David Barton

Further evidence of a significant statistical decline following the Court’s religion-hostile policies is seen in moral measurements of youth. For example, following extended years of low rates:

• Birth rates for junior-high girls 10-14 years-old increased 460 percent
• Sexual activity among fifteen year-olds skyrocketed
• The percentage of teen births to unmarried women soared over 400 percent
• The United States now has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world
• Sexually transmitted diseases among students also reached previously unrecorded levels

Virtually every moral measurement kept by federal cabinet-level agencies reflects the same statistical pattern: the policies removing religious principles from the public sphere were accompanied by a corresponding decline in public morality.

Very simply, officials who enact policies violating what George Washington called “the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained” harm the entire community under their influence. Yet, despite the obvious negative effects following the Court’s various decisions, the Court cannot be held totally at fault for what has occurred. Who else is at fault?

The answer is provided in a parable wherein Jesus describes a man who had a good field, growing a good crop. That man awakened one morning and discovered that his crop was filled with tares and weeds.
How did it happen that his field went from producing good to also producing bad? In Matthew 13:25, Jesus provided the answer, explaining that while the good men slept, the enemy came in and planted the tares. Significantly, Jesus did not fault the enemy for doing what he did; the problem was that the good men went to sleep. This is what has happened in America: too many of the good people have gone to sleep concerning their stewardship of government, embracing an apathy that results in ruin. As signer of the Constitution John Dickinson warned: [Political] slavery is ever preceded by sleep.

Incontrovertibly, much of the blame for the condition of America rests on the shoulders of the “good men” – the church and people of faith who went to sleep, thus allowing the enemy to enter and sow his tares. What is the solution to reversing the negative trends of recent years? Jeremiah 6:16 instructs that if one wants the ways of peace and bounty, he should go back to the old paths. What were some of the “old paths”? Consider what was taught by early leaders such as John Jay, not only the president of the American Bible Society and the original Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court but also one of the three Founders most responsible for the ratification and adoption of the Constitution. Jay directed:

Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty (as well as the privilege and interest) of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. Jay’s statement is concise, but even more important than the statement is the reason he believed it important to keep Godly, God-fearing people of faith in office. Jay penned that statement in response to a letter written him by the Rev. Dr. Jedidiah Morse, one of America’s leading theologians and educators (called the “Father of American Geography”). Morse had inquired of the Chief Justice whether it were permissible for a Godly person to vote for an ungodly candidate, to which Jay had replied:

[This] is a question which merits more consideration than it seems yet to have generally received, either from the clergy or the laity. It appears to me that what the prophet said to Jehoshaphat about his attachment to Ahab affords a salutary lesson. Jay’s reference was to the account in II Chronicles 19 involving King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah. Wicked King Ahab corresponded with righteous King Jehoshaphat and requested his help to fight an enemy. Righteous King Jehoshaphat agreed and made an alliance with wicked King Ahab. Together, they went off to fight Ahab’s enemy at Ramoth-Gilead. After the battle, King Jehoshaphat returned home, where God sent a prophet to rebuke him for making an alliance with the wicked. The prophet’s statement in verse 2 of that chapter was not only God’s response to King Jehoshaphat but it was also John Jay’s answer to the question of whether the Godly could vote for the ungodly: And Jehu the seer [the prophet], the son of Hanani, went out to meet him, and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked, and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, the wrath of the Lord is upon you.”

Jay’s application of this Scriptural principle to voting was self-evident: if you helped place ungodly leaders in office (that is, if you made an alliance with the wicked through your vote), then you therefore had helped place ungodly principles in office; since God could not bless ungodly principles, how could God bless you for helping place those ungodly principles in office? However, if you placed Godly leaders in office, then you were placing Godly principles in office; since God could bless Godly principles, He therefore could bless you for helping place Godly principles in office.

Founders such as John Jay not only understood the mandate to elect God-fearing leaders, they also understood a truth that we are just beginning to grasp: no institution has intrinsic, inherent value – no institution is of itself either good or bad. For example, although many complain about the media and how biased it is, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the institution of the media. If the media is biased and has an ungodly agenda, it is because the people involved in the media have the wrong values. Similarly, if government is bad, it is because the people involved in government also have the wrong values. The simple fact is that institutions (whether government, law, media, education, entertainment, medicine, business, etc.) are much like cars – they take on the nature of whoever is behind the wheel – they simply reflect the values of those involved in them. This is why the Founders placed such an emphasis on the type and quality of people placed into office.

Moreover, Jay’s statement about electing Godly individuals clearly requires political involvement – something that the church has come to dislike over the last half century. Yet, many of the Founding Fathers did not particularly like politics, especially partisan politics. As an indication, consider an unequivocal declaration made by George Washington in his “Farewell Address” (considered to be the most significant political speech ever delivered by a U. S. President). In that address, Washington offered nearly a dozen warnings designed to keep America on track, including exposing what he described as America’s “worst enemy.” (Significantly, Washington spent forty-five years of his life fighting America’s enemies; he knew an enemy when he saw one.) So what did Washington consider America’s “worst enemy”? He explained:

Let me . . . warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party. . . . It exists . . . in all governments . . . and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one [party] over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension . . . is itself a frightful despotism. . . . [T]he common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. (emphasis added) Don’t misunderstand. Washington was not saying to abolish political parties, for parties are necessary; he was saying to abolish the spirit of party that places party interests and a love for that party above the country’s interests and a love for the country. Political parties are necessary, for they are the mechanisms by which candidates are offered to the public; but recall that a party is simply an institution – it has no value of its own but simply takes on the nature of those involved in it.

Therefore, God-fearing people of faith should be actively involved in a political party: (1) to help select its candidates, (2) to vote in party primaries and help Godly candidates in that party advance so that the community will then have the best possible selection in the general election, and (3) to influence and help shape their party’s platform (a platform sets forth a political party’s public policy positions) and their party’s rules (the rules are the self-imposed standards governing a party’s internal operations). While voter turnout is low in general elections, it is even lower in primary elections; but because of that, a God-fearing citizen can actually have a greater influence on public policy by being active in the primaries of a party, for his vote will have greater impact.

When voting in a primary, your vote is confined to a specific party; therefore, vote for the candidate in that party who best conforms to Exodus 18:21 (“an able man, such as fears God, a man of truth, hating covetousness”). However, when voting later in the general election, don’t vote solely on the basis of party, regardless of the particular party with which you might affiliate. There may well be a candidate in the other party who is more Godly than the candidate offered by your party, and thus better for the community, state, or nation. Always examine the values of each candidate running, regardless of party affiliation. (A number of voter web sites are available to help identify the specific beliefs of candidates on numbers of important issues, especially those related to Biblical values. Links to several such web sites are available at www.wallbuilders.com.) In short, an inordinate loyalty to a party is always to be discouraged, but a loyalty to proper principles – no matter the party in which they appear – is always to be strongly encouraged.
Founder Benjamin Rush demonstrated this approach to politics. Recall that he was not only a member of the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence but he also served in the presidential administrations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. What makes this latter accomplishment so amazing is that each of those three presidents was from a different political party. (Although the dominant political parties at the time were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, there were also others, including the Whigs, Tories, Democrats, Aristocrats, etc.). How could Benjamin Rush serve for three presidents from three different political parties? What was his own party affiliation? He explained:

I have been alternately called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am . . . neither. I am a Christocrat. He continued:

I believe all power . . . will always fail of producing order and happiness in the hands of man. He alone Who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him.

Very simply, Benjamin Rush didn’t care what the party called itself; he was focused on Biblical principles (i.e., he was a Christ-ocrat). When he found someone who stood for God’s principles, he would stand with him, no matter the party. That lesson is still applicable today: the love of correct principles rather than the love of a party must be the key to our political involvement.

However, many Christians and God-fearing people of faith, having become accustomed to religious freedom in America, unwisely assert that they do not need to be politically involved because their rights come from God, not the government. What these individuals fail to recognize is that while our rights are indeed Biblically-given, they must be politically protected.

The fact that America has always provided the political protection to exercise our God-given rights (a protection lacking in most other nations) is what has made America so unique for so long. Americans have enjoyed freedoms unknown in the rest of the world because we long kept leaders in office who knew our God-given rights and provided political protection for the exercise of those rights. Yet, with the falling involvement of Christians and the commensurate increase of leaders who do not respect God-given rights, many citizens today are completely unaware of the current challenges to the most basic of their religious beliefs and practices. In fact, the question of whether Christians could even hand out Gospel material in public reached all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court!

In the 1990s, the construction of a U. S. Capitol Visitor Center (a structure separate from, but attached to, the U. S. Capitol) was proposed to better control the flow of tourists throughout the Capitol building. The official ground-breaking ceremony occurred in June 2000, but following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there was a renewed emphasis on building the Center as a means of providing better security at the Capitol and protecting Members of Congress. (Prior to 9/11, the Capitol was open day or night to any citizen who wanted to enter.)

In August 2002, construction began on the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC), and in 2004,

we were asked by leading Members of Congress to help them monitor the historical content of the hundreds of displays and exhibits in the proposed CVC. Those leaders understood the importance of presenting accurate information throughout the CVC, for 15,000 people go through the Capitol each day, including thousands of school children.

We were given full access to the proposed CVC content and closely monitored those materials, filing regular reports with congressional leadership. We found much objectionable content including not only inaccurate historical facts but especially a deliberate omission and even censoring of the rich religious history of the Capitol. An astute government researcher accurately noted that historical omission is one of the most effective means of producing a slanted bias:

[L]iberal and secular bias is primarily accomplished by exclusion. . . . Such a bias is much harder to observe than a positive vilification or direct criticism, but it is the essence of censorship. It is effective not only because it is hard to observe (it isn’t there) and therefore hard to counteract, but also because it makes only the liberal, secular positions familiar and plausible.

We detailed for the congressional leaders the many omissions and the liberal left secular bias evident across the hundreds of displays in the CVC. Much of the objectionable content was changed and the inaccurate material corrected – until congressional leadership changed following the 2006 elections. Since that time, there has been a full reversion to the liberal bias and historically inaccurate content originally evident in the displays.

Several House Members intervened with specific attempts to correct some of those problems – including former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), who in October 2007 introduced HR 3908:

To direct the Architect of the Capitol to ensure that the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and the national motto “In God We Trust” are each displayed prominently in the Capitol Visitor Center on a permanent basis and to prohibit the Architect from removing or refusing to include language or other content from exhibits and materials relating to the Capitol Visitor Center on the grounds that the language or content includes a religious reference or Judeo-Christian content.

More than a decade ago, work was undertaken to construct a Visitor Center for the U. S. Capitol to accommodate its 15,000 visitors a day.

Regrettably, those appointed by Congress to design and oversee the construction of this project labored diligently to exclude mentions of God even from historical documents and exhibits within the Center. For five years, we worked closely with Members of Congress to ensure that this new $621 million dollar edifice did not continue the recent trend of federal structures that excluded references to God.

During the past year, with the leadership of several members of Congress – especially Senator Jim Demint, Rep. Randy Forbes, and Rep. Dan Lungren – many of the adamant secularist policies so apparent throughout the Center have been successfully reversed.

One of the many positive changes they achieved was finished just days ago, when the National Motto and the Pledge of Allegiance were engraved in stone in highly visible locations inside the massive Capitol Visitor Center.

These changes are joyfully welcomed, but they did not come easily. In fact, we just posted a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the drama at the Capitol over the past five years. You will find it to be an enlightening explanation behind this latest victory.

Not surprisingly, however, a federal lawsuit has been filed against these new engravings; but if any federal judge orders these phrases to be removed, part of the Visitor Center will literally have to be torn down in order to eradicate the acknowledgments of God from the building! These new additions cause the Visitor Center to become another in the long list of Washington government structures that openly and proudly acknowledge God, including the Library of Congress, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the White House, the federal courts building, the National Archives, the U. S. Supreme Court, Union Station, and many others.

With all the bad things coming out of Washington these days, we thought you might find this good news to be an early Christmas gift!

(I encourage you to contact Senator Demint, Rep. Forbes, and Rep. Lungren and express your appreciate for their extraordinary efforts to place the public acknowledge of God in the Capitol Visitor Center.)

And since Christmas is right around the corner, President Harry Truman’s 1952 message to the nation is worth remembering today:

Through Jesus Christ the world will yet be a better and a fairer place. This faith sustains us today as it has sustained mankind for centuries past. This is why the Christmas story, with the bright stars shining and the angels singing, moves us to wonder and stirs our hearts to praise. Now, my fellow countrymen, I wish for all of you a Christmas filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and many years of future happiness with the peace of God reigning upon this earth.

God bless!

David Barton

It was 65 years ago today that 160,000 Allied Forces composed of Americans, Canadians, Britons, and Frenchmen, began the great D-Day invasion, landing on five separate beaches along a 50-mile stretch in Normandy, France. It was the largest amphibious landing in the history of the world, involving nearly 7,000 naval vessels; it also included an assault of airborne troops from over 13,000 aircraft.

As the troops made final preparations for the invasion, their commander – Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower – issued his military order expressing confidence in their efforts, wishing them luck, and urging them to “beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”

Back home, Americans crowded into churches and synagogues to pray for the Allied invasion forces, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt led the nation in a 6½ minute extended time of prayer for the troops. (You can hear that prayer, or read it.) http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/fdr-prayer.htm

By the end of that day on June 6, the liberation of Europe and the final defeat of the Nazis was well underway, but 15,000 American and Allied forces had become casualties of the invasion that changed the course of history, securing freedom for tens of millions of citizens.

In remembering the sacrifices those brave soldiers made, the declaration of John Quincy Adams two centuries ago remains applicable today:

Posterity! You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it!

Let’s remember to stop and thank God for those in the past who were willing to sacrifice so much to preserve our liberties, and for those who still so diligently protect our freedoms today. Let’s also commit ourselves anew to watch over and be active in preserving those blessings which, under God, have been transmitted to us by previous generations. As Samuel Adams noted:

Our ancestors purchased the liberty of our country with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation if we should allow them to be wrested from us.

God bless

David Barton