America's Great Religious Document

Townhall.com ^ | July 6, 2010 | Phyllis Schlafly

[Kaslin]

Tea Parties and other spontaneous groups of activists are bringing a new appreciation of the U.S. Constitution to grassroots America, so this Fourth of July would be a good occasion to make sure that they also appreciate our other essential founding document, the Declaration of Independence. I urge all to find a copy on the Internet (non-computer-capable old-timers can look for an old world almanac on their bookshelves) and celebrate the holiday by reading the great declaration.

The Declaration of Independence is the official and unequivocal recognition by the American people of our belief and faith in God. It affirms God's existence as a "self-evident" truth that requires no further discussion, debate or litigation.

The nation created by the great declaration is God's country. The rights it defines are God-given. The actions of its signers are God-inspired.

The Declaration of Independence contains five references to God: God as Creator of all men, God as supreme Lawmaker, God as the Source of all rights, God as the world's supreme Judge, and God as our Patron and Protector. The declaration declares that each of us was created --so if we were created, we must have had a Creator and, as the modern discovery of DNA confirms, each of God's creatures is different from every other person who has ever lived or ever will live on this earth.

The declaration proclaims that life and liberty are the unalienable gifts of God, natural rights, which no person or government can rightfully take away. It affirms that the purpose of government is to secure our God-given unalienable individual rights.

For the first time in history, our declaration reduced government from master to servant. Government was proclaimed to derive its powers only from the consent of the governed.

Knowledge of our Declaration of Independence should be required of all schoolchildren. They should also be taught that many of the 56 men who signed it then paid for their courage with their lives and fortunes, and that's why we are able to enjoy our freedom and independence today.

It is dishonest for schools to ignore our nation's Judeo-Christian heritage. It is historical fact that our Founding Fathers were men of faith who took their Christian religion seriously, were well-schooled in the Bible, and believed that religion and morality are the foundation of good government.

Fortunately, the declaration is not subject to amendment or to whims and biases of supremacist judges who may claim it is a "living" Declaration that can be reinterpreted. It's important for Americans to be on guard against those who don't like our Declaration of Independence or are in denial about what it says.

The message of the Declaration of Independence is under attack from the ACLU and atheists because it refuted the lie about a constitutional mandate for "separation of church and state." Atheists have filed numerous lawsuits in the courts of activist judges to try to eliminate our right to acknowledge God in public places, in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and in Ten Commandments monuments.

The atheists are trying to change American history, expunge all reference to religion from textbooks and make us a completely secular nation. History proves America was founded by religious men who believed that a divine Creator is basic to good government.

We get the impression that President Obama is embarrassed not only about references to God, but also by the concept of independence, which asserts our national sovereignty. He's more comfortable bowing to foreign dictators, declaring himself a "citizen of the world" and pledging to "rejoin the world community," as he did when speaking to cheering German socialists.

The globalists and international extremists really don't like our Declaration of Independence. A couple of years ago, then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown came to Harvard to lecture us to ditch our Declaration of Independence and replace it with a "Declaration of Interdependence" and a "New World Order."

Brown's speech was a classic of impudence and globalist propaganda, using the word interdependence 13 times, globalization seven times and global 69 times. Brave Americans rejected Britain's royalists in 1776, and we don't want to reinstate any globalist supervision from Britain, the United Nations or any U.N. treaties.

Brown also peddled the politically correct line that all religions (Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists) have "common values" and "similar ideals." They certainly do not, as a rereading of our Declaration of Independence makes clear.

One of the legacies of the late Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., is a federal law that requires all educational institutions receiving federal finds to teach something about the Constitution on Constitution Day, Sept. 17. In the absence of any law about the Fourth of July, it's up to each of us to observe this important 234th anniversary.

[thethirddegree]

My copy of the Declaration of Independence sits right above my desk here in the office.It is framed and is accompanied by a print of The Battle of Bunker Hill on the left and a pring of The Fight on the Lexington Common on the right.

[KDD]

Judeo-Christian God is not specified...the term used is “natures God.” No mention in any of the articles of Jesus Christ.

Many of our Founding Fathers were deists.

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

[GailA]

http://www.juntosociety.com/uspresidents/jmadison.html

Quotations

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

-James Madison

We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

- James Madison

“Americans need never fear their government because of the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation.” 

-James Madison

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.

- James Madison

[KDD]

Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting “Jesus Christ,” so that it would read “A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;” the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.
-
Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom

[HighlyOpinionated]

New England Primer:
Used in public and private schools from 1690 to 1900 second only to the Bible
Some of its contents:
A song of praise to God
Prayers in Jesus’ name
The famous Bible alphabet
Shorter Catechism of faith in Christ

Article 22 of the constitution of Delaware (1776)
Required all officers, besides taking an oath of allegiance, to make and subscribe to the following declaration:
• “I, [name], do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.”

James Wilson:
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
Supreme Court Justice appointed by George Washington
Spoke 168 times during the Constitutional Convention

“Christianity is part of the common law”
[Sources: James Wilson, Course of Lectures [vol 3, p.122]; and quoted in Updegraph v. The Commonwealth, 11 Serg, & R. 393, 403 (1824).]

Justice Joseph Story:
“ I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. . . There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying its foundations.”
[Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States p. 593]
“ Infidels and pagans were banished from the halls of justice as unworthy of credit.” [Life and letters of Joseph Story, Vol. II 1851, pp. 8-9.]
“ At the time of the adoption of the constitution, and of the amendment to it, now under consideration [i.e., the First Amendment], 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.”
[Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States p. 593]

MORE here: http://www.eadshome.com/QuotesoftheFounders.htm

[Romulus]

Phyllis Schlafley has lost her mind.

[Kaslin]

Huh? You can’t be serious. Why would you say that?

[Romulus]

She attempts to square national idolatry with the Catholic faith. It can’t be done. It’s sad to see a woman her age in thrall to these self-congratulating narratives.

[Albertafriend]

I think I’d like to get a copy to put up over my desk. Thanks for the idea.

[Jacquerie]

national idolatry

Of what?

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Schlafly: "The Declaration of Independence is the official and unequivocal recognition by the American people of our belief and faith in God. It affirms God's existence as a "self-evident" truth that requires no further discussion, debate or litigation.

The nation created by the great declaration is God's country. The rights it defines are God-given. The actions of its signers are God-inspired.

The Declaration of Independence contains five references to God: God as Creator of all men, God as supreme Lawmaker, God as the Source of all rights, God as the world's supreme Judge, and God as our Patron and Protector. The declaration declares that each of us was created --so if we were created, we must have had a Creator and, as the modern discovery of DNA confirms, each of God's creatures is different from every other person who has ever lived or ever will live on this earth.

The declaration proclaims that life and liberty are the unalienable gifts of God, natural rights, which no person or government can rightfully take away. It affirms that the purpose of government is to secure our God-given unalienable individual rights. "

[Mogollon]

Many of our Founding Fathers were deists.

This is a myth that needs to be debunked, unfortunately people keep falling for it.

Here are several quotes from our Christian Founding Fathers.

Christian Founders

And this refutes the nonsense about our founders being deists:

Founders not Diest

[KDD]

The Christian Nation Myth

[Mad Dawgg]

"And this refutes the nonsense about our founders being deists:"

Ben Franklin wrote in his Biography that he was a Deist.