The First Amendment
This is the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
That’s all there is to it: just one long sentence, pretty plain English, albeit a little more formal and intelligently written than most people write today. But clearly not legal speak that we get today out of DC.
To understand this amendment, you need to understand something about the “churches” of countries like England and France at the time of the founding of this country. They were controlled by the king or royal families and the church controlled the people, massive amounts of money, and the lending of that money. That’s why the Pope had the Knights Templar: to protect the cash. In fact, the Church of England was created by the king when the Pope would not annul his marriage (he got his marriage annulled by the new church… years later beheading his new wife).
In case you think things are better today, you would be wrong. All you have to do is listen to the Pope when he visited the USA a few weeks ago and you’ll see the Catholic Church is STILL being controlled. When he addressed Congress I don’t think he talked at all about Jesus, or Christians being killed, murdered, raped, drowned, burned, enslaved, etc. by Muslims, but rather went on and on about climate change. Did he even say the word Jesus?
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” simply means what it says: the US government shall not make an official religion. The writers didn’t want a repeat of the situations they left. They didn’t want the government to control the church which in turn was used to control the people and the money. You do not need to be an attorney or a judge to figure this one out, just read it.
“or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” simply means that the US government can’t make any law(s) saying you can’t worship.
Thomas Jefferson put this into the phrase “Separation of church and state” when he wrote to the Danbury Baptists in 1802: “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” Again, the point of the amendment is to forbid the government to control the church or for the church to be another arm of the government.
By the way, Jefferson was a Christian, like the other signers of the Declaration of Independence. They disliked Islam and understood its dangers: Muslims were the main slave traders and pirates at that time, just as they are today. Muslims constantly attacked trade ships and enslaved crews and sold or killed them. People today say Jefferson respected Islam because he owned a Quran but the actual facts are that he purchased it to understand why the Muslims were so bloodthirsty and so involved in slave trade. Jefferson and the other signers of the Declaration of Independence wanted to abolish slavery; they didn’t think it was Christian. They were advised not to do it at that time because of the extent of help they would need from other nations to defeat the British: those other nations supported slavery and would not help them if they abolished slavery in the Declaration of Independence. This whole issue of slavery is worthy of another post at some point.
Nowhere in the single sentence of the First Amendment does it say anything that even remotely would prohibit praying at school or at school events, or would prohibit the 10 Commandments from being displayed in a government building, either state or federal. Nowhere does it say a cross should not be displayed or a Nativity. Or that a student can’t wear a t-shirt to a public school with a cross on it, or Jesus on it. In fact, one could argue quite the opposite.
How did we get to this point? I believe there are three components…
Part if it is lack of education, or, changes in our education system. Starting somewhere in the 60s the founders of this country were no longer being portrayed as Christians. The true facts of the founding and of our founders are no longer accurately taught.
Part of it is control. The reason our education system has been constantly tweaked more and more to the left is the same reason that there are constant attacks on Christianity. Christianity is a religion of truth, forgiveness, and creates strong family units. Strong family units are generally more economically successfully than broken homes. Strong Christian family units create children, and in turn citizens, that are not so easily controlled by the state and who cherish freedom.
The third part is evil. If you don’t think we’re constantly in a battle between good and evil then you’re sadly mistaken. Evil is constantly trying to break down families and destroy Christianity. It was happening before the founders of this country were called to found it and it continues to this day.
The next time you hear someone calling for removing a religious symbol from a public place, or condemning a religious activity in a public pace, you can bet it will be a Christian symbol or a Christian act. Look at the person or group making the call for removal and ask yourself why they’re doing it.
There are some Christians starting to speak up and agree with no symbols and actions because they don’t want to see Muslim or satanic symbols or acts in public places… I’m not sure how I feel about that. Peaceful religions are OK, but violent religions like Islam and evil satanic cults, not so much. The founders of this country were Christian and this is a Christian nation.
If Christians don’t start voting for people who support their Christian faith, it won’t be a Christian nation for long. We can’t take another 8 years of the left ruling this country.
Until next time,
Fred
