"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.

"From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy..." --Alexander Fraser Tytler, Scottish lawyer and writer, 1770

Lest We Forget

(c) 2011 Carolyn R Scheidies

Too many people, even in leadership positions, claim the United States of America was not founded on Judeo-Christian principles and foundations and seek to remove all mention of God from public expression. These people give all sorts of explanations, glossing over something very important. They ignore the words of those who've gone before us, words from the founding fathers, Supreme Court justices and rulings, congress and academia. Who today knows that most of the original institutions of higher learning such as Harvard and Yale were created because people of faith believed in education and that the many colleges, like these, were founded for the training of pastors.

The 1636 Student Guidelines from Harvard included this. “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 Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.”

Patrick Henry said, “An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!...we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.” This was an important part of his “Give me liberty or give me death” speech.

Jedediah Morse, sometimes called the “The Father of American Geography,” said, “To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness, which mankind now enjoys...Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present repubican forms of government—and all blessings which flow from them—shall fall with them.

Benjamin Franklin, not known for a deep spiritual walk, said, “”We've been assured in the sacred writings that unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. ...I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.”

First Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay, wrote, “It is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” Sounds pretty clear to me.

In an 1892 decision, the Supreme Court, unanimously, found, “There is no dissonance in these declarations...this is a Christian nation.” An 1844 case encouraged the use of Bibles in schools, “Why may not the Bible...be read and taught as divine revelation...?”

In 1854, the House Judiciary Committee wrote, “At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged...there can be no substitute for Christianity...the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.”

We were founded on Christian principles.