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…the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion. Unlike governments of the past, the American Fathers set up a government divorced from religion. The establishment of a secular government did not require a reflection to themselves about its origin; they knew this as an unspoken given. However, as the U.S. delved into international affairs, few foreign nations knew about the intentions of America. For this reason, an insight from at a little known but legal document written in the late 1700s explicitly reveals the secular nature of the United States to a foreign nation.

"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

The preliminary treaty began with a signing on November 4, 1796 (the end of George Washington's last term as president). Joel Barlow, the American diplomat served as counsel to Algiers and held responsibility for the treaty negotiations. Barlow had once served under Washington as a chaplain in the revolutionary army. Barlow, along with his associate, Captain Richard O'Brien, et al, translated and modified the Arabic version of the treaty into English. From this came the added Amendment 11. Barlow forwarded the treaty to U.S. legislators for approval in 1797. Timothy Pickering, the secretary of state, endorsed it and John Adams concurred (now during his presidency), sending the document on to the Senate. The Senate approved the treaty on June 7, 1797, and officially ratified by the Senate with John Adams signature on June 10, 1797. All during this multi-review process, the wording of Article 11 never raised the slightest concern. The treaty even became public through its publication in The Philadelphia Gazette on June 17, 1797. So here we have a clear admission by the United States that our government did not found itself upon Christianity. Unlike the Declaration of Independence, this treaty represented U.S. law as all treaties do according to the Constitution (see Article VI, Sect. 2). Although the Christian exclusionary wording in the Treaty of Tripoli only lasted for eight years and no longer has legal status, it clearly represented the feelings of our Founding Fathers at the beginning of the U.S. government. Fred Flash cannot be banned. He’s smarter than you are! ****** [CENTER][SIZE=5]...the government of the United States has no religious character or powers whatsoever, but is purely a secular organization, contrived and devised for purely secular ends.[/SIZE][/CENTER] THE Constitution of the United States has these provisions: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." It is thus the case that, as originally framed, the Constitution simply provided that" no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States," but did not, in terms, prohibit Congress from erecting a state religion or interfering with the free exercise of religion otherwise than as regards office. The First Amendment was therefore adopted, in order that, as amended, the Constitution should [B]forbid Congress from intermeddling in any way whatever with religious matters[/B]; and it has hence passed into the general understanding that the government of the United States has [B]no religious character or powers whatsoever[/B], but is [B]purely a secular[/B] organization, contrived and devised [B]for purely secular ends. [/B] As stated in the eleventh article of the treaty of Jan. 3, I797, between the United States and Tripoli, "[B]the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion[/B]. " -- Catholic World, Volume 23, Issue 138 “The Rise of Religious Liberty in the United States”, Page 721 (1876) Fred Flash cannot be banned. He’s smarter than you are! [CENTER]****[/CENTER]

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[CENTER][SIZE=5]God is above human legislation..[/SIZE] [/CENTER]
The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that man's relation to his God is above human legislation...
Fred Flash cannot be banned. He’s smarter than you are!
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[CENTER][SIZE=5]...a strenuous effort going on to exclude the Bible from the schools[/SIZE][/CENTER]
…in the City of New York, [B]there seems to have been a strenuous effort going on to exclude the Bible from the schools[/B]. The law of I842 had decided against all sectarian books and sectarian teaching, and the warfare against the Bible was now proceeding on the ground that it was a sectarian book. The report of the Superintendent of Schools for the City and County of New York to the State Superintendent, I843, was a bitter cry against this movement. He declares it to be one of the unhappy consequences of the new law that "the Bible has been banished in several instances, while [B]it has never been permitted to enter most of the district schools that have been organized[/B]." And while he does not wish to be regarded as holding the view that common schools should be converted into religious assemblies, nevertheless he thinks they should, in the broad sense of the term, be Christian schools, and therefore [B]the banishment of the Bible[/B] there from cannot be regarded otherwise than striking at the very foundations of our school edifice. Describing the actual situation, the report goes on to speak of one of the ward schools, where a large majority of the pupils were children of Catholic parents. The Douay version of the Bible, for a time, was allowed to be read on every alternate morning. But it was not long till the school officers of the ward yielded to the objections against both versions, and both were thus discontinued. The report further affirms: "I have stated in my report to the Board of Education that the Bible was banished from the Manhattenville Academy in June last, upon the pretext, contained in a written order, that it is a sectarian book! In the same report I have enumerated [B]the several district schools into which it has never been allowed to enter.[/B]
--Religious education in the public schools of the state and city of New York : an historical study by Arthur Jackson Hall. (1914)
Author: Hall, Arthur Jackson.
Fred Flash cannot be banned. He’s smarter than you are!
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[CENTER][SIZE=5]The spirit at the moment is
“to have children go without religious instruction”
in the public schools [/SIZE] [/CENTER]
[INDENT][I]The historical evidence suggests that it is a myth that most public schools during the early years of our republic pushed Christian doctrine and required prayer. Below is an 1854 plea by Stephen Coldwell for public schools to provide Christian religious instructions according to the "common standard." Of interest is the author’s comment that [B]the sprit at the moment is “to have children go without religious instruction” in the public schools.[/B] It appears that Bible reading and prayer was not the general practice in 1854 and Coldwell didn’t much like it.[/I]
(Source of Information: The position of Christianity in the United States, in its relations with our political institutions,and specially with reference to religious instruction in the public schools.: By Stephen Colwell - 1854) [/INDENT]
[url]http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa&cc=moa&idno=age0581.0001.001&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=121[/url]
Fred Flash cannot be banned. He’s smarter than you are!
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