| Vine & Fig Tree's
Anti-Separation
of Church and State
Resources
Government-Sponsored Prayer
Sponsored by the Government that Wrote the Constitution
The Annals of Congress for Sept 25, 1789 record these discussions concerning
the proclamation of a national day of Thanksgiving:
Mr [Elias] Boudinot said he could not think of letting the session pass
over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining
with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He
had poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would move the following
resolution:
Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President
of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States
a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful
hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity
peaceably to establish a Constitution of government for their safety and happiness . . . .
Mr. [Roger] Sherman justified the practice of thanksgiving, on any signal event, not
only as a laudable one in itself but as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ:
for instance, the solemn thanksgivings and rejoicings which took place in the time of
Solomon after the building of the temple was a case in point. This example he thought
worthy of Christian imitation on the present occasion; and he would agree with the
gentleman who moved the resolution. Mr Boudinot quoted further precedents from the
practice of the late Congress, [he was a member of the Continental Congress from 1778-79
and 1781-84 and President of the Continental Congress 1782-83] and hoped the motion would
meet a ready acquiescence. [Boudinot was also founder and first president of the American
Bible Society.] The question was now put on the resolution and it was carried in the
affirmative.
On this very same day, Congress approved the final wording of the First Amendment.
Would Sherman and other signers of the Founding Charters of America approve of a public
school system in which non-sectarian prayer and Bible reading have no place?
Only the most dedicated Secularist or the most ignorant fool would say Yes.
Complete text available at
http://www.christiananswers.net/wall/et_schoolprayer.html
|