JOHN PEARRELL: How blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord

Last week, I wrote about our need for a national spiritual awakening.

I understand of course that there are those who disagree, those who think that religion has no business being in the public arena. Such people want to redefine the First Amendment to read “freedom of worship,” instead of “freedom of religion.” They do so on a wrong judicial decision made by the Supreme Court in 1947. This myth began in 1947 when the Supreme Court, following the philosophy of Dr. William James, a psychologist in opposition to the Church and all it stood for, erected the wall of Separation that has been the bane of the American public ever since.

Here are some interesting things to note about this particular decision.  

The decision came in Everson versus the Board of Education. The decision was based upon the philosophy, "There is nothing so absurd, but that if you repeat it enough and often enough, people will believe it.” The decision wasn’t based on legal precedent but on a philosophy; keep that in mind.

In 1801, the Danbury Baptist Association grew alarmed over the rumor that the Congress was about to make the Congregationalist Denomination the official denomination of the United States. Concerned, they wrote to President Jefferson asking for a clarification on the "establishment of religion clause."  Jefferson, in response wrote on Jan. 1, 1802, "The first amendment had erected a wall of separation, but that wall is a one directional wall; it makes sure that the government will not run the church but it also makes sure that Christian principles will always stay in government."

The Supreme Court of 1947, ignored the context of Jefferson's letter, extracted one phrase from it and crafted an unconstitutional decision based upon their misapplication of the establishment of religion clause.  

Let’s continue:  "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . . . "  Every time the Court tells me where I can pray and where I can't pray, they have prohibited my free exercise of religion and have broken the Constitution of the United States which they are sworn to uphold! Separation of Church and State, as it is practiced today is simply unconstitutional!

Not only was the 1947 decision unconstitutional, but it was the first time in the court's history that they made a decision that was not based on precedence!  In effect, they did not make a legal decision, they made a biased declaration!

If the court had looked at the facts, if they had followed precedence, they would have realized that the intent of our founding fathers was never to take the influence of the church out of government!  Indeed, it is written in history books used in our schools until the 1960's that the basis for our form of government was and is found in Scripture.

And a study was done of the speeches of our Founding Fathers. Ninety-Four percent of the quotes they used were based on the Bible. Think about it.

Why can we not have prayers in our Schools today?  Because on June 25, 1962, in "Engle versus Vital" the Court, using no precedence, framed a new doctrine of separation of religious principles from public education. That doctrine gave preference to a minority voice over the outcry of the majority, and one person's view was given preferential treatment and the views of the majority had to be suppressed.

George Washington, the Father of our Country, stated in his farewell address, "Do not let anyone claim to be a true American if they ever attempt to remove religion from politics." The Bible says, “How blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12a, NET).