If we silence God

I'm quite concerned about the 2008 election. One radio commentator I hear often was complaining about not letting the extreme left or the conservative Christians make the policy of our government any longer. The people should make the policy.

While I quite grant that I hope the extreme liberal left (with its policies of political correctness and socialism) will have no voice in our government, I believe it is utter foolishness to push God out of the thinking of our country. The particular commentator, whom I respect, said that the founding fathers never envisioned conservative Christians making policy in this country.

I was astounded at his reasoning. He apparently did not know the staunch views of our founding fathers. They believed that the freedom we enjoy came from those same conservative views. Many of the views people today regard as "right wing radical" were the norm of other generations. We have become in many respects what would have been unthinkable to them.

President Thomas Jefferson who wrote the Declaration of Independence and is credited with suggesting a separation of church and state, offered this National Prayer of Peace on March 4, 1805, the day of his second inauguration:

"Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners."

While Jefferson detested those who abused and corrupted Christianity, he believed very strongly that the way of Jesus ought to be followed.

President George Washington addressed the General Committee representing the United Baptist Churches of Virginia on May 10, 1789. He said:

"If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the Convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical Society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it;
...I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against...every species of religious persecution."

In his National Day of Thanksgiving Proclamation in New York City, October 3, 1789, Washington said:

"Whereas it is the duty of all nations too acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor..."

Among other things in this proclamation, Washington urged that "we may then unite... to promote the knowledge and practice of the true religion and virtue...."

On March 11, 1792, Washington wrote in a letter to John Armstrong:

"I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them."

In his Farewell Address, Washington said:

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens....
"Let is simply be asked where is is the security for prosperity, for reputation, for life, if the sense of the religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in the Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded t the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. 'Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."

That our country's founding fathers saw little link between faith and government is a modern and postmodern notion. The fathers themselves would have been utterly shocked at such an absurdity.

Phil