Christian No More?
This February, America celebrates the 284th birthday of George Washington, venerated father of his country. On his birthday the Senate traditionally reads Washington’s Farewell Address, in which he urged Americans to avoid excessive political party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he cautioned against long-term alliances with other nations.[1]
Aware that “it is impossible to rightly rule the world without God and the Bible,” Washington further noted, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” Accordingly, the General issued orders to be attentive to “the higher duties of religion.”[2] The dispositions, habits, and duties to which Washington adhered were decidedly and conspicuously Christian. Indeed Chief Justice John Marshall knew Washington as the “sincere believer in the Christian faith” and “truly devout man” that he was.
On behalf of the United States, especially for brethren who served in the field, Washington prayed for holy protection of the “Divine Author of our blessed religion through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”[3] His expressed desire was for the world to be filled with the knowledge of God and His son, Jesus Christ.[4] To this end, the General characterized the Continental army as “Christian soldiers defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country;”[5] and his field notebook contained a personal prayer book, expounding merits of the Lord Jesus.[6]
Ronald Reagan echoed Washington’s sentiments while warning, as if prophetically, “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”[7]
Christian No More?
Over many decades, the vision of “a shining city upon a hill” has dimmed, so much so that President Obama has contravened several Supreme Court rulings[8] by announcing, “Whatever we once were we are no longer just a Christian nation.”[9] True, Constitutional freedom of religion gives place for free exercise of differing persuasions. However, by regaling “deep appreciation for the Islamic faith,” whose unspecified contributions “over the centuries” have allegedly “shaped our country,” the President seems to have round-filed America’s heavily documented heritage to the contrary. George Washington’s own writings, journals, letters, manuscripts (and those of his closest family and confidants) showcase the Christian cornerstone for what would become one of the most prosperous, free nations in the history of civilization.[10] Without affording even a nod to the Qur’anic moon god, Washington unapologetically credited this astounding feat to the God of the Bible.
Assimilation Mandate
Even if Muslims fought in the Revolution, as purported by progressive revisionists, Washington likely would have repeated to them counsel he offered Chiefs of the Delaware Indian tribe at the Middle Brook military encampment: “Congress will look upon [your youth] as their own children … You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention.”[11] Guided by biblical principle,[12] Washington invited them to share the nation’s blessings by assimilation (biblical ethics and English language included). Keep in mind, to their credit, at least half of our presidents were proficient in speaking or writing a language other than English, yet the language of our Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution of the United States of America, and Bill of Rights was English—not Spanish; not Ebonics; not Arabic.[13]
Phantom Thread of Islamic Patriotism
Progressives nonetheless advance a fanciful notion that, from America’s founding, some phantom thread of Islam has been tightly interwoven within the fabric of her history. Since the colonial period (when some twenty thousand African Muslim slaves were transported), through the early 20th century influx of Muslim immigrants, to the present day, Islam purportedly played an integral role.
“Presence”? Maybe. “Integral”? I think not. Cultural jihad by no means accounts for America’s preeminence. Written by Mohamed Akram,[14] the Explanatory Memorandum (1991) characterizes America’s Islamic Movement as a settlement process. Likened to a “grand jihad,” this process expressly purposes to eliminate and destroy Western civilization from within. In imploring Americans to “revere and respect” the Muslim’s alternate “path to grace,” Obama overlooks cultural jihad, Islamic anti-Semitism, and Shari’ah Law, all of which defy American values.
Tellingly, there is no Arabic word for “democracy,” nor does the Qur’an even once ascribe “love” to Allah. Islamic “peace” trails submission, if not by choice, by force. The biblical mandate is not to overcome by force, but rather to “overcome evil with good.”[15] Jesus came “to seek and save the lost.”[16] In contrast, adherents of the Qur’an view the West, not as a culture to be embraced or even tolerated, but rather as an obstacle to be overcome.[17] An immutable and compulsory mono-cultural system, Shari’ah is the crucial fault line of Islam’s civil struggle. Under its dictates, peaceful coexistence at best is untenable.[18]
Even so, in publicly praising Islam for its “proud tradition of tolerance,” President Obama ignores the plight of Christians who, to this day, pay the ultimate price for professing their Christian faith in “tolerant” Islamist nations. Remember, some seventy percent of the world’s population lives in countries that restrict religious liberty; and most are Muslim-majority countries (plus China and North Korea).[19]
“Right” Not to be Offended
Throughout the Revolution, General Washington suffered lack of support from the colonies and congress, not to mention soldier desertions, mutinies, defeats, and military betrayals by Gates, Lee, Rush, Conway, and Arnold. Even after military victory, Washington faced political resistance, mudslinging, and betrayals, yet he labored eight years to forge a nation through a political experiment that had never before been attempted. Washington accepted that offenses come.[20] Though his integrity, republican principles, and military prowess were brought into question, Washington nonetheless persevered.[21]
Routinely misunderstood and portrayed as caricatures (if at all), post-9/11 Muslim-Americans portray themselves as unfairly maligned and marginalized. As other minority groups, these claim some unwritten “right” not to be offended. Even if said allegations ring true, skittishness is not without cause. From AD 33 until Y2K, Muslim terrorists murdered some nine million Christians; and since 1972, deadly Islamic terror on American soil has injured and/or killed civilians in New York, Maryland, Washington DC, Washington State, California, Illinois, Missouri, Arizona, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Colorado, Georgia, Arkansas, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
Though one unfortunate Muslim-American revenge killing followed 9/11, roughly three thousand died at the hands of radical Muslims.[22] Truth be told, Jihadi terrorists pose a much greater threat to peace loving Muslims than wary Westerners do.
Based on exhaustive documentation, America first and foremost is one nation under God. Heralding the God of the Bible may well offend some. Still, in celebrating the legacy of founding father George Washington, we do well to remember Esau who lightly esteemed his birthright and, for a bowl of pottage, forfeited the double portion due him as Isaac’s firstborn son. Should we disparage our noble heritage in following Esau’s example, America will be a nation gone under, as Reagan warned.[23]
2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved
Footnotes:
1. The address was printed in Philadelphia’s American Daily Advertiser on September 19, 1796. Washington’s final manuscript is at The New York Public Library. For more information, see the University of Virginia’s The Papers of George Washington collection.
2. William J. Federer. America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations (St. Louis, Mo: AMERISEARCH, INC., 2000).
3. Ibid, 647.
4. Ibid, 659.
5. Ibid, 639.
6. Ibid, 657-659.
7. A Nation Going Under. (Retrieved 24 January 2016)
8. In 1892 the U.S. Supreme Court established that “our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon the teachings of the Redeemer of Mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent, our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.” See also: Vidal v. Girald’s Executors, 1844; Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892; United States v. Macintosh, 1931; McCollum v. Board of Education, 1948; Lynch v. Donnelly, 1985; Bowers v. Hardwick, 1986, etc. Federer, America’s God and Country, 595-613.
9. Contrast Barack Obama’s Quotes About Islam With His Quotes About Christianity. Retrieved 22 January 2016
10. Peter A. Lilliback and Jerry Newcombe. George Washington’s Sacred Fire (Providence Forum Press, 2006).
11. Federer, America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, 644.
12. Revelation 22:17
13. List of multilingual presidents of the United States. (Retrieved 21 January 2016)
14. Senior Hamas leader in the U.S. and member of the Board of Directors for the Muslim Brotherhood in North America.
15. Romans 12:21—“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” See also: Proverbs 16:32, Luke 6:27-30, and 1 Peter 3:9.
16. Luke 19:10
17. The Yusuf Ali translation of the Qur’an reads as follows:
• “Fighting is prescribed for you,” Sura 2:216.
• “Of the Unbelievers: seize them and slay them wherever you find them; and in any case take no friends or helpers from their ranks,” Sura 4:89.
• “Allah has granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit at home,” Sura 4:95.
• “For the unbelievers are open enemies to you,” Sura 4:101.
• “From those too, who call themselves Christians, we did take a covenant, but they forgot a good part of the message that was sent to them: so we estranged them, and with enmity and hatred between one and the other, to the Day of Judgment. And soon will Allah show them what they have done,” Sura 5:14.
• “O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he among you that turns to them for friendship is of them,” Sura 5:51.
• Of the Jews: “When in their insolence they transgressed all prohibitions, we said to them, ‘Be you apes, despised and rejected,’” Sura 7:16.
• “Many are the men we have made for Hell,” Sura 7:179.
• “I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. You smite them above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them,” Sura 8:12
• “Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. Seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war,” Sura 9:5. (Arab means “to lie in wait”)
• “Therefore, when you meet the unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks…,” Sura 47:4.
18. Shari’ah is the restrictive code of laws and rules that govern the life and behavior of Muslims.
Based on the Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, it references “a path or way to a water hole in the desert.” Shari’ah rejects these fundamental premises of American society and values:
• The governed have a right to make law for themselves;
• A republican democracy governed by the Constitution;
• Freedom of conscience; individual liberty;
• Freedom of expression;
• Economic liberty (including private property rights);
• Equal treatment under the law (men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims);
• Freedom from cruel and unusual punishments;
• An abiding commitment to deflate and resolve political controversies by the ordinary mechanisms of federalism and democracy, not wanton violence.
19. Dr. William Wagner, How Islam Plans to Change the World (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2004).
20. Matthew 18:7
21. Debra Rae. “George Washington Inn and the Shot Heard Round the World” (Blog Talk Radio: TRUTHTalk Beyond the Sound Bite, 2 February 2016)
22. Islamic terror on American soil. (Retrieved 22 January 2016)
23. Genesis 25:21 ff.
