Posted by
Joe Story on Thursday, July 24, 2008 8:15:48 AM
Harvard College was established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and was named for its first benefactor, John Harvard of Charlestown, a young minister who upon his death in 1638, left his library and half of his estate to the new institution. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in the nation. Although many of its early graduates became ministers in Puritan congregations throughout New England, the College was never formally affiliated with a specific religious denomination. An early brochure, published in 1643, justified the College's existence: "To advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches."
Some might say that Harvard has succeeded marvelously at advancing learning and perpetuating it into Posterity, and I would agree. But on the issue of leaving an illiterate Ministry to the Churches I would whole heartedly disagree. That is the specific issue which I am here to address today. You see character is the main issue. The character of a man is more important than any education he might receive. If the education does not teach character then the learned man is more dangerous to himself and society as a whole as the undisciplined mind has no bounds and does not know right from wrong anything goes. Epicureanism, as this lack of boundaries is known is a form of hedonism. In addition it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, and sees the absence of pain as the greatest pleasure. It is devoid of any sense of virtue and duty. Gone is the relationship between the ability to think, to work, to act for the satisfaction of one’s desires to be replaced with the concept that a persons need, color of skin, split nationality, or lost sexuality creates an obligation to be satisfied by the government transfer of wealth and special privileges under manufactured law. That is where we are as a nation today. Void of the moral values that define the ability of a democracy to survive.
In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number 1 was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the Biblical Scriptures: "Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies, is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life,! John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."
We have reached the point in the United States of America where as a society we choose to ignore the existence of God. We have removed him not only from this great Institution but all of our schools and government itself. That has to change if we are to survive as a country. I am making a proposal to Congress that every school and learning institution in the nation be required to use the Bible to teach character and ethics to the future generations of Americans who will inherit this nation. It is the lack of Individual character that has caused us to loose our identity. We are no longer a Christian nation but a Godless secular nation. Our Christian religion takes a back seat to everything. We are now in a post-Christian, post-Western cultural crisis which threatens the very heart of our culture. Freedom without an individual moral code of ethics is creating another Sodom and Gomorra where anything goes. Absolute or objective truth is denied outright. We are a country controlled by people with no moral values. Countries are as people are they grow out of human character and the renewal of our society is dependent upon the development of individual character through religious teachings.
We are pushing the limits of the fear our founding fathers had in the Freedom of Religion amendment. As Supreme Court Justice Story said, “It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitutes no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape. The future experience of Christendom, and chiefly of the American states, must settle this problem, as yet new in the history of the world, abundant, as it has been, in experiments in the theory of government. ----“Piety, religion, and morality are intimately connected with the well being of the state, and indispensable to the administration of civil justice. The promulgation of the great doctrines of religion, the being, and attributes, and providence of one Almighty God; the responsibility to him for all our actions, founded upon moral freedom and accountability; a future state of rewards and punishments; the cultivation of all the personal, social, and benevolent virtues; -- these never can be a matter of indifference in any well ordered community. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive, how any civilized society can well exist without them. And at all events, it is impossible for those, who believe in the truth of Christianity, as a divine revelation, to doubt, that it is the especial duty of government to foster, and encourage it among all the citizens and subjects. This is a point wholly distinct from that of the right of private judgment in matters of religion, and of the freedom of public worship according to the dictates of one's conscience.
But the duty of supporting religion, and especially the Christian religion, is very different from the right to force the consciences of other men, or to punish them for worshipping God in the manner, which, they believe, their accountability to him requires. It has been truly said, that "religion or the duty we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be dictated only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence," Mr. Locke himself, who did not doubt the right of government to interfere in matters of religion, and especially to encourage Christianity, at the same time has expressed his opinion of the right of private judgment, and liberty of conscience, in a manner becoming his character, as a sincere friend of civil and religious liberty. "No man, or society of men," says he, "have any authority to impose their opinions or interpretations on any other, the meanest Christian, (or Islamist), since, in matters of religion, every man must know, and believe, and give an account for himself." The rights of conscience are, indeed, beyond the just reach of any human power. They are given by God, and cannot be encroached upon by human authority, without a criminal disobedience or, the precepts or natural, as well as revealed religion.”
It is more important to understand these issues today than when Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story[i] gave his opinion about the difficulty in ascertaining the limits, to which our government may rightfully go in fostering and encouraging religion, today our very existence depends upon it. In the early years of the United States of America there were probably few people who would deliberately contend, that it was unreasonable, or unjust to foster and encourage the Christian religion generally, as a matter of sound policy, as well as of revealed truth. In fact, every American colony, from its foundation down to the revolution, with the exception of Rhode Island, did openly, by the whole course of its laws and institutions, support and sustain, in some form, the Christian religion; and almost invariably gave a peculiar sanction to some of its fundamental doctrines. Yet they felt that it was impossible, that there should not develop perpetual strife and perpetual jealousy on the subject of ecclesiastical ascendancy, if the national government were left free to create a religious establishment. The only security was in extirpating the power. But this alone would have been an imperfect security, if it had not been followed up by a declaration of the right of the free exercise of religion, and a prohibition (as we have seen) of all religious tests. They did not expect that the interpretation of this aspect of our constitutional law designed to “cut off the means of religious persecution” would be used to create a country where every decision is tested to make sure that it is anti-Christian, all other religions being given greater weight and Secular Humanism in effect being the national religion.
In Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), the Supreme Court created a general test to be used in all establishment-clause cases. Thereafter every law challenged under the establishment clause would pass constitutional muster only if it:
The very foundation of the laws of our nation ceased to exist with that decision. An anti-religious test was established. A nation with no standards upon which to base its laws will fail as it stands for nothing. Anything goes and the people in charge of the laws set the rules. By its very nature this is worse than any potential religious tests the amendment was written to address. This fits the description of the failure of democracy in Plato’s The Republic to a tee. What happens next is tyranny it is just a question of the power which will fill the resulting void.
Want to see where we are headed as a nation? Read Gibbons, "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" and the Bible. In the 19th and very early 20th century, the Bible and Gibbon's monumental work were nearly required reading for anyone with aspirations for leadership or government service. Today, you may have a hard time finding a public library that has a copy of either work. Someone once said something to the effect that "those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." It would appear that we have not only thrown God out of our government, our schools, many of our churches, and our society as a whole, but we have thrown out any desire to know what happens to nations and people when they do such things. You should read the Bible, Deuteronomy Chapter 28 to see the answer. Never have so many been as foolish as today, civic virtue is ignored and the unrestrained values of non-Christian people are changing the rule of law to suit their base desires.How long can we survive as a Secular, Humanistic Atheist nation?
We must change course as a nation. I am asking that the congress of the United States to provide for the re-introduction of the Bible into our schools as the text book for teaching morality to our heirs. I ask that they clearly define the separations clause so that the Supreme Court will never again try to make secular humanism the law of the land. I ask that the law acknowledge the Christian foundations of our nation.
We acknowledge you Almighty God, asking forgiveness for our sins as a nation, we are grateful for our very existence; we humbly implore your protection and favor. "Hear, O our GOD, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity.
Enlighten our eyes O Lord our God lest we sleep the sleep of death! Lest our enemies say they have overcome us, lest our adversaries rejoice when we are shaken, from within.
We have trusted you as a nation O Lord our God. Many of us continue to trust you even in these days of drunken jubilation, celebrating our many freedoms and position among the nations.
Forgive us our transgressions O Lord our God, for we have sinned against you. Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor we have failed.
We acknowledge with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God upon our nation. Especially the opportunity afforded our founders to peaceably establish our form of government and those allowing and providing for our safety and happiness through the course of our accession. We sing your praises once again Lord, for you Lord God have dealt bountifully with us.
Help us O Lord our God, as a nation to arise and build and bless You again. Help us return to teaching our children the Ten Commandments and the history of our country, including the events of 9/11 so that we may no longer be a reproach to others. Help us be an example so that when people and nations despair in their trials, troubles and tribulations they will see the Grace of God shine on us, and seek to know Him themselves.
Let us pray as George Washington did with Thanksgiving in our heart. My God Bless American! In Jesus name we pray!
[i] Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States; With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution, vol. 3 (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Company, 1833; reprint ed., New York: Da Capo Press, 1970), pp. 726-27.