America is a Christian nation, or at least it used to be.
The Continental Congress, during the Revolution, authorized the importation of 20,000 Bibles and later authorized and endorsed the American printing of the Bible. Today, however, most government schools that regularly expose children to information about homosexuality and abortion will not allow the distribution of Bibles.
Postmodern types who have obsessively pursued a campaign to convince Americans that the Founding Fathers were not Christians have, in the manner of those who rewrite history to suit ideological goals, used quotations out of context and even fabricated them.
John Adams is often quoted by these secular missionaries as having said, "This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it."
This is a great example of propaganda, as you will see when you read what Adams actually said. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson lamenting petty squabbles between different sects and preachers, Adams wrote:
"Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, 'This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!' But in this exclamation I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean hell."
As you can see, Adams, who was a devout Christian, actually said the opposite of what people pretend he said by taking one part of a quotation out of context.
For those of you interested, David Barton's book "Original Intent" (WallBuilder Press, Box 397, Aledo, TX 76008) does an outstanding job of documenting the Christian orientation of the nation's Founding Fathers.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin, an orthodox rabbi, wrote an article in The American Enterprise magazine entitled "Why Jews Should Pray for a Christian America." Here is part of what he had to say:
"And it is Christianity that has been responsible for, among other things, the founding of America and its flowering into the greatest civilization the world has ever known. It is my fervent belief that America has been blessed as a place for Jews to live not in spite of the deep-seated Christian beliefs of most Americans, but because of them. It is also my great concern that all Americans — including Jews — are endangered by a weakening of Christianity in our society today.''
Rabbi Lapin warned that what Jews should fear is a post-Christian America and said that he enthusiastically endorses the Christian conservative movement.
"Though I am not a Christian," he wrote, "I recognize that the prosperity and security of America — and all of its people — depend upon retaining the moral fiber of its Christian founding."
He's quite right. A few years ago, however, when Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice remarked casually at a news conference that he thought America should return to its Christian values, the Anti-Defamation League angrily demanded that he apologize. He didn't, of course.
George Washington was right when he said in his farewell address that a republic could not survive without a virtuous population, and that nothing could impart virtue to people better than religion. Therefore, he concluded, any man who is an enemy of religion is an enemy of republican government.
Folks who value liberty had better pray for a rebirth of a Christian America. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charley Reese can be contacted at briarl@earthlink.net. © 2002 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.