CRAIGforCONGRESS
Missouri's 7th District, U.S. House of Representatives

  
 
 

 

Congressional Issues 2010
SOCIETY
Freedom FROM Religion?
Congress should
  • reject the idea that the First Amendment guarantees "Freedom FROM Religion."
  • endorse and promote the true religion.
Every single person who signed the Constitution
would agree that the modern idea of
"Freedom FROM Religion"
is an evil and wicked idea
that will destroy America and all civilization.

No intelligent, informed person can dispute that claim.

Part of the problem is defining the word "religion."

James Madison, "Father of the Constitution," defined "religion" as

"the duty which we owe to our Creator"

Madison's words can still be found in the Virginia Constitution today:

http://legis.state.va.us/laws/search/constitution.htm

Russell Kirk writes:

Jeffersonians demanded a Bill of Rights before they would support ratification of the federal Constitution. Several states drew up declarations of rights to be attached to the federal Constitution; and the declarations of Virginia, North Carolina, and Rhode Island contained identical passages which are the source of the first clause of the First Amendment:
"That religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by Law in preference to others."
For the most part, these resolutions were copies of the article on religion (written by Madison) in the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776).
"The First Amendment and Religious Belief"
http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/1STAMEND.TXT

The True Religion is the Christian Religion

This means that man's duty to God is a duty to the God of the Bible.

America's Founding Fathers believed there were false religions, and on the other hand the true religion.

The Bible says all men actually know more about God than they admit. Human beings are created in the Image of God, and the entire creation speaks of the Creator. Atheists know that they are created beings, but they deny the existence of their Creator. They deceive themselves.

Every person -- even people far away from Christian influence -- who is faithful to what nature and their conscience tells them about God, eventually ends up a Christian.

True Religion vs. Coercion

James 1:27 says

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their trouble,
and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

What is "the world?"

Planet earth?

No.
It is the principle that we can call "archism."

"Archism" is the desire or the willingness to use force or threats of violence to impose your own will on others.

The Mafia is an "archist" organization.
The "State" are archist institutions.
The "Church" has always tried to imitate "the State."
All such archist institutions should be abolished.

True religion can flourish without the institutions we call "churches." And although America's Founders believed that God required man to create and maintain an institution called "the State," Christianity (true religion) can flourish without the institution we call "the State."

Call it "anarchism" if you want.
It is the opposition to all violence.

Jesus Christ was assassinated by "archists."
Jesus commanded His followers to not be archists (Mark 10:42-45).

True religion is therefore "anarcho-theocracy."
A nation "under God" but free of archists.

Historical Resources

David Barton writes:

[27] 4 Washington Irving, Life of George Washington 475 (New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., 1857); Mrs. C. M Kirkland, Memoirs of Washington 438 (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1870); Charles Carleton Coffin, Building the Nation 26 (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1882); etc.

[28] 1 Richardson, Messages and Papers 51-54 (April 30, 1789).

[29] 1 Annals of Congress 29 (April 30, 1789).

[30] Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America Begun and Held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the Fourth of March, in the Year 1789, 104 (Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1791) (August 7, 1789).

[31] 1 Debates and Proceedings 685 (1st Cong., 1st Sess.) (July 21, 1789, passage by the House), and 1 Debates and Proceedings 57 (August 4, 1789, passage by the Senate).

[32] Constitutions (1813) 364 ("An Ordinance of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio," Article III).

[33] For example, State constitutions across the decades reflecting this requirement include the 1803 Ohio Constitution (Constitutions (1813), 334, Ohio, 1802, Article 8, Section 3); the 1817 Mississippi Constitution (The Constitutions of All the United States According to the Latest Amendments (Lexington, KY: Thomas T. Skillman, 1817), 389, Mississippi, 1817, Article 9, Section 16); the 1858 Kansas Constitution (House of Representatives, Mis. Doc. No. 44, 35th Cong., 2nd Sess., February 2, 1859, 3-4, Article 1, Section 7, of the Kansas Constitution); the 1875 Nebraska Constitution (M. B. C. True, A Manual of the History and Civil Government of the State of Nebraska (Omaha: Gibson, Miller, & Richardson, 1885), 34, Nebraska, 1875, Article 1, Section 4); etc.

[34] See The Constitution of North Carolina 42 (Raleigh: Rufus L. Edmisten, Secretary of State, 1989) (Article 9, Section 1); Constitution of the State of Nebraska 1-2 (Lincoln: Allen J. Beermann, Secretary of State, 1992) (Article 1, Section 4); Page's Ohio Revised Code Annotated 24 (Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing Co., 1994) (Article 1, Section 7).

[35] United States Code Annotated 1 (St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1987) ("The Organic Laws of the United States of America").

[36] George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States . . . Preparatory to His Declination 22-23 (Baltimore: George and Henry S. Keatinge, 1796).

During his inauguration, Washington took the oath as prescribed by the Constitution but added several religious components to that official ceremony. Before taking his oath of office, he summoned a Bible on which to take the oath, added the words "So help me God!" to the end of the oath, then leaned over and kissed the Bible. [27] His "Inaugural Address" was filled with numerous religious references, [28] and following that address, he and the Congress "proceeded to St. Paul's Chapel, where Divine service was performed." [29]

Only weeks later, Washington signed his first major federal bill [30] - the Northwest Ordinance, drafted concurrently with the creation of the First Amendment. [31] That act stipulated that for a territory to become a State, the "schools and the means of education" in that territory must encourage the "religion, morality, and knowledge" that was "necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind." [32] Conforming to this requirement, numerous subsequent State constitutions included that clause, [33] and it still appears in State constitutions today. [34] Furthermore, that law is listed in the current federal code, along with the Constitution, the Declaration, and the Articles of Confederation, as one of America's four "organic" or foundational laws. [35]

Finally, in his "Farewell Address," Washington reminded the nation:

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. . . . The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. [36]

Washington - indisputably a constitutional expert - declared that religion and morality were inseparable from government, and that no true patriot, whether politician or clergyman, would attempt to weaken the relationship between government and the influence of religion and morality.

http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=105

Christianity leads to liberty.

Islam and Secular Humanism are both false religions which lead to tyranny.

Statism (worship of the state) is the worlds largest cult. Millions of Americans have been brainwashed into this cult, and need "de-programming."

Since America's Founding Fathers believed that only Christianity was the true religion, freedom of religion meant freedom for the various denominations of Christianity. Aztecs would not have the freedom to worship the sun god by sacrificing people on altars. Pharaohists would not have the liberty to enslave the Hebrews in order to serve the god Isis or Ra. Mormons never had freedom to marry multiple wives.

The concept of a "Test Oath" was an oath of loyalty to a particular Christian denomination.

For Further Reading:

False Religions

next: Campaign Finance, Corruption and the Oath of Office