"As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free" - The Battle Hymn of the Republic

I had the opportunity the other night to go to a great lecture by Mathew Staver of the Liberty Council sponsored by the LCRC. I was unsure of what to expect from the lecture but am beyond grateful that I took the time to go. What I learned willonly benefit me in the future. The lecture was titled "The Role of Faith in Public Life." It kind of all centralized around the following quote of Reagan's "The Founding Fathers believed that faith in God was the key to our being a good people and America's being a great nation." Basically Mathew spoke about the faith of the founding fathers and its relationship to the founding and success of this great nation. Not only did he inform us of many facts and information that I never knew, but his words struck a cord with me and has made me want to do more research.

Before I get into what he told us, let me tell you quickly about the Liberty Council. It is a nonprofit litigation, education, and policy organization. It is dedicated to advancing religious freedom and the sanctity of family and human life. They have been involved in the front lines of many of the recent issues including gay marriage and partial birth abortion. Think of them as the ACLU's number one enemy. Now you can see why their director was chosen to speak to us about faith in public life. They are fighting for faiths good name against a government that wants to get rid of all religion in this nation.

Speaking of which did you know Obama signed a proclamation that makes this month GLBT month. But hes the same person that would not honor the national day of prayer. And this only one of the many reasons why faith in public life was an important topic to speak on.

Now moving onto what I learned from this lecture as I view it to be of the utmost importance today. Most, if not all, of those who signed the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence had a strong faith in something and a majority of them had a strong faith rooted in God and Christianity (doctrinal, not denominational). They were church goers, bible readers, head of bible groups, and head of churches. They were our founding fathers. They were men who knew what could make this country great. They set up a Republic, a form of government that had never before succeeded for very long periods of time. They were laughed at around the world, but those who laughed stopped laughing and started questioning when they saw that this new republic was succeeding. The answer was that they had rooted this new republic in something greater than the intelligence of a human being, they had rooted it in religion, God, and morality.

The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.
John Quincy Adams

This great nation was not set up so people could be regulated and run by the government. The government was just to watch over a group of people who were living their lives based on morality and their belief in a higher being. Laws were really morals written down on paper. Sure not everybody believed in God the same way but this morality that came from Christianity became rooted in the culture through education and social life. The importance of God in the founding of this nation and its expansion can clearly be seen in the fact that God made it into the constitution of all 50 states, and are still in them.

Why Christianity though? Was it only because many were Christian? Yes and no. They felt that the way of life that Christians were suppose to be leading was best for this new republic. Christians believe in God, believe that they have standards they have to live up to or face consequences in this life or after. The key to this is that they have the choice to live as they want but all good Christians would seek to do that which God would want them to do. Now take for example, another strong religion at the time, the Muslims. Their religion was not rooted in choice per say. It was more about a way of life being forced on people, and not as much about choosing to live that way. The government at that time had already had run in with Muslims and knew that it was not to be the religion that would make this republic work.

Now what about the Separation of Church and State? This phrase can be tracked down to a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to Danbury Baptists. He referred to the First Amendment as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state. It was picked up again in 1878 by the United States Supreme Court. The interesting part is that Jefferson only used this phrase once and it was referring to the national government. On a state level he never separated church from religion in the way that people believe in now when referring to this phrase. How could they completely separate church and state if they had based the success of this country on peoples morality? Could it be that they meant you could not have religion or the state run each other, not could the government withhold this freedom from anyone or regulate it, but that they still could interact?

I liked the part of the Danbury letter that says, "that the legitimate power of the civil government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbors." Religious freedom was an inalienable right, not to be regulated by government. The government use was to enforce the laws, not to regulation religion. And please do not think that the Constitution includes the phrase "separation of church and state." It actually says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." They did not want their nation to become another England. They did not want a government run by a specific church and vise versa.

So what does this have to do with us? Religion has been getting attacked on all fronts. We are damned to hell by liberals for voting based on our religious beliefs. They claim we are immoral, racist, sexist, etc. We have to hide our religion, or it will be seen as forcing it on others. But we have to remember that those who attack us do not allow themselves to believe that this nation was set up by God fearing men. That this great nation was originally rooted in the basic morality of men. That as soon as religion is thrown out the door, morality forgotten, this nation, as it was set up, can no longer succeed. It can no longer be a Republic or a Democracy. "Morality" will become the whims of men. Someone declaring who is good, whose not, what is ruining society, whats not, when drugs are good, when they are not. There will be nothing and no one to answer too so the government will have to step in for that role. It is happening now, and will continue to occur. We have two choices. We can let it happen and pray that the second coming will occur soon or we stand up for ourselves, be loud, and declare that what they are doing goes against everything this nation was built on.