How Far We Have Fallen!

Some quotes from our founding fathers, taken from here:

George Washington, our first president, said, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education—reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” Washington also said, “True religion affords to government its surest support—it is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”

John Adams, our second president, said, “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.”

Thomas Jefferson, our third president, said, “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 of the gift of 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; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

James Madison, our fourth president, known as the Chief Architect of our U.S. Constitution, said, “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 each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

Samuel Adams, the Father of the American Revolution, said, “A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.” Adams also said, “Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, of inculcation (implanting) in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity—and in subordination to these great principles, the love of their country—in short, of leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system. Neither the wisest constitution, nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”

Gouverneur Morris, who literally wrote the U.S. Constitution, said, “Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man towards God.”

 John Quincy Adams, our sixth president, said, “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this—it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”

 John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, said, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

 Joseph Story, an early U.S. Supreme Court Justice, appointed by James Madison, said, “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.” Story also 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.”

 Benjamin Franklin, one of our Founding Fathers, said, “He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.” It was Franklin who moved that prayers be held every morning before proceeding with business at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

 Patrick Henry, famous for his declaration “Give me liberty, or give me death”, also said, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians: not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here (in the United States).”

 Noah Webster, a Founding Father and founder of the Webster Dictionary, has been titled ‘America’s Schoolmaster.’ The following is what Webster had to say about the relationship between government and Christianity. “The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.” Webster also said, “The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.” Webster also understood that Christian principles must be inseparable from any sound educational system. Webster said, “In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed. No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”

Jedediah Morse, the ‘Father of American Geography’ said the following about the importance of Christianity to education: “To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. All efforts to destroy the foundations of our holy religion ultimately tend to the subversion also of our political freedom and happiness. Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.”

John Witherspoon, another Founding Father and educator—trained one President, one Vice-President, three Supreme Court Justices, ten Cabinet members, twelve Governors, sixty Congressmen, and others, while serving as President of Princeton University. The following is what he had to say about mixing politics and Christianity: “It is in the man of piety and inward principle, that we may expect to find the uncorrupted patriot, the useful citizen, and the invincible soldier. God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one, may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both.” Witherspoon also said, “What follows from this? That he is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple (hesitate) not to call him an enemy to his country.”

Alexander Hamilton, who literally wrote much of George Washington’s Farewell Address, believed that religion and morality were indispensable supports to political prosperity. Hamilton penned these words: “In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness (religion and morality).” Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?”

In summary, the phrase ‘separation of church and state’ does not appear in either the U.S. Constitution, or the Bill of Rights, however the phrase has been severely misused in our courts over the past 50 years, ever since the 1962 case of ‘Engel vs. Vitale’ which declared voluntary non-denominational prayer in schools to be unconstitutional.

Abraham Lincoln once stated that America was “a nation under God”—but that is increasingly in question today as apostasy seems to be increasingly prevalent in all three branches of our American government, our American educational system, and in a larger percentage of our American citizenry with each passing year. 

American citizens dare not ignore or fail to heed the warnings of our Founding Fathers any longer. ‘We the People’ need to take bold and immediate steps to reverse apostasy and the practice of ‘separation of church and state’ as found within our government. If we do not heed the warnings by our visionary founders—then we face dire consequences in our effort to preserve our nation much further into the future, a nation with freedom and liberties established by Almighty God and our Founding Fathers beginning in 1776.