Question #2

 

WHY IS AMERICA'S CHRISTIAN HISTORY

RELEVANT TO OUR PRESENT CRISIS?

 

A knowledge of America's Christian History makes it possible

to discern fundamental answers to current problems in our

nation. Many politically active Christians and media

personalities are today addressing the issue of the day

but most, unfortunately, have little knowledge of our history.

Because of this lack of knowledge, many spokesmen become easy

prey for well trained humanist journalists who know all of

the cliche's about the "witch hunts," the"bigoted Puritans"

and the "blessings" of pluralism. While Christian leaders call

for a return to a god-centered America, the well-entrenched

secularist undermines the message by equating it with extremism

and visions of the Ayatollah Khomeini or Jim Jones.

If Christians do not know

their true history, a false sense of guilt will set

in and they will be placed on the defensive concerning their

God and their country. Once in a defensive, reactionary

position, the Christian community is one of the easiest

groups in America to immobilize, because Christians who

know the Bible know they cannot and should not force their

beliefs on others. they do not want a church-run society and

if they think this is the only option other than secular, "do

your own thing" state, they will complacently opt for the the

latter. The beauty of America's heritage is that our founders

provided the third alternative: a nation with true liberty and

justice for all, including both the believer and the unbeliever.

Here are some specific examples of how a knowledge of America's

Christian history clarifies issues and answers current dilemmas.

 

WHAT IS THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE?

This question is one of the hottest debates of the 1980's in

the courts and legislative halls of our land. The term

"separation of church and state" is used today as a catch-all

phrase to eliminate religious influence upon anything involving

the state or civil affairs.

The history of the first Amendment

to the Constitution gives us quite a different perspective.

Our Founders had come from European lands ruled by monarchies

which used official state churches to control the people.

They had had enough of the supposed "divine rights of kings."

so, according to James Madison, the First Amendment was drawn

up because "the people feared one sect might obtain a

preeminence, or two combine together, and establish a religion

to which they would compel others to conform."

The amendment

was meant to shield the churches from the encroachment of the

Federal Government, specifically, the Congress. But the framers

of the Bill of rights never intended that the church (speaking

of Christians and their various denominations) was to have no

influence over the state or that religion was to be separated

from our national life by an impregnable wall of separation.

Our Foundingf Fathers presupposed Christianity as the moral

foundation of governmental action. George Wahington said: "True

religion offers the government its surest support." Suprememe Court

Justice Joseph Story, writing in the early days of the of the

Republic, said of the period when the First Amendment was adpoted:

"An attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state

policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created a

universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation...

He explained further that the real object of the amendment was to

prevent any national ecclesiastical establisment which should give

to the exclusive patronage of the national government."

In 1849, Robert C. Winthrop stated the common understanding of the

Constitutional period well when he said:

"It may do for other countries, and other governments to talk about

the State supporting religion. Here, under our own free institutions,

it is Religion which must support the State."

What then has caused the present discordant division between religion

and the state? The term " separation of church and state" is not in

the First Amendment or, indeed, anywhere in the Constitutioon.

It appears in a personal letter Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 replying

to one from a group of Baptists and congregationalists in Danbury,

Connecticut questioning his religious position. (As a matter of fact,

Jefferson was neither a member of the consitutional convention of 1787

nor of the first Congress under the Consitution which passed the Bill

of Rights.)

Yet the Supreme Court has consistently relied on this

personal statement by a man who had nothing to do with writing the

Bill of Rights to uphold their rulings that public schools may not

hold devotional excercises or Bible readings, that the Ten Commandments

may not be posted on the walls of schoolrooms, and many other

anti-religious descisions.

In view of the foregoing, it is well to remind ourselves of what the

First Amendment actually says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an

establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free excercise thereof.."

John W Whitehead, arespected Constitutional lawyer and author, gives the

following excellent paraphrase of the Amendment into modern English:

"The federal government shall make no laws having anything to do with

supporting a national denominational church, or prohibiting the fre

excercise of religion."

Surely the historical evidence from which we have quoted makes

it clear that "separation of church and state," is a non-consitutional

phrase now used as a battle-cry by those who would frighten godly

Americans out of the polls and back to the pews and is a blatant

distortion fo the intent of the Framers of the First Amendment.

EDUCATION IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY

No greater issue looms in the minds of American parents than that of

the failure of the American deucationsl system. This failure can best

be analyzed from the perspective of America's christian history focusing

on the long term reasons for the demise of education in America.

Otherwise, the debate becomes an existential "blame sharing" match

between parents, teachers and bureaucrats crying for more money.

We must see the comparison and contrast between the historic educational

philosophy of early America versus the modern, progressive methodology

and content used in most schools today if we hope to have a reference

point or standard by which to judge and change the present educational

establishment.

EARLY AMERICAN EDUCATION

Early education in America was unique, as it was founded upon private

education in the home, churches, and schools with the Bible as the

foundation stone for character development as well as intellectual

insight. The Pilgrims and Puritans were greatly interested in education,

but they saw it as a personal, family, and church resposibility.

Sometimes formal education was offered at the township level, but

always under parental control and biblically based. These early

founders, knowing the importance of education, founded hundreds of

private schools and colleges during the colonial period. Most of the

colleges were started in order to train men for the ministry. Rosalia

J. Slater gives this documentation on the fruit of our Founders's

educational efforts:

"At the time of the Declaration of Independence the quality of

education had enabled the colonies to achieve a degree of literacy

from 70% to virtually 100%. This was not education restricted to the few.

Modern scholarship reports 'the prevalence of schooling and its

accessibility to all segments of the population.' Moses Coit Tyler,

historian of American literature, indicastes the colonists'

familiarity with history...extensive legal learning...lucid exposition

of consitutional principles, showing indeed, that somehow, out

into the American wilderness had been carried the very accent of

cosmopolitan thought and speech.' When the American State papers

arrived in Europe..they were found to contain 'nearly every quality

indicative of personal and national greatness.'"

In tracing the greatness of our nation, no more important foundation can

be found than 150 years of tutelage in the Christian schools and the

self-governing, principled study and reasoning done in the homes by

rich and poor alike.

Because all education was built upon the foundation of the Bible,

students grew upknowing how to reason from its principles to all of

human endeavor. The Bible was the political and economic textbook of

the patriots. Rev. J Wingate Thorton's Pulpit of the American Revolution

notes that in 1777 the Continental Congress wrote "directing the

Committee of Commerce to import twenty thousand copies of the Bible,

the great political textbook of the patriot..."

 

MODERN PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION

In 1838, Horace Mann became the Secretary of the Massacusetts Board of

Education. Did you know that during the following years, Mann promoted

a philosophy of education that was diametrically opposed to that of the

Founding Fathers generation? He is known as the father of the public

school movement.

1. He supported forced taxation for state schools which undermined

parental control and was dtrimental to the private schools.

2. Mann, and those who followed him, de-emphasized the Biblical

doctrine of salvation as the basis of character development,

replacing it with the optimistic, humanistic view of the

perfectibility of man through education and environment.

3. He encouraged group thinking and study rather than individual

initiaitve and creativity.

4. He standardized teacher training, textbooks, and accreditation

beginning the transition way from the principles of the Christian

philosophy of education taught by the great founder of America's

educational system, Noah Webster,

As the twentieth century dawned, John Dewey, with his progressive method

of education, derived partially from his exposure to the Communist

educational system in Russia, carried on the death march toward federal

secularism. By 1935, a man-centered curriculum had become the dominant

influence in most fields of scholorship in this country.

The public school bureaucracy, which is now the largest in the history

of the world, has been "vaccinating" the vast majority of America's

youth for several generations against what it considers to be "the

infectious disease of absolute moral values," our Christian heritage,

and our Christian republic which was built upon these truths.

Today, as progressive, public education collapses before our eyes,

damaging millions of young lives in the process, we are witnessing an

inevitable consequence of 150 years which cannot be corrected by simply

putting voluntary prayers back in the schools. A complete change of

philosophy and leadership is needed.

Through a knowledge of America's Christian history, not only can the

progressive public school be exposed, but the positive alternative of

the"Principle Approach" to education used in early AMerica be instituted

in its place.

Criticizing the status quo is an American past-time, but

the real question is: How many of us will be willing to sacrifice our

time nd private funds to rebuild and not tear down? Learning the

deeds of our Fathers will not only cause us to repent but will give us

the wisdom needed to restore the broken down walls of our culture.

 

SUMMARY

Other questions such as the reason for the rise in crime, the failure of the

government control of welfare, the failure of the justice system, the

failure of evangelical activity to transform society, the dramatic drop

in the productivity of our economy can all be understood only when

placed against the backdrop of our history and an examination of Scripture.

Let us not lose our future by failing to come to grips with our past. We,

like the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, need to repent and do the

deeds we did at first; but first we must learn what those deeds were!

**** SEE QUESTION 3 ***


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