“I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” We repeat these words often, yet this nation is slowly become a nation without God, without liberty and justice for all. I want to focus on one of these declines today, a nation without God.
Recently I heard a story about a Chinese Marxist who was a foreign exchange law student visiting the U.S. During his visit he was asked what he noticed about America. His response was that he hadn’t noticed how necessary religion is to democracy.
Many argue that religion and politics need to be completely separate and that religion should only be practiced in secret. Those who argue those points often use a portion of Jeffersons’ letter to the Danbury Baptists as a way to enforce their claim. In reality, his letter to the aforementioned church does the exact opposite. He says, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ʺmake no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,ʺ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social.” This “wall of separation between Church & State” is meant to prevent the establishment of a national religion.
God and religion are two different things. While religion cannot survive without God, God can survive without religion. God is the overarching support to the creation of the Constitution, and the bringing forth of America. Many historians and critics of the founders have stated that democracy would have happened on its own, without the founders. I know that God or Divine Providence put these men where they were when they were. As Alexander Hamilton said, “For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system, which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interest.” If it hadn’t been for His aid, this nation would never have occurred. Benjamin Franklin said, “If a sparrow cannot fall without God’s notice, is it probable that a nation rise without his aid?”
The founders intended to have God be a part of government function. If they had not intended this they wouldn’t have established the custom of prayer before the commencement of each session of congress. Jefferson wouldn’t have attended a worship service, in the capital, a few days after he wrote about the separation of Church & State to the Danbury Baptists. The tradition of a prayer breakfast at the white house would not exist. The founders wouldn’t have written on the importance of religion in education in the Northwest Expansion Document of 1787, “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
In a letter from Thomas Jefferson to Rev. Samuel Miller Jefferson says, “No power to prescribe religion or assume authority in religious discipline has been delegated to the general government.” However, the government has recently been taking action against religious freedom and even striving to take God out of government. Mask mandates, and vaccine mandates, are all roundabout ways of attacking our personal freedoms, religious and otherwise, by “providing safety”. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Our liberties have slowly been taken or given away to purchase safety. Soon we will find our nation Godless, powerless, and lost. According to John Adams, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” It is time again to become a moral & religious people, united under God, indivisible. How do we do this?
Our nation “will be saved by the righteous citizens of this nation who love and cherish freedom. It will be saved by enlightened [people]… men and women who understand and abide the principles of the Constitution” are what President Ezra Taft Benson, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, suggests. If we study the constitution diligently and learn it inside out till we can answer the questions President Benson asks, “Have we read The Federalist papers? Are we reading the Constitution and pondering it? Are we aware of its principles? Are we abiding by these principles and teaching them to others? Could we defend the Constitution? Can we recognize when a law is constitutionally unsound?”
Once we can begin to answer yes to some of these questions, we know we are moving in the right direction. If we put God back in education, back into government, we will begin to see many blessings. Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” Ponder this, and strive to uphold the principles that this country was founded upon. Stand up, speak out, and fight for liberty!!!
