Ten
Reasons State-Sanctioned Atheism is Out of Step with Our American Traditions.
The University of Miami has now announced
a chair for the study of atheism. In another recent story, an atheist group is
suing a sheriff because of his pro-God statements on his Facebook page (Constitution.com,
5/19/16). No one can deny
the rise of the shrill atheistic voices of our time.
But dare
I say that the idea of state-sanctioned
and in some cases state-mandated
atheism is absolutely out of step with the traditions of America. Here are 10
reasons why:
1.
At
the time of our founding, 99.8% of the population was professing Christians.
Ben Franklin, himself a bit of a skeptic, said in 1794, when writing about
America, “Atheism is unknown there, infidelity rare and secret; so that persons
may live to a great age in that country without having their piety shocked by
meeting with either an atheist or an infidel.”
2.
The
founding fathers (not just the settlers, like the Pilgrims—whom even the ACLU
will admit were Christians) hired chaplains to say prayers—virtually always in
the name of Jesus—for the military and the legislature. The tradition of
prayers at the opening of the legislature goes back even to 1619 when the Jamestown colony had the first congress of any kind in America.
3.
The
symbol of America’s founding is the Liberty Bell. And as everyone
should know, it has a Bible verse on it—“Proclaim liberty throughout the land and
to all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10).
4.
The
foundational education of the founders was Christian—even those who later may
have lost their faith or some aspects of it. As Dr. Donald S. Lutz, author of The Origins of
American Constitutionalism, once
told me that they all knew the Bible “down to their fingertips.” To those who
are biblically literate, you can easily see the influence.
5.
In
addition to #4, all the colleges in North America were thoroughly Christian. Those who attended
Harvard, for example, learned at an institution with the motto (in Latin)
“Truth for Christ and His Church.” Only centuries later, did the Harvard
trustees sever truth from Christ and His church. Madison learned his wise politics from the then-thoroughly
Presbyterian College of New Jersey. We know it today as Princeton.
6.
Since 1956, our national motto continues
to be “In God We Trust.” But sometimes you wouldn’t know that. It was suggested
by Francis Scott Key, who wrote our National Anthem. The first verse, beginning
with “Oh say, can you see…” is well-known. But note what he says in the 4th
verse, which I wish we would sing more often:
Blest
with vict’ry and peace, may the Heavn’n-rescued land
Praise
the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it
is just,
And
this be our motto, “In God is our trust!”
7.
Every state constitution mentioned God.
Most of them still do. For example, here is the opening to the constitution for
my home state: “We, the People of the State of Illinois—grateful to
Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He has
permitted us to enjoy and seeking His blessing upon our endeavors…”
8.
Since
the days of Abraham Lincoln, drawing on the tradition of the Pilgrims, we have
an annual holiday based on the concept of giving thanks to God. Washington was the first president to declare a day of
Thanksgiving, on the suggestion of Congress— the same Congress that wrote the
First Amendment—-the words of which are sometimes twisted today to mean
state-sanctioned atheism. Washington
said in that October 3, 1789 proclamation, “…it is the duty of all nations to
acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will…”
9.
God
is mentioned in stone all over our nation’s capital. For instance, there are
three Bible verses in his Second Inaugural Address chiseled at the Lincoln
Memorial. If the atheists continue their jihad against God, would we have to
sandblast the name of God off the monuments?
10.
The single biggest reason that
state-sanctioned atheism is out of keeping with our American tradition comes
from our national birth certificate. The Declaration of Independence says that
our rights come from the Creator. Therefore, they are not up for grabs. In
contrast, what the state gives, the state can remove.
Why are
we getting to the place in society where those who hold biblical views are
marked out to be fired or discriminated against if those views leak out in the
public square? What is happening today is literally an exaltation of atheism
over belief.
In America atheists are free
to share their unbelief. Great. I just wish they would extend that freedom to
the very traditions that extended that freedom to them in the first place—the
Judeo-Christian heritage.
