David Barton

Additionally, school officials have taken the position that students at school may: invite their friends to meetings unless the meetings are religious, share literature with their friends unless the literature is religious, receive personal gifts from friends unless the gift is a Bible or has a religious message, wear the clothing of their choice unless it has Christian messages, pass out valentines to classmates unless the valentines have a religious message, wear costumes at Halloween unless the costume depicts a religious personality  and there are numerous additional examples.

While all of this transformation has occurred since the 1947 introduction of the “separation” metaphor in Everson, significantly, none of the activities currently restricted represent any violation of the actual wording of the First Amendment. That Amendment places prohibitions only against the federal Congress and not on states, communities, schools, or individuals i.e., “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ”. However, under the Court’s new

First Amendment: “Congress” now means a “student” or a citizen, teacher, soldier, school, community, etc., “make no law” means “cannot express one’s faith in a public arena”, “establish” religion means “allow” religion; and “an establishment of religion” now means “to express one’s formerly constitutionally protected ‘free exercise of religion’ in an official public forum or arena” It is more than a bizarre rendering when “Congress” an elected body of the federal legislature can mean a single individual, and “making a law” the action of the federal legislature can mean expressing one’s personal faith in public.

The Everson decision, however, was revolutionary not only for its introduction of the modern “separation” doctrine but also for dramatically expanding the role of the federal judiciary. How was this accomplished? By coupling the Fourteenth Amendment’s racial civil rights guarantee with the First Amendment’s prohibition against the congressional establishment of a national religion. The consequence of merging these two dissimilar Amendments was twofold.

First, the Court reversed the bedrock constitutional standard that the First Amendment limited only the federal but not State or local governments. Second, because the new reading of the First Amendment empowered the Court to restrict states, communities, and individuals, the federal judiciary therefore assigned itself the role as sole arbiter of all religious controversies, even to what an individual citizen may or may not do. Yet, the massive expansion of the Court’s federal jurisdiction was achieved only by directly disregarding the specific purposes for which both the First and the Fourteenth Amendments were enacted – a fact clearly demonstrated by a brief review of each of those Amendments.

In city seals with numerous symbols representing diverse aspects of a community (e.g., its industry, commerce, history, flora, schools, etc.), it is unconstitutional for any of those symbols to depict a religious element even if religion was a primary historic influence in the city’s founding. FRIEDMAN v. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, 1985; HARRIS v. CITY OF ZION, 1991; KUHN v. CITY OF ROLLING MEADOWS, 1991; ROBINSON v. CITY OF EDMOND, 1995; ACLU OF OHIO v. CITY OF STOW, 1998; WEBB v. CITY OF REPUBLIC, 1999

It is unconstitutional for a nativity scene to be displayed on public property unless surrounded by sufficient secular displays to prevent it from appearing religious. ACLU v. CITY OF BIRMINGHAM, 1986; COUNTY OF ALLEGHENY v. ACLU, 1989; AMANCIO v. TOWN OF SOMERSET, 1998; ACLU OF NEW JERSEY v. SCHUNDLER, 1997, 1999; ACLU v. CITY OF FLORISSANT, 1999 It is unconstitutional for Christians to pray public prayers that reflect their own personal faith and beliefs. DOE v. SANTA FE I.S.D., 1995; FURLEY v. ALEDO I.S.D., 1999; BACUS v. PALO VERDE U.S.D., 2002; RUBIN v. CITY OF BURBANK, 2002; WYNNE v. TOWN OF GREAT FALLS, 2004;  HINRICHS v. BOSMA, 2005; DOE v. TANGIPAHOA PARISH SCH. BD., 2006; TURNER v. CITY COUNCIL, 2006.

Even though the actual wording of a bill may be constitutional, the bill becomes unconstitutional if the legislator who introduced it had a religious activity in his mind. WALLACE v. JAFFREE, 1985 These decisions are representative of the current hostility toward traditional religious expressions; and the hostility has spread well beyond the courts, now permeating the official public square. For example: In Minnesota, a state employee was barred from parking his car in the state parking lot because he had religious stickers on his bumper.

A military honor guardsman who was part of a special unit that conducted military funeral solemnities for fallen warriors was removed from his position for saying “God bless you and this family, and God bless the United States of America” while presenting a military family a folded flag in honor of a deceased family member even though he had been asked by the family to include that blessing in the flag presentation to them. In DeFuniak Springs, Florida, a judge ordered that a copy of the Ten Commandments in the courthouse be covered during a murder trial, fearing that if jurors saw the command “Do not kill,” they would be prejudiced against the defendant.

At about the same time that the Rev. Garnet preached his sermon, another first in black history occurred. Republican Senator Charles Sumner nominated black attorney John Rock as the first black American to become a member of the U. S. Supreme Court bar; John Rock was then introduced before the U. S. House of Representatives, becoming the first African American attorney to be introduced in Congress. 123 over recent years, democrats have largely voted against protecting traditional religious and moral expressions, such as displays of the Ten Commandments attorney john rock Because of the 13th Amendment and the end of slavery, black Americans particularly in the South could now enjoy their first real taste of civil rights their first genuine opportunity for political participation. Within a year, blacks were registering to vote and were forming political parties across the South.

For example, at a rally in Houston, Texas, on July 4th, 1867, 150 blacks and 20 whites formed the Republican Party of Texas; and black Americans also started other southern Republican parties as well. In the years immediately following the Civil War, the former Rebels were not allowed to vote in their

States until they took an oath of loyalty. In that oath, they swore first, an oath of allegiance to the United States, and second, an oath in 1865, john rock became the first African American to become a member of the supreme court bar across the south, blacks registered to vote and formed political parties to respect the civil rights of black Americans. 128 If a Rebel did not swear this oath, he could not vote and many Democrats could not vote because they refused to take the oath, or because they could not pass other federal requirements. 129 Therefore, for a few years Republicans became the political majority in most of the southern States. Those Republican legislatures moved quickly to protect voting rights for African Americans, prohibit segregation, and establish public education, and to open public transportation, State police, schools, and other institutions to black Americans.

Not only were the southern legislatures at that time Republican but nearly every southern legislature included many black legislators. In fact, the first 42 blacks elected to the State legislature in Texas were all Republicans. And in Louisiana, the first 95 black representatives and the first 32 black senators were Republicans. Similarly, in Alabama, the first 103 blacks elected to the State legislature were Republicans; 133 in Mississippi, the first 112; 134 in South Carolina, the first 190; 135 in southern pro slavery democrats were required to sign this oath before they could vote  and in Georgia, State legislature – all as Republicans. Virginia, the first 46; 136 in Florida, the first 30, 137 and the same in North Carolina; 13841 blacks were elected to the of course, Democrats were not pleased with this progress and therefore took decisive action. For example, in Georgia, where the State legislature was still in the hands of Democrats, they ruled republican civil rights laws opened new opportunities to black Americans some of the black republican members of the Louisiana legislature that while blacks might have the right to be elected, they did not have the right to serve in office; Democrats therefore expelled 31 elected blacks from the Georgia legislature, thus keeping the majority in the hands of Democrats.

Regrettably, many Democrats actually rejoiced over Lincoln’s election, for it had given them the excuse they wanted to secede and form their slaveholding nation. This was especially true with the Knights of the Golden Circle, an organization composed almost exclusively of Democrats. Before the Civil War, The Knights of the Golden Circle had worked to establish a separate slave nation that included the southern United States, Mexico, and part of Central America.

When the Civil War broke out; these Democrats narrowed their broad goals, focusing instead on making the Confederate States of America a separate slave nation.

Who were the leaders of that new nation of slaveholding States? Democratic U. S. Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi resigned from the Senate to become the

President of this new slaveholding nation, and Democratic Representative

Alexander Stephens of Georgia resigned from the House to become its Vice President. The citizens of this new slaveholding nation became known as “Rebels” since they were in rebellion against the United States.

This is not to say that every southern Rebel was a slaveholder or that every Southerner supported slavery, for such definitely was not the case. Yet many modern defenders of the southern Confederacy, in their misguided efforts to prove that slavery was not the primary issue during the Civil War, assert that only 5 percent of Southerners owned slaves. Such numbers are misleading, for while only 5 percent of Southerners may have owned slaves, 19 percent of Southerners lived in households that owned slaves. Furthermore, in several southern States such as South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and others almost half the population was slaves.  This means that in many of the southern States, almost two thirds of Southerners either were slaves, lived democrats Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens led the confederacy in slave households, or owned slaves; and much of the remaining one-third of Southerners made their living by supplying materials or services to the slave homes or plantations.

Therefore, the assertion that only 5 percent of Southerners may have owned slaves does not diminish the fact that slavery was the dominant industry in the southern States. Additionally, despite modern attempts to excuse the South through misleading claims that the conflict did not involve slavery, the secession documents of the States that left the Union as well as the official documents of the new nation itself prove otherwise. Consequently, since according to official documents of the South slavery was the primary distinction between the North and the South, Rebels therefore were fighting for the existence of a slaveholding nation.

While “States’ Rights” had been the cry of the southern States before the Civil War, that right had related primarily to the right of States to make their own decisions about slavery. When slavery ended, however, the cry of “States’ Rights” was still heard from the former States of the Confederacy, but this time it concerned the right of those States to make their own decisions about whether or not to recognize civil rights for black Americans. The phrase “States’ Rights” as related to southern States primarily became an euphemism first for holding blacks in slavery and then for subjecting them to Black Codes, segregation, and institutional discrimination. Returning to the election of 1860, with Republicans firmly in control of the federal government, they quickly began implementing signify slavery was THE dominant industry in the south cant changes. In 1862, they abolished slavery in Washington, D. C., and in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, freeing all slaves in the southern States in rebellion.

The Emancipation Proclamation was eagerly anticipated; many black Americans gathered in groups around clocks or watches eagerly awaiting the arrival of midnight on December 31, 1862. Frederick Douglass was in attendance at one such rally, and when midnight arrived, a celebration erupted and Douglass exclaimed:

It was one of the most affecting and thrilling occasions I ever witnessed, and a worthy celebration of the first step on the part of the nation in its departure from the thralldom bondage of the ages. In 1863, Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation Frederick Douglass. In 1864, following the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, several civil rights laws and laws preparing to facilitate civil rights were passed by Republicans. One was a bill establishing the Freedmen’s Bureau and another equalized pay for soldiers in the military, whether white or black. The Fugitive Slave Law was also repealed that year over the almost unanimous opposition of the northern Democrats still in Congress. 

It is worth noting that for over a century and a half, Democrats often have taken a position that some human life is disposable as they did in the Dred Scott decision. In that instance, a black individual was not a life; it was property; and an individual could do with his property as he wished. Today, Democrats have largely taken that same position on unborn human life that an unborn human is disposable property to do with as one wish.

African Americans were the victims of this disposable property ideology a century and a half ago, and still are today. Consider: although 12 percent of the current population is African American, almost 35 percent of all abortions are performed on African Americans. In fact, over the last decade, for every 100 African American live births, there were 53 abortions of African American babies. Democrats have encouraged this; and although black Americans are solidly pro life with almost two thirds opposing abortion on demand, a number of recent votes in Congress reveals that Democrats hold exactly the opposite view, with some 80 percent of congressional Democrats being almost rabidly pro-abortion and consistently voting against protections for innocent unborn human life. For over a century and a half, Democrats have wrongly argued that some human life is merely disposable personal property; black Americans have suffered most under this philosophy.

In the 1860 presidential election, there was a split in the Democratic Party: the northern Democrats and the southern Democrats. Both factions supported slavery; but while southern Democrats were democrats proudly distributed the DRED SCOTT ruling with their platform willing to split the United States to form their own nation over the issue, northern Democrats refused to do so. Northern Democrats voted for Stephen Douglas for President while southern Democrats voted for John C. Breckenridge. With this split in the Democratic vote, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected with only 40 percent of the popular vote, but 59 percent of the Electoral College vote. Republicans also won a majority in the U. S. House and Senate in that election, thus giving Republicans control of the lawmaking process for the first time.

Given the bold anti slavery and pro civil rights positions set forth by Republicans in their platforms, it was obvious to Democrats what was soon to occur: the anti slavery and pro civil rights positions of the Republicans were about to become reality. What was the Democrat’s response? Southern Democrats left Congress and took their States with them, forming a nation that described itself as the “slaveholding” Confederate States of America. While northern Democrats did not support this secession, they still supported slavery and opposed civil rights for black Americans. In short, the main difference between southern and northern Democrats at that time was their view on secession, not slavery. Lincoln’s inauguration as president the slave holding nation formed by democrats.

The original vice-presidents of the American Bible Society, in addition to John Langdon and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, also included several members of the Supreme Court: Justice John Jay, the original Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and one of the three authors of The Federalist Papers; Justice Bushrod Washington; and Justice Smith Thompson, a former Secretary of the Navy. (Justice John Marshall – an officer on George Washington’s staff during the Revolution, a Secretary of State under President John Adams, and the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – later became a vice-president of the American Bible Society.)

David Barton shows us that other founding officers of the American Bible Society included Felix Grundy, Attorney General under President Martin Van Buren; William Wirt, Attorney General under Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams; Matthew Clarkson, Major-General during the American Revolution; Caleb Strong, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and a governor of Massachusetts; William Gray, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts; John Cotton Smith, Governor of Connecticut; Jonas Galusha, Governor of Vermont; William Jones, Governor of Rhode Island; Isaac Shelby, Governor of Kentucky; George Madison, a later governor of Kentucky; Thomas Worthington, Governor of Ohio; Thomas Posey, Governor of Indiana; James Brown, U. S. Senator from Louisiana; William Tilghman, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; William Gaston, Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina; and Richard Varick,

Attorney General and Speaker of the House in New York. In fact, the original founders of the American Bible Society were a veritable “Who’s Who” of American political founders. 61  Another of the signers who appears in the painting of the signing of the Constitution is James McHenry. James McHenry was a military officer who served during the American Revolution as an aide to General George Washington. When Washington became

President, he selected McHenry as Secretary elias boudinot president of congress c. c. pinckney constitution signer john langdon constitution signer smith thompson u. s. supreme court bushrod washington u. s. supreme court john jay u. s. supreme court caleb strong governor of mass. william wirt u. s. attorney general felix grundy u. s. attorney general isaac shelby governor of kentucky richard varick new york attorney general william gaston n. c. supreme court some of the original founders of the american bible society of War, and McHenry continued in that post under President John Adams. (The fort named for this signer of the Constitution – Fort McHenry – was the site under bombardment observed by Francis Scott Key when he wrote the “Star Spangled Banner.”)

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Langdon are two others in the picture of the signing of the Constitution. There is a strong connection between these two signers and the 1997 landmark Promise Keepers Rally which took place on the National Mall fronting the Capitol on the west. The Promise Keepers Rally – a gath alexander hamilton pinckney (left) and langdon (right) ering of between one and two million men dedicated to being Godly influences in their family and their world – has been described by official observers as the largest gathering ever to occur at the Capitol.

David Barton explains that the American Bible Society prepared one million copies of a special commemorative edition of the Bible for that rally, and those million Bibles went quickly. Of course, it is not unusual for the American Bible Society to distribute a million Bibles in one day, for they distribute upwards of 200 million Bibles in a single year. The Society which handed out those million Bibles at the Promise Keepers Rally was founded two centuries ago with the help of signers of the Constitution, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Langdon.

The original constitution of the American Bible Society lists its founders, and the list is quite impressive. Its first president was the Honorable Elias Boudinot, who had served as a president of the Continental Congress, signed the final peace treaty with Great Britain to end the Revolution, and helped frame the Bill of Rights. Incidentally, Elias Boudinot also authored a book called The Age of Revelation – a Biblical refutation of Thomas Paine’s anti-religious work, The Age of Reason. elias boudinot, first president of the abs elias boudinot’s book original abs constitution

“In the name of the great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress!” It was this phrase, and the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, which earned Ethan Allen a place in Statuary Hall.

General Lew Wallace is perhaps best known, however, not for his military or political accomplishments but rather for his literary accomplishments. He was the author of the forever immortalized classic, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, the novel about the life of Judah Ben-Hur. That work, first printed in 1880, swept not only the nation but also the world, being translated into numerous languages.

The impetus for that famous work began in 1876 when General Wallace conversed at length with Robert Ingersoll, a co-officer from the Civil War. Ingersoll, titled by the press as “The Great Agnostic,” was the national evangelist for atheism. In his conversation with General Wallace, Ingersoll first forcefully asserted that there was no God, no Devil, and no afterlife, and then challenged Wallace to try to prove that Jesus was the Son of God. 42 Wallace was disturbed by the conversation and found himself ashamed of his own ignorance about the topics raised by Ingersoll, especially his own lack of knowledge about the life of Jesus.

Wallace therefore set out to research the life of Christ, as well as the Jewish and Roman cultures of that day. He studied numerous works, including those by Josephus and Edward Gibbon, and he eventually made a trip to the Holy Land to trace the steps of Christ. As a result of his research, two things happened to General Lew Wallace: one, he became a Christian; and two, he wrote the book that, even today, remains an international classic.

Consider also signer Richard Stockton. Like the others of the signers, he pledged his life, fortune, and sacred honor for the cause of American independence; and like the others, he kept his promise. In fact, he was one of nine signers of the Declaration who did not survive the American Revolution.

Richard Stockton was captured by the British and, as an American prisoner of war, was tortured and severely abused. Incidentally, during the American Revolution, it was actually safer for an American soldier to be on the battlefield facing British muskets than to be captured and placed in a British prisoner of war camp. Thousands more Americans died from British prisoner of war camps than from British bullets. 18 hopkinson’s hymnal (left) and the twenty-third p

The Americans eventually were able to arrange for the release of Richard Stockton through a prisoner exchange; but his health was so crushed that he never recovered; he was dying and he knew it. Understanding this, he placed his temporal affairs in order and penned his last will and testament. Notice his strong Christian faith evident in that document:

[A]s my children will have frequent occasion of perusing this instrument, and may probably be particularly impressed with the last words of their father, I think it proper here not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great and leading doctrines of the Christian religion, such as the being of God; the universal defection and depravity of human nature; the Divinity of the person and the completeness of the redemption purchased by the blessed Savior; the necessity of the operations of the Divine Spirit; of Divine faith accompanied with an habitual virtuous life; and the universality of the Divine Providence: but also, in the bowels of a father’s affection, to exhort and charge [my children] that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, that the way of life held up in the Christ

 There is no doubt that this Founding Father – who sacrificed his life for our freedom – was a strong Christian; and he has been honored in the Capitol with a statue, located in East Central Hall.

Consider also signer Thomas McKean. He was one of America’s leading legal authorities and was responsible for a 1792 Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States of America. Thomas McKean, in addition to signing the Declaration of Independence, also helped author the constitutions of Pennsylvania and of Delaware and served as governor in each of those States.  Additionally, he was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

In the case Respublica v. John Roberts 20 (a trialover which Chief Justice McKean presided), John Roberts was sentenced to death after a jury found him guilty of treason. (In those days, a sentence of death meant that the prisoner had just a few days left on earth, not fifteen to twenty years.) After reporting the jury’s decision and delivering the sentence, Chief Justice McKean then offered these words of wisdom to John Roberts:

You will probably have but a short time to live. Before you launch into eternity, it behooves you to improve the time that may be allowed you in this world: it behooves you most seriously to reflect upon your past conduct; to repent of your evil deeds; to be incessant in prayers to the great and merciful God to forgive your manifold transgressions and sins; to teach you to rely upon the merit and passion of a dear Redeemer, and thereby to avoid those regions of sorrow – those doleful shades where peace and rest can never dwell, where even hope cannot enter. It behooves you to seek the [fellowship], advice, and prayers of pious and good men; to be [persistent] at the Throne of Grace, and to learn the way that leadeth to happiness. May you, reflecting upon these things, and pursuing the will of the great Father of light and life, be received into [the] company and society of angels and archangels and the spirits of just men made perfect; and may you be qualified to enter into the joys of Heaven – joys unspeakable and full of glory!  

If one accepts the current ridiculous charges that our Founders were not religious, then this is the account of an alleged deist Founding Father giving a very Christ-centered altar call in a courtroom. Hardly! Signer of the Declaration Thomas McKean was another of our many Founding Fathers who was a strong Christian.

Begin with John Witherspoon. He was an ordained minister of the Gospel, published several books of Gospel sermons, and played major roles in two American editions of the Bible, including one from 1791 that is considered America’s first family Bible.

The Rev. Dr. Witherspoon wrote the introduction for this Bible, and although the Bible’s text is essentially the same as that of the King James version, it does not carry that title. After all, the Americans – including Dr. Witherspoon – had just fought a war to be free of kings, so why attach the name of a king to an American edition of the Bible? Therefore, this Bible describes itself only as “The Holy Bible” because, as Dr. Witherspoon pointed out, this was God’s Word, not the word of a king!

John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration and minister of the Gospel, helped produce America’s very first family Bible. Consider next Charles Thomson. Charles Thomson was the Secretary of Congress, and he and John Hancock were the only two to sign the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Charles Thomson is another Founder responsible for an American edition of the Bible. That Bible – called Thomson’s Bible – was the first translation of the Greek Septuagint into English. It took Charles Thomson twenty-five years to complete his translation, but even today that work is still considered one of the more scholarly American translations of the Bible.

Consider also signer Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Charles Carroll was the last of the fifty-six signers to pass away, dying in 1832 at the age of 95. A strong and unequivocal declaration of his Christian faith appears in numerous writings, including a letter he wrote on his 89th birthday in which he declared: “On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation, and on His merits; not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts.In other of his writings, Charles Carroll explained that his Christian faith was one of the chief reasons that he had entered