Balance of Church and State – Sunday, July 3, 2022
INTRO:
Prov 14:34 KJV “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people”
“Kennedy v Bremerton” was ruled on by US Supreme Court this past week:
Joseph Kennedy (HS football coach who prayed @ mid-field after each game)…fired for ‘violation of separation church/state’
“separation of church and state” is perhaps the most misunderstood and misrepresented clause of founding documents I know of
That phrase isn’t found in founding documents, it is an ‘abbreviated paraphrase’
Modern meaning: “religion & politics must remain separate, religious beliefs shouldn’t enter realm of civil government”
Is that really what our founding fathers had in mind? Let’s examine history for context and evidence to discover the answer
No scripture today. All our resources are historical references
EXAMINING US HISTORY FOR CONTEXT:
“a nation that does not remember what is was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do”-Woodrow Wilson, 28th Pres
In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders ‘played God’, leveraged civil leaders for punishment…only civil law could legally kill someone
Throughout history, religious leaders have been leveraging civil leaders to control their actions
Catholicism (300-1500) used threat of ‘excommunication’ (kick out of church = kicked out of heaven) to control civil leaders
Kings excommunicated by Pope: Roman Emperors (5), England, Scotland, France (2), Sicily, Portugal, Hungary (2)
Getting ‘kicked out of church’ not a big deal, unless only Church, and salvation only available through you!
Founding Fathers wanted documentation that removed ‘religious corruption’ from society without removing religious principles
EXAMINING US HISTORY FOR EVIDENCE (is there ‘religious dna’ in our civil government history?):
Our nation was founded at the infancy of the Protestant Reformation…wanted a nation reflecting ‘liberties of sacred scripture’
Mayflower Compact: Nov 1620, 102 settlers landed at Cape Cod, Mass. Developed 1st governing document of new world:
“in the name of God, we, having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith…”
Rhode Island Charter (1683): “we submit our persons, lives, and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and
Lord of lords and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given us in His Holy Word”
135 of the first 136 institutions of higher learning were established for the primary purpose of training ministers of the gospel!
1646, Harvard ‘Rules and Precepts’: “everyone shall consider the main end of his life is to study to know God and Jesus Christ”
July 4, 1776, America didn’t just make “Declaration of Independence”, it also made a “Declaration of Dependence”:
“with a solemn reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honor” (these were men of means: rich, prosperous, land-owners, respected in community)
Of the 56 signees, 5 were captured by British and tortured and died, 12 had their homes looted, occupied by enemy, burned to ground,
9 died in the war, 2 lost sons in the army.
1777 – for 150 years, US had been importing Bibles from England. The war stopped that. By order of US Congress, the US funded importing 20,000 Bibles from Holland and Scotland (total US population was 2 million)
George Washington, inaugural address to Congress as 1st US President 4.30.1789:
Started the tradition of ‘swearing oath of office with hand on Bible’
Washington had has Bible open to Deut 28, bent over and kissed it
“no people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of
the US…we ought to be no less persuaded that the smiles of heaven cannot be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal
rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained”
Thanksgiving (Nov) is uniquely an American holiday. It first began by our 1st US President, George Washington. He issued proclamation designating Nov 26 as National day of Thanksgiving to ‘recognize the role of providence in creating the new US’
Daniel Webster, 14th and 19th US Sec of State:
“our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot
safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by
moral habits”
“let the religious element in man’s nature be neglected, let him be influenced by no higher motives than low self-interest, and
subjected to no stronger restraint than the limits of civil authority, and he becomes the creature of selfish passion or blind
fanaticism”
“the moral principles and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All
the miseries and 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”
Star Spangled Banner (1814) lyrics:
“Blessed with victory and peace may the heaven 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”
“All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated through this Book (Holy Bible); but for the Book we could not know right from wrong. All the things desirable to man are contained in it” – Abraham Lincoln (16th US President)
April 22, 1864 – Phrase “IN GOD WE TRUST” was added to all US currency
“the foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country” - Calvin Coolidge, 30th US President
“our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible
that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian…This is a religious people. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this
affirmation…These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of
organic utterances that this is a Christian nation” ~ Supreme Court Decision, 1892, Church of Holy Trinity vs US
Probe.org/god-in-our-nations-capital/
US Capital – there is a statue of Moses, the law giver; contains Latin “annuit coeptis”, or ‘God has favored our undertakings’
The words “In God We Trust” are written over the southern entrance
Chapel (stained glass window) of George Washington praying w/ ‘preserve me, God, for in thee do I trust’ (Ps 16:1)
Every session of the House and Senate begins with prayer.
Washington Monument - at 555’ tall, it is the world’s tallest free standing stone structure
Inside full of carved blocks: ‘Holiness to the Lord’, ‘search the scriptures’, ‘In God we Trust’, ‘train up a child in way should go’ Capstone atop has latin phrase “laus deo”, which means ‘Praise be to God’
Lincoln Memorial –
Contains 2nd Inaugural address (only 703 words), which mentions God 14 times, and has 2 Bible quotes
at White House dinner during war, clergyman stated ‘Lord is on the Unions side’. Abe: “I know that because the Lord is always
on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and the nation be on Lords side”
Jefferson Memorial – 3rd US president, drafter of Declaration of Independence
Side panel: “all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness”
Side panel: “Almighty God hath created the mind free…all attempts to influence it by punishments…are departure from His plan”
Side panel: “can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”
Top: “I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the minds of man”,
US Supreme Court – all court sessions begin with same proclamation: “God save the United States and this honorable court”
It contains images of Moses with the Ten Commandments in numerous places throughout the building
Pledge of Allegiance:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”
April 30, 1863 Proclamation for National Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer - President Abraham Lincoln
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace…and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us to humble ourselves, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness”
