The 108th Congress should
- reject all legislation which is
inconsistent with our national motto
America's National Motto is "In God We Trust."
Our nation admits it has a duty to obey "the
Laws of Nature and of Nature's God."
Not just individuals "down in their hearts," but our
government was to be "under
God." Ecclesiastical and political power could be kept
separate, but there is nothing in the Constitution which separates
America from God and from True
Religion.
Our laws
were patterned after the Ten Commandments. In this way our
legislators acknowledged their duty to conform their political
acts to the will of God. By making laws for the nation which
conformed to the Higher Law of God, legislators acknowledged that
this was a nation "under God."
Some have suggested that our national motto is not
representative of the original intent of the Founding Fathers and
the Constitution, since it was not made our national motto until
1956.
There are several lines of evidence which show that the
Constitution was never intended nor understood to deny the fact
that human beings -- both as individuals and in their institutions
(such as "the State") -- have duties given them from God
which they are obligated to obey.
Until the rise of the ACLU and the myth of the "separation
of church and state," the Constitution never prevented a
politician from publicly acknowledging God or performing his
public duties in accord with God's Commandments.
In Engel v
Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 440 (1962),
the case which removed voluntary prayer from government schools,
Justice Douglas, concurring, provided the following in footnote 5:
The Pledge of Allegiance,
like the [voluntary New York government
school] prayer [which the Court in
this case banned], recognizes the existence of a
Supreme Being. Since 1954 it has contained the words
"one Nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all." 36 U.S.C. 172. The House
Report recommending the addition of the words "under
God" stated that those words in no way run
contrary to the First Amendment but recognize "only
the guidance of God in our national affairs." H.
R. Rep. No. 1693, 83d Cong., 2d Sess., p. 3. And see S.
Rep. No. 1287, 83d Cong., 2d Sess. Senator
Ferguson, who sponsored the measure in the Senate, pointed
out that the words "In God We Trust"
are over the entrance to the Senate Chamber. 100
Cong. Rec. 6348. He added:
"I have felt that the Pledge of Allegiance to
the Flag which stands for the United States of America
should recognize the Creator who we really believe is in
control of the destinies of this great Republic.
"It is true that under the Constitution no power
is lodged anywhere to establish a religion. This is not
an attempt to establish a religion; it has nothing to do
with anything of that kind. It relates to belief in God,
in whom we sincerely repose our trust. We know that
America cannot be defended by guns, planes, and ships
alone. Appropriations and expenditures for defense will
be of value only if the God under whom we live believes
that we are in the right. We should at all times
recognize God's province over the lives of our people
and over this great Nation." Ibid. And see 100
Cong. Rec. 7757 et seq. for the debates in the House.
The Act of March 3, 1865, 13 Stat. 517, 518,
authorized the phrase "In God We Trust"
to be placed on coins. And see 17 Stat. 427. The first
mandatory requirement for the use of that motto on coins
was made by the Act of May 18, 1908, 35
Stat. 164. See H. R. Rep. No. 1106, 60th Cong., 1st Sess.;
42 Cong. Rec. 3384 et seq. The use of the motto on
all currency and coins was directed by the Act of July 11,
1955, 69 Stat. 290. See H. R. Rep. No. 662,
84th Cong., 1st Sess.; S. Rep. No. 637, 84th Cong., 1st
Sess. Moreover, by the Joint Resolution of July 30,
1956, our national motto was declared to be "In
God We Trust." 70 Stat. 732.
In reporting the Joint Resolution, the Senate Judiciary
Committee stated:
"Further official recognition of this motto was
given by the adoption of the Star-Spangled Banner as our
national anthem. One stanza of our national anthem is as
follows:
"`O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued
land
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a
nation!
Then conquer we must when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - "In God is our
trust."
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.'
"In view of these words in our national anthem,
it is clear that `In God we trust' has a strong claim as
our national motto." S. Rep. No.
2703, 84th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 2.
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This expression goes back to the very earliest days of our
nation:
Congress passed a
bill instructing the Director of the Mint to place the motto
"IN GOD WE TRUST" upon all coins issued whose size
would admit the words—an appropriate motto for a Christian
Nation.
William Jackman, History of the
American Nation, Chicago: Hamming Publishing Company, 1913,
vol.4, p.1172.
George Bancroft, History of the United States,
Vol.3,
Chapter 32: The Towns of Massachusetts Hold Correspondence,
August 1772-January 1773, p.428-29
To send an American across the Atlantic for trial for his life
was an intolerable violation of justice; Hutchinson urged what
was worse, to abrogate the Rhode Island charter. In this hour of
greatest peril, the men of Rhode Island, by the hands of Darius
Sessions, their deputy governor, and Stephen Hopkins, their
chief justice, appealed to Samuel Adams for advice. And he
answered immediately that the occasion "should awaken the
American colonies, and again unite them in one band; that an
attack upon the liberties of one colony was an attack upon the
liberties of all, and that, therefore, in this instance all
should be ready to yield assistance."
Employing this event to promote a
general union, the Boston committee, as the year went out, were,
"by the people's thorough understanding of their civil and
religious rights and liberties, encouraged to trust in God
that a day was hastening when the efforts of the colonists would
be crowned with success, and the present generation furnish an
example of public virtue worthy the imitation of all
posterity."
In a like spirit, the eventful year of
1773 was rung in by the men of Marlborough. "Death,"
said they, unanimously, on the first of January, "is more
eligible than slavery. A free-born people are not required by
the religion of Jesus Christ to submit to tyranny, but may
make use of such power as God has given them to recover
and support their laws and liberties." And, advising all
the colonies to prepare for war, they "implored the
Ruler above the skies that he would make bare his arm in
defence of his church and people, and let Israel go."
These are not the kind of colonists who would have ratified a
Constitution which denies the idea that we are a Christian nation
"under God."
"As we are in a remote wilderness corner of the earth,
we know but little," said the farmers of Lenox; "but
neither nature nor the God of nature requires us to
crouch, Issachar-like, between the two burdens of poverty and
slavery."
Few politicians can tell us about this allusion to "Issachar,"
but they would be quick to claim that our Founding Fathers never
quoted the Bible. (see Genesis
49:13-15)
"We prize our liberties so highly," thus spoke the
men of Leicester, with the districts of Spencer and Paxton,
"that we think it our duty to risk our lives and fortunes
in defence thereof." "For that spirit of virtue which
induced your town at so critical a day to take the lead in so
good a cause," wrote the town of Petersham, "our
admiration is heightened, when we consider your being exposed to
the first efforts of power. The time may come when you may be
driven from your goodly heritage; if that should be the case, we
invite you to share with us in our small supplies of the
necessaries of life; and, should we still not be able to
withstand, we are determined to retire, and seek repose among
the inland aboriginal natives, with whom we doubt not but to
find more humanity and brotherly love than we have lately
received from our mother country." "We join with the
town of Petersham," was the reply of Boston, "in
preferring a life among the savages to the most splendid
condition of slavery; but heaven will bless the united
efforts of a brave people."
It could be said that the motto of the Boston Tea Party was
"In God We Trust." Bancroft describes the plotting of
the Party in a famous Boston Church:
The first difficulty
to be overcome existed in Boston itself. Cushing, the speaker,
who had received a private letter from Dartmouth, and was lulled
into confiding in "the noble and generous sentiments"
of that minister, advised that for the time the people should
bear their grievances. "Our natural increase in wealth and
population," said he, "will in a course of years
settle this dispute in our favor; whereas, if we persist in
denying the right of parliament to legislate for us, they may
think us extravagant in our demands, and there will be great
danger of bringing on a rupture fatal to both countries."
He thought the redress of grievances would more surely come
"if these high points about the supreme authority of
parliament were to fall asleep." Against this feeble
advice, the Boston committee of correspondence aimed at the
union of the province, and "the confederacy of the whole
continent of America." They refused to waive the claim of
right, which could only divide the Americans in sentiment and
confuse their counsels. "What oppressions," they
asked, in their circular to all the other towns, "may we
not expect in another seven years, if through a weak credulity,
while the most arbitrary measures are still persisted in, we
should be prevailed upon to submit our rights, as the patriotic
Farmer expresses it, to the tender mercies of the ministry?
Watchfulness, unity, and harmony are necessary to the salvation
of ourselves and posterity from bondage. We have an animating
confidence in the Supreme Disposer of events, that he will never
suffer a sensible, brave, and virtuous people to be
enslaved."
George Bancroft, History of the United States,
Vol.3,
Chapter 34: The Boston Tea-Party, August-December 1773
p.443-44
The authority of Parliament was questioned only because of the
rights and absolutes given by the Creator, in Whom the colonists
trusted.
On the morning of
Monday, the thirteenth, the committees of the five towns were at
Faneuil [Church] Hall, with that of Boston. Now that danger was
really at hand, the men of the little town of Malden offered
their blood and their treasure; for that which they once
esteemed the mother country had lost the tenderness of a parent,
and become their great oppressor. "We trust in God,"
wrote the men of Lexington, "that, should the state of our
affairs require it, we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates
and everything dear in life, yea, and life itself, in support of
the common cause." Whole towns in Worcester county were
"on tiptoe to come down." "Go on as you have
begun," wrote the committee of Leicester, on the
fourteenth; "and do not suffer any of the teas already come
or coming to be landed, or pay one farthing of duty. You may
depend on our aid and assistance when needed."
George Bancroft, History of the United States,
Vol.3,
Chapter 34: The Boston Tea-Party,August-December 1773, p.454
"We trust in God," said the Founding Fathers as they
plotted the Boston Tea Party in a now-famous Church. But
separationists want us to believe these same men took America out
from "under God" and made it
a secular nation. Impossible.
At the end of this
great day the mind of John Adams heaved like the ocean after a
storm. "The greatest question," he wrote, "was
decided which ever was debated in America, and a greater,
perhaps, never was nor will be decided among men. When I look
back to 1761, and run through the series of political events,
the chain of causes and effects, I am surprised at the
suddenness as well as greatness of this revolution. Britain has
been filled with folly, and America with wisdom. It is the will
of heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever; it
may be the will of heaven that America shall suffer
calamities still more wasting and distresses yet more dreadful.
If this is to be the case, the furnace of affliction produces
refinement in states as well as individuals; but I submit all my
hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, in which,
unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe.
George Bancroft, History of the United
States, Vol.4, Chapter 28:
The Resolution and the Declaration of Independence, July 1-4,
1776
p.441-44
"Unfashionable" in France, maybe, but
not in America.
"Had a declaration of independence been made seven
months ago, we might before this hour have formed alliances with
foreign states; we should have mastered Quebec, and been in
possession of Canada; but, on the other hand, the delay has many
great advantages attending it. The hopes of reconciliation which
were fondly entertained by multitudes of the honest and
well-meaning, though weak and mistaken, have been gradually and
at last totally extinguished. Time has been given for the whole
people maturely to consider the great question of independence,
so that in every colony of the thirteen they have now adopted it
as their own act.
"But the day is passed. The second day of July 1776 will be
the most memorable epoch in the history of America; to be
celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary
festival, commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn
acts of devotion to God Almighty, from one end of the
continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.
"You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am
not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it
will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and
defend these states; yet, through all the gloom, I can see the
rays of light and glory; that the end is worth all the means;
that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even
though we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall
not."
John Adams' trust in God was publicly
proclaimed in official proclamations, not restrained by
the Constitution.
In more recent history, even the favorite of all liberals, FDR,
was publicly afraid to deny the truth of America's Christian
history:
In the constitution
and in the practice of our Nation is the right of freedom of
religion. But this ideal, these words, presuppose a belief
and a trust in God.
Public Papers of the
Presidents, F. D. Roosevelt, 1936, Item 228
Address before the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance
of Peace, Buenos Aires, Argentina. December 1, 1936
Ditto Harry Truman:
Fellow citizens:
The United States has been a deeply religious Nation from its
earliest beginnings. The need which the founders of our country
felt--the need to be free to worship God, each man in his own
way--was one of the strongest impulses that brought men from
Europe to the New World. As the pioneers carved a civilization
from the forest, they set a pattern which has lasted to our
time. First, they built homes and then, knowing the need for
religion in their daily lives, they built churches. When the
United States was established, its coins bore witness to the
American faith in a benevolent deity. The motto then was "In
God We Trust." That is still our motto and we, as
a people, still place our firm trust in God.
Public Papers of
the Presidents, Truman, 1949, p.541, Item 246
Radio Address as Part of the Program "Religion in American
Life."
October 30, 1949 [Broadcast from the White House at 11:25 p.m.]
How about JFK?
No man who enters
upon the office to which I have succeeded can fail to recognize
how every President of the United States has placed special
reliance upon his faith in God. Every President has taken
comfort and courage when told, as we are told today, that the
Lord "will be with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake
thee. Fear not--neither be thou dismayed."
While they came from a wide variety of religious backgrounds and
held a wide variety of religious beliefs, each of our Presidents
in his own way has placed a special trust in God. Those
who were strongest intellectually were also strongest
spiritually.
Public Papers of the
Presidents, J. F. Kennedy, 1961, p.76, Item 26,
Remarks at the Dedication Breakfast of International Christian
Leadership, Inc. February 9, 1961
Even Nixon knew the political necessity of publicly putting his
trust in God:
As long as I am your
President, I shall keep America on that road. I shall keep this
country strong militarily, strong economically, [p.1069] and
strong in the moral values and the trust in God which is our
ultimate defense.
Public Papers of
the Presidents, Nixon, 1972, p.1068 - p.1069, Item 388
Radio Address on Defense Policy. October 29, 1972
Nixon merely followed in the footsteps of
his pious predecessor:
By
the President of the United States of America a Proclamation
Even as they deliberated the conception
of this Nation, our forefathers, mindful of the frailties of
mortal men, turned for guidance to Almighty God.
Their humble and sincere prayer,
delivered in their belief that all good things are the gift of
God, established a reliance that remains unbroken.
As did our founding fathers, our people
continue to place their trust in God.
Public Papers of the
Presidents, L. B. Johnson, 1965, p.1053, Item 557
Remarks Upon Signing Proclamation "National Day of Prayer,
1965.''
October 7, 1965
Democrats have long placed their trust in God.
Having assembled in
National Convention as the delegates of the Free Democracy of
the United States, united by a common resolve to maintain right
against wrongs, and freedom against slavery; confiding in the
intelligence, patriotism, and the discriminating justice of the
American people, putting our trust in God for the triumph
of our cause, and invoking his guidance in our endeavors to
advance it, we now submit to the candid judgment of all men the
following declaration of principles and measures:
Free Democratic
Platform of 1852
National Party Platforms, p.18
All of these statements violate a central tenet of the
religion of Secular Humanism and its "separation of
church and state" dogma. In Allegheny
v. ACLU, the Court
squarely rejects any notion that this
Court will tolerate some government endorsement
of religion. Rather, [we] recognize[] any endorsement
of religion as "invalid," id., at 690, because it
"sends a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders,
not full members of the political community, and an accompanying
message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of
the political community," id., at 688.
Allegheny
County v.Greater Pittsburgh ACLU, 492 U.S. 573, 595
(1989)
But all of these statements prove that this is a Christian
nation, a nation "under
God."
Part Two: For more on
the religious foundations of American Government.
next: Campaign Finance, Corruption and
the Oath of Office
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