Posted on 07/09/2009 5:30:31 PM PDT by jer33 3
Thank you for posting.
David Barton is always so informative.
However,those that say America is strictly a secular nation are also deeply mistaken. The core of the "American Creed" is the assumption that God exists and bequeathed to humanity the endowment of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Religion, in general, has a vital civil role. . .to provide the virtue to the populace from which the common parameters of good citizenship are derived.
Excellent video! Thanks!
It would be more accurate to call it a Masonic republic. The constitutions of many of the states had explicitly Christian sentiments, and required an oath of office holders. However, the US Constitution explicitly prohibits a religious test for any office holder. See the following online book for the details of the argument (it can be downloaded as a PDF file or the embedded copy can be read at the linked page):
From CONCLUSION to the author’s “Forward”:
The thirteen colonies in 1775 had charters or constitutions. Only Rhode Island’s charter allowed men of no trinitarian confession to be elected to civil office, i.e., to serve as part of the voice of civil authority. Therefore, only Rhode Island refused to identify the God of the Bible as the sovereign incorporating agent of the colony.
The Articles of Confederation (1781) served as a halfway national covenant. They identified “the Great Governor of the World” as the sovereign incorporating agent (Article XIII).
The United States Constitution (1788) identifies “We the People” as the sovereign incorporating agent. This book is the story of this covenantal transition: new covenant, new god.
From the author’s PREFACE:
“One of the most striking features of the United States Constitution of 1787 is the absence of an explicit acknowledgment of the Deity or the Christian religion. The invocation of a deity to authenticate or attest to divine sanction for public acts or decrees is a tradition that pre-dates the Christian era and is found in non-Western, as well as Western, cultures. In this respect, the Constitution departed from the pattern of most public documents of the day. The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (1775), The Declaration of Independence (1776), The Articles of Confederation (1781), virtually all state constitutions, and other official documents are replete with claims of Christian devotion and supplication for the Supreme Being. However, the federal Constitution makes no such religious affirmation or declaration, even of the perfunctory kind that was typical of other documents written by the framers. . . . This omission is remarkable since, despite any revolutionary ardor of the time, there was little sentiment that the new republican order broke with the prevailing Christian traditions of the American people.”
- Daniel Dreisbach (1996)-
This book is my attempt to explain this historical anomaly: a significant break in history that did not seem to be a break at the time. It still doesn’t. I explain it in a way that Dr. Dreisbach does not. He defends the traditional view of Protestant Christians in the United States. They have believed, from 1788 onward, that the United States has been a Christian nation under its Constitution. This is an odd belief on the face of it, since the United States Constitution’s sole reference to God is indirect: the words, “the year of our Lord,” referring to 1787. If this is the sole judicial basis of the Christian American national civil covenant, then the case for America as a Christian civil order rests on a very weak reed.
From the CONCLUSION to the author’s Preface:
I can do no better than to end my Preface by quoting the opening words of the Preface to Forrest McDonald’s E Pluribus Unum: The Formation of the American Republic, 1776–1790 (1965).
“The first function of the founders of nations, after the founding itself, is to devise a set of true falsehoods about origins – a mythology – that will make it desirable for nationals to continue to live under common authority, and, indeed, make it impossible for them to entertain contrary thoughts.”
The founders of the American civil order, whose work culminated with the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, lent their post-1788 authority to the creation of a grand mythology, as McDonald outlines it. It was a mythology of American nationalism, as distinguished from American federalism. [19] This is the grand mythology of the textbooks. The only historically significant challenge to this mythology took place on approximately 10,400 battlefields, 1861–65.
But there was another aspect of this mythology. It has been so successful that Professor McDonald and his contemporary academic peers, let alone the nationalist historians of the nineteenth century, do not consider it relevant, and hence rarely bother to mention it: the transformation of a dozen independent Christian civil commonwealths in 1775 into the covenantally agnostic civil order of 1788 that would, over the next two centuries, become covenantally atheistic. It is the story of the conquest of colonial America by Rhode Island – a victory that Rhode Island enjoyed without actually having participated in the struggle: the only colony not to send delegates to the Convention, and the last of the thirteen to ratify it, just barely, in 1790. It is this story that I have decided to tell one more time. The silence that greeted Political Polytheism indicates that once was not enough.
(footnote)
[19]. Forrest McDonald, E Pluribus Unum: The Formation of the American Republic, 1776– 1790 (Indianapolis, Indiana: LibertyPress, [1965] 1979), p. 18.
Further comments by the author about the writing of the book:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north291.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north445.html
May God bless you and keep you.
You’re welcome, CapnJack.
You are welcome, Texas56. God bless you and your loved ones.
Thank you, the same to you.
By the way, is your “name - Jer33 3” a scripture reference?
One of my favorite verses - Jeremiah 33:3.
Our Revolution was in large part financed by a Jew. We're polyglot Religiously from our inception as a Nation.
The more the merrier as long as you respect the equal Rights of others.
Today on Glenn Beck Show I saw David Barton, discuss America a foundation as a Christian Nation. I agree 100%. I have tried writing numerous people including Glenn Beck Himself, via e-mail and regular mail..’No One’ Has Ever Replied Back to what I am going to write below:
The time is RIGHT, the time is NOW. The past words “These Are The Times That Try Men’s Souls” written by Thomas Paine 1776 are echoing back to us as we are indeed becoming increasingly more divisive and torn apart as a nation.
I am taking the chance you will read my words. To some, my vision may be too sophomoric (?SP), but I do not care...It is coming from my passion and my heart. At 70 years of age I may not have many more voting opportunities coming my way. It is you, that have the passion, and it is you that may have the connections to reach out and see if what I suggest has any merit.
We (American People) need another ‘tool,’ that will spread the word to any and all across this nation as to what the word America means. To use Glenn Beck’s words “Question With Boldness” I ask: Hell, if Michael Moore can produce a film about all that is negative about America, why can’t someone produce a short film about all that is positive about America, and also show it throughout this nation? Glenn already has shown in theaters across America ‘A Christmas Sweater’...Why not something as this, for the time is Right and the time is NOW...Is it not?
No, not from a Nationalistic Nazi/Mao propaganda point of view, but one based on historical accurate accounts..our founding.. our evolution. our core roots, principles and values as envisioned and drawn up by imperfect men, who came to these new lands seeking freedoms/liberties and away form a Monarchy, Religious Intolerance, Taxation, or Serfdom, which ultimately led to the formation of our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. A Dream, an Ideal, for all the world to see and still come to our shores.
This would be about all that is ‘Good’ about America.
Some ideas that rush through my mind...to help finance, speak with people such as Bill Gates, W. Buffet, T.B. Pickens, Ross Perot etc...Rupert Murdoc (FOX)himself....there are so many potential sources available!
Producer/Director: Approach Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood.
Narration/Introduction: Newt Gingrich, as he is also an Historian and author of many books on American History.
If we stand united and hold clear defined positions we can and will stop this Radical Progressive Ideology, currently in Washington, from transforming America into another European Union Member.
Once more I state...The Time is Right, and the Time is NOW....Keep the Dream...Keep The Ideal Alive.
thank you for this video
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