage, or the God that blessed America and made us the greatest nation on earth.

Today Christian beliefs and values and even the free exercise of our religion is under attack all across this nation. Any display or mention of Christianity on any government property is increasingly frequently challenged as a violation of "separation of church and state." Never mind that the man who coined that phrase attended Christian church services in government buildings throughout Washington during his presidency.

Several years ago, when the economy was in a mess and the national debt was skyrocketing, it became popular to wring one's hands and bemoan the fact that we were doing a grave injustice to future generations who would inherit this huge national debt as a result of our irresponsibility in dealing with the problem.

I believe that we are even now in the process of passing on something much more foul and despicable than mere monetary debt to future generations of Americans. We are passing on to them an America that is becoming increasingly void of values, principles and morals, and increasingly ignorant of the God that created each and every one of us and this wonderful nation that He has so wondrously blessed.

There are, of course, those in the Church who disagree with the thought that we should even be concerned about all these things. We have no business getting involved with politics or other worldly things, they say. We simply need to focus on doing God's work, and preaching the Gospel.

But what happens when we are no longer allowed to preach the Gospel on the streets of America, or tell the man sitting next to you on the bus or the girl at the grocery checkout counter about Jesus? Far fetched, you say? Couldn't happen in America?

Well, there was a time when no one in their right mind would have ever even imagined American school children not being allowed to pray in school, or the words "one nation under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, or a God fearing judge stripped of his robes for daring to display the Ten Commandments in his courthouse. But it's happening. Here. In America.

Most all Christians would agree that we were commanded by Jesus Christ to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel." Does it not then follow that we should fight tooth and nail to resist those who would attempt to restrict our efforts to do so? You will note that Jesus did not say that we were to build church houses all across the land and sit patiently inside waiting for people to come to us. He did not say that we were to preach the Gospel so long as it didn't offend anyone, or make anyone uncomfortable. And He did not say to preach the Gospel so long as we had permission from our government.

As of the moment, the overwhelming majority of Americans are Christians. As of the moment, we form the largest single voting bloc in America. As of the moment, we have the power to influence almost every single elected official or candidate for office. And they know it.

But they also know that on the issue of so called church and state separation, we are cowed, confused, apathetic and silent--unlike our enemies. The enemy is neither cowed, confused or apathetic--and certainly not silent. They have been inspired and fired up by recent victories, and they know that each and every single little victory undermines our defenses and lays the ground work for even more larger victories.

If the church in America continues to ignore what is going on around us, will there come a day when we will no longer be allowed to "go into all the world and preach the gospel" but rather be restricted to preaching inside our church house to those who come to us--or perhaps just to each other?

Christians are fond of saying that we've read the end of the book, so we know that no matter what happens in the interim, in the end good triumphs over evil, and God will reign on earth. What we don't know is how many future Americans will burn in Hell because we of this generation allowed Satan to take over America.

America was, is, and has to be a Christian nation else we will no longer be America, and we have a very narrow window of opportunity in which to insure that the America that we pass on to our descendants is the same America that was blessed by God, anointed by God, and raised up by God to become the richest, most powerful --and not by coincidence, most Christian--nation on earth.

Will the church please stand?