"We have no choice but to believe them"
"As the Government of the United States is not, in any sense founded on the Christian religion"
Unanimously approved by the Senate and Congress 1796 and proudly offered by John Adams to the nation in 1797. George Washington appointed the man to negotiate this treaty. Both houses were full of Founders when this was read aloud and passed with NO no votes.
Glad that you have changed your mind Allie. You have no choice to but to believe them.
Well done!
The famous line you quoted is not in the Constitution nor in any of the Founder Fathers' writings, letters, or papers, however. It is a clause (Article 11?) in a treaty with Tripoli and the wording was to reassure that nation that American Christianity would not be a hindrance or issue due to their being a Muslim nation. I don't remember the exact date but do know it was a number of years after our Constitution was ratified. 1797 comes to mind.
You obviously know nothing about the law and our system of government.
Words mean words. Spin it all you want but I quote verbatim.
Treaties mean what they say. Where was the opposition to this?
The no religous test further illustrates that the Founders wanted no religous influences in government.
Sir, for a number of years the Founders conducted Christian worship services IN THE CHAMBERS of CONGRESS!!! They believed this legal since attendance at the services was purely voluntary. Almost to a man, they emphasized that our system of government and our Constitution would not stand except in the care of a religious and moral people.
That you cannot differentiate between that and a subsequent line in a treaty with a Muslim nation says far more about your lack of understanding of law and system of government than mine.
George Washington: “What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.”
George Washington: “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
George Washington: "It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”
George Washington: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable.” (Thanksgiving Proclamation 1789)
George Washington: “True religion affords to government its surest support.”
“I … [rely] upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.” - Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams: “We have this day [Fourth of July] restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His Kingdom come.”
Samuel Adams: “The United States in Congress assembled … recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States … a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools.”
- United States Congress 1782
“Congress passed this resolution: “The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.” - United States Congress 1782
“By Law the United States Congress adds to US coinage:” “In God We Trust”- United States Congress 1864
John Adams: “The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.”
John Adams: "The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
John Adams: “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”
John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams: "[The Fourth of July] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”
John Adams: “As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him.”
Patrick Henry: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
John Jay, First Chief-Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is their duty – as well as privilege and interest – of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence: “The only foundation for . . . a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”
John Witherspoon, Continental Congress: “He is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down on profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country.”
John Dickinson, signer Constitution of the USA, Continental Congress: “The rights essential to happiness. . . . We claim them from a higher source — from the King of kings and Lord of all the earth.”
Benjamin Franklin: “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”
Thomas Jefferson, President: "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."
James Madison: "We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.”
James Madison: “Religion [is] the basis and foundation of Government”
Noah Webster: "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed … No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story: “I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law … There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying its foundations.”
“And this be our motto, ‘In God is our trust’” - USA National Anthem, Third Verse
United States Supreme Court: “This is a Christian nation” - United States Supreme Court Decision in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892
“Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of The Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian…This is a Christian nation”
