I was pleasantly surprised to receive a packet in the mail recently from Dee Wampler, Springfield attorney, talk radio host and author. It contained his most recent book “Standing On The Front Line”.
Dee was my first political mentor back in the 70’s and has remained a good friend all these years.
I never dreamed that I would need his newest book for research so soon, but then I heard the President’s pronouncement this week giving credit to the Muslims for their contributions to “building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy”, and I had to respond in some fashion.
So let me get this straight. A few months ago he pointed his finger and lashed out at American entrepreneurs, telling them “You didn’t build that!” even though they invested many years of labor and thousands of their own dollars and assumed tremendous risk to build a business.
Now he is giving credit to Muslims for building America? For strengthening the core of democracy? The Muslims? Really?
The fabric of America was woven from the very tenets of our Judeo-Christian heritage. It was stitched by our courageous patriot soldiers at Valley Forge during the intense cold and near starvation there in the winter of 1777.
It was held together by the oratory of Patrick Henry and Nathan Hale, and when it showed signs of weakening during that steamy sweltering July summer in Constitution Hall in 1787, it was quickly patched by Benjamin Franklin’s call for daily prayer.
When it threatened to become unraveled in 1861,President Abraham Lincoln stood at Gettysburg and boldly proclaimed “...that the nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
It was the fabric of this nation which was lit up in the skies over Fort McHenry as Francis Scott Key wrote about the “rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air” on that awesome night when our flag continued to wave while being bombarded all night long.
Our founding fathers were men of faith and often quoted the Bible in their speeches and writings, and it is here that I want to divert to Dee Wampler’s book, after having received permission from him to use his quotes.
The quotes are important because over the years critics of our American heritage have tried to destroy the fact that these men were indeed Bible believing Christians, and Dee Wampler has devoted many hours of research to documenting their steadfast faith in God.
George Washington said, “Do not let anyone claim to be a true American if they ever attempt to remove religion from politics.”
Abraham Lincoln in one of his calls to the nation for a Day of Repentance said, “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power….but we have forgotten God. It behooves us to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
President John Adams said: “Those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, wrote: “Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they who are decrying the Christian religion...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.”
Thomas Jefferson, who has many times been mentioned by the critics of Christianity as not a believer, put that all to rest when near the end of his life he wrote in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush: “To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed but not to the general precepts of Jesus Himself; I am a Christian, and the only sense in which He wished anyone to be; sincerely attached to His doctrines, in preference to all others.”
And we haven’t even discussed the quotes of more modern day leaders like President Ronald Reagan and Martin Luther King, Jr. who also spoke of this being a Christian nation.
The decisions of our US Supreme Court over the years further document that the Justices believed America is a Christian nation.
In 1844 the US Supreme Court in Vidal v. Girard said it would never allow Christianity to be “maliciously reviled and blasphemed against to the annoyance of believers or the injury of the public.”
In 1892 in the case of Holy Trinity v. United States, the Supreme Court reviewed hundreds of documents from our founding fathers and concluded “There is a universal language pervading them all, having one meaning; they affirm and reaffirm that this is a religious nation. This is a Christian nation.”
The Supreme Court in 1892 in the case of Zorach v. Claussen stated: “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.”
Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court John Jay declared that in choosing rulers, “It is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians as our rulers.”
In 1954 the US Supreme Court ruled: “...no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the Spirit of the Saviour have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses. We are a Christian land governed by Christian principles.”
Mr. President, this nation was built by men who wrote the stirring words of the Declaration of Independence, and who spoke so eloquently and fervently of their willingness to lay down their lives for this nation so that over 200 years later, we can still enjoy the freedom fruits of their labor and sacrifice as we proudly proclaim our Christian faith and pray that God will continue to bless America.
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