In GOD We Trust
I had planned to begin a week long series on “Al Gore’s Global Warming” dealing specifically around the “Cap and Trade” bill passed recently in the House of Representatives and now before the Senate. Then, I planned to discuss the Illinois State government’s budget problems next week. I’m momentarily putting those plans on hold. Regular readers know that’s not too uncommon.
The following was published in the Peoria Journal Star on July 4, 2009, page A10 as a full page advertisement paid for by Hobby Lobby. For those who may not know, Hobby Lobby is a business which specializes in arts, crafts, and hobbies. I don’t know if it is a publicly traded company or not but it seems to be family owned and directed. It is one of the few retailers, that I’m aware of, that is closed on Sunday. The stated purpose of being closed on Sunday is to allow the families of the employees to be together on Sunday. I like that concept. We need much more of it!
The ad is a series of quotes from an earlier time in our history. I have previously used some of them. The advertisement as published was put into my format. I have left nothing out between the quotes and changed no wording. The advertisement:
“In GOD We Trust
Presidents
01) ‘It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the province of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.’
George Washington
First President of the United States
02) ‘We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’
John Adams
Second President of the United States
03) ‘Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.’
James Madison
Signer of the Constitution; Fourth President of the United States
04) ‘And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.’
Thomas Jefferson
Signer and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence; Third President of the United States
05) ‘Is it not that in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior?—that it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth?—That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?’
John Quincy Adams
Statesman; Diplomat; Sixth President of the United States
Founding Fathers
06) ‘An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! … Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power … Besides, sir, 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 … Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!!!’
Patrick Henry
Patriot and Statesman
07) ‘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 republican forms of government—and all blessings which flow from them—must fall with them.’
Jedediah Morse
Patriot and Educator, called ‘The Father of American Geography’
08) ‘I’ve lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: That God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We’ve been assured in the sacred writings that unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.’
Benjamin Franklin
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
Supreme Court Justices
09) ‘The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.’
‘Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.’
John Jay
Co-author of the Federalist Papers; First Chief-Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
10) ‘Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is Divine. … Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other.’
James Wilson
Signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; Original Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court
11) ‘One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law … There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations … I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society.
Joseph Story
U.S. Supreme Court Justice, ‘Father of American Jurisprudence,’ Placed on the Court by President James Madison
Congress
12) ‘We are a Christian people … not because the law demands it, not to gain exclusive benefits or to avoid legal disabilities, but from choice and education; and in a land thus universally Christian, what is to be expected, what desired, but that we shall pay due regard to Christianity?’
[Senate Judiciary Committee Report, January 19, 1853]
13) ‘At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged … In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity … That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.’
[House Judiciary Committee Report, March 27, 1854]
Education
14) ‘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. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of Him (Proverbs 2: 3). Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein.’
Harvard
1636 Student Guidelines
15) ‘All the scholars are required to live a religious and blameless life according to the rules of God’s Word, diligently reading the Holy Scriptures, that fountain of Divine light and truth, and constantly attending all the duties of religion.’
Yale
1787 Student Guidelines
Supreme Court Rulings
16) ‘There is no dissonance in these [legal] declarations … These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons; they are organic [legal, governmental] utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people … These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.’
Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S., 1892
Unanimous Decision Declaring America a Christian Nation
Significantly, the U.S. Supreme Court cited dozens of court rulings and legal documents as precedents to arrive at this ruling; but in 1962, when the Supreme Court struck down voluntary prayer in schools, it did so without using any such precedent
17) ‘Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in [schools]—its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? … Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?’
Vidal v. Girard’s Executors, 1844
Unanimous Decision Commending and Encouraging the Use of the Bible in Government-Run Schools
Foreigners
18) ‘The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.’
Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country.’
Alexis De Tocqueville
French observer of America in 1831, author of Democracy in America
19) ‘There is no country in which the people are so religious as in the United States … The great number of religious societies existing in the United States is truly surprising; there are some of them for everything; for instance, societies to distribute the Bible; to distribute tracts; to encourage religious journals; to convert, civilize, educate; … to take care of their widows and orphans; to preach, extend, purify, preserve, reform the faith; to build chapels, endow congregations, support seminaries; … to establish Sunday schools; … to prevent drunkenness, etc.’
Achille Murat
French observer of America in 1832
‘Blessed is the nation whose GOD is the LORD’
Psalm 33: 12a
‘If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.’
II Chronicles 7: 14”
“For source references, please refer to www.hobbylobby.com/ministryprojects”
I had planned to begin a week long series on “Al Gore’s Global Warming” dealing specifically around the “Cap and Trade” bill passed recently in the House of Representatives and now before the Senate. Then, I planned to discuss the Illinois State government’s budget problems next week. I’m momentarily putting those plans on hold. Regular readers know that’s not too uncommon.
The following was published in the Peoria Journal Star on July 4, 2009, page A10 as a full page advertisement paid for by Hobby Lobby. For those who may not know, Hobby Lobby is a business which specializes in arts, crafts, and hobbies. I don’t know if it is a publicly traded company or not but it seems to be family owned and directed. It is one of the few retailers, that I’m aware of, that is closed on Sunday. The stated purpose of being closed on Sunday is to allow the families of the employees to be together on Sunday. I like that concept. We need much more of it!
The ad is a series of quotes from an earlier time in our history. I have previously used some of them. The advertisement as published was put into my format. I have left nothing out between the quotes and changed no wording. The advertisement:
“In GOD We Trust
Presidents
01) ‘It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the province of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.’
George Washington
First President of the United States
02) ‘We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’
John Adams
Second President of the United States
03) ‘Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.’
James Madison
Signer of the Constitution; Fourth President of the United States
04) ‘And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.’
Thomas Jefferson
Signer and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence; Third President of the United States
05) ‘Is it not that in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior?—that it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth?—That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?’
John Quincy Adams
Statesman; Diplomat; Sixth President of the United States
Founding Fathers
06) ‘An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! … Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power … Besides, sir, 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 … Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!!!’
Patrick Henry
Patriot and Statesman
07) ‘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 republican forms of government—and all blessings which flow from them—must fall with them.’
Jedediah Morse
Patriot and Educator, called ‘The Father of American Geography’
08) ‘I’ve lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: That God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We’ve been assured in the sacred writings that unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.’
Benjamin Franklin
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
Supreme Court Justices
09) ‘The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.’
‘Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.’
John Jay
Co-author of the Federalist Papers; First Chief-Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
10) ‘Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is Divine. … Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other.’
James Wilson
Signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; Original Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court
11) ‘One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law … There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations … I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society.
Joseph Story
U.S. Supreme Court Justice, ‘Father of American Jurisprudence,’ Placed on the Court by President James Madison
Congress
12) ‘We are a Christian people … not because the law demands it, not to gain exclusive benefits or to avoid legal disabilities, but from choice and education; and in a land thus universally Christian, what is to be expected, what desired, but that we shall pay due regard to Christianity?’
[Senate Judiciary Committee Report, January 19, 1853]
13) ‘At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged … In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity … That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.’
[House Judiciary Committee Report, March 27, 1854]
Education
14) ‘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. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of Him (Proverbs 2: 3). Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein.’
Harvard
1636 Student Guidelines
15) ‘All the scholars are required to live a religious and blameless life according to the rules of God’s Word, diligently reading the Holy Scriptures, that fountain of Divine light and truth, and constantly attending all the duties of religion.’
Yale
1787 Student Guidelines
Supreme Court Rulings
16) ‘There is no dissonance in these [legal] declarations … These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons; they are organic [legal, governmental] utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people … These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.’
Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S., 1892
Unanimous Decision Declaring America a Christian Nation
Significantly, the U.S. Supreme Court cited dozens of court rulings and legal documents as precedents to arrive at this ruling; but in 1962, when the Supreme Court struck down voluntary prayer in schools, it did so without using any such precedent
17) ‘Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in [schools]—its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? … Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?’
Vidal v. Girard’s Executors, 1844
Unanimous Decision Commending and Encouraging the Use of the Bible in Government-Run Schools
Foreigners
18) ‘The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.’
Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country.’
Alexis De Tocqueville
French observer of America in 1831, author of Democracy in America
19) ‘There is no country in which the people are so religious as in the United States … The great number of religious societies existing in the United States is truly surprising; there are some of them for everything; for instance, societies to distribute the Bible; to distribute tracts; to encourage religious journals; to convert, civilize, educate; … to take care of their widows and orphans; to preach, extend, purify, preserve, reform the faith; to build chapels, endow congregations, support seminaries; … to establish Sunday schools; … to prevent drunkenness, etc.’
Achille Murat
French observer of America in 1832
‘Blessed is the nation whose GOD is the LORD’
Psalm 33: 12a
‘If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.’
II Chronicles 7: 14”
“For source references, please refer to www.hobbylobby.com/ministryprojects”
posted by Christian Gunslinger at 4:48 AM
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