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"Whatever
we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation – at least,
not just."
--
Candidate Barack
H. Obama
"We
do not consider ourselves a Christian nation" --
President Barack H. Obama
“And
one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the
number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim
countries in the world,” --
President Barack H. Obama
"And
I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United
States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they
appear." --
President Barack H. Obama
"The
future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam"
-- President Barack H. Obama
"More
than a billion people practice Islam and an overwhelming majority view
their obligations to a religion that reaffirms peace, fairness,
tolerance."
-- President Barack H. Obama
No
Longer A Christian Nation? |
Reaffirming
Peace? | Reaffirming
Tolerance? | Obama
Family
Another
Way
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"Intelligence,
patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never
yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the
best way, all our present difficulty."
-- President Abraham Lincoln, from First Inaugural Address, 1861 "The
fundamental basis of this Nation's law was given to Moses on the
Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the
teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and
St. Paul. I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we
don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally
wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in
rights for anybody except the state."
-- President Harry S. Truman, from Attorney General's Conference
Address,1950 link
We
Once Were... |
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We
once were the
United States of America
A Nation Trusting in
God & Founded on
Christian Principles
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"We have no government
armed with power capable of contending with human passions
unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition,
revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our
Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution
was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any other."
-- John
Adams,
to the officers of the First Brigade of the Third
Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, October 11, 1798.
[John Adams -
Declaration of Independence signer, the first Vice President and the second President of the United
States]
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Without morals a republic cannot
subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying
the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime &
pure, [and] which denounces against the wicked eternal misery,
and [which] insured to the good eternal happiness, are
undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security
for the duration of free governments.
-- Charles Carroll, in a letter
to James McHenry of November 4, 1800, in The Life and
Correspondence of James McHenry (1907).
[Charles
Carroll of Carrollton - Declaration of
Independence signer, and United States Senator for Maryland]
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“We have staked the whole future
of American civilization, not upon the power of government,
far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political
institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves
according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
-- James Madison, to the
General Assembly of the State of Virginia, 1778.
[James
Madison, Jr. - "Father of the Constitution" and
first author of the Bill of Rights, and the fourth President
of the United States]
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Public utility pleads most
forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures.
The doctrine they preach, the obligations they impose, the
punishment they threaten, the rewards they promise, the stamp
and image of divinity they bear, which produces a conviction
of their truths, can alone secure to society, order and peace,
and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government,
purity, stability and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible,
we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our
institutions. Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they
abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time
enjoy quiet conscience.
-- James McHenry, in One
Hundred and Ten Years of Bible Society Work in Maryland,
1810-1920 (1921). [James
McHenry - United States Constitution signer]
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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.
-- Joseph Story, in
Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States.
[ Joseph
Story - Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court]
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Our citizens should early
understand that the genuine source of correct republican
principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or
the Christian religion.
-- Noah
Webster,
in History of the
United States (1832).
[Noah
Webster - “Father of American Scholarship and Education”]
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"Whatever makes men good Christians,
makes them good citizens."
-- Daniel
Webster,
a discourse delivered at Plymouth, December
22, 1820.
[Daniel
Webster - United States Senator from Massachusetts, and 14th
United States Secretary of State]
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"In the chain of human events, the
birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the
birthday of the Savior. The Declaration of Independence laid
the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of
Christianity."
-- John Quincy
Adams,
an oration delivered before inhabitants of the town of Newburyport, July 4, 1837.
[John Quincy
Adams - the sixth President of the United States]
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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. --
John Jay, in a letter to John Murray Jr. on October 12, 1816.
[John
Jay - the first Chief Justice of the United States]
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The only means of establishing and
perpetuating our republican forms of government is the
universal education of our youth in the principles of
Christianity by means of the Bible.
-- Benjamin
Rush,
in Essays,
Literary, Moral & Philosophical (1798).
[Benjamin
Rush - Declaration of Independence signer]
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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 at its
foundations.
-- Joseph
Story,
in Life and Letters
of Joseph Story (1851).
[Joseph
Story - Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court]
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While we are zealously performing the
duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not
to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the
distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest
glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.
-- George
Washington,
General Orders of May 2, 1778, in The Writings
of Washington (1932).
[George
Washington - Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, United
States Constitution signer, and the first President
of the United States]
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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.
-- Noah
Webster, in the preface to his American Dictionary of
the English Language (1828).
[Noah
Webster - “Father of American Scholarship and Education”]
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Religion is the only solid basis
of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts
of religion and the duties of man toward God.
-- Gouverneur Morris, from
The Life of Governeur Morris (1832).
[Gouverneur Morris - United
States Constitution penman and signer]
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Far from being rivals or enemies,
religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual
assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other.
The divine law, as discovered by reason and the moral sense,
forms an essential part of both.
-- James Wilson, in The
Works of the Honourable James Wilson (1804).
[James
Wilson - Declaration of Independence
signer, and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme
Court]
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"Sensible of the importance
of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a
state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for
their support and encouragement. ... Manners, by which not
only the freedom but the very existence of the republics are
greatly affected, depend much upon the public institutions of
religion."
-- John Hancock, from
Inaugural Address as Governor of Massachusetts, November 2,
1780.
[John Hancock - Declaration of
Independence signer]
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"The reflection and
experience of many years have led me to consider the holy
writings not only as the most authentic and instructive in
themselves, but as the clue to all other history. They tell us
what man is, and they alone tell us why he is what he is: a
contradictory creature that seeing and approving of what is
good, pursues and performs what is evil. All of private and
public life is there displayed. ... From the same pure
fountain of wisdom we learn that vice destroys freedom; that
arbitrary power is founded on public immorality."
-- Gouverneur Morris, from
An Inaugural Discourse Delivered Before the New York
Historical Society by the Honorable Gouverneur Morris,
September 4, 1816.
[Gouverneur Morris - United
States Constitution penman and signer]
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Mr President [George Washington, Constitutional Convention],
The small progress we have made after 4 or five weeks close
attendance & continual reasonings with each other--our
different sentiments on almost every question, several of the
last producing as many noes as ays, is methinks a melancholy
proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding.
We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom,
since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone
back to ancient history for models of Government, and examined
the different forms of those Republics which having been
formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer
exist. And we have viewed Modern States all round Europe, but
find none of their Constitutions suitable to our
circumstances.
In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in
the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to
distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir,
that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to
the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?
In the beginning of the Contest with G. Britain, when we
were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for
the divine protection. - Our prayers, Sir, were heard, &
they were graciously answered.
All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have
observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in
our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy
opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of
establishing our future national felicity.
And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we
imagine that we no longer need His assistance?
I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the
more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God Governs
in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the
ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can
rise without His aid?
We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that
"except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that
build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that
without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political
building no better, than the Builders of Babel:
We shall be divided by our little partial local interests;
our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become
a reproach and bye word down to future ages.
And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this
unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by
Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers
imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our
deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before
we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of
this City be requested to officiate in that Service.
-- Benjamin Franklin,
from Constitutional
Convention address delivered June 28, 1787, in Philadelphia, as recorded
in "Notes of Debates in the
Federal Convention of 1787 Reported by James Madison"
[Benjamin Franklin
- Declaration of Independence signer,
United States Constitution signer]
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Gentlemen
The affectionate sentiments of
esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express
towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give
me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and
zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in
proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those
duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that
religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his
God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his
worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach
actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign
reverence that act of the whole American people which declared
that their legislature should "make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof," thus building a wall of separation between
Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme
will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I
shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those
sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural
rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his
social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers
for the protection & blessing of the common father and
creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your
religious association, assurances of my high respect &
esteem.
-- Thomas Jefferson,
in a January 1, 1802 letter sent to messers Nehemiah Dodge,
Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the
Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.
[Thomas
Jefferson - principle author of the
Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the
United States]
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"To the kindly influence of Christianity
we owe that degree of civil freedom and political and social
happiness which mankind now enjoys. All efforts made to
destroy the foundations of our Holy Religion ultimately tend
to the subversion also of our political freedom and happiness.
In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are
diminished in any nation… in the same proportion will the
people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine
freedom… 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." --
Jedidiah Morse,
Exhibiting the Present Dangers and Consequent Duties of the
Citizens of the United States of America, delivered at
Charlestown, MA, April 25, 1799.
[Jedidiah
Morse - clergyman and early American educator, and
"Father of American Geography"]
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O! thus be it ever, when
freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory 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!
-- Francis Scott Key,
the 4th verse of the "The Star-Spangled Banner"
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In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration
of the thirteen united States of America,
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.
We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed...
-- The Declaration of
Independence (see full
text)
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