Posted on 08/18/2004 5:24:44 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
A Congressman and Professor of Law at Harvard, Joseph Story was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1811 by James Madison, the Father of the U.S. Constitution. He served on the Court for 34 years. Story's great work, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, is considered a classic of American jurisprudence. He was instrumental in establishing the illegality of the slave trade. He also convincingly argued that the United States of America was built on the principles of Christianity. In a speech at Harvard, Story stated bluntly:
There never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundation.
In his work, A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States, Justice Story, had this to say about the purpose the First Amendment:
We are not to attribute this prohibition of a national religious establishment [in the First Amendment] to an indifference to religion in general, and especially to Christianity (which none could hold in more reverence than the framers of the Constitution)....Probably, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and of the Amendment to it now under consideration, the general, if not the universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the State so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience and the freedom of religious worship.
Any attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation.
In other words, the purpose of the First Amendment was to protect a religious people from the government -- not to protect the government from a religious people. It is perfectly all right, under the First Amendment, for the Government of the United States to favor Christianity over other faiths -- so long as other faiths are not persecuted by the government, and so long as the national government does not attempt to set up a national church, such as the Anglican Church in England. In his Commentaries on the Constitution, Justice Story stated:
It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape.
In fact, in his commentary on the purpose of First Amendment, Justice Story stated:
The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance much less to advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects [denominations] and to prevent any national ecclesiastical patronage of the national government.
Since the days of the Warren Court, judicial decisions have removed the vestal remnants of Christianity and, in the more radical cases, even belief in God from government. In so doing, they have not achieved neutrality, but rather promoted a rival religion. Public officials are supposed to follow the religion of secular humanism in matters of state, even if they trust in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for their personal salvation. It matters not if Bush is a Methodist or Kerry professes to be a Catholic. Their decision making is supposed to come from a worldview closer to that of Bertrand Russell than to those of John Wesley or Thomas Aquinas.
Every government is based on one sort of religion or another. People, whether atheist, agnostic, deist, Christian, Jewish, etc., should not be impelled to have their tax money support the promulgation of beliefs they oppose, especially to their own children.
"Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"
The second part means that school children can pray; moment of silence is OK with me, our sometimes stupid courts notwithstanding. I also have no objection to giving parents vouchers they can use to pay for parochial schools.
The first part means that public school teachers/officials cannot lead sectarian prayers as part of their job.
It all seems pretty clear to me. Any problems?
Agreed. What I have a problem with is your "moment of silence" implication that they must keep their prayers silent.
BTW, nowhere in the Constitution do I find anything about your (or my) right not to be offended by someone else's exercise of their First Amendment rights.
In fact, we seem to be doing a fair job of exercising them here -- and I don't see anyone bleeding...
in his speech on May 12, 1779, (Washington) claimed that what children needed to learn "above all" was the "religion of Jesus Christ," and that to learn this would make them "greater and happier than they already are"; on May 2, 1778, he charged his soldiers at Valley Forge that "To the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian"; and when he resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the military on June 8, 1783, he reminded the nation that "without a humble imitation" of "the Divine Author of our blessed religion" we "can never hope to be a happy nation." Washington's own adopted daughter declared of Washington that you might as well question his patriotism as to question his Christianity. - LINK
In Benjamin Franklin's 1749 plan of education for public schools in Pennsylvania, he insisted that schools teach "the necessity of a public religion . . . and the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern."
...in 1787 when Franklin helped found the college which bore his name, it was dedicated as "a nursery of religion and learning" built "on Christ, the Corner-Stone." - LINK
Quotes by Thomas Jefferson
“The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.”
“Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appears to me so pure as that of Jesus.”
"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus." [Letter to Benjamin Rush April 21, 1803]
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” [Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781]
“It [the Bible] is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus." [Jan 9, 1816 Letter to Charles Thomson] - LINK
It is said in one of the admonitions of the Lord, "As your Father in Heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect." The Savior, I suppose, did not expect that any human creature could be perfect as the Father in Heaven. . . . He set that up as a standard, and he who did most towards reaching that standard, attained the highest degree of moral perfection. So I say that in relation to the principle that all men are created equal, let it be as nearly reached as we can. - Lincoln, speech at Chicago, July 10, 1858, in Roy T. Basler, ed., Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953), vol. 2, p. 501.
There is no doubt at all that Lincoln was a very religious man. No one reading his Second Inaugural Address could ever think otherwise. The reference you quote to "The Savior" does have a Christian connotation. Lincoln was of course a practical politician who governed a largely Christian nation, so he spoke about the Almighty in terms his fellow Americans would relate to. Even Jefferson, who was really an Agnostic Deist, did the same thing in public. So far as I know, the weight of evidence is that Lincoln did not personally believe in the divinity of Jesus, or the divine inspiration of the scriptures. As you've proven, there is evidence that can be cited on both sides of this issue.
Your quotations from Thomas Jefferson illustrate clearly that he was not a Christian. He greatly admired the teachings of Jesus ( as I also do ), but did not believe in his divinity, or that of the scriptures. He probably felt ( as I do ) that the major deficiency of Christianity is that it is devoted to worshipping Jesus, rather than to following his sublime teachings. Someone who tries their best to follow the teachings of Jesus, but does not believe in his divinity, is not considered a Christian; Jefferson was not, and neither was Mahatma Ghandi.
As to Washington, your quote does not state his age when he wrote that prayer book. All testimony is that he gave up Christianity as an adult, after being raised as an Episcopalian.
That's the great thing about religious freedom. No one denomination gets to decide for everyone else what it means to be Christian. Certainly non-Christians have no say in the matter at all.
"Without making ostentatious professions of religion, he was a sincere believer in the Christian faith, and a truly devout man." - Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, 1826
"Almighty God; We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
OK, if you can get a Unitarian, a Jehovah's Witness, and a born-again Southern Baptist to agree on a single prayer, I guess we can consider that prayer for public ceremonies.
My personal recollection of the Unitarians is as a left-wing political cult. The final straw for me was when one of their leaders sent a letter to the newspaper justifying the Long Island Railroad shooter, Colin Ferguson; some claptrap about Black rage as I recall.
"George Washingtons prayer for America:"
You give no source.
Here's some quotes you may find interesting: Faith of our Forefathers
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