CHURCH & STATE ATHEISTS

Now the other side of the story...

George Washington's Prayer Journal
http://personal.pitnet.net/primarysources/george.html

From Truth or Fiction website.
Religious Significance of the George Washington and the Washington Monument-Mostly Truth!
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/w/washmonument.htm

CONTRADICTION? OR SYMBOLIC TOLERANCE?
THE STATE BECOMES THE CHURCH:
JEFFERSON AND MADISON
It is no exaggeration to say that on Sundays in Washington during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) and of James Madison (1809-1817) the state became the church. Within a year of his inauguration, Jefferson began attending church services in the House of Representatives. Madison followed Jefferson's example, although unlike Jefferson, who rode on horseback to church in the Capitol, Madison came in a coach and four. Worship services in the House--a practice that continued until after the Civil War--were acceptable to Jefferson because they were nondiscriminatory and voluntary. Preachers of every Protestant denomination appeared. (Catholic priests began officiating in 1826.) As early as January 1806 a female evangelist, Dorothy Ripley, delivered a camp meeting-style exhortation in the House to Jefferson, Vice President Aaron Burr, and a "crowded audience." Throughout his administration Jefferson permitted church services in executive branch buildings. The Gospel was also preached in the Supreme Court chambers.

Jefferson's actions may seem surprising because his attitude toward the relation between religion and government is usually thought to have been embodied in his recommendation that there exist "a wall of separation between church and state." In that statement, Jefferson was apparently declaring his opposition, as Madison had done in introducing the Bill of Rights, to a "national" religion. In attending church services on public property, Jefferson and Madison consciously and deliberately were offering symbolic support to religion as a prop for republican government.
=====================================================
The Old House of Representatives
Church services were held in what is now called Statuary Hall from 1807 to 1857. The first services in the Capitol, held when the government moved to Washington in the fall of 1800, were conducted in the "hall" of the House in the north wing of the building. In 1801 the House moved to temporary quarters in the south wing, called the "Oven," which it vacated in 1804, returning to the north wing for three years. Services were conducted in the House until after the Civil War. The Speaker's podium was used as the preacher's pulpit.
===========================================
Communion Service in the Treasury Building
Manasseh Cutler here describes a four-hour communion service in the Treasury Building, conducted by a Presbyterian minister, the Reverend James Laurie: "Attended worship at the Treasury. Mr. Laurie alone. Sacrament. Full assembly. Three tables; service very solemn; nearly four hours." From original documents.
Journal entry, December 23, 1804
============================================
Adams's Description of a Church Service in the Supreme Court
John Quincy Adams here describes the Reverend James Laurie, pastor of a Presbyterian Church that had settled into the Treasury Building, preaching to an overflow audience in the Supreme Court Chamber, which in 1806 was located on the ground floor of the Capitol.
Diary entry, February 2, 1806
John Quincy Adams. Copyprint
Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston (177)
==================================================
Church Services in Congress after the Civil War
Charles Boynton (1806-1883) was in 1867 chaplain of the House of Representatives and organizing pastor of the First Congregational Church in Washington, which was trying at that time to build its own sanctuary. In the meantime the church, as Boynton informed potential donors, was holding services "at the Hall of Representatives" where "the audience is the largest in town. . . .nearly 2000 assembled every Sabbath" for services, making the congregation in the House the "largest Protestant Sabbath audience then in the United States." The First Congregational Church met in the House from 1865 to 1868.
Fundraising brochure
Charles B. Boynton. Washington, D.C.: November 1, 1867
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (18
====================================
The first two Presidents of the United States were patrons of religion--George Washington was an Episcopal vestryman, and John Adams described himself as "a church going animal." Both offered strong rhetorical support for religion. In his Farewell Address of September 1796, Washington called religion, as the source of morality, "a necessary spring of popular government," while Adams claimed that statesmen "may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand." Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the third and fourth Presidents, are generally considered less hospitable to religion than their predecessors, but evidence presented in this section shows that, while in office, both offered religion powerful symbolic support.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06-2.html
===============================================

The anti-religion, no correct that, "anti-Christian" crowd would have had Jefferson, Madison and Adams, as well as the rest of the Founders that attended services on public property taken to court for daring to attend services on government property. The strict adherence to the sepreation of church and state by Jefferson, and Madison proported by the ant-Christian revisionists seems to have not troubled Jefferson or Madison none at all. Nor any of the citizens, or courts of that time.

Benjamin Franklin

Constitutional Convention Address on Prayer

I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that "except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall be become a reproach and a bye word down to future age. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human Wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move -- that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/benfranklin.htm
=====================================
John Adams

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." --October 11, 1798

“The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity…I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and the attributes of God.”
[June 28, 1813; Letter to Thomas Jefferson]

“We recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!”
[April 18, 1775, on the eve of the Revolutionary War after a British major ordered John Adams, John Hancock, and those with them to disperse in “the name of George the Sovereign King of England." ]

• “[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”
[letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress]

"I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen." December 25, 1813 letter to Thomas Jefferson
===============================================
Our founding documents are satuated with religious phrasolgy. Laws of Nature and of Nature's God, Endowed by their Creator--The Declaration of Independence, Reverance for our Creator --Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms: July 6, 1775, Unto the honour of Almighty God, and for the salvation of the souls----Magna Carta: as confirmed by Edward I with his seal in 1297, and it gose on and on.

If any of these documents were put forth by our government today the ACLU and their atheists friends, like Michael Newdow would piss themselves screaming "the government is invoking religion!"

The whole point of the Founders using relegious langueage in our founding documents was to empahsis, and establish that our rights "do not" come from man or the state, they come from God. And to deny that concept, puts all our God given rights in jepody. What man, or the state gives, they feel they can take away. Not so, if it is established that man, or the state did not give us those rights in the first place.

While I can agree with atheits and secularists that we should not have a state supported goverment, as in "Congress shall make no law establishing religion, or to prevent the free exercise thereof, or to infringe the rights of conscience"-- Atheists and secularists "CAN NOT" in any way shape or form, aknowledge that relegion, in particular the Judeao-Christian religion had "any" kind of influence on the shaping, founding, and philosphy of this nation. Give me a break!! Even when we see tons, and tons of that influence from the Founders writings. For the secularists, and atheists, to give any credence to our Christian heritage, would mean giving ligitimacy to Christianity, and they "CAN NOT EVER" afford to do that. Because in their worldview, relegion must be smashed and destoryed, and giving legitmacy in any way to what they hate, would not work toward their agenda. So deception, and bised omissions must be the order of the day when examing, and siting the founding documents.
=====================================
The Point!!

Our founding documents are saturated with religious philosophy . Laws of Nature and of Nature's God, Endowed by their Creator--The Declaration of Independence, Reverence for our Creator --Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms: July 6, 1775, Unto the honor of Almighty God, and for the salvation of the souls----Magna Carta: as confirmed by Edward I with his seal in 1297, and it goes on and on.

If any of these documents were put forth by our government today the ACLU and their atheists friends, like Michael Newdow would piss themselves screaming "the government is invoking religion!"

The whole point of the Founders using religious language in our founding documents was to emphasis, and establish that our rights "do not" come from man or the state, they come from God. And to deny that concept, puts all our God given rights in jeopardy. What man, or the state gives, they feel they can take away. Not so, if it is established that man, or the state did not give us those rights in the first place.

While I can agree with atheist and secularists that we should not have a state supported government, as in "Congress shall make no law establishing religion, or to prevent the free exercise thereof, or to infringe the rights of conscience"-- Atheists and secularists "CAN NOT" in any way shape or form, acknowledge that religion, in particular the Judaeo-Christian religion had "any" kind of influence on the shaping, founding, and philosophy of this nation. Give me a break!! Even when we see tons, and tons of that influence from the Founders writings. For the secularists, and atheists, to give any credence to our Christian heritage, would mean giving legitimacy to Christianity, and they "CAN NOT EVER" afford to do that. Because in their worldview, religion must be smashed and destroyed, and giving legitimacy in any way to what they hate, would not work toward their agenda. So deception, and biased omissions must be the order of the day when examining, and siting the founding documents.

I could find tons and tons of quotes from the founders, and founding documents for my position, as well from the other position of "religion has no influence at all on the shaping of the country." Really you can find information for whatever your position is. But the overwhelming evidence is that Christianity, especially Calvinism had a profound influence on the founding of this nation.