“I was
in prison and you came to Me.”
Matthew
25:36
In 1892 the Supreme Court of the United States unambiguously
declared that America was "a Christian nation." That
decision was thrown out on its ear a few decades later as the 20th
century saw the United States become a "secular" nation.
The
1892 case, Holy
Trinity Church vs. United States, involved a church which
hired a pastor from Great Britain, but was told by an officious
immigration bureaucrat that the hiring violated a federal law
which, the Court pointed out, was actually designed to prohibit
importation of boatloads of Chinese to work on U.S. railroads.
The
20th century case involved a Canadian who wanted to teach at the
Yale Divinity School, clearly parallel to the Holy Trinity case.
But the Canadian was a Christian who followed the example of the
Apostles, who said "We
must obey God rather than man." The Canadian respondent,
Douglas Clyde Macintosh, refused to promise to bear arms on behalf
of the U.S. government if he thought the war was unjust. The
Supreme Court ruled that Macintosh could not become a naturalized
American citizen because his allegiance to God transcended the
allegiance he was willing to give to the U.S. government. The
Court said he must render "unqualified
allegiance" to the government.
"Unqualified"
means you cannot say, "Sure, I'll obey government laws . . .
unless they require me to disobey God."
Any
government that puts its own laws ahead of God's Law and refuses
to be a government "under
God" is a government that thinks it is
God.
Cassius Clay converted to Islam and as Muhammad Ali said he would
not fight in a "Christian war." Until the United
States Supreme Court unanimously overturned the decision, Ali lost
his right to work and faced 5 years in prison and a $10,000
fine. ($70,979.64 in
2014 dollars)
The Vietnam War was not a "Christian
war." No war in the history of the
United States can justly be called a "Christian War."
Not
even "the
good war," World War II. Although he promised to keep us
out of foreign wars, Roosevelt, led by Communists
in the White House, took the United States into war in
order to defeat the forces of anti-communism. In
Eastern Europe and the Far East, atheistic communists were the
clear winners of World War II and the beneficiaries of
the foreign policy of the atheistic ("secular") United
States.
Since I was born (post-WWII), the government of
the United States has killed, crippled, or made homeless tens
of millions of innocent non-combatant civilians. But why
blame "the government?" The killing and destruction
of trillions of dollars of property was committed largely by
church-going "Christians."
Would
Jesus Celebrate Memorial Day?
No. Any Christian who willingly kills or dies for an
atheistic government should be excommunicated. Better to be in
prison with "the
least of these" than to kill "the least of
these" in an unChristian war. Better to be in prison for 5
years than leave
your wife a permanent widow and your children fatherless. The
fact that churches don't excommunicate soldiers explains why most
Christians lack the discernment and knowledge of the facts to make
the right decision. Church-goers are not taught to put God ahead
of government, and peace
ahead of the military-industrial
complex.
In a letter to François
Jean de Beauvoir, Marquis de Chastellux, April/May, 1788,
George Washington wrote:
for the sake of humanity it is devoutly to be wished, that the
manly employment of agriculture and the humanizing benefits of
commerce, would supersede the waste of war and the rage of
conquest; that the swords
might be turned into plough-shares, the spears into pruning
hooks, and, as the
Scripture expresses it, "the nations learn war no
more."
"The Father of his Country" was not 100%
consistent with the teachings of Scripture. But he would be
appalled at what his country has become. We must not only
"learn war no more," we must study peace.
George
Washington Coaching - Homeschooling for Adults
After being sworn in as President of the United States, George
Washington delivered his "Inaugural Address" to a
joint session of Congress. In it Washington declared:
[I]t would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official
act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules
over the universe, who presides in the
councils of nations, and whose providential
aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction
may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of
the United States a Government instituted by themselves . . .
. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every
public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your
sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens
at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge
and adore the
Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than
those of the United States. Every step by which they have
advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have
been distinguished by some token of providential
agency; and . . . can not be compared with the means by which
most governments have been established without some
return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation
of the future blessings which the
past seem to presage.
[W]e ought to be no less persuaded that
the propitious smiles of Heaven
can never be expected on a nation that disregards the
eternal rules of order and right which Heaven
itself has ordained . . . .
Messages and Papers of
the Presidents, George
Washington, Richardson, ed., vol. 1, p.44-45
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