08/26/16

The ‘separation of church and state’ and ‘religious persecution’

By: Renee Nal | New Zeal

Thomas Jefferson asked for the "the following inscription, & not a word more" on his tombstone: Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia

Thomas Jefferson asked specifically for the “the following inscription, & not a word more” on his tombstone: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia”

“That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.” – The Virginia Declaration of Rights, adopted by the Virginia Constitutional Convention on June 12, 1776

The founding fathers believed in religious freedom, not religious suppression and persecution. The Library of Congress confirms that “the great majority left Europe [to come to America] to worship God in the way they believed to be correct.” In Europe, “majority religious groups who controlled political power punished dissenters in their midst.” The “New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland,” the article continued, “were conceived and established as ‘plantations of religion.'”

While most of the founding fathers were undeniably deeply religious, they also wanted to ensure that the federal government would impose “no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

It is quite unfathomable that their intent has been somehow interpreted over time to mean that all semblance of religion should be removed from the public square. That action, one could reasonably conclude, is suppression of religion, or “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion.

Read more here…

05/12/15

American Thoughts

By: T F Stern
T F Stern’s Rantings

It all starts with:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

How much of this is taken for granted or, in many cases, ignored? Is there any consensus on our nation’s relationship with Nature’s God, our Creator, or have we drifted so far from our foundation as to make God irrelevant in the workings of government?

The founders of this country were, for the most part Christians, with teachings of the Lord from the Bible as their starting point for setting the standard of government.

Christians, regardless of denomination, believe in God, maker of Heaven and Earth and in all things above and below; but how many Americans actually believe our nation was the result of divine intervention?

My reason for asking is to establish common ground whereupon a proper discussion of America can be carried forward.

The creation story is found in the book of Genesis; but its interpretation is up for grabs depending on who you talk to. Some claim God made everything out of ‘nothing’, a divine magic trick; but it is my belief that God organized existing matter and formed this Earth as a place for His children to enjoy mortality. All aspects of the creation were considered as part of the necessary environment for mankind. If you chose to believe otherwise, have at it; but my beliefs (*) trump yours as long as I’m writing.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

You have to ask, why would God fashion man after his own image?

We, each one of us regardless of the color of our skin or where we began mortality here on this spinning planet, each of us is a child of God. He is our Eternal Father, our Creator. Laws in the universe are eternal in nature; gravity, physics, math, chemistry and so on; they are constant and unchanging…the same as God; the same yesterday, today and forever.

So why is it important we recognize God as our Eternal Father; and beyond that, why is it important we recognize Him when talking about being an American?

I read an article by John Pratt many years ago, Did God Write the Laws of Physics? He started off with a speculative line, “Did God write the laws of physics or are they self-existent and God just follows them perfectly?” I don’t claim to have the answer; but isn’t that a wonderful way to start a discussion? Would any of the answers offered by John Pratt add to your comprehension of the Creation? Just wondering…

God . . . hath given a law unto all things, by which they move in their times and their seasons; And their courses are fixed, even the courses of the heavens and the earth, which comprehend the earth and all the planets. Doctrine and Covenants 88:41-43 (but read the entire section)

If we’re going to give God credit for the Creation; perhaps a better choice of words is in order… If we are going to show gratitude to God for having created all of this, and ‘all of this’ isn’t an exaggeration; then at some point we have to accept that He had some eternal plan for ‘all of this’, to include each and every individual ever born.

The New Testament provides a simple and all encompassing answer to the Creation.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1: 1-3

Modern scripture provides a fairly compact answer for why everything was created. It’s found in The Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1:39. (It should be pointed out that the Bible, the word of God as recorded by men, has lost many plain and precious passages over the years which have altered or lost important doctrine. Modern revelation has been provided to restore original doctrine. (See *)

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Our Father in Heaven has great hope for each of His children; those who lack this important piece of information as pertains to their relationship with God might contend that life is finite; there is nothing beyond a cold grave, that’s it. How much brighter would our outlook be if we were aware of and took to heart the Great Plan of Salvation; the challenges of life would be so much easier to bear.

Is this important when considering how each of us should live our lives? Was this important to those men we call Founding Fathers of this nation?

If you responded, “Hey, don’t bother me; it’s time for another hour of Dancing with the Stars”, then you found this article by mistake. For the rest of you, the journey toward appreciating citizenship in this particular nation becomes a little more important.

(Read between the lines and consider the unrest in Ferguson or Baltimore; what, if anything, do rioters and thugs know about the Creation and how we fit in as individuals?)

The Heavens didn’t assemble themselves randomly; they were organized with purpose of thought. America didn’t happen by coincidence either.

The courts consider Intelligent Design (ID) nothing more than Creationism or pure religion being foisted on the public. This is the result of a concerted effort to remove religion from the public square, schools and government institutions.

ID or Creationism isn’t permitted because of the ‘wall of separation between church and state’ which the Supreme Court manufactured from thin air based on their interpretation of the 1^st Amendment along with a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote containing that combination of words… as no such wording is found in the Constitution.

I’m getting off topic; but how can we share our love of country with each successive generation, our appreciation of how we’ve been blessed by our Creator when important parts of that history are now considered unfit to teach because it requires religion or faith?

This land was reserved for a righteous people by that same Being who created everything. This information is recorded in The Book of Mormon for those willing to invest some effort.

If you exhibit a particle of faith, even as a mustard seed, and accept the possibility that The Book of Mormon is true then you will advance to the next logical progression of thought, If the Book of Mormon is the word of God then Joseph Smith Jr. was a prophet of God, a modern day Moses if you will, because only a man hand picked by God could have translated such a book.

It then follows that other modern day scriptures were intended to enlighten God’s children; the Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price being classified as modern scripture. Don’t take my word for any of this; ask your Father in Heaven.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. John 1:5

Our nation was the result of God’s divine providence and our founding documents were brought about through selected individuals with a willingness to do His work. Having men of integrity and faith becomes more important historically as we consider how we must continue in their footsteps even in our day.

And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood. Doctrine and Covenants 101:80

A short review is in order… We are children of our Eternal Father in Heaven who created us in His own image for the express purpose of giving each individual a chance to advance through the eternities as we follow the same eternal laws He does in order to become as He is, having perfected immortal bodies with eternal life.

Our Creator did this as part of a grand plan which required organizing chaotic matter floating about the universe in such a way as to permit our tiny planet the ability to sustain life in all its glorious forms.

(I place no time limits on the Creation and accept that the Lord’s time is not the same as our time.)

Knowing the nature of His children, Jesus Christ was sent as an Atoning sacrifice or not one of us would be worthy to return. A small portion of the planet, the land we now call the United States of America, was reserved as a safe haven, a place where men might live the laws of God without the yoke of servitude under kings and despots and eventually return to Him. This is the promise of America and our experiment in self governance.

The French historian Alexis de Tocqueville recognized America’s goodness a couple of hundred years ago when he wrote:

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Sadly, too many of my fellow citizens have either forgotten or ignored the goodness of America Tocqueville observed. How else can we explain current events which portray so many individuals embracing evil and showing contempt for all the blessing showered down on us?

To find America we need only look to our Creator and follow His commandments. A simple solution; it starts with each individual doing what is right, not with someone in government mandating our actions.

This article has been cross posted to The Moral Liberal, a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, & The American Constitution”.

02/20/15

Too Many Lies, Too Much of the Time

By: Alan Caruba
Warning Signs

“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.”

— THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 19, 1785

I am beginning to wonder if Americans have grown so accustomed to the lies told by the President, his administration, and others said to be highly regarded, that we are losing a sense of outrage?

To the degree that Brian Williams’ serial lies have evoked a national discussion, it’s good to know that most people think he has lost credibility to the point of not being a news anchor, but one still has to wonder what NBC will do at the end of the six month suspension it has imposed on him. I am cynical enough to think he may be offered a job at MSNBC.

It is far more significant that, regarding the leading candidate to be the Democratic Party’s choice to run for President in 2016, we know she engaged in similar lies of having been “under fire.”

It’s one thing to expect politicians to lie, but the nation’s future is at stake when we still do not know the truth of Hillary Clinton’s full role in the Benghazi attack that left a U.S. ambassador and three others dead. She was the Secretary of State at the time and we watched her stand at his side as the President attributed the attack to a video no one had ever seen. The fact that the attack occurred on the anniversary of 9/11 was conveniently ignored.

The refusal to identify the Islamic State (ISIS) as an enemy representative of the global jihad is not just politics. It is a lie on the order of the President’s assertion that “The Islamic State is not Islamic.” As we are repeatedly reminded, if you cannot or will not identify an enemy, you are leaving yourself and, in this case, the nation open to attack.

Indeed, many elements of the Obama administration have engaged in lying on a level that goes beyond “politics.” It is a deliberate attack on science itself when the EPA, NOAA and NASA actively engage in distorting data to say that the Earth is warming when it has been in a well-established cooling cycle for 19 years at this point.

How are we expected to maintain any confidence in an administration that lies about employment statistics and other critical data we need to know regarding the economy?

The lie about “income inequality” is the core rational for Communism. There is no such thing as equality when it comes to income because some people enjoy higher pay for higher skills, higher productivity, and higher responsibility. We don’t pay “sanitation engineers” the same as we pay real engineers. And you don’t create new jobs by raising the minimum wage when it will reduce existing and potential new jobs.

Most dramatically, it was a series of lies told by the President that led to the passage of ObamaCare. Its two thousand-plus pages were not read by the exclusively Democratic members of Congress who passed it and, today, we learn that it is a major contributor to the nation’s deficit which is the result of the government spending more than it takes in. For the past six years Obama’s policies have added trillions to our national debt, now $18 trillion and growing. It is going to be a burden on generations to come.

There is no evidence of the tax reforms that Congress knows are needed, nor reforms to the entitlement programs that are just years from becoming insolvent.

Whether it is domestic or foreign affairs, Americans have been at a loss to expect the national press to address the lies because they would have to abandon the protection they have afforded the President for the past six years. Only one news service, Fox News, is credited with providing the truth. Fortunately the Internet has provided access to many other outlets where the truth can be found. And, yes, many that maintain the lies.

It should come as no surprise that the Obama administration wants to regulate the Internet with a program that call “Net neutrality”, but there is nothing neutral about it. The freedom the Internet enjoys is the best example of the value Americans put on an uncensored source of information and communication. The Obama administration wants to control the Internet in the same way that despots around the world want to do.

There is always a far higher price to pay for believing lies than knowing the truth.

We expect our enemies to lie. We should not expect our government to do so in such a routine and obscene fashion.

01/12/15

The Dismantling of Federalism

By: Nancy Salvato

It wouldn’t be surprising, if polled, that many United States citizens would feel disenfranchised when it comes to politics. Though the right to vote and petition the government is supposed to make sure the people’s interests are considered, we the people are not given standing to question the constitutionality of laws, i.e. The Affordable Care Act. Political parties are no longer able to moderate the positions of the most extreme members of our society, who feel compelled to take law into their own hands, i.e. exhibiting anarchy against the rule of law in response to the Grand Jury’s decision not to indict in the events surrounding Ferguson. Extremism, lack of understanding, apathy, an agenda driven 4^th Estate, all work against the citizenry in exercising their rights and responsibilities with fidelity in today’s society. How did it come to this?

One of the earliest Supreme Court cases to set precedent (A decided case which is cited or used as an example to justify a judgment in a subsequent case—ninja words) for our rule of law was Marbury v Madison. What happened is this. Before leaving office at the end of his term, 2^nd President John Adams appointed a slew of judges to the federal courts to maintain an ongoing Federalist Party influence during upcoming Democratic-Republican President Thomas Jefferson’s tenure in office. John Marshall was unable to deliver all the commissions before our 3^rd President began his term of office and Jefferson refused to have the remainder of the commissions delivered. William Marbury, who was to receive a commission, was not pleased with this turn of events and applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus, to force delivery of the commissions.

Angered by the appointment of the “midnight judges” Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican Party controlled congress attacked the Federalist controlled courts, removing many of the appointees by repealing the Judiciary Act of 1801, under which authority many of the appointments were made. To prevent an appeal on the subject, they determined the Supreme Court would not reconvene until 1803. By doing so, the executive and legislative branches appeared to be cementing their authority over the judicial branch.

The newly appointed Chief Justice John Marshall was in a bind. He did not want to further anger the Democratic-Republicans, fearing the administration would go as far as to simply ignore any decision made by the Supreme Court, if it appeared to further a Federalist agenda. Yet, he truly believed that Marbury’s commission was legally binding and should have been delivered. He resolved this conundrum, at the same time elevating the judiciary branch as co-equal to the other branches, by determining that the power to issue a writ of mandamus –given to the Supreme Court as part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, was actually “unconstitutional.” Therefore, he could not issue a mandate regarding the commission, satisfying Jefferson. At the same time, Marshall established the power of judicial review, ensuring the other branches abide by the Constitution, as interpreted by the Judicial Branch. In doing so, this elevated the status of the Judicial Branch, giving it the sole power to determine the constitutionality of law – a power for which it was never intended, but is now associated with this branch.

Influenced by Baron de Montesquieu, the Framers intended to prevent tyranny by dividing the powers delegated to the federal government into three branches of government, which could check and balance each other. In addition, according to the 10^th Amendment, powers not delegated to the federal government were to remain with the states and the people. If the constitutionality of a law is in question, this determination is presumably up to the states and the people to decide. The precedent for this is called nullification.

“If the feds pass a law that a state deems to be outside the boundaries of its proper constitutional authority, the state will simply ignore the law and refuse to comply with it.” – The New American

This idea, that the states could declare a federal law null and void because it violates the compact between the states and the federal government, eventually leads to the secession of the southern states from the union.

Because most people associate the Civil War with making good on a promissory note to those who were not treated equally under the law, the precedent for nullification is lost on the majority of citizens. This is problematic because citizens have no standing to bring questions of constitutionality before the Supreme Court and states have lost the main check and balance intended to ensure their interests were defined and respected by the federal government with passage of the 17^th Amendment—which eliminated the choosing of senators by the state legislatures and having them directly elected by the people. There is currently a movement to remove the last check and balance of the states with the elimination of the Electoral College.

There are currently a number of issues against which the states and people seem to be rendered powerless.

1) Immigration: By not enforcing the laws that Congress has passed on securing the border and immigration, the Executive Branch is marginalizing the Legislative Branch.

2) Obamacare: By unilaterally changing the text of the Affordable Care Act without seeking the changes legislatively, the Executive Branch is manipulating written law by decree, marginalizing the Legislative Branch.

3) Gitmo: Mr. Obama is “transferring” enemy combatant prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in an effort to empty the prison, in effect forcing a “closing” of the facility, something that Congress has passed legislation to prevent.

4) EPA: Using Executive Branch decreed regulations instead of seeking legislation from Congress, Mr. Obama is effectively legislating by regulating, and affecting many pieces of legislation Congress has passed to affect pro-economic growth.

Now that the new Congress has been seated, the President Obama has promised to veto any legislation that doesn’t further his agenda. It would seem that more than ever, the states and the people must reassert the powers which were never given to the federal government in order to prevent the tyrannical practices taking place at the federal level.

James Madison, in Federalist 51, writes,

“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

It seems that the failsafe measures which were put in place to oblige the government to control itself have been breached. It is up to the states and the people to restore the natural order once again.

Nancy Salvato is the Director of Education and the Constitutional Literacy Program for Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan research and educational project whose mission is to re-introduce the American public to the basic elements of our constitutional heritage while providing non-partisan, fact-based information on relevant socio-political issues important to our country. She is a graduate of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ National Academy for Civics and Government. She is the author of “Keeping a Republic: An Argument for Sovereignty.” She also serves as a Senior Editor for NewMediaJourna.usl and a contributing writer to BigGovernment.com and FamilySecurityMatters.org.