America's Christian Heritage (Just in time for July 4th!)

On a completely unrelated subject, another poster began to lecture me that America did not have a Christian heritage (I'm paraphrasing but you get the idea).

Very well. Challenge accepted...


Benjamin Rush (1746-1813, signer of the Declaration of Independence, a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society)
“…Christianity is the only true and perfect religion; and that in proportion as mankind adopt its principles and obey its precepts they will be wise and happy.”
- Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical, 1798

Alexis De Tocqueville (1805-1859, French diplomat, political scientist, and historian)
“The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive one without the other.”
- Democracy and America

Samuel Adams (1722 - 1803, Founding Father, Signer of the Declaration of Independence)
“Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots unite their endeavors to renovate the age by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, or inculcating in their own minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity…in short of leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.”
- Letter to John Adams, October 4, 1790

Benjamin Rush (1746-1813, signer of the Declaration of Independence, a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society)
“In contemplating the political institutions of the United States, I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them. We profess to be republicans and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government. That is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible.”
- A Defense of the Use of the Bible as a School Book, 1798

Noah Webster (1758 - 1843, Founding Father, author of Webster’s Dictionary and textbooks).
“In my view, the Christian Religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed…no truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian Religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
- Reply to David McClure, October 25, 1836

Benjamin Rush (1746-1813, signer of the Declaration of Independence, a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society)
[T]he only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible
- Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical, 1798, p. 112.

John Quincy Adams (1767 - 1848, Sixth President of the United States)
“…the Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of government on the precepts of Christianity.”
- Speech given on the 61st Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1837 in the town of Newburyport.

Daniel Webster (1782 - 1852, Congressman, Secretary of State, America’s greatest orator)
Whatever makes men good Christians makes them good citizens.
- Speech at Plymouth, Massachusetts, December 22, 1820.

John Adams (1735-1826, second President of the United States)
The general principles on which the Fathers achieved independence were…the principles of Christianity…Now I will avow that I then believed, and now believed, that those principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.
- a letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration of Independence was approved by Congress

Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790, Founding Father, inventor, author, signed both Declaration of Independence and Constitution)
He who should introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity will change the face of the world.
- History of the United States, George Bancroft, 1866

The United States Supreme Court, 1892
If we pass beyond these matters to a view of American life, as expressed by its laws, its business, its customs, and its society, we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth. Among other matters note the following: The form of oath universally prevailing, concluding with an appeal to the Almighty; the custom of opening sessions of all deliberative bodies and most conventions with prayer; the prefatory words of all wills, "In the name of God, amen;" the laws respecting the observance of the Sabbath, with the general cessation of all secular business, and the closing of courts, legislatures, and other similar public assemblies on that day; the churches and church organizations which abound in every city, town, and hamlet; the multitude of charitable organizations existing everywhere under Christian auspices; the gigantic missionary associations, with general support, and aiming to establish Christian missions in every quarter of the globe. 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.
- Holy Trinity Church vs. The United States, 1892

John McClean (1785-1861, named by President Andrew Jackson to the United States Supreme Court, 1829)
“The morality of the Bible must continue to be the basis of our government. There is no other foundation for free institutions.”
- Letter of November 4, 1852

Noah Webster (1758-1843, Founding Father, author of Webster’s Dictionary and school textbooks).
“…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.”
- History of the United States, 1833

Zachary Taylor (12th President of the United States)
“A free government cannot exist without religion and morals, and there cannot be morals without religion, nor religions without the Bible.”
- “The President and the Bible,” New York Semi-Weekly Tribune, 4, no. 11, May 9, 1849 (as cited by U-Turn by George Barna and David Barton)

Teddy Roosevelt (26th President of the United States)

“The teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life, that it would be literally--and I do not mean figuratively, I mean literally--impossible for us to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose almost all of the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards toward which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves.”
- A Square Deal (Allendale, NJ: The Allendale Press, 1906), 203-204 (as cited by U-Turn by George Barna and David Barton)

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895, former slave, Leader of Abolitionist Movement, author, speaker, Published first U.S. abolitionist newspaper called The North Star.)

I have one great political idea… That idea is an old one. It is widely and generally assented to; nevertheless, it is very generally trampled upon and disregarded. The best expression of it, I have found in the Bible. It is in substance, "Righteousness exalteth a nation; sin is a reproach to any people" [Proverbs 14:34]. This constitutes my politics - the negative and positive of my politics, and the whole of my politics… I feel it my duty to do all in my power to infuse this idea into the public mind, that it may speedily be recognized and practiced upon by our people.
-The Frederick Douglass Papers, John Blassingame, editor (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), Vol. 2, p. 397, from a speech delivered at Ithaca, New York, October 14th, 1852.

Zachary Taylor (12th President of the United States
“A free government cannot exist without religion and morals, and there cannot be morals without religion, nor religions without the Bible.”
- “The President and the Bible,” New York Semi-Weekly Tribune, 4, no. 11, May 9, 1849

Elias Boudinot (1740-1821, Founding Father, President of the Continental Congress, framer of the Bill of Rights.)
…were you to ask me to recommend the most valuable book in the world, I should fix on the Bible as the most instructive both to the wise and ignorant. Were you to ask me for one affording the most rational and pleasing entertainment to the inquiring mind, I should repeat, it is the Bible; and should you renew the inquiry for the best philosophy or the most interesting history, I should still urge you to look into your Bible. I would make it, in short, the Alpha and Omega of knowledge
- The Age of Revelation, or the Age of Reason Shown to Be an Age of Infidelity, 1801, p. xv, from the “Dedication: Letter to his daughter Susan Bradford”.

John Adams (1735-1826, Second President of the United States)
I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.
- Works, Vol. X, p. 85, letter written to Thomas Jefferson.

Benjamin Rush (1746-1813, signer of the Declaration of Independence, a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society)
By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects. ... It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published
- Letters of Benjamin Rush, 1951, Vol. I, p. 475.

Benjamin Rush (1746-1813, signer of the Declaration of Independence, a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society)
[T]he only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible
- Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical, 1798, p. 112.

Benjamin Rush (1746-1813, signer of the Declaration of Independence, a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society)
The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world
-Essays, 1798, p. 93.

Robert Treat Paine (1731-1814, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Attorney General of Massachusetts.)
I believe the Bible to be the written word of God and to contain in it the whole rule of faith and manners.
- The Papers of Robert Treat Paine, Vol. I, p. 49.

James McHenry (1753 - 1816, Signer of the Constitution, Secretary of War under Presidents Washington & Adams.)
The holy Scriptures…Can alone secure to society order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions or government, purity, stability, and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and drop protections around our institutions.
- Bernard C. Steiner, One Hundred and Ten Years of Bible Society Work in Maryland, 1810 - 1920 (Maryland Bible Society, 1921) 14.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803), Founding Father and “The Father of the American Revolution”).
…every man living in or out of a state of civil society has a right to peaceably and quietly to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience…Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty…The Rights of the Colonists…
These may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.
-The Rights of the Colonists. The Reports of the Committee of Correspondence to the Boston Town Meeting, Nov. 20, 1772. Old South Leaflets no. 173 (Boston: Directors of the Old South Work, 1906) 7: 418-419. http//history.edu/text.adams.html.

John Lock (1632-1704, Most influential political philosopher of the Founding Fathers. Author of Two Treatise on Government.)
[L]aws human must be made according to the general laws of Nature, and without contradiction to the any positive law of Scripture, otherwise they are ill made.
-Two Treatise of Government (London: 1772) Book II, 285.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809, author of the bestselling pamphlet Common Sense which galvanized the British resistance in the colonies.)
Commenting on the French’s secular teaching of science in public schools, 1797:
It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the author.
When we examine an extraordinary piece of machinery, an astonishing pile of architecture, a well-executed statue, or an highly finished painting, where life and action are imitated, and habit only prevents our mistaking a surface of light and shade for cubical solidity, our ideas are naturally led to think of the extensive genius and talents of the artist. When we study the elements of geometry, we think of Euclid. When we speak of gravitation, we think of Newton. How then is it, that when we study the works of God in the creation, we stop short, and do not think of GOD? It is from the error of the schools in having taught those subjects as accomplishments only, and thereby separated the study of them from the ‘Being’ who is the author of them…
The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of Atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal…
[E]ven supposing matter to be eternal, it will not account for the system of the universe, or of the solar system, because it will not account for motion, and it is motion that preserves it. When, therefore, we discover a circumstance of such immense importance, that without it the universe could not exist, and for which neither matter, nor any nor all the properties can account, we are by necessity forced into the rational comformable belief of the existence of a cause superior to matter, and that cause man calls GOD.
As to that which is called nature, it is no other than the laws by which motion and action of every kind, with respect to unintelligible matter, is regulated. And when we speak of looking through nature up to nature’s God, we speak philosophically the same rational language as when we speak of looking through human laws up to the power that ordained them.
God is the power of first cause, nature is the law, and matter is the subject acted upon.
- Daniel Edwin Wheeler, ed., Thomas Paine (New York: Vincent Parrke and Company, 1908), 2-4

John Adams (1735-1826, Second President of the United States)
“Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.”
- Letter of June21, 1776

George Washington (1732-1799, “The Father of American”)
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” [emphasis mine]
- Farewell Address, 1796

John McClean (1785-1861, named by President Andrew Jackson to the United States Supreme Court, 1829)
“The morality of the Bible must continue to be the basis of our government. There is no other foundation for free institutions.”
- Letter of November 4, 1852

Benjamin Rush (1746-1813, signer of the Declaration of Independence, a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society)
“The only foundation for…a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”
- Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical, 1798

Samuel Adams (1722-1803), Founding Father and “The Father of the American Revolution”).
“Religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness.”
- Letter to John Trumbell, October 16, 1778

Charles Carroll (1737-1832, signer of the Declaration of Independence)
“Without morals, a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they, therefore, who are decrying the Christian religion…are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free government.”
- Letter to James Mettenry, November 4, 1800

Daniel Webster (1782-1852, U.S. Congressman)
“To preserve the government we must also preserve morals. Morality rests on religion; if you destroy the foundation, the superstructure must fall. When the public mind becomes corrupt, laws are a nullity and constitutions are a waste paper.”
- Oration at Hanover, N.H., July 4, 1800

John Adams (1735-1826, second President of the United States)
…a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrender their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it…
- Letter to Abigail Adams, July 7, 1775

Rev. Charles Finney (1792-1875, revivalist and theologian of the Second Great Awakening)
“Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics. God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the Church will take right ground. Politics are a part of a religion in such a country as this, and Christians (and citizens) must do their duty to the country as a part of their duty to God. It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation are becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they think God does not see what they do in politics. But I tell you He does see it, and He will bless or curse this nation, according to the course they [Christians] take [in politics].
- “Hindrances to Revivals,” in Lectures on Revivals of Religion (New York: Levitt, Lord, and Co., 1835), 274-275 (as cited by U-Turn by George Barna and David Barton)

Rev. Willard Spaulding
The pulpit should teach the people not to forget their religion while acting the part of citizens. Singular as it may seem, there are many men who stand will in the church but who are a disgrace to the state. They pray well but the vote infamously…There are multitudes of the most moral and religious members of the community who thus neglect their civil duties. Hence the elections in many cases are carried by the selfish and the debased.
- The Pulpit and the State: A Discourse Preached on Sunday, Feb. 15, 1863. Salem, MA: Charles A. Beckford, 1863.

Rev. Frances Grimke (1850-1937, Pastored the 15th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. for 50 years)
It is now no longer a question as to whether we are a nation, or a confederation of sovereign and independent states. That question is settled, and settled once for all by the issue [outcome] of the [Civil] War. …The Stars and Stripes, the old flag, will float, as long as it floats, over all these states, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf. If the time ever comes when we shall go to pieces, it will not be form any desire or disposition on the part of the states to pull apart, but from inward corruption -- from the disregard of right principles, from the spirit of greed, from the narrowing lust of gold, from losing sight of the fact that “righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people” [Proverbs 14:34]. It is here where our real danger lies – not in the secession of the States from the Union, but in the secession of the Union itself from the great and immutable principles of right, of justice, of fair play for all regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
- Sermon of Sunday, March 7th, 1909 on maintaining the right principles.
* Frances Grimke was born into slavery.
* Valet in Confederate Army until emancipation.
* Attended Lincoln University, Howard University & Princeton Theological Seminary.
* Helped form the NAACP.
* Pastored the 15th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. for 50 years

Rev. Matthias Burnett (1749-1803, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Norwalk)
Consider well the important trust . . . which God . . . [has] put into your hands… To God and posterity you are accountable for [your rights and your rulers]…Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your fathers delivered to you. . . [L]ook well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust. . . Watch over your liberties and privileges - civil and religious - with a careful eye.
- An Election Sermon, Preached at Hartford, on the Day of the Anniversary Election, May 12, 1803 (Hartford: Printed by Hudson & Goodwin, 1803), pp. 27-28.]

Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804, (Founding Father of the United States, chief staff aide to General George Washington, one of the most influential interpreters and promoters of the U.S. Constitution, the founder of the nation's financial system, the founder of the Federalist Party, the world's first voter-based political party, the founder of the United States Coast Guard, etc.)
A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.
- The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Harold C. Syrett, ed. (New York, Columbia University Press, 1962), Vol III, pp. 544-545.

John Jay (1745-1829, Founding Father, Signed Treaty of Paris, First Chief of Justice of the Supreme Court, 1795-1801)
Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
- The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, Henry P. Johnston, ed. (New York: G.P. Putnams Sons, 1890), Vol. IV, p. 365.

Daniel Webster (1782-1852, U.S. Congressman)
Impress upon children the truth that the exercise of the elective franchise is a social duty of as solemn a nature as man can be called to perform; that a man may not innocently trifle with his vote; that every elector is a trustee as well for others as himself and that every measure he supports has an important bearing on the interests of others as well as on his own.
- The Works of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1853), Vol. II, p. 108, from remarks made at a public reception by the ladies of Richmond, Virginia, on October 5, 1840.]

Noah Webster (1758-1843, Founding Father, author of Webster’s Dictionary and school textbooks).
In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate - look to his character…When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, he betrays the interest of his country.
- Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing His Education to which is subjoined a Brief History of the United States (New Haven: S. Converse, 1823), pp. 18, 19.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803), Founding Father and “The Father of the American Revolution”).
Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual - or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.
- The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907), Vol. IV, p. 256, in the Boston Gazette on April 16, 1781.

Matthew 13:24-25 Parable of the Tares (weed) Among the Wheat
Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.
Notice that Jesus never faulted the enemy for doing what comes natural to them but instead states that the tares were sown because the good men slept.

Or, to say it another way…

Edmund Burk 1729-1797, Irish born member of the British Parliament and supported the American Revolution)
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Robert Winthrop (1809-1894, 18th Speaker of the House of Representatives)
All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they may have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet. It may do for other countries and other governments to talk about the State supporting religion. Here, under our own free institutions, it is Religion which must support the State. [emphasis mine]
- Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1852), p. 172 from his "Either by the Bible or the Bayonet.")

John Quincy Adams (1767-1829, 6th President of the United States)
Duty is ours; results are God’s.
- Quoted by Elbridge S. Brooks, Historic Americans: Sketches of the Lives and Characters of Certain Famous Americans (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell and Company, 18999), 209.

“The Bible is not part of US law...” - Lisa (her post no. 373, Why Should I Be Forced to Play Along with the Delusions of Others? Thread)

“Point-of-fact, it is written into our Constitution.” - Baron (just now!)

Isaiah 33:22
For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our lawgiver: the Lord is our King, he will save us. - Geneva Bible
This verse is the reason we have the three separate but equal branches of government:
1. Judge (Judiciary),
2. Lawgiver (Legislative), and
3. King (Executive).

Exodus 18:21
Moreover, provide thou among all the people [a]men of courage, fearing God, men dealing truly, hating covetousness: and appoint such over them to be rulers over thousands, rulers over hundreds, rulers over fifties, and rulers over tens. - Geneva Bible
This verse is the reason we have a Republican form of Government (No, America is not a Democracy! We are a Constitutional Republic).

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful and wicked above all things, who can know it? - Geneva Bible
This verse was cited by John Adams as the justification for the need for our separation of powers.

Ezekiel 18:20
The same soul that sinneth, shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son, but the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
The Constitution of the United States of America, Article 3, Section 3
“The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder [capital punishment] of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.”
(The family of a guilty cannot be punished, only the guilty can be punished.)

Deuteronomy 17:6
At the mouth [of two or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death, die: but at the mouth of one witness, he shall not die. - Geneva Bible
The Constitution of the United States of America, Article 3, Section 3
“Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court.”
(Treason is a capital punishment but you cannot be convicted on the testimony of a single witness and is the only reason Vice-President Aaron Burr was not convicted.)

Deuteronomy 17:15
Then thou shalt make him King over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: from among thy brethren shalt thou make a King over thee: thou shalt not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother. - Geneva Bible
The Constitution of the United States of America, Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5
“No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President…”

Sources include The Truth Project by Del Tackett and "Wallbuilders" created by David Barton

In 1905, Atlantic City, ministers claimed that in a city of 50,000 people they knew of only 50 adults who were unconverted Christians.

This 1905 revival in the United States has been linked to the 1904 Welsh Revival in which 100,000 people were converted in five months. The impact of Christianity on Wales was astonishing!

1. Judges were given white gloves as they had to cases to try.

2. There were no rapes, robberies, murders, thefts, embezzlements…nothing!

3. District councils held emergency meetings to discuss what to do with the police force that was now unemployed.

- A Nation Adrift, New Liberty Videos

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008, Russian critic of the Soviet Union and Totalitarianism)
More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.

Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.

What is more, the events of the Russian Revolution can only be understood now, at the end of the century, against the background of what has since occurred in the rest of the world. What emerges here is a process of universal significance. And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century [known as the “world’s bloodiest century”], here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: Men have forgotten God.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, 16th President of the United States)
With the on-going Civil War this Proclamation was made:
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? 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 multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; 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 then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

- Washington, D.C. March 30, 1863

I disagree*

The Baron said:

On a completely unrelated subject, another poster began to lecture me that America did not have a Christian heritage (I'm paraphrasing but you get the idea).

Click to expand...

no quote?

I find it hard to believe anybody said that America doesn't have any Christian heritage AKA history/values/traditions etc

regardless though America certainly does have Christian history/values/traditions along with other religious and ethnic heritage etc . . .

not sure why anybody would say we didn't or why you would waste so many posts on this LMAO

The argument is that not all of the founding fathers were Christain. Your dishonesty is shameful crap.

FreedomFromAll said:

The argument is that not all of the founding fathers were Christain. Your dishonesty is shameful crap.

Click to expand...

Wow so my guess was right LOL
and now the original post looks even more stupid and a bigger waste of time

If you were to search the constitution for the word "religion", you will find that it appears only once. In fact, it doesn't actually appear in the constitution proper, but is located in the First Amendment.
The members of the Constitutional Convention, the group charged with authoring the Constitution, believed that the government should have no power to influence its citizens toward or away from a religion.
Many of the framers of the Constitution were staunch supporters of a federalist system in which each state would have the power to decide for itself how to approach religion. However, in a number of decisions, the Supreme Court held that because of the Fourteenth Amendment, the protections of religious freedom in the First Amendment are enforceable against state and local governments.

I like the christians who support the ***** grabber.

Ex Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg (1984 - present): Matt, I had to give you up, man. They were going to throw the book at me if I didn't tell them everything. I didn't have a choice. I told them about you and the drugs, the hookers, the little girls, the hotels, the trips to the Bahamas and the money.

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz (1982 - present): Oh, JESUS CHRIST! GOD HELP ME.

The Baron said:

On a completely unrelated subject, another poster began to lecture me that America did not have a Christian heritage (I'm paraphrasing but you get the idea).

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You paraphrased right into a strawman. Her claim was that the law was not based upon purely Christian principles. This country has Christian heritage, Jewish heritage, atheist heritage, and especially Native American heritage. And that is just on the religious side alone.

The Baron said:

On the Subject of Religion and Morality as the Foundation of Freedom​

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For the most part these men are talking about religion in the general sense and not specifically the Christian religion nor any one specific denomination.

maquiscat said:

You paraphrased right into a strawman. Her claim was that the law was not based upon purely Christian principles. This country has Christian heritage, Jewish heritage, atheist heritage, and especially Native American heritage. And that is just on the religious side alone.

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Actually I quoted her further down and provided her post number but thanks for playing, anyway.

maquiscat said:

For the most part these men are talking about religion in the general sense and not specifically the Christian religion nor any one specific denomination.

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You didn't bother to read a thing or you wouldn't have posted something so obviously silly. Nor do you seem to understand anything about America's history.

The Baron said:

Actually I quoted her further down and provided her post number but thanks for playing, anyway.

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That is still a strawman, unless you can show where another poster "began to lecture [you] that America did not have a Christian heritage" That is far from a paraphrasing of the law is not based upon the bible.

The Baron said:

You didn't bother to read a thing or you wouldn't have posted something so obviously silly. Nor do you seem to understand anything about America's history.

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Pot kettle achromatic. By all means, point out how they were only talking about Christianity, especially when many were Deists. They went to great length to keep religion from being part of the system of government.

maquiscat said:

Pot kettle achromatic. By all means, point out how they were only talking about Christianity, especially when many were Deists. They went to great length to keep religion from being part of the system of government.

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You would have to ignore everything I wrote and our history.

What a waste of time.