U.S. founded on solid religious bedrock

By Levi Ham

I do not personally know any judges, senators or representatives. I am of the opinion that, while well-educated in political science, they either did poorly in early American history or chose to follow the practice of political correctness that would let one atheist shut down some practices for a whole school system.

The United States has three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial. Judges have become legislators. They are not lawmakers.

Major rulings that plague American today include the killing of babies (partial-birth abortion), coddling of homosexuals (marriage) and forbidding most any kind of Judeo-Christian activity in school or on government property.

Americans, these are not covered by laws but by judicial rulings. I read in the newspaper that some people are calling Dec. 25 a winter holiday instead of Christmas.

The liberal press keeps printing that our country and its laws and constitution were not founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs. Here is a portion of a sermon by the Rev. Dennis Bell, pastor of Illmo Baptist Church in Scott City:

"You can go to the U.S. Capitol and tour the original House chamber. Today it is a room lined with statues around the wall of great Americans, but for scores of years the House of Representatives met in that room before the larger chamber was built adjacent to it. But let me tell you something you just may not know: For the first 75 years that the House of Representatives met in that room, they opened it on Sunday mornings to an evangelical, Gospel-preaching Protestant church. Folks, a church met in our U.S. Capitol for 75 years. Let me tell you something else you may not know: For years, the First Presbyterian Church -- not the National Presbyterian Church -- held its Sunday services in the chamber of the Supreme Court building.

"Don't listen to those today who say that religious principles played little part in the founding of the United States of America. Don't listen to those who say that we were basically not built on a Judeo-Christian philosophy but on more of a pluralistic, deistic philosophy. Folks, you can find the Gospel truth forever etched in the charters of the original 13 colonies."

Evidently, this man knew how to look up early American history.

I received an e-mail on early American history. I gave a copy of it to a young lady. After scanning for a few minutes, she said, "Why, they are trying to take God out of everything." Is she right? You bet.

Here is an e-mail I received from the Web site of Union Congregational Church of Weymouth and Braintree, Mass. (www.churchonahill.org):

"History forgotten: This is worth remembering, because it is so true. It's familiar territory, but ... . Those of you who graduated from school after the early 1960s were probably never taught this. Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence were orthodox, deeply committed, Christians? The other three all believed in the Bible as the divine truth, the God of Scripture and his personal intervention. It is the same Congress that formed the American Bible Society. Immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of Scripture for the people of this nation.

"Patrick Henry, who is called the firebrand of the American Revolution, is still remembered for his words, 'Give me liberty or give me death.' But in current textbooks, the context of these words is omitted. Here is what he actually said: 'An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.'

"These sentences have been erased from our textbooks.

"Was Patrick Henry a Christian? The following year, 1776, he wrote this:

"'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 that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here.'

"Consider these words that Thomas Jefferson wrote in the front of his well-worn Bible: 'I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our creator.' He was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest and most important role.

"On July 4, 1821, President Adams 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.'

"Calvin Coolidge, our 30th president, reaffirmed this truth when he wrote, 'The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.'

"In 1782, the U.S. Congress voted this resolution: 'The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.'

"William Holmes McGuffey is the author of the McGuffey Reader, which was used for over 100 years in our public schools with over 125 million copies sold until it was stopped in 1963. President Lincoln called him the Schoolmaster of the Nation. Listen to these words of Mr. McGuffey: 'The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our nation, on the character of God, on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free Institutions. From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. From all these extracts from the Bible, I make no apology.'

"Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636. In the original Harvard Student Handbook, Rule No. 1 was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the Scriptures: 'Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies, is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life. John 17:3, and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.'

"James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: 'We have staked the whole future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.'"

How plain can you get?

Levi Ham is a resident of Kelso, Mo.