That is why I believe it is important to recall that our Founders were men of faith who understood a need for honoring God in our founding documents and in our national traditions. Our founders had an open appreciation for God and sought His blessings on our nation.

Listen to the words of our President John Adams in an 1813 letter to Thomas Jefferson: “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”

One of my favorite American speeches was delivered by Benjamin Franklin to the Continental Convention on June 28, 1787. On that pivotal day, Mr. Franklin stated, “We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House they labor in vain who 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 become a Reproach and Bye word down to future Ages….”

If Mr. Franklin delivered that speech today, he would be mocked by the ACLU and similar groups that oppose public religious expression.

Samuel Adams, father of the American Revolution, stated, “I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world ... that the confusions that are and have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing in the holy and happy period when the kingdoms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and the people willingly bow to the scepter of Him who is the Prince of Peace” (from a Massachusetts “Fast Day Proclamation” issued March 20, 1797).

These men were not ashamed of their faith nor were they afraid to implore the blessings of Christ for the nation, even in our courts.

John Jay, author of “The Federalist Papers” and the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, stated, “I recommend a general and public return of praise and thanksgiving to Him from whose goodness these blessings descend. The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow.”

America also utilized God’s Word to teach public school students respect for God and country.

Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, stated, “[T]he only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.”

Further, our Founders understood that when our Judeo-Christian roots are overthrown, our freedoms are literally at stake.

In 1799, Jedidiah Morse, historian of the American Revolution, said, “Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government — and all the blessings which flow from them — must fall with them.”

Tragically, many in our nation are unfamiliar with the biblical roots of our founding. It is because of this lack of knowledge that the enemies of our history are able to get away with altering it for their selfish purposes.

The rhetoric of ‘separation of church and state’ and ‘a wall of separation’ has been instrumental in transforming judicial and popular constructions of the First Amendment from a provision protecting and encouraging religion in public life to one restricting religion’s place and role in civic culture,” wrote Dr. Daniel L. Dreisbach, professor of Justice, Law and Society in the School of Public Affairs at American University. “This fact would have alarmed the framers of the Constitution, and we ignore it today at the peril of our political order and prosperity.”

I close by recalling the wisdom of President Ronald Reagan, who stated at a 1984 prayer breakfast: “Those who created our country — the Founding Fathers and Mothers — understood that there is a Divine order which transcends the human order. They saw the state, in fact, as a form of moral order and felt that the bedrock of moral order is religion ... Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”

Teach Your Family

For parents wanting to teach their children about the Judeo-Christian roots of our nation, I believe there is no better place to start than by reading together Newt Gingrich’s “Rediscovering God in America.” This little book takes readers on a wonderful trip through our nation’s capital, reviewing documents, writings, statues and markers that reflect the Christian founding of our nation.

Jonathan Falwell
July 4, 2008