Religion and Morality: Foundation of Our Government
Christianity in American Government

Abstract
OF THE ARTICLE THAT WILL SOON APPEAR HERE

Clinton Rossiter: The Moral Basis of Our Government

David Barton: Importance of Morality and Religion In Government

The entire institution of Civil Government was created because it was believed God commanded human beings to do so. This belief, a belief held by virtually every single Signer of the Constitution, was based on the 13th chapter of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans.

Romans 13 and the American Constitution

Romans 13 says "the powers that be are ordained of God." Once this phrase is understood (that is, once it is understood how the Framers of the Constitution understood this phrase), it will be seen why the modern myth of "separation of church and state" was never even remotely intended by the Founding Fathers.

Within You Without You: Morality in Williamsburg and Monticello

In article <19990404060626.18580.00001896@ng-ca1.aol.com>, kathyp11@aol.com (Kathy P 11) writes:

>So, tell us, what exactly does the state need from Christianity?

I don't think you really want to hear the answer.
I think you already know the answer.

The State needs the blessing of God's Messiah or it will not survive.
Everyone who signed the Constitution agreed with this.

King David gave the answer to your question a few thousand years ago:

Psalm 2

{1} Why do the nations rage, 
And the people plot a vain thing?
{2} The kings of the earth set themselves, 
And the rulers take counsel together, 
Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 
{3} "Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us."
{4} He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The LORD shall hold them in derision.
{5} Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
{6} "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion."
{7} "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me,
'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.
{8} Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
{9} You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'"
{10} Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
{11} Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling.
{12} Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

 

Psalm 110

{1 } The LORD said to my Lord, 
"Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool."
{2} The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
{3} Your people shall be volunteers 
In the day of Your power;
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.
{4} The LORD has sworn And will not relent,
"You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek."
{5} The Lord is at Your right hand;
He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.
{6} He shall judge among the nations,
He shall fill the places with dead bodies,
He shall execute the heads of many countries.
{7} He shall drink of the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He shall lift up the head.

 

Acts 2:22-36

"Men of Israel, hear these words:
Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles,
wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst,
as you yourselves also know; {23} Him, being delivered by
the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God,
you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and
put to death; {24} whom God raised up, having loosed
the pains of death, because it was not possible that
He should be held by it. {25} For David says concerning Him:
        'I foresaw the LORD always before my face,
        For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
        {26} Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;
        Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.
        {27} For You will not leave my soul in Hades,
        Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
        {28} You have made known to me the ways of life;
        You will make me full of joy in Your presence.'
{29} "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of
the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried,
and his tomb is with us to this day. {30} Therefore,
being a prophet, and knowing that God had
sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body,
according to the flesh, He would raise up
the Messiah to sit on his throne, {31} he, foreseeing this,
spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that
His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
{32} This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
{33} Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God,
and having received from the Father the promise of
the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
{34} For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:
         'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand,
         {35} Till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'
{36} Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

There is no law that says you or any other Secular Humanist has to go to a particular church and worship the Resurrected and Enthroned Messiah. But the men who signed our Constitution believed that our nation would only prosper if we as a nation worshiped this Messiah and obeyed His Law.

Charles Carroll
Signer of the Constitution

Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion whose morality is so sublime and pure . . . are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.
Bernard C. Steiner, The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers, 1907), p. 475. In a letter from Charles Carroll to James McHenry of November 4, 1800.)

John Adams
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Second President
of the United States

[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.
John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, 1854), Vol. IX, p. 401, to Zabdiel Adams on June 21, 1776.

[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1854), Vol. IX, p. 229, October 11, 1798.

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free.
John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851), Vol. VI, p. 9.

John Quincy Adams
Sixth President of the United States

The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code; it contained many statutes . . . of universal application-laws essential to the existence of men in society, and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws.
John Quincy Adams, Letters of John Quincy Adams, to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings (Auburn: James M. Alden, 1850), p. 61.

There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.
John Quincy Adams, Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and Its Teachings (Auburn: James M. Alden, 1850), pp. 22-23.

Samuel Adams
Signer of the Declaration of Independence

[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.
William V. Wells, The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1865), Vol. I, p. 22, quoting from a political essay by Samuel Adams published in The Public Advertiser, 1749.

Benjamin Franklin
Signer of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence

[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.
Benjamin Franklin, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks, editor (Boston: Tappan, Whittemore and Mason, 1840), Vol. X, p. 297, April 17, 1787.

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 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 labor 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 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 tis 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 of more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.
James Madison, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Max Farrand, editor (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911), Vol. I, pp. 450-452, June 28, 1787.

Thomas Jefferson
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Third President of the United States

The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of mankind.
Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, D. C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1904), Vol. XV, p. 383.

I concur with the author in considering the moral precepts of Jesus as more pure, correct, and sublime than those of ancient philosophers.
Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, D. C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1904), Vol. X, pp. 376-377. In a letter to Edward Dowse on April 19, 1803.

Richard Henry Lee
Signer of the Declaration of Independence

It is certainly true that a popular government cannot flourish without virtue in the people.
Richard Henry Lee, The Letters of Richard Henry Lee, James Curtis Ballagh, editor (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1914), Vol. II, p. 411. In a letter to Colonel Mortin Pickett on March 5, 1786.

James McHenry
Signer of the Constitution

[P]ublic 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.
Bernard C. Steiner, One Hundred and Ten Years of Bible Society Work in Maryland, 1810-1920 (Maryland Bible Society, 1921), p. 14.

Jedediah Morse
Patriot and "Father of American Geography"

To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.
Jedediah Morse, Election Sermon given at Charleston, MA, on April 25, 1799.

William Penn
Founder of Pennsylvania

[I]t is impossible that any people of government should ever prosper, where men render not unto God, that which is God's, as well as to Caesar, that which is Caesar's.
Fundamental Constitutions of Pennsylvania, 1682. Written by William Penn, founder of the colony of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court

No free government now exists in the world, unless where Christianity is acknowledged, and is the religion of the country.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 1824. Updegraph v. Cmmonwealth; 11 Serg. & R. 393, 406 (Sup.Ct. Penn. 1824).

Benjamin Rush
Signer of the Declaration of Independence

The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.
Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical (Philadelphia: Thomas and William Bradford, 1806), p. 8.)

We profess to be republicans, and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government, that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible. For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute the soul of republicanism.
Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical (Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas and William Bradford, 1806), pp. 93-94.

By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects. . . . It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published. . . . All systems of religion, morals, and government not founded upon it [the Bible] must perish, and how consoling the thought, it will not only survive the wreck of these systems but the world itself. "The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." [Matthew 16:18]
Benjamin Rush, Letters of Benjamin Rush, L. H. Butterfield, editor (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1951), p. 936, to John Adams, January 23, 1807.

Remember that national crimes require national punishments, and without declaring what punishment awaits this evil, you may venture to assure them that it cannot pass with impunity, unless God shall cease to be just or merciful.
Benjamin Rush, An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America Upon Slave-Keeping (Boston: John Boyles, 1773), p. 30.

George Washington
"Father of Our Country"

While just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government its surest support.
George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, John C. Fitzpatrick, editor (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1932), Vol. XXX, p. 432 n., from his address to the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in North America, October 9, 1789.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of man and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?
And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?
George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States . . . Preparatory to His Declination (Baltimore: George and Henry S. Keatinge), pp. 22-23. In his Farewell Address to the United States in 1796.)

[T]he [federal] government . . . can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, and oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any other despotic or oppressive form so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people.
George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, John C. Fitzpatrick, editor (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1939), Vol. XXIX, p. 410. In a letter to Marquis De Lafayette, February 7, 1788.)

Daniel Webster
Early American Jurist and Senator

[I]f we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity.
Daniel Webster, The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1903), Vol. XIII, p. 492. From "The Dignity and Importance of History," February 23, 1852.

Noah Webster
Founding Educator

The most perfect maxims and examples for regulating your social conduct and domestic economy, as well as the best rules of morality and religion, are to be found in the Bible. . . . The moral principles and precepts found in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. These principles and precepts have truth, immutable truth, for their foundation. . . . All the evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible. . . . For instruction then in social, religious and civil duties resort to the scriptures for the best precepts.
Noah Webster, History of the United States, "Advice to the Young" (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), pp. 338-340, par. 51, 53, 56.

James Wilson
Signer of the Constitution

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, The Works of the Honourable James Wilson (Philadelphia: Bronson and Chauncey, 1804), Vol. I, p. 106.

Robert Winthrop
Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives

Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.
Robert Winthrop, Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1852), p. 172 from his "Either by the Bible or the Bayonet.")

Isn't it absolutely amazing that people could be so ignorant of the beliefs of the Founding Fathers that they could say things like this:

In article <19990401110239.27275.00000719@ng-fb1.aol.com>, edarr1776@aol.com (EDarr1776) writes:

>And so have Congresses and Presidents ever since, clearly indicating the will
>of the people that religion and government be kept separate.

Not a single person who signed the Constitution would agree with Ed.
Yes, they believed that ecclesiastical power and political power should be kept separate, and that political power should not be used to the benefit of one ecclesiastical denomination over another.
But they all agreed that our government was built on Christianity, and depended on it for political prosperity.

America's religion, says de Tocqueville,

perceives that civil liberty affords a noble exercise to the faculties of man, and that the political world is a field prepared by the Creator for the efforts of the intelligence. Contented with the freedom and the power which it enjoys in its own sphere, and with the place which it occupies, the empire of religion is never more surely established than when it reigns in the hearts of men unsupported by aught beside its native strength. Religion is no less the companion of liberty in all its battles and its triumphs; the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims. The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law and the surest pledge of freedom.

The Separation of Religion and Government is the biggest lie of this millennium. If government is not built on the religion of Christianity, it will be built on some other religion. In the 20th century, that religious foundation has been the religion of Secular Humanism, masquerading as "neutrality." As a result of this lie, hundreds of millions of people have been murdered. The concept of government limited by a "higher law" has been lost, and tyranny and genocide has been the result.
This lie must be repudiated.
Our ignorance must be un-learned.

Kevin C.
http://members.aol.com/TestOath/HolyTrinity.htm
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And they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and sit under their Vine & Fig Tree.
Micah 4:1-7