Speaking Out

In the last 100 years the government of the United States has taken many steps to remove or reduce our rights as citizens. An example of this is found in the following article:

Pastors to defy IRS with endorsements

Two Minnesota clergymen plan to thumb their noses at the federal government Sunday by endorsing political candidates from their pulpits.

In doing so, they hope the IRS will come after them, allowing them to wage a legal fight asserting their First Amendment right of freedom of speech.

To make sure we are perfectly clear. Here is the First Amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It seems quite clear that the government has violated this primary law in establishing any restrictions on the church. The ability to speak on all matters of religion and belief may freely stray over political issues. Just because someone should call them political does not remove them from the right as written in the first Amendment.

The key legal issue in question is the Johnson Amendment of 1954. This was placed into the IRS code without the standard scrutiny of congress. It was attached to the 501c(3) rules governing the tax exemption of churches. The law was very specifically written to muzzle the church at the time.

This law was born out of the idea promoted by the use of the phrase: “Separation of Church and State” — This phrase was completely foreign to US law until 1947 in the case of Everson -vs- Board of Education. Without citing a single precedent, and ignoring 175 years of historically consistent rulings, the Supreme Court made this claim, “The wall of separation between church and state must be kept high and impregnable.” With that single decision based on nothing, the wall was born.

Where did they get this phrase? It wasn't found in the constitution. It was found in a personal letter written by Thomas Jefferson to a church. He was attempting to relieve fears that the government would have any influence over the church under the constitution. This is where he coined the phrase "Separation of Church and State".

From 1947 when the phrase became adopted by the Supreme Court, until 1954 we see the phrase turned on its head by liberal progressives and used in many places. Rather then the separation being one way as described by Jefferson, it has been twisted to be used in both directions and ultimately in the opposite direction from its intention.

The Johnson Amendment perpetuates a system that requires government agents to monitor and parse the words of a pastor's sermon to determine whether that sermon violates the law and punishment should be meted out. That system is an excessive and unreasonable government entanglement with religion. The Johnson Amendment allows the government to determine when a pastor's speech becomes too "political." That is an absurdly ridiculous standard. A pastor's speech from the pulpit that talks about candidates from a scriptural point of view is religious speech.

The government once small and carefully crafted by our founders has taken power from the people in small incremented ways. We need to recognize this usurpation and stop it. We can start this November by removing heavily entrenched members of congress from office. We need constitutional patriots to take their place and start the hard work.

Links of interest.
See what has the IRS stopped in its tracks!
Pulpit Freedom Sunday
The Alliance Defense Fund Pulpit Initiative
History of the 1954 Johnson Amendment

Returning to Our Roots -- Part 7

Where has all the education gone? I know we are paying for it. I know kids are being sent to school, but what are they learning? Perhaps are lack of attention to what each generation passes on, has brought all this destruction upon us.

You remember the saying, "Failure to know the past and learn its lessons, condemns us to repeat it." Until you learn the lessons life throws at you how can you graduate to the next lesson. Perhaps graduating to the point of skipping some of the lessons learned by our fore-fathers and jump ahead to new discoveries and betterment for all.

BRING AMERICA BACK TO HER RELIGIOUS ROOTS
PART 7


By Pastor Roger Anghis
March 28, 2010

What we have seen so far has been a total dedication to Christianity by our Founding Fathers AND the majority of the population of America. Revisionists have demanded that a new history be told that never happened. Because of their hatred for, not just religion, but Christianity in particular, we have seen our nation go from God lovers to God haters. They have no problem with our children dressing up on Halloween, a high holy day in satinism, they have no problem with our children saying prayers to allah in our public schools, but our schools can’t even have a picture of Jesus hanging in the hallway. We can’t say a pray at graduation of at a sporting event. We can’t sing Christmas carols at Christmas programs and in many states we can’t even call Christmas, Christmas.

Some of the court rulings in recent years show the bias of our liberal judges. Court Ruling: Freedom of speech is guaranteed to students and teachers unless it is religion at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional. Court Ruling: It is unconstitutional for students to see the Ten Commandments as they may read them, meditate on them, respect them and obey them. Court Ruling: The Ten Commandments, despite the fact that they are the basis of our civil law, and depicted in engraved stone in the Supreme Court building on the wall behind the seats of the justices of the Supreme Cour, it is against the law to display the Ten Commandments in any government building. Court Ruling: It is unconstitutional for any school library to contain books on Christianity. Books on witchcraft are OK. Books on occults are OK. Books on Islam are OK or Buddhism or Hinduism are OK.

It is unconstitutional for a teacher to have a copy of the Bible IN his/her desk. Not on it, but in it. Court Ruling: It is unconstitutional for school officials to be praised publicly or to be recognized from a podium at a community meeting IF the meeting is sponsored by a religious organization. Planned Parenthood can do that, but a Christian organization cannot do that. Court Ruling: It is unconstitutional for a kindergarten class to ask Who’s birthday is celebrated at Christmas. A student in Illinois was arrested, threaten with mace and handcuffed and removed from the school for participating in the See You At The Pole prayer event. In Texas a student was warned that if she prayed she would be disciplined the same as if she used profanity. A group of individuals were threatened with arrest and prosecution by the US Capitol police for bowing their heads during a silent prayer.

The influence of the Bible was so instilled into the hearts and the minds of the Founding Fathers as well as the people that it is no wonder that when drafting the Constitution, we find its influence all through the document. An independent study was done by the University of Houston and they wanted to determine what was the biggest influence in drafting the Constitution. They gathered documents from the founding era, 1760-1805, documents that led to the establishing of our Declaration of Independence and what gave us our Constitution. They wanted to see who our Founding Fathers read, quoted and who they were influenced by. They collected 15,000 documents and from those documents they found 3,154 quotes. It took them 10 years to document these quotes as to where they came from and they discovered that the most quoted source was quoted four times more than the second most quoted source.

The most quoted source was the Bible. Established in the original writings of our Founding Fathers we find that they discovered in Isaiah 33:22 the three branches of government: Isaiah 33:22 “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.” Here we see the judicial, the legislative and the executive branches. In Ezra 7:24 we see where they established the tax exempt status of the church: Ezra 7:24 “Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them.”

When we look at our Constitution we see in Article 4 Section 4 that we are guaranteed a Republican form of government, that was found in 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:” This indicates that we are to choose, or elect God fearing men and women. Looking at Article 3 Section 3 we see almost word for word Deuteronomy 17:6: ‘No person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two Witnesses. . .’ Deuteronomy 17:6 “At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses. . .”. The next paragraph in Article 3 Section 3 refers to who should pay the price for treason. In England, they could punish the sons for the trespasses of the father, if the father died.

Our Constitution states that only the one guilty of the crime pays for the crime. In 1791 Benjamin Rush, who served for 3 different Presidents, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, started the Sunday School movement in America to deal with the uneducated in the inner cities. It was this same year that Benjamin Rush proposed the idea of public schools. He is actually called the Father of Public Schools in America. If public schools were intended to be the godless institutions that they are today, his writings should exhibit that philosophy. What he does say is far from that idea. He believed that the Bible should be the primary book of learning in the public school. He stated: “Without religion, learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.” His reference to ‘religion’ was not any religion, but Christianity exclusively.

We have to remember that in the days of our Founding Fathers, their reference to ‘religion’ was not a generic reference as we see today meaning Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. If they asked what religion you were, they were referring to Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist, etc. They almost never considered anything other than Christianity. Benjamin Rush believed that you had to teach the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the morals that are found in the Bible, because he believed, and rightfully so, that to educate without that type of foundation would produce a self centered person that was only concerned about himself. Where did he get that concept? Proverbs 4:7 “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Proverbs 14:8 “The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.” Wisdom is the ability to correctly use the knowledge that you have.

Our colleges today fill you with knowledge, but without wisdom, all of that knowledge is useless. How else can a student spend 10 years in school learning to be a doctor and then spend his career performing abortions? How else can a student spend years in school learning history, yet not understanding the history he learned? Benjamin Rush was the author of a paper that was literally distributed all across the nation for years, even after his death that was titled “The Use of the Bible In Schools.” In that paper he stated “If they were ever to take the Bible out of public schools, we would be spending all of our time and all of our money fighting crime when it could be prevented in the classroom.” We are there.

Returning to Our Roots -- Part 6

What is your source of wisdom? Is there a particular person who has been your source or inspiration? Perhaps a book or movie has changed your direction and caused you to re-think somethings.

BRING AMERICA BACK TO HER RELIGIOUS ROOTS
PART 6


By Pastor Roger Anghis
March 20, 2010

To understand how important education was to the colonists and how they treated it we have to go back to the middle of 17th century. From this we see America treating education like no other nation previously had done before. It was something that the colonists believed was vital to a moral society.

The first laws providing public education for all children were passed in 1642 in Massachusetts and in 1647 in Connecticut and it was called the “Old Deluder Satan Law.” These colonists believed that the proper protection from civil abuses could only be achieved by eliminating Bible illiteracy.

This way the people themselves, as opposed to only the leaders, could measure the acts of civil government compared to the teachings of scripture. By 1690 Connecticut had a law that required that children be educated and if the children were not being educated, the family would be fines $25.00. Their reasoning here was if a person can’t read then they will not be aware of what God’s laws are and they would not be able to know when the government was trying to do something that was contrary to the Word of God. This shows that it wasn’t important to just be able to read, but to read and understand the Word of God. If only our education system was like this today. Today a teacher can’t even have a Bible IN their desk. You can’t post the Ten Commandments in a classroom because someone might read them and obey them.

God forbid that a student obey the Ten Commandments. How many teen pregnancies would we have if the children obeyed the Ten Commandments? How many school shootings would we have if the students obeyed the Ten Commandments? How many students would be on drugs and alcohol if they obeyed the Ten Commandments? The church in the days of our Founding fathers was not a social club like it is today. They understood the importance of living a Christian life. Too many of our preachers today do not teach that importance. Our Founding Fathers’ Christianity was a way of life and they expected those that governed them to live the same way. There were a couple of states that would not allow you to run for political office unless you attended a church and had confessed Jesus Christ as Lord.

Try that today and you’ll end up in court with five different organizations suing you. Say a prayer in school and the same thing will happen. Our rights and privileges as Christians have been taken away from us little by little. I believe that it is the fault of the pastors refusing to stand for what is right. Refusing to stand for what our Founding Fathers fought and died for, risked all for. Will we just sit back and do nothing or will we stand together and say ‘No more’? As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

They believed that everyone should be able to read so that our government officials could not pass laws that were contrary to God’s Word. Today the public is better educated than any generation before us, but we still allow laws to be passed that are contrary to God’s Word.

When the pilgrims came to America they brought with them text books, but in 1690 the first American textbook was printed. It was called the New England Primer. This textbook was the beginning textbook for ALL students in America from 1690 to the early 1900’s in public, private, semiprivate, home, parochial and all other types of schooling. All of our Founding Fathers learned how to read using the New England Primer and the Bible. Over the 200+ years that it was used, there were very few changes made to the book. This book did not change in that 200+ years period of time except more reading and vocabulary words were added but the core of the Primer - its rhyming alphabet, the Bible alphabet, its Bible questions and Shorter Catechism remained intact from reprint to reprint. This book was so important to our Founding Fathers that they endorsed this book and had it reprinted so that their children would be educated with the same book. Noah Webster who wrote part of the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin, signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Samuel Adams, the Father of the American Revolution, were all responsible for reprints of the New England Primer so it would be available to their children in their generation.

When our nation attained freedom from Britain, we can see all of the Biblical teachings come into play in the developing of our Constitution and the laws of our land. The Declaration of Independence is the most successful document in the world.

No other nation has been governed by a document longer than we have by the Declaration of Independence. Political scientists tell us that our Constitution was based on the same book that was used to write the Declaration of Independence and that book was The Two Treatises of Civil Government by John Locke. The revisionist historians of today say that he was a deist, but he was actually a theologian. He wrote the first topical Bible. He did a book on a verse by verse study of the Bible. He wrote a book titled “The Reasonableness of Christianity”, he helped write the constitution of Carolina. John Locke’s book, The Two Treatises of Civil Government, was the basis for the most successful government document ever written, the Constitution of the United States. Is it any wonder that our government has been the most successful in the world? John Adams - “The general principles for which we achieved independence are the general principles of Christianity.”

After we won our independence we began to print Bibles, something that we were not allowed to do while under the rule of Britain. The British government told us what Bible we could use and what could be taught and how it would be taught. This is why the government was to stay out of the church. The very first act of Congress was a 4 hour prayer meeting followed by a sermon that John Adams mentioned to his wife, Abigail, as to how moving it was for him and other members of Congress. One of the other items that Congress did was apportion money for the printing of Bibles. The record of Congress states that this printing will be “A meet addition to the Holy Scriptures for use in our public schools.” This was a printing of the Bible under the supervision of Congress for use in our public schools.

This statement was printed on the inside cover of that Bible: “Resolved that the United States and Congress assembled recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the Unites States.” Today the ACLU and others declare that our Founding Fathers demanded separation of church and state. This refutes ALL of their arguments.

Education was deemed very important to the colonists and our Founding Fathers, but it was all based on the need to understand the Word of God. Today we educate without the benefit of the Word of God and we are experiencing the folly of omitting the foundation for knowledge. It is time we re-think how we attempt to gain knowledge.

Returning to Our Roots -- Part 5

If you do your own research and work diligently to go back as close to the source as possible, only then will you learn the truth. In todays rush, how many of us take the time? We commonly take someones word for this or that, and then do the best we can with what we know. What if those who are providing us our crib notes are lying or working off some other person with faulty info.

BRING AMERICA BACK TO HER RELIGIOUS ROOTS
PART 5


By Pastor Roger Anghis
March 14, 2010

Part 5 – The Founders

We have to go back in the lives of those who came to this country to understand why they came to America. What was their motivation to leave everything in Europe or England and risk it all to come to America? Let us look at what caused these people to come here. Most came with very little possessions. Most had to sell all they had to make the trip. But all came with one thing in common, a Bible. It was usually the Geneva Bible. This Bible was not popular in England because there were commentaries in it by people that were referred to as dissenters; Calvin, Martin Luther. You also have to keep in mind that this was the first time in history were the common person had a copy of the Bible. In the late 1600’s and early 1700’s in Europe only clergy were permitted to even read the Bible. It was illegal for the common person to read the Bible. A lot of the religious persecution in those days was because the common people would read the Bible and see where the king was not following the Word of God and they would complain. The biggest area of friction was when the common person found out that God didn’t want Israel to have an earthly king. The people decided that they wanted a government as God declared, kingless. This didn’t set well with royalty.

This is where we see why Thomas Jefferson called for the separation of church and state. Again that was to keep government out of religion. In England, there was only one authorized version of scripture that was allowed. All other versions were illegal. The king declared what you teach and how you teach it. This is why Jefferson stated that the “wall of separation” was to keep government out of religion, not religion out of government. Remember Jefferson did not write the First Amendment, Fisher Ames did. This concern was the reason for the letter from the Danbury Baptist association to Thomas Jefferson. They were concerned that what had happened in England with the Church of England would happen in America.

As the common person began to read the Bible they began to see that not everything that the church was teaching was biblical. We can even see this today in the church with some denominations teaching that homosexuality is OK, abortion is OK, and the church is not to be involved in the political arena. According to IRS regulations we are not allowed to endorse a political party or candidate nor are we allowed to speak against a political party or candidate.

Those are IRS regulations, not God’s. The church is more afraid of the IRS than God. The most prominent sermon throughout America’s history was the one given around elections talking about the importance of the church’s role in the political arena, specifically the presidential election. Today’s laws over the church restrict what I can and cannot say about candidates and their party. This is a violation of my First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion and the free exercise thereof. As a pastor I am mandated to inform my congregation of ungodly men and women who are running for office. Oddly enough, there is a legal way around that restriction that most churches ignore. They just find it easier to not get involved at all. That is why our nation is in the shape that it is in.

I believe that the ignorance of the pastors is just as bad as the ignorance of the people themselves concerning what our rights are. Almost everyone that I have asked the question concerning the separation of the church and state has told me that it is in our Constitution. It is not in ANY of our Founding Documents and the First Amendment has been grossly misinterpreted since the 1940’s by liberal judges that were allowed to redefine its meaning and purpose. Our history refutes any notion that the church is supposed to be removed from the political arena. In the 1947 Supreme Court decision the letter to Jefferson from the Danbury Baptist Association was quoted but only the nine words “building a wall of separation between church and state.” This is the first time the Supreme Court used only those nine words. This letter had been used is several other cases before the Supreme Court but the entire contents were used, not just those nine words. When taken out of context, the true meaning is lost, which is why the Supreme Court did it in that manner.

To understand this let’s look at a larger portion of that 1802 letter that gives a better understanding of its contents and meaning. Jefferson wrote: “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none for his faith and his worship; that the legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion of prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and state.” This clearly indicates that the government is to stay out of religion and gives no indication that religion is to stay out of government. Today there are organizations that are ignorant of scripture and the history of the United States. There is even one organization, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which is headed by a so-called reverend. He is grossly misinformed as to what the church is supposed to be doing in the political arena not to mention his ignorance of the history of the church in this nation and the real meaning of the Constitution.

One of the things that the people began to realize when they started to read the Bible is how to apply the Word of God in everyday lives. Morals, righteousness, forgiveness, all that God has called the church to be. We were to be self governed, not ruled over by an earthly king. They also realized that the church is supposed to evangelize that is why we see in virtually every charter of every colony a provision that calls for that colony to reach out to the native population with the knowledge of Jesus Christ. . It started with the Mayflower Compact, a call to evangelize. This was something that the king did not allow. It was even illegal to print a Bible in the colonies until after the Revolutionary War. We could only us the ‘approved’ version supplied by England. They discovered in the Word of God that we were supposed to own our own property. The pilgrims began to buy land from the Indians and divide it up amongst the families.

This didn’t set well with the king. He felt that he owned the land and we were to use it and he would take all the profits and let us keep barely enough to get by on and then he would tax you on that. Kind of sounds like the IRS today doesn’t it? They discovered in the Word of God that we were to take care of our own. They also discovered that if you won’t work you don’t eat. When Jamestown was founded they operated on what would be called today a socialistic form of government. But when looked at real close it was a Biblical system where everybody’s needs were addressed by the people, NOT a forced redistribution of your goods by the government as we see our government trying to do today.

When it came to education, Europe had a high percentage of illiteracy and the people in America began to see that the atrocities that had happened in the world happened because of ignorance of the Word of God. In America they began to teach children how to read and write so that everyone would be able to know when government was attempting to do something that was contrary to the Word of God. Their textbook was the Bible. The first schools were run by the church. This was the foundation our Founding Fathers were established in.

Returning to Our Roots -- Part 2

So often we are told that our nation was brought forward without the help of God. God is at best scoffed at and at worst mocked when our founders are discussed in our current educational system. Is the truth really that distasteful? Were our founders men of religion or deists and atheists as taught today?

Let us return to the writings of Roger Anghis for more enlightenment.

BRING AMERICA BACK TO HER RELIGIOUS ROOTS
PART 2


By Pastor Roger Anghis
February 20, 2010

Part 2 – The Foundation

The 1st Amendment states: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ The churches responsibility is to inform the public as to the qualifications required of our leaders. Until 1954 we could name names. Now we can only generalize. 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:”. That addendum that Congress passed in 1954 prohibited the church from informing the people of the character of a political candidate.

That addendum prohibited the free exercise of religion and violates the 1st Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The reason schools were established was so that the people would be taught to read and understand the Word of God, with the Bible being its main source for information, and if government tried to pass legislation that was contrary to God’s Word, they would be able to know that and then take action to stop it. We have allowed our government to redefine our Constitution and read things into it that our Founding Fathers would never have allowed. We have allowed activist judges to read into our Constitution the right to an abortion at any time for any reason.

To fully understand just what the role of the church is supposed to be in this nation we have to look at the role of the church before our independence, during our fight for independence and up until 1954 when the church was taken out of the political arena. Many of you will be surprised to learn how deeply involved the church and the Word of God was in the forming of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I know that there will be many pastors that will be shocked at the churches involvement in the development of our government. Too many pastors believe that the church shouldn’t be involved in politics at all. What this series will reveal will be unfamiliar to many pulpits. Revisionist historians have taught what THEY want you to believe instead of what the real history actually is.

There was a book printed that contained the writings of George Washington on four different areas of life. In the original book it contained comments by his contemporaries. The book is now being printed again however the comments are now by revisionists and they have left out almost all of the religious references of the original book and all of the commentaries of his comtemporaries and refer to him as a deist. How you can print a book that is full of outright lies and call it historically accurate is beyond me.

Our Founding Fathers took their faith very seriously, but many today would like you to believe differently. When the first colony was established in 1620, before they even got off of the boat they established why they were there. They wrote the Mayflower Compact.

In the Name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, or England, France and Ireland, King defender of the Faith,

Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid;

The ends aforesaid was the advancement of the Christian faith. Our Founding Fathers lived their faith. Most churches today have a 30 minute message ending with “Call our office Monday-Friday between 9-5 if you want to get saved.” People today couldn’t handle the church services in those days. They usually lasted from 4-6 hours. Our Founding Fathers believe that to serve in public office, you had to be a Christian.

John Jay, our first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Court that decides if the laws that are passed are within the parameters set out by the Constitution, stated this: “Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers. It is the duty as well as the privilege and the interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians as their rulers.”

Another of our Founding Fathers was Patrick Henry. His famous statement was; ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’ This is not being taught in schools any more. It promotes patriotism and self worth and that causes problems with dictating what some people want you to believe. Another statement he made which I assure you will never be taught in public schools is this one: “It can’t be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded NOT by religionist, but by Christians, not on religion but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.” The revisionist historians want you to believe that Patrick Henry was a deist. They want you to believe that most of the Founding Fathers deists. They even state so even though ALL evidence proves otherwise. People simply don’t research anything out for themselves. There were 55 signers of the Constitution- 29 were Episcopalians, several were Methodist, and some were Baptist. There was only one so-called deist and that was Ben Franklin, but even he had enough sense to know that Providence should be called upon at times. During the Constitutional Convention they had spent days debating key provisions of the Constitution without making any progress. During that time of intense debate he made this comment: “All of us who were engaged in this struggle must have observed frequent instances of super intending Providence in our favor.” Now, we have to understand what a deist is.

He is one that believes in a higher power, but does not believe that that higher power intervenes in the affairs of man. So that statement by Ben Franklin pretty much destroys the revisionist’s theory that he was a deist.

“To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting, in peace, on the means of establishing our future nation felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend, or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” Following that statement, our Founding Fathers spent four hours in prayer.

In a public facility, our government officials had prayer and then followed that with a preacher preaching a message that was so moving that John Adams wrote to his wife about how important that message was and from that moment the Constitution began to come together with surprising ease.

After the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams, who would become the governor of Massachusetts, wrote; “We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient, He reigns in heaven from the rising to the setting of the sun. Let His kingdom come.” He also made this statement: “Pray that the light of the gospel and the right of conscience may be continued to the people of the United America and that His Holy Word may be improved by them so that the Name of God will be exalted and their liberty and happiness be secure. That He would be pleased to bless our federal government.” The Foundation is laid.

Returning to Our Roots -- Part 1

I believe that much of what made our nation great has been slipping away from us over the last 50-75 years. I have often wanted to write pieces that point to the real historical evidence of our founders and our nation but have never had the time to do it justice. I can point you to many a book that lays bare the truth if you were willing to read it.

Instead, let me present to you a series of articles that do what I have so often wished I could. Let me introduce the writings of Roger Anghis. Please give it a full read. Look up any points you question and then ask why we aren't teaching this in school anymore.

BRING AMERICA BACK TO HER RELIGIOUS ROOTS
PART 1


By Pastor Roger Anghis
February 12, 2010

Part 1- The Begining

The religious roots of our nation go very deep. Over the last 50-75 years we have lost a tremendous amount of truth of how religion governed not only the daily lives of our founding Fathers, but how it was always deeply involved in the politics of this nation.

In Hitler’s Mein Kompf he states that the bigger the lie and the more often that it is told the easier it is to get the masses to believe it. In the 30’s and 40’s he did just that and the result was a world war that cost the lives of over 60 million people.

In 1947 our Supreme Court ruled that the 1st Amendment had erected a wall of separation between the church and state and it had to remain impregnable. Even though there was no evidence of this in any court ruling for over 170 years, not even in the first Supreme Court was the church/state position challenged, yet somehow, the Supreme Court of 1947 decided that our Founding Fathers were uniformed as to the meaning of the 1st Amendment. The 1947 Supreme Court for the first time used ONLY the phrase “separation of church and state” instead of the whole context of that sentence which is not found in any of our founding documents, but in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802.

A letter was written to then President Jefferson because they had a concern that the US might try to establish a state church as had been done in England. The state ran the church and taxed the people to support the church. When you read the entire letter that Jefferson wrote you will find that he does use the statement ‘separation of church and state’ but it is easily understood that what he is talking about is keeping the government out of the affairs of the church, not keeping the church completely out of the government. The Supreme Court decision of 1947 by liberal judges put on the Supreme Court by FDR, completely redefined the 1st Amendment. In that day 97% of the people of this nation declared and allegiance to God and in a nation where the majority rules, the 3% of our nation that did not believe in God ruled over the 97%.

In the early 1950’s one of the Supreme Court justices warned that we had better STOP using the phrase ‘separation of church and state’ in the context that it was being used or people would begin believing that it was part of our Constitution. Most of the people I talk to today about the so-called ‘separation of church and state’ do believe that it is part of our Constitution. The bigger the lie and the more you tell it makes it easier for the masses to believe it.

Preachers today don’t believe that the church is supposed to be involved in the political arena.

Because the church does not address this part of American life we have politicians that have won’t protect our borders, we have politicians that believe that it is a woman’s right to destroy her unborn child, we have politicians that refuse to support our troops fighting the war on terror. The Bible teaches us that however the church goes, the nation goes. Preachers today don’t have a problem with how the government has taken our right to be involved in the politics of this nation away from us. Without the churches influence, our politicians have begun to take this nation down a path of destruction. And because pastors are afraid of losing their 501 (c) 3 rating, they won’t stand up for their rights.

I have tried to help pastors educate their people as to what they should be doing as far as their involvement even with political issues, and the typical response is, "We don’t do anything political."

I invited 200 pastors to a meeting concerning this and they stayed away by the thousands. I had one pastor show up! Some pastors won’t even take a side on abortions and same-sex marriages for fear of losing members or their coveted 501 (c) 3. They claim that it is a political issue. It has become a political issue but more importantly it is a moral issue that the church should be addressing. Half of the people sitting in the pews are living together without the benefit of marriage, but the church won’t preach against it for fear of offending someone. One pastor I talked to felt comfortable with the present lack of involvement of the church in the political arena and I told him that a while back I was too, then one day the Holy Spirit said to me, ‘What if I’m not?’ That is the question that pastors must ask themselves. Is God happy that the church is absent from the political arena?

There was a point in time in this nation when you couldn’t get elected UNLESS you confessed Jesus as Lord, and had a record of attending church regularly! Religion was very important during the days of our Founding Fathers. One man was fined $500 for using the Name of the Lord in vain. That was over a year’s wages. Today you hear people inside the church, even the sons of some pastors using language that reminds you of a drunken sailor. Just a short while ago a man in a public meeting cursed and was arrested and jailed. When he got before a judge, the judge told the police that they had violated his right of free speech.

Today’s churches preach a lukewarm message not wanting to offend anyone. Any time you teach the truth, somebody is going to be offended. Lukewarm messages have never built a strong church. Revelation 3:16 “'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”

Many of the preachers that I talk to don’t believe that the church is supposed to be involved in the political arena, but in the Bible God ALWAYS had a man or woman of God close to the king, ALWAYS! Saul, Israel’s first king had Samuel the prophet. Every king, whether they were godly or not, had a man of God to influence them. Even our presidents have had godly men to influence them. One man, Billy Graham has influenced, prayed with and for every president since Harry Truman. Eleven presidents were counseled and prayed with by him. Every president we have had has had a man of God to advise him and pray for him. Now, our presidents have not always taken the advice of these godly men just as the kings in the Old Testament didn’t always take heed to the advice of the prophets.

We have seen some presidents ignore the godly principles of our Founding Fathers and take our nation down a path that leads away from the things of God. I believe that the worst president we have ever had was Woodrow Wilson. He was a racist and a progressive which beliefs are equal to a Marxist. Then we had FDR. He set this nation on the road to socialism and there are many today in that same party that are hell bent to get us there. They are supporting the forcing of religious organizations to hire homosexuals. They passed hate crimes legislation that would make preaching the gospel concerning the Biblical view of homosexuality against the law. They have supported over the years, the removal of religion from the public view, the Ten Commandment displays, pictures of Jesus and the removal of prayer from government meetings.

The church has to stand up for its rights or we will lose all of our rights. Many pastors say that we have to abide by the laws, but when the laws of man violate the laws of God ministers are mandated to obey God! All Christians are mandated to obey God, but pastors especially. When John and Peter we brought before the Sanhedrin and told to no longer speak in the Name of Jesus, Peter refused to follow that order: Acts 4:18 “And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

(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.

(20) For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

Up until 1954 the church could talk about political candidates and whether they were godly or ungodly. We could talk about political parties and whether they stood for godly things or ungodly things. In the early fifties Lyndon Johnson won election to the senate by a total of 87 votes. He had a lot of political connections and was able to stop every attempt at a recount.

One man who counted votes admitted on his deathbed that they rigged the count and counted several hundred false votes for Johnson. This information was leaked to a 501 (c) 3 that began to inform the public about the rigged election. When this information was released by non-profits Johnson had an addendum attached to an IRS bill that barred any 501 (c) 3 from supporting or opposing a political candidate or a political party. Johnson was able to silence his opposition. The church had been silenced.

John, Are You Listening?

Star Parker wrote a great article and Open Letter to John McCain. Check it out and see if it doesn't reflect some of your feelings.

An Open Letter To John McCain
By Star Parker March 31, 2008

Dear John McCain,
Every relationship requires effort. I want to do my part. But there needs to be common ground to start with and you're making it harder and harder for me to find where it is.
I'm an optimist and a woman of faith. I believe we are strong because our nation is meant to be, as President Reagan often reminded us, a "shining city upon a hill."
You spoke in Los Angeles the other day about our country and its place in the world. You talked about political, economic and military strength, and international citizenship.
I strained to hear you mention our moral uniqueness -- our being that "city on a hill." But I heard not a hint.
President Nixon once observed that Americans often make the mistake of thinking that conflict in the world is the result of misunderstanding rather than difference of belief.
Because you seem not to appreciate that our beliefs make us different, you suggest more talk. You propose more international compacts and organizations, as if we don't have enough.
What exactly are the values we would share with others in your concept for a League of Democracies? The European Union countries can't even agree on a common constitution.
A 2000 survey of the United States and 14 Western European democracies checked the percentage of residents who never attend church. France was highest, with 60 percent, followed by Great Britain (55 percent), Belgium (46 percent) and West Germany (30 percent). The European mean was 36, more than twice as high as in the United States, which had 16 percent.

Read The Rest Here

The Conservatives still hold the majority in America. We need to demand that our side is heard. We need to demand that any candidate who wants to hold office, recognizes us as a force to get behind.

What are they thinking?

I was reading an article here. One line jumped out at me and forced me to write the rest of this.

Since the liberal Democratic Party (the Party of abortion, gays in the military, homosexual marriage, and expelling the church from public space) announced a plan to capture the evangelical vote and talk more about their faith, I started to notice the plethora of comments and articles on this subject from within the Party, from some evangelicals, and of course from the main stream media.

This statement made me wonder what is wrong with the church. We have thousands of years of history and sacrifice demonstrating and upholding the Bible. How did it happen to get so watered down that evangelicals are willing to uplift and support a group that opposes most of the major tenants? Here we are about to enter into Thanksgiving and Christmas. We should be reminded at every turn of sacrifice, joy, and forgiveness. The holiday season should be filled with laughter and hope for tomorrow based on the bedrock foundation demonstrated throughout history. Instead we have financial gain and grandstanding as the key to the holiday season. It is far more important to receive then give and our selfish ambitions shine.

The evangelical church has much to answer for as they scamper into the pit with the very demons they have fought over the years.
Abortion should cause any Christian to pull back in horror. Consistently known as the religion of life and chastened by Jesus himself when he spoke of how precious the children were. We even find stories where the child leaps in the womb in recognition of God. How can they turn their backs?
Homosexual or gay issues should be clear to all those who have read the scriptures. How many times are these acts called an abominations? Genesis 19 clearly points to this sin and why Sodom and Gomorrah were so completely destroyed.
Why would the church suddenly find unity among those who for years sought its destruction? We see these same liberal groups chopping crosses off of memorials and public places. Has the church forgotten who its tormentors are?

After years of beating the Christian, they begin to follow a new master.

Some of my other writings that tie in here.
What Really Caused the Slide of Our Nation.
When do you say life begins?
Do Men have any rights?
Why Isn't Socialism Dead?
How do you know they are wrong?
Could the Supremes Right the Sinking Ship (Mount Soledad Cross)
Koran OK, Bible NOT

What Really Caused the Slide of Our Nation.

Let's talk law.
1. initial law was based on the Ten Commandments and Common Practice and Courtesy's.
2. New laws were created based on old laws.
3. Law has advanced by building one law on top of another and so on.

This leads to higher orders of law.Laws that suddenly arrive with none of the foundation or ear markings common to other law, create major societal upheaval and tension. A clear case in point would be "Separation of Church and State". This phrase was completely foreign to US law until 1947 in the case of Everson -vs- Board of Education. Without citing a single precedent, and ignoring 175years of historically consistent rulings, the court made this claim The wall of separation between church and state must be kept high and impregnable. Everson v. Board of Education With that single decision based on nothing the wall was born.

This would be a perfect example of how man and his immorality created laws that would only further pervert and destroy. "Separation of Church and State" did not appear in the World Book Encyclopedia until 1967.

No one thought much of the Everson decision until 1962 when prayer was removed from the schools on its basis. In 1963 the Bible was removed from education on its basis. In 1965 religious speech among students was declared unconstitutional. In 1969 it became unconstitutional to erect a war memorial in the shape of a cross. In 1976 it became unconstitutional for a school to use the word 'God' in any of its official writings. In 1979 it became unconstitutional for kindergarten classes to declare whose birthday it was on Christmas. In 1980 it became unconstitutional to post the Ten commandments in schools. In 1985 it was declared that any bill, even if consensually acceptable, is unconstitutional if the author of the bill had religious activities in mind when the bill was written.

175 years of American History and law trashed by one decision in 1947. How much further are we going to allow the founding fathers works to be eroded? How many more of your rights will you let slip away? This country started as a shining beacon of Christianity and has since fallen to depravity and violence. We were once the world leader in every area of life; now we lead the world in violent crime. Our divorce rate ranks number one in the world. We lead the western world in teenage pregnancies, and we are world leader in voluntary abortions. We are the number one consumer of illegal drugs, and we lead the industrial world in illiteracy.

All this is due to turning our backs on our Christian heritage.