God & Country

Last weekend my wife (Shelley) decided to have a gathering. It was a belated “4th of July” celebration. It was also a chance for her to make a statement about where she thought our country has been, where it is now, and where it might be heading . . .

The theme of the day was “God & Country”. We had two dozen people at our picnic, and they were warned ahead of time that there would be a program consistent with the title of this event. With that being the case, the guests squeezed into our family room and watched an hour-long video on the Christian basis of our nation’s origins. The video is part of “The Truth Project,” which was sponsored by the “Focus on the Family” organization.

The moderator of the video noted that most people think “the framers of the constitution” wanted America to be a secular country. That is not the case. He gave one example after another of what our forefathers actually said on this subject:

John Adams (in 1776) wrote that “religion and morality alone . . . establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand.”

George Washington (in 1796) said that “of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports” of successful government.

Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the country’s first Surgeon General, wrote (in 1798) that “the only foundation for . . . a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”

Even Benjamin Franklin, who many historians describe as an atheist, had this to say (in 1787) at an address to the Constitutional Convention: “The longer I live, the more convincing the proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men . . . We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this . . . without his [God’s] concurring aid . . . we shall be divided by our little partial local interests . . . I therefore beg leave to move – that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven” be part of our daily proceedings.

Our educational institutions were also founded on the notion that religion was important. Harvard’s 1636 “Rules & Precepts” stated that “the main end of [a student’s] life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ.” Princeton’s founding statement (in 1746) said that “Cursed is all learning that is contrary to the Cross of Christ.” Even as late as 1892 the National Education Association shared this philosophy, and issued a policy statement saying that “the study of the Bible [should not] be excluded from state schools.”

So what happened? Why have our legal and educational systems turned away from their God-centered origins? The narrator of the video says that the 1859 publication of Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” caused a transformation of thought. Our legal and educational systems adopted Social Darwinism. Anti-God thinking took over. I think that concept is overstated, and is something that should be discussed in future columns. But the point is that God was without a doubt once the central theme in our government and educational institutions.

The theme of our picnic was that our country was once based on Biblical principles. We need to reflect on what consequences there have been for us, as a nation, for turning away from these roots. The “God & Country” theme was well-received, and is food for thought on what we should do to restore these principles to our individual and societal lives.