James Madison
bttt
And yet the writers of the Consitution of the United States seem to have gone out of their way to avoid mentioning God at all in the Preamble or the body of the entire thing.
In that spirit, I would like to offer France a piece of their (if their wise enough) new constitution to replace that mess they grapple with now:
Le Congres ne pourra faire aucune loi concernant l'etablissement d'une religion ou interdisant son libre exercice, restreignant la liberte de la parole ou de la presse, ou touchant au droit des citoyens de s'assembler paisiblement et d'adresser des petitions au Gouvernement pour le redressement de leurs griefs.
Come on Europe. You can do it.
In the colonial charters, (the rough drafts of their state constitutions) ALL expressed a dependence on God for the maintenance of a moral civil order. Now, these were "independent" state governments with elected representative's, doing the will of the people. And they wrote their state constitutions with GOD in mind.
Thankfully, the Founding Fathers & Framers were WISE enough to LIMIT THE POWERS of the newly formed Federal Government by insisting that the STATES retain a major part of their sovereignty. Powers NOT assigned to the Federal Govt. remained with the states !!!
THIS INCLUDED RELIGION, specifically Christianity !!!
Nam Vet
bookmark
Not to mention the fact that the words "separation of church and state" do not exist anywhere in the US Constitution or Declaration of Independence.
WhiteKnight
The only reason for a reference to religion is to assure you that you would be free to practice your own religion. In Europe the Catholic church commanded obedience. That gave birth to the colonial expression "a country without a king, a church without a pope." Nevertheless, they wanted to be cleaner than their European counterparts, which is why the Founders put that phrase in so people would not go around arresting Catholics as Protestants had been arrested over there.
nice find! bookmarked
Alaska? Not there.
Mass. has since amended it to read, Supreme Significant Other.
ping to moi for later pingout.
Just so I can find this again.
Bump
The athiests are so quick to point out that Jefferson is the one who said the "...wall of separation between Church and State". I belive Levin (or was it Hannity) points out in his book, Jefferson went to a church service that same day, held in the same room that was used for congressional meetings.
Jefferson is also the original author of the Declaration of Independence which clearly shows reverence for God. In no way did Jefferson or the vast majority of the founders of our country intend that the government would be Godless, rather they wanted to prevent the government restricting religious freedom.
They didn't want the government establishing a religion like the Church of England, not because they didn't want God in the lives of people or in the government, rather because they wanted to ensure the freedom for individuals to worship God as they pleased. They were fine with religion in the government (through the individual religious freedom), they just didn't want government in religion. I am astounded that the athiests have been generally successful in turning this around to say that the Founders didn't wanted God in the government.
bttt
Without God, there are no limits on the powers of government.
The argument of "establishment" is bogus. The references to God (Ten Commandments, etc) being opposed are opposed because they show the source for a just government and limitations on its powers.
God save the world from a Godless America. We would make Adolph Hitler and the Germans look like a clown circus.