CONSTITUTION DOES NOT REQUIRE PRAYERS TO SATAN OR ATHEISM “There is no country on Earth in which the Christian religion has greater sway over the souls of men than in American.” (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America) On December 9, 2014, at the Lake City, Florida City Council meeting, we were all shown the ultimate consequences of the progressive agenda to evil. As a number of news outlets have reported, the meeting opened with Atheist Preston Smith being permitted to pray to Satan, among other deities: May the efforts of this council blend the righteousness of Allah with the all-knowing wisdom of Satan..... (from CNSNews). During this so-called Prayer, some council members walked out in objection to the worship of entities like Satan, causing Mr. Smith to later exhort: Walking out (on his prayer) was pure discrimination against (my) beliefs. Other council members claimed those walking out were wrong, and should have remained to show respect to these beliefs as a show of toleration and fairness. This seeming madness of now compelled worship of Satan is the end result of the big lie of an alleged Constitutional requirement to permit all faiths (including atheist) to pray if prayers are offered to God. It is time to push back and show a proper level of intolerance against that which we know to be wrong. First, lets go back to the Constitution itself, and not any corrupted interpretation/precedence from progressive ideals not found in the Constitution. At the time of the Constitution Convention, the United States was overwhelmingly Christian, though with differing denominations of Christianity (and a small influence of Judaism). Americans had fought not only the King in the Revolution, but the restrictions and perceived unfairness of the Church of England controlling worship and religion. Americans were devout Christians, as noted by Frenchman de Tocqueville in the 1830s, but knew compulsion in religion to a specific denomination went against Christian ideals. They did not want a Church of America and insisted on the prevention a National Church with special tax powers/privileges. This was the justification behind the First amendment’s establishment clause: “Government will make no law respecting the establishment of religion or preventing the free exercise thereof.” The issue was not public recognition of God, but state Church. Few Americans are aware that the term: “Wall of Separation between church and state” is not Constitutional language, but pulled from Thomas Jefferson’s “Danbury Letter” (written in 1802). It was improperly used by the Supreme Court in the mid-20th century to expand the reach the establishment clause. In fact, Jefferson was writing Baptist ministers to allay their fears of government intervention into the Baptist denomination. A year after writing this letter, Jefferson lobbied Congress for money to send missionaries and evangelistic resources to Native Americans. His many references to God, Prayers, and Actions clearly establish that Jefferson did not believe God should be stricken from American public life. Interestingly, Thomas Jefferson was in France during the Constitutional Convention, and so not the best person to quote for determining the meaning of the Establishment Clause. That said, none of Jeffersons writings can be used to justify requiring prayers from any and all faiths (including Atheist and Satanist) due to public recognition of God. Just isnt part of the Constitution or Constitutional history. As clear evidence of the original intent of the First Amendment establishment clause: the day after passing the First Amendment Congress passed a resolution calling for a day of prayer and thanksgiving to God for the freedoms bestowed. No, Congress did not require an Atheist, Agnostic, or polytheistic resolution. You just wont find that kind of thing until the last few decades of American history. Those same men who were responsible for the drafting and passing of the First Amendment were also those who stood behind Jeffersons words in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence: “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 rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That Governments are instituted among men to secure these rights.” Yes,the First Amendment was written by those who, only about decade earlier, told the world our unalienable rights as Americans come from God. Throughout the 19th century we see leaders showing the proper recognition of God as bestowing our rights and granting our freedom. Later in American history, Eisenhower explained the importance of public recognition of God when he included under God in the Pledge of Allegiance (after World War II): “Recognition of the Supreme Being is first, no American form of Government, nor any American way of life can exist without acknowledgement of God.” Throughout most of US History, recognizing God has not been seen as a special privilege to believers, which then requires an equal privilege to non-believers or others. It has been viewed as a duty from a nation blessed by God. You will note that none of our national leaders, up until this very recent period in American history, felt compelled to add references to other faiths, such as Atheism or Satanism due to the values of toleration and fairness. They understood allowing such toleration to equal public recognition/endorsement, even of the intolerable like Satan, would undermine the fabric of America. Famed Harvard professor Samuel Huntington put it best, when surveying Americas history to the end of the 20th Century: “To deny God is to challenge the fundamental principle underlying American society.” Recognition of God is a major part of who we are as Americans and has helped keep us both free and strong. As John Adams told us after his major part of the drafting of the Constitution: This Constitution was made for a moral and religious people, it is wholly unsuited to the governance of any other. The big lie by the progressive Left, an alleged requirement for national, state, or local government to recognize all faiths or none at all, has been repeated unanswered for too long. The lie has infested any dialogue on the subject as a trump card demanding equal right to public prayer and worship for anything calling itself faith. It is time for those of us who believe as did Jefferson, Adams, Eisenhower, Huntington and countless others, to stand up and show intolerance for that which is wrong. The Constitution allows and the Declaration demands we recognize and thank the author of our rights and freedoms: God. Wisdom tells us we should never allow the prayer and/or worship of that which opposes that which bestows our rights and freedoms. Let us ponder another quote from Alexis de Tocqueville which we ignore only if we desire the end of American greatness: America is great, because America is good, if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. God Bless America! Bill Connor
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 20:00:06 +0000
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