[27]
4 Washington Irving, Life
of George Washington 475 (New York: G. P. Putnam & Co.,
1857); Mrs. C. M Kirkland,
Memoirs of Washington 438
(New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1870); Charles
Carleton Coffin, Building
the Nation 26 (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1882);
etc.
[28]
1 Richardson,
Messages and Papers 51-54 (April
30, 1789).
[29]
1 Annals of Congress
29 (April 30, 1789).
[30]
Acts Passed at a Congress of the
United States of America Begun and Held at the City of New-York, on
Wednesday the Fourth of March, in the Year 1789, 104 (Hartford:
Hudson & Goodwin, 1791) (August 7, 1789).
[31]
1 Debates and Proceedings 685 (1st
Cong., 1st Sess.) (July 21,
1789, passage by the House), and 1 Debates
and Proceedings 57 (August 4, 1789, passage by the Senate).
[32]
Constitutions (1813) 364
("An Ordinance of the Territory of the United States Northwest of
the River Ohio," Article III).
[33]
For example, State constitutions across the decades reflecting this
requirement include the 1803 Ohio Constitution (Constitutions
(1813), 334, Ohio, 1802, Article 8, Section 3); the 1817 Mississippi
Constitution (The Constitutions
of All the United States According to the Latest Amendments
(Lexington, KY: Thomas T. Skillman, 1817), 389, Mississippi, 1817,
Article 9, Section 16); the 1858 Kansas Constitution (House of
Representatives, Mis. Doc. No. 44, 35th Cong., 2nd Sess., February 2,
1859, 3-4, Article 1, Section 7, of the Kansas Constitution); the 1875
Nebraska Constitution (M. B. C. True, A
Manual of the History and Civil Government of the State of Nebraska
(Omaha: Gibson, Miller, & Richardson, 1885), 34, Nebraska, 1875,
Article 1, Section 4); etc.
[34]
See The Constitution of North
Carolina 42 (Raleigh: Rufus L. Edmisten, Secretary of State,
1989) (Article 9, Section 1); Constitution
of the State of Nebraska 1-2 (Lincoln: Allen J. Beermann,
Secretary of State, 1992) (Article 1, Section 4); Page's
Ohio Revised Code Annotated 24 (Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing
Co., 1994) (Article 1, Section 7).
[35]
United States Code Annotated 1
(St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1987) ("The Organic Laws of the
United States of America").
Religion
in Public | WallBuilders
Is the
Constitution a Secular Document?
Any government that will not acknowledge itself to be under
God is a government that believes it is God.
False Religions
|
Everything that the ACLU opposes when it speaks
of "imposing a theocracy" was done by Washington and the
Founding Fathers.
Congress was sitting in New York on April 30,
1789, when Washington took the oath of office as Chief Executive. During
his inauguration, Washington took the oath as prescribed by the
Constitution but added several religious components to that official
ceremony. Before taking his oath of office, he summoned a Bible on which
to take the oath, added the words "So help me God!" to the end
of the oath, then leaned over and kissed the Bible. [27]
His "Inaugural Address" was filled with numerous religious
references, [28]
and following that address, he and the Congress "proceeded to St.
Paul's Chapel, where Divine service was performed." [29]
Only weeks later,
Washington signed his first major federal bill [30]
- the Northwest Ordinance, drafted concurrently with the creation of the
First Amendment. [31]
That act stipulated that for a territory to become a State, the
"schools and the means of education" in that territory must
encourage the "religion, morality, and knowledge" that was
"necessary to good
government and the happiness of mankind." [32]
Conforming to this requirement, numerous subsequent State constitutions
included that clause, [33]
and it still appears in State constitutions today. [34]
Furthermore, that law is listed in the current federal code, along with
the Constitution, the Declaration, and the Articles of Confederation, as
one of America's four "organic" or foundational laws. [35]
Washington would be appalled that today's Supreme Court says it is
"unconstitutional" for children in public schools to be taught
that Christianity is "necessary
to good government and the happiness of mankind."
Every single person who signed the Constitution believed that it was, and
intended for government to endorse
that idea.
In his Inaugural Address, Washington, speaking publicly and officially
as the new President of the United States, said:
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public
summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly
improper to omit, in this first official
act, my fervent supplications to the Almighty Being, who rules
over the universe, who presides in the councils
of nations, and whose providential
aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction
may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the
United States a government instituted
by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every
instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the
functions allotted to his charge.
In tendering this homage to the great
Author of every public
and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not
less than my own; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large, less than
either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the
invisible hand, which conducts the affairs of men, more than the
people of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to
the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished
by some token of providential
agency. And, in the revolution just accomplished in the system of
their united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary
consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has
resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most governments
have been established, without some return of pious gratitude along with
a humble anticipation of the future blessings
which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the
present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be
suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are
none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free
government can more auspiciously commence.
President Washington could not have said these things to children in a
public school classroom. (And not just because American public school
students are generally illiterate
and wouldn't understand half of what colonial teenagers would have
understood.)
In his Farewell Address, Washington reminded the nation:
Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political
prosperity, Religion, and Morality are
indispensable supports.—In vain would that man claim the
tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars
of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and
Citizens. —The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to
respect and to cherish them.—A volume could not trace all their
connexions with private and public
felicity.—Let it simply be asked where is the security for property,
for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert
the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of
Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality
can be maintained without religion.—Whatever may be conceded to the
influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure—reason
and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can
prevail in exclusion of religious principle.—
Washington - indisputably
a constitutional expert - declared that religion and morality were
inseparable from government, and that no true patriot, whether politician
or clergyman, would attempt to weaken the relationship between government
and the influence of religion and morality.
These statements clearly violate the modern-day Supreme Court's
delusion that the government must be "separate" from religion,
that believers not be favored over unbelievers, and the
Humanist myth that religion be kept private.
To the extent that you believe in the modern myth of "separation
of church and state," you are an inferior American, and George
Washington would be disgusted with you. The program at GeorgeWashingtonCoaching
will help you become a Christian Theocrat like George
Washington and the rest of America's Founding Fathers.
Sam Adams said,
[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the
liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.
His cousin, John Adams, said:
[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with
human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our
constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is
wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the
principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of
a free constitution is pure virtue.
Sam Adams wrote to his cousin John:
| Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and
patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing
the minds of men with the importance of educating their little
boys and girls, of inculcating in the minds of youth the fear
and love of the Deity. . . and, in subordination to these great
principles, the love of their country. . . . In
short, of leading them in the study and practice of the exalted
virtues of the Christian system. |
|
Letter to John Adams, 1790, who
wrote back: "You
and I agree."
Four Letters: Being an Interesting
Correspondence Between Those Eminently Distinguished Characters,
John Adams, Late President of the United States; and Samuel Adams,
Late Governor of Massachusetts. On the Important Subject of
Government (Boston: Adams and Rhoades, 1802) pp. 9-10
|
This is exactly what GeorgeWashingtonCoaching
will do for you. You can
compensate for what the federal government denied you as a little boy or
girl by enrolling in GeorgeWashingtonCoaching.
On the day after the Constitution went into effect in March of 1789,
America as a whole and each one of the 13 united States was a
Christian Theocracy.
A Christian Theocracy seeks to give God all the glory. It's hard to see
that God rules today when the
State claims to be the Messiah.
Americans today have been misled by the myth of "the Separation of
Church and State." This mythical idea -- not found anywhere in the
Constitution -- has come to mean the separation of God
and State, with God being separated into the private world of
fantasy and imagination, and the State having omnipotent
power in "the real world."
| In
1892 the United States Supreme Court
unanimously declared that America was "a
Christian nation." The Court went
back to the discovery of North America by
Columbus, and summarized all the official
legal charters and documents that acknowledged
our duty to God and created the American
Theocracy, the most prosperous
and admired nation in history. |
In
1989 the Court said, "This
Court squarely has rejected the
proposition that the First Amendment is to be interpreted
in light of any favoritism for Christianity
that may have existed among the Founders of
the Republic. "May
have?" America is no longer a nation
under God. As a result, America -- once
prosperous and admired -- is now bankrupt
and despised. |
|
|
The great conflict in Western Civilization today is
whether our world will become
The third reading assignment will be the
history of Christian Theocracy and "Western
Civilization."
Hundreds of years before Christ, the
prophet Daniel spoke of the first Christmas, the birth of the
Messiah in the days of the Roman Empire. That empire was destroyed, and
Christian Theocracy began growing. The Emperor Justinian began
Christianizing the Eastern Roman Empire, and in the West kings like
Alfred and Ethelbert made the 10 Commandments the basis of new legal
systems. The "Common Law" began, with
a Christian foundation, and eventually found its way into the
Constitution of the United States, "a Christian nation." No
one book adequately chronicles this history, so we will read from a
number of books that try:
 
 
Excerpts from these books are freely available on the
Internet. Only one of the authors agrees with our radical conclusions
(described below), but their arguments lead to our conclusions if
consistently held.
There are two stories that need to be told:
The first is how Christianity
destroyed the slavery and paganism of the
Roman Empire and inaugurated "Liberty Under God," the
foundation of "Western Civilization" (476 A.D.- 1517
A.D.).
- The second story is the
story of America, and how
-
• Calvinism created America
(1517-1787)
• America apostatized into an atheistic empire (1787-2012)
• and -- hopefully -- how America repented and became an anarchist-theocracy
(2012 - ????).
To begin this second story, George Washington would assign
the reading of the Supreme Court's opinion in the 1892 Decision Holy
Trinity Church vs. The United States and all the historic legal
documents cited by the Court. |
| |
The fourth book of the five most important books in the
history of America and Western Civilization is about
Capitalism
Capitalism or socialism?
This is the second great question of our age. It is a
derivative of the first great question, Theonomy
or Automony?
The Wealth of Nations
Many Americans today believe that the government produces
wealth. Others want the government to redistribute wealth ("spread
the wealth") to special interests -- the most special of all
interests, of course, being "ME!" Such people wouldn't
even entertain the idea of abolishing the current tyranny,
much less actively work toward that goal, because that which America's
Founders described as "tyranny" many in our day would praise as
a big benevolent brother. "The government can give us whatever we
want if we just vote the most generous and compassionate politicians into
office," they believe.
Adam Smith would be appalled at such ignorance and
immorality. Smith taught ethics at the University of Glasgow and wrote a Theory
of Moral Sentiments .
In the same year as the Declaration of Independence was written (1776),
Adam Smith wrote a book entitled An
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations,
widely regarded as the first treatise on capitalism.
Capitalism is unquestionably one of the most important
features of Western Civilization. Capitalist nations enjoy health and
prosperity.
"Capitalism" is the opposite of
"socialism."
Socialist nations can't spread the wealth, they can only
spread the poverty by compulsion and threats of violence. Socialism
-- government intervention in the economy -- is not just inefficient
and wasteful, it is immoral.
Smith's Wealth of Nations is not easy
reading, but George Washington would insist that no true American can be
without a basic understanding of capitalism and the laws of a free
economy. Fortunately, in our day a more recent treatise on capitalism as
been written which is wonderfully illuminating and readable: Capitalism
by Prof. George Reisman.
 
 
George Washington would assign Reisman's text to any
American who wanted to become an extraordinary American. Consistent
socialism is maximum government. We believe consistent
capitalism is the exact opposite.
If you thought "Theocracy" was controversial,
please have a seat. The odds are good that you are a victim of
The
Biggest Government Lie in all of Human History.
George Washington was the father of a nation "under
God" -- a Christian Theocracy. He was also the father of nation of
"LIBERTY UNDER GOD." And if
he could see the progress (and regress) of the last 200 years, he would
advocate
100% pure laissez-faire capitalism
You might not be offended at that idea. Yet.
It means the absence of all
socialism. Every trace.
If you think about that for a minute or two, you'll
realize that another word for the complete absence of socialism is
"anarchism."
That word is explosive. That's because you've been
brainwashed. That's because you are a victim of
The
Biggest Government Lie in all of Human History.
Pure capitalism is anarcho-capitalism,
the absence of government force. Prof. Reisman disagrees with us,
but his book will help us prove our point with credibility and impeccable
logic.
Are you a socialist or a capitalist?
You probably haven't even begun to answer this question. |
|
How do libertarians respond to the accusation that they do not have
enough trust in
government? John Adams wrote in 1772:
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government
ought to be to trust no man living with power
to endanger the public liberty."
Should libertarians have more confidence in their government? Thomas
Jefferson, 1799:
Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism.
Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is
jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to
bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.… In questions
of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him
down from mischief by the chains
of the Constitution.
James Madison warned the people of Virginia (1799):
the nation which reposes on the pillow of political confidence, will
sooner or later end its political existence in a deadly lethargy.
Madison added in Federalist No. 55,
[T]here is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain
degree of circumspection and distrust. . . .
Trusting government, having "confidence in government," is un-American.
The British historian Lord Acton put it this
way:
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Great men are almost always bad
men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still
more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by
authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the
holder of it.
The exercise of political power is problematic. We should assume that
"great men" -- that is, powerful men -- men who
wield the force of "the government" -- are morally corrupt. This
assumption should be considered confirmed if he increases his own
power during his time of "public service."
Why Bad Men
Rule by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
"Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of
power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers
of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well,
but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters ... but they
mean to be masters."
~ Daniel Webster
|
Everybody talks about "smaller
government." Everybody agrees that some government needs to be cut.
How much? When and where do we stop cutting?
In 1776, America's Founding Fathers proposed a form of government which
scandalized many. A government with NO KING.
It was unprecedented.
How can a nation preserve social order -- how can a government govern
-- with no king? It would be like a headless horseman!
It got worse. America's government would be a government characterized
by "the Consent of the
Governed."
This turned the entire concept of "government" on its head.
When the king has a "divine right" to govern his subjects, the
subjects have no right to disagree with the king. Every decree of the king
is assumed to be valid, even if the subjects don't like it. But in
America, every action of the government would be presumed to be INVALID unless
the governed consented to the government's act.
We The People would govern ourselves.
And -- We the People would govern the government.
We the People
would tell the government how to govern!
Breathtaking.
It rocked the world.
Only a Theocracy -- a people "under God" -- can be trusted
with self-government -- capitalism and a Free Market. And if religion and
morality hold sway in a nation, then we can safely criticize America's
Founding Fathers for replacing one government with another. They
themselves taught us not to trust civil governments for social order, but
to trust in religion
and morality. If you're having second thoughts about enrolling in GeorgeWashingtonCoaching,
read the quotes on that
page. Take a glance at the linked pages on that
page. After reading the Bible, the Westminster Standards, the history
of Theocracy and Western Civilization, and Reisman's treatise on
Capitalism, you will be ready for the next paradigm.
It will be bigger than "consent of the governed."
If you and I don't follow the lead of George Washington, the next
generation will be engulfed in socialism and the darkness of
"false
religions" (to use the words of James Madison, the "Father
of the Constitution").
|
|
More and more Christians are applying Christian worldview
materials. Charles
Colson writes:
One lawyer told me
that he has started a discussion group, studying worldview with
non-believers in his firm. A college professor said that he uses BreakPoints
to start discussions in his secular college classroom. A businessman in
Minneapolis leads a group of businessmen in worldview discussions and
sends them out to teach others.
And my friend Nancy Fitzgerald in
Indianapolis teaches worldview lessons to teenagers in her home. Last
year, two groups of one hundred arrived each Sunday, listened to an
hour-long lecture, and then camped out all over her house in small
groups to talk about what they had learned. Many of them keep up with
her after they get to college.
Elsewhere Colson describes a coaching program of his own:
Three years ago, I
launched a year-long distance education program called Centurions,
designed to equip one hundred men and women each year to defend truth in
an age when too many are throwing their weapons down.
Sadly, bad philosophy—like
relativism, naturalism, and secular humanism—runs rampant in our
legislatures, schools, movie theaters, and even our churches. In the
face of this, Centurions is preparing men and women not just to
understand and articulate their own Christian worldview, but also to
proactively teach that worldview to others and engage the culture in
their own particular sphere of influence.
One of our Centurion graduates,
Jeff Clinton, a contributor to BreakPoint’s blog, The Point,
describes in a recent post what sets the program apart. He writes, “The
Centurions program is not a program where you [leave simply] with a
fresh set of books. Entering the program comes with a commitment to . .
. influence others and pass on knowledge, [which] creates a special
dynamic that goes with being part of a community of serious,
kingdom-minded Christians who want to engage a needy world for the cause
of Christ.” Jeff underscores exactly the vision we have for the
program, one of exponential cultural impact.
And we have plenty of examples of
Centurions doing just that from Wendell Cantrell in Johannesburg, South
Africa, who is investing deeply in discipling fifteen others in biblical
worldview, to Centurions Nanci Boice, Rick Hooten, and Dave Brown, who
hosted a worldview conference in Austin, Texas, for 130 people last
January.
But not only are Centurions sharing
the training they’ve received, they are also impacting the culture
firsthand. There’s Jim Walter, who is engaging in public debate,
meeting with public officials, and writing letters-to-editors on issues
of bioethics and human dignity. There’s Will Burns, who is part of a
team that is planting a church that will seek to draw in artists,
encouraging and supporting them in their craft during the week and
celebrating the Creator on Sundays. And there’s John Nunnikhoven, who
has taught an eight-week worldview course for civic and political
leaders in Vermont.
Our culture urgently needs more men
and women who will rightly wield good philosophy to counter the bad
philosophy of the postmodern era, men and women who can winsomely
present the Christian worldview in their sphere of influence.
- Colson's "Centurions" program is a great program.
- We've plagiarized a great deal from it.
- But GeorgeWashingtonCoaching
is more
- radical and extremist
than the "Centurions" program.
- The Founder of GeorgeWashingtonCoaching
- was denied a slot in the "Centurions" program
- because he believes
- George Washington made huge mistakes.
- As you review those alleged mistakes below,
- ask yourself if you want to be a "conservative" and
- conserve (or repeat) the mistakes of the past,
- or whether you want to
- "turn the world upside down"
- with a new
paradigm.
-
- GeorgeWashingtonCoaching
can equip you
- to make a difference,
- and to bring glory to God.
- (And it's half the price of Chuck Colson's
- "Centurions" program.")
|
- When you complete a year of
- GeorgeWashingtonCoaching,
- you will have a passion for making America
- a nation "Under God." During the next year
- we are not just going to read five books.
- We are going to formulate the steps
- that George Washington would take if
- he could look back with 20/20 hindsight
- and realize that violent revolution
- is not the answer to tyranny and .atheistic dictatorship.
-
- You will become an
- • an extraordinary American
- • an extraordinary Christian
- • an extraordinary Human Being
-
- We have more time than Washington did.
- Washington had to chop firewood to heat his home.
- You just flick a switch.
- His horse took hours to get to town.
- Your car takes mere minutes.
- Your kitchen and office are filled with
- “labor-saving devices” that free up your time
- to watch American Idol and read the sports page
- every day.
-
- Replace one hour of the “mainstream media”
- with an hour of GeorgeWashingtonCoaching
over the next
- 365 days, and you will become
- • an extraordinary American
- • an extraordinary Christian
- • an extraordinary Human Being
-
- GeorgeWashingtonCoaching
uses internet technology to
- recreate a complete colonial education
- for adults
- in just one year.
|
