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In our blog Monday regarding the lawsuit in which Shirley Dobson was named, we quoted the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist organization, saying in their court arguments against national prayer that the Constitution was "a god-less document," therefore a call to national prayer is unconstitutional. Particularly, the Presidential Proclamation.
We often hear that. Secularists and atheists declare that we are a secular nation. Even President Obama has said whatever we once were, we are not now a Christian nation.
Whether or not our Founders believed we were a "Christian" nation can be debated, however, it is a fact that those who founded America were predominately Christian, there was a consensus that what they were doing was based on Godly biblical principles and they invoked God's blessing on their decisions and actions.
And they infused biblical principles into every aspect of the culture, including our laws.
When we look at the Constitution in relation to the Declaration of Independence, it puts the matter of whether the Constitution is a god-less document in proper perspective.
Michael Farris, a Constitutional lawyer and founder of the Home School Legal Defense League makes an interesting analogy in his book, "Constitutional Law for Christian Students. Revised Edition." He compares the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to a present day corporation's articles of incorporation and by-laws respectively.
Here's the short version of what he says:
The Declaration of Independence was the charter of our nation. It makes clear what most citizens of the colonies believed.
They believed that they were establishing a new nation based soundly on the Laws of God.
The opening statement of the Declaration expresses these firm beliefs and convictions. "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them..."
They believed freedom was a gift from Nature and Nature's God. They intended to create a government that would protect these God given freedoms---not dispense them.
By basing our right to be a free nation upon God's law, we were also saying by implication that we owed obedience to the law that allowed us to be a separate country from England.
The last paragraph of the Declaration says they are, "appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly, publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states;...", ending with, and for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
Farris says the Declaration is our charter. It the legal document that made us a nation like all the other nations of the world. It doesn't tell us how we are going to run our country---that is what our Constitution does.
In a corporation, the Charter is higher than the By-Laws and the By-Laws must be interpreted to be in agreement with the Charter. Therefore, the Constitution of the United States must be in agreement with the Declaration of Independence, or as Farris sometimes calls it, " The Declaration of the United States."
The most important statement in our Declaration is that we want to operate under the laws of God and we invoke His blessing.
When the courts today are deciding what the Constitution means in regard to specific issues, they should review and remember the "Charter" or the Declaration in regards to original intent.
The Constitution doesn't specifically mention God, because it doesn't have to. The Declaration is the charter or higher document and it clearly outlines our relationship with God and His laws.
The Declaration makes it very clear that we are a nation under God's laws. Therefore all laws of our country should be consistent with the law of God or they violate our national charter.
It was our Founders intent that this would be a nation under God, that would look to God for blessing and guidance.
Our Founding Fathers knew that you could not have a free people for very long without Biblical morality.
Here's what they said:
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams.
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Benjamin Franklin
"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt." Samuel Adams.
This country and culture is worth fighting for.
Thank you for standing with us.
