The Church and the New America
As America begins a new year and a new president we need to assess what we, the church, needs to do. It is going to require more than voting in the 2016 election and then doing nothing. The church is the most important aspect of this plan. For the last two general elections the church has acted like there was no election. They have stuck their pious noses in the air and declared that neither of the candidates were worthy of their effort to vote. WRONG! God expected us to vote for the one that represented Him the most. Keeping in mind that no candidate will ever be perfect, ever.
The church has been absent in its mandated role in our political arena. I know that many will cry separation of church and state, the church isn’t supposed to be involved in the political arena.
To those who claim this I will ask you to read the Constitution again AND the 1801 letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association when they wrote him because they feared the federal government would do what England had done and that was establish a national church, tax the people to support it and govern what the church taught. You will see in that letter that the only separation of church and state the Founders called for was to keep the federal government out of the operations of the church and the actions of the individuals concerning their religious beliefs. We are instructed by scripture to put godly men in places of authority: Exodus 18:21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. We no longer do this and haven’t for decades. We stopped doing this long before the Johnson Gag Order of 1954.
We continually put ungodly men in office and then pray they do godly things. Stupid on steroids! We not only have the right but an obligation, mandate if you will, to put godly men and women in positions of authority. Our Founders did. The Evers vs Board of Education decision of 1947 that began to take our Christian influence out of the public arena is NOT what the Founders intended. In fact the federal government has no Constitutional authority to restrict prays in schools, public meetings or public displays of our Christian faith. Many of the progressive fools that believe that there can be no Christian influence in our halls of government and use only five words out of Thomas Jefferson’s response to the Danbury Baptist association need to hear his comments concerning this subject: “[No] power over the freedom of religion . . . [is] delegated to the United States by the Constitution.”[1] “In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the general [federal] government.”[2] “[O}ur excellent Constitution . . . has not placed our religious rights under the power of any public functionary.”[3] “I consider the government of the United States as interdicted [prohibited] by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions . . . of exercises.”[4] Jefferson had witnessed the government’s intrusion into the religious practices of the people and believed it to be an unhealthy aspect to liberty.
He elaborated on this in a letter to Noah Webster:
“It had become a universal and almost uncontroverted position in several States that the purpose of society is to not require a surrender of all our rights to our ordinary governors . . . and which experience has nevertheless proved they [the government] will be constantly encroaching on if submitted to them; that there are also certain fences which experience has proved peculiarly efficacious [effective] against wrong and rarely obstructive of right, which yet the governing powers have ever shown a disposition to weaken and remove. Of the first kind, for instance, is freedom of religion.”[5]
In doing any research on this subject dealing with our Founders and the church comingling its principles with government, no intelligent person, without an agenda, can come to the conclusion that the 1947 United States Supreme Court came to. The influence of the church in the political arena is a must if we are to keep America as the Founders gave it to us. One example is the display of the Ten Commandments in our courts. Common sense tells us this is appropriate simply because our system of laws is based on Scripture! Even the Supreme Court has decided that the Ten Commandments cannot be displayed in a public court yet on the inside of the huge wood doors of the Supreme Court the Ten Commandments are carved into those doors to let the jurists remember the basis of our laws. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, stated this: “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” I don’t want to nit-pick but I think one of the Founders knows more about the comingling of our Christian faith in our government than an arrogant fool that sits on that court in 1947 or even today.
James Kent, known as the Father of American Jurisprudence, stated: “Christianity, in its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught in the bible, is not unknown to our law.” The Bible used to be the only school book used but now it is banned on the grounds of separation of church and state but islam is readily being taught in our schools. I’m not talking as a part of history, I’m talking the tenants of that political ideology! [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. The only thing that should be taught about islam is the fact that it is a barbaric, vile and bloodthirsty ideology that has murdered over 270 million people. Is intolerant of any other religion, is deceitful in its practices and allows lies, theft, killing and anything else that helps advance its ideology.[11] It is far from the peaceful religion that it claims to be.
We, the church, have been absent from the political arena for way to long. Some say that the law says we can’t. That ‘law’ violates our religious freedoms, our free speech rights and that makes it unconstitutional. Then these cowards say that Romans 13 tells us to obey the laws but even Peter and John refused a direct order from the powers to be: Act 4:18 And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. Act 4:19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. Act 4:20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Oh to have pastors that are more afraid of God than the IRS. When I say the church I mean more than the pastor. Everyone in the pews must remain vigilant too. We have to support the party that supports God.
That means that no Christian can support the Democrat Party as it supports all that God is against, abortion, homosexual marriage, supporting the enemies of Israel while at the same time ignoring Israel. Obama just this week refused to veto a UN resolution condemning Israel for building on its own land. The resolution goes as far as to make it illegal for the Jews to pray at the Western Wall.[12]
We can no longer allow ungodly men to be in places of authority. It is the church that can keep them out IF they vote according to God’s Word instead blindly following a political party. God will hold the church accountable for the condition of America NOT the ones that led it down the wrong path. As John Jay stated we are a Christian nation and we became the greatest, the most powerful and the wealthiest nation in the world following God’s principles. We will only stay there by doing the same thing. We simply have to return to our roots and those roots are deeply embedded in the Word and principles of God. President-elect Trump has said that he wants to reverse the Johnson Gag Order of 1954. When he does, just how many churches will get back into the political arena? How many will be too afraid to offend the political parties and continue to be useless to the kingdom of God?
America is the churches to lose.
© 2017 Roger Anghis – All Rights Reserved
Footnotes:
1. The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, John P. Foley, editor (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1900), p. 977; see also Documents of American History, Henry S. Commager, editor (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1948), p. 179.
2. Annals of the Congress of the United States (Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1852), Eighth Congress, Second Session, p. 78, March 4, 1805; see also James D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897 (Published by Authority of Congress, 1899), Vol. I, p. 379, March 4, 1805.
3. Jefferson, Writings, Vol. XVI, p.325, to the Society of the Methodist Episcopalian Church on December 9, 1808.
4. Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, editor (Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1830), Vol. IV, pp. 103-104, to the Rev. Samuel Miller on January 23, 1808.
5. Jefferson, Writings, Vol. VIII, pp. 112-113, to Noah Webster on December 4, 1790.
6. Islam in America’s public schools.
7. Islamic indoctrination being taught in LA public schools.
8. Islam in Tennessee public schools.
9. Islam in public schools across the country.
10. Mandatory Islam Instruction in Georgia Schools Outrages Parents.
11. Must watch, 1400 yrs. of Islam history in a few minutes.
12. Trump’s first executive order.
