Justice William O. Douglas said in 1962: "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. . . . When the state encourages religious instruction or cooperates with religious authorities by adjusting the schedule of public events to sectarian needs, it follows the best of our traditions."
Douglas, a part-time Washington State resident, recognized there was a Christian consensus in America and that the Judeo-Christian worldview was essential to our nation's identity.
The New York Times carried Tuesday's front-page headline: "Alito’s ‘Godliness’ Comment Echoes a Broader Christian Movement."
"Justice Samuel Alito’s secretly recorded remarks," they say, "come as many conservatives have openly embraced the view that American democracy must be grounded in a Christian worldview."
This put the Left on high alert.
Be informed, not misled.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post in 1985, William (Bill) Bennett wrote, "The fundamental shape of the American experience cannot be understood without reference to the Judeo-Christian tradition that gave birth to us; that the fate of our democracy is intimately intertwined with the vitality of the Judeo-Christian tradition; that the First Amendment was not intended to result in the complete exclusion of that tradition from our public life; and that a tendency toward such an exclusion is not healthy for our republic."
Leftists putting America on alert; "The Christians are coming."
The New York Times announced yesterday that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito while talking to an undercover journalist, used the phrase "Returning America to a place of godliness."
When asked by a woman posing as a Catholic conservative at a dinner last week, Justice Alito, the Times says, "appeared to endorse the idea. The unguarded moment added to calls for greater scrutiny by Democrats, many of whom are eager to open official investigations into outside influence at the Supreme Court."
The Times continued: "But the core of the idea expressed to Mr. Alito, that the country must fight the decline of Christianity in public life, goes beyond the questions of bias and influence at the nation’s highest court. An array of conservatives, including antiabortion activists, church leaders and conservative state legislators, has openly embraced the idea that American democracy needs to be grounded in Christian values and guarded against the rise of secular culture."
And the unreliable former old "Gray Lady" put this out for the world to read: "They are right-wing Catholics and evangelicals who oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, transgender rights and what they see as the dominance of liberal views in school curriculums. And they’ve become a crucial segment of former President Donald J. Trump’s political coalition, intermingled with the MAGA movement that boosted him to the White House and that hopes to do so once again in November."
Double Alert
The Times crescendos by underscoring just how dangerous these people are with leaders like Trump, Alito, and others leading the movement.
They say, "The movement’s rise has been evident across the country since Mr. Trump lost re-election in 2020. The National Association of Christian Lawmakers was formed to advance Christian values and legislation among elected officials. This week in Indianapolis, delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, are voting on issues like restricting in vitro fertilization and further limiting women from pastoral positions."
And in Congress, Mike Johnson, a man with deep roots in this movement and the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, is now speaker of the House.
Now, Supreme Court justices have become caught up in the debate over whether America is a Christian nation. While Justice Alito is hardly openly championing these views, he is embracing language and symbolism that line up with a much broader movement pushing back against the declining power of Christianity as a majority religion in America.
Either these people are ignorant of the facts of history regarding the founding and rise of America, or they have chosen to be the blind, trying to lead the blind.
Jesus said when the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch.
A closer look at America's relationship to Christianity and the Bible.
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| Justice John Jay |
President George Washington’s Proclamation regarding the nation’s first Thanksgiving issued in New York City on October 3, 1789:
"Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt:
"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. … Its refining and elevating influence is indispensable to our most cherished hopes and ideals.” (Statement on the Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Printing of the English Bible; October 6, 1935)
Address to the National Conference of Catholic Charities; October 4, 1933:
"With every passing year, I become more confident that humanity is moving forward to the practical application of the teachings of Christianity as they affect the individual lives of men and women everywhere.”
Letter on Religion in Democracy; December 16, 1940:
"In teaching this democratic faith to American children, we need the sustaining, buttressing aid of those great ethical religious teachings which are the heritage of our modern civilization. For ‘not upon strength nor upon power, but upon the spirit of God’ shall our democracy be founded.”
Radio Address on the President’s Sixtieth Birthday; January 30, 1942:
"Even in time of war, those Nations which still hold to the old ideals of Christianity and democracy are carrying on services to humanity which have little or no relationship to torpedoes or guns or bombs."
Takeaway
Daniel Webster, a second-generation (1782-1852) American leader and statesman, said: "If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."
Only in more recent years have we abandoned the Judeo-Christian principles of our founding. The secular progressive left is now trying to coax America to commit cultural suicide.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful. Be Faithful.