Welcome to "Tuesday Mornings"—a source of blessing and encouragement for Christians everywhere, and especially where the spirit of freedom reigns in the hearts of men and women of faith.

 

Secularists want God out of Government. They believe it is their right—their heritage—to be unrestrained in their criticism of anyone and anything that permits religion and government to co-exist. They take delight in reminding Americans that our founding fathers removed all references to God from the final draft of the Constitution of the United States. If they could, they would "revise" the Declaration of Independence to exclude all references to God and faith in a Divine Being. In most towns and cities of America prayers and Bible readings are excluded from public-school events. Even some public high-school baccalaureates have been discontinued because of the difficulty of conducting them without using scripture and prayer.

 

Periodically, I enjoy reading from authors outside the traditional mainstream of religious writings. One such writer was the late Ezra Taft Benson, Secretary of Agriculture during both administrations of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Benson was a Mormon and eventually became the thirteenth president of the LDS Church. More important to me was the fact that he was a  statesman who understood the importance of maintaining a spiritual dimension in government. In an essay entitled "Freedom is Our Heritage" (November 10, 1970) Benson wrote:

 

"I support the doctrine of separation of church and state as traditionally interpreted to prohibit the establishment of an official national religion. But this does not mean that we should divorce government from any formal recognition of God. To do so strikes a potentially fatal blow at the concept of the divine origin of our rights, and unlocks the door for an easy entry of future tyranny. If Americans should ever come to believe that their rights and freedoms are instituted among men by politicians and bureaucrats, they will no longer carry the proud inheritance of their forefathers, but will grovel before their masters seeking favors and dispensations—a throwback to the feudal system of the Dark Ages."

 

I am tired of groveling for things that our forefathers held were our "unalienable rights." I am tired of secularists demanding neutrality in terms of honoring the source of America's freedoms. That source was the Holy Bible, and the proponents of freedom were men committed to the union of God and government.

 

This week's "Tuesday Morning" is entitled "One President's Faith." You may be surprised as to the identity of that president. And you may be even more surprised when you read his outspoken support of a proposed amendment to the Constitution (in 1844) that would have included affirmations of faith in the Creator of the universe. Read on whenever you are ready, and be prepared to be patriotic—all the way through the November election and beyond. Let freedom ring!

 

Tom Barnard

A Senior Patriot

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One President’s Faith

Tom Barnard

 

ecularists rant about the meaning of the 1^st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. They remind Americans that the Constitution is a secular document, in which the name of God is absent. They point with pride to the historical words,

 

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion

or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

 

If they could, secularists would enact an amendment that excluded the second half of that affirmation. They support the notion that Congress has never given heed to anything religious. Of course, they are wrong. In a document entitled Centennial Record of the American Bible Society (1916) are these words:

 

“A General Bible Convention was held in Washington, the place of meeting being the Hall of the House of Representatives. In that crowded hall, Ex-President John Quincy Adams presided as senior Vice President of the American Bible Society. In an address full of fire, he set forth the value and power of the Holy Scripture and his own conviction to the Society to extend their circulation.”

 

The motion to approve the use of the House of Representatives for the convention was made by Adams on Wednesday, February 21, 1844. It authorized the use of the House as the site. The motion passed, and on the following Tuesday, February 27, 1844, the bible-centered meeting went forward without protest.

 

Little is said today about the faith of our presidents—the present president excepted. But men of faith have occupied the White House. One of the most dedicated Christians was John Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the United States and the eldest son of John Adams. John Quincy was one very well-educated and experienced president. He matriculated at Leyden (Leiden) University in Holland when he was thirteen and later graduated from Harvard at the age of 22, having spent most of his late teen years in Europe and Russia. When he was twenty-seven he was sent as Minister to the Netherlands. At the age of thirty-six he was elected to the United States Senate. Following a term as Secretary of State under Monroe, he was elected President of the United States. Subsequently, he was elected to Congress in 1831 and was re-elected continuously for eight more terms, serving for seventeen years until his death in 1848.

 

In perhaps the most courageous act of his political life, Adams helped frame and then presented in 1844 a strongly-worded resolution to amend the Constitution by adding words that affirmed “a clear and explicit acknowledgement of the Sovereign of the universe, as the God of this nation.” Included in his narrative were these words:

 

“With these, and many other portions of infallible truth before us, and also a knowledge of the many and grievous sins with which this nation is chargeable in the sight of God—it is our deliberate judgment that nothing but national repentance and a thorough reformation in both Constitution and administration will save this Republic from threatened and impending ruin.”

 

Amid protests by Adams, a motion to “not receive” the resolution was eventually tabled. But America came within a few votes of sending to committee a resolution that would have clarified forever the meaning of the 1^st Amendment to the Constitution, and the more recent words, “One Nation under God.”

 

James Truslow Adams began a chapter in his book, The Adams Family, with this tribute: “John Quincy Adams believed profoundly in God. For him God was not a rarefied philosophical abstraction, a mere name for the Unknown, but a Being who ruled the universe. If His rule were not beneficent, all meaning would drop out of human existence and human morality. To deny that there was meaning to existence, and reality to moral belief and conduct, would be to commit intellectual and spiritual suicide.”

 

Will words like these be uttered by this year’s candidates for election to the presidency? Don’t count on it. 

 

All quotes were taken from Chats from a Minister’s Library, by Wilbur M. Smith. (Boston: W.A. Wilde Co., 1951), pages 234-247.