Passion #1- God and Country

     So here I go...passion number one.  Wish me luck.  I may need it.  Not because I am worried that I might receive a backlashing of boos and hisses accompanied by a wet noodle, but because I am nervous that mere words will not adequately express just how much this subject means to me. 
     First let me explain that this topic is not a dual one.  It is not meant to be thought of separately;  first, of my devotion to and love for my Almighty Creator and second of my love and patriotism for the country in which I live.  No, this is the "One Nation Under God",  "In God We Trust",  "God Bless America"  topic.  The one where there is a firm belief that this country was founded under the direction of Deity.  The topic where they go Hand in hand.
      After being elected President, George Washington stated "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States.  Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."  (Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 30:292.)
      James Madison contemplated the work of the Constitutional Convention as follows, "The real wonder is that so many difficulties should have been surmounted...with a unanimity almost as unprecedented as it must have been unexpected.  It is impossible for any man of candor to reflect on this circumstance without partaking of the astonishment.  It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution." (The Federalist Papers, No. 37, pp 230-231.)
     The Founding Fathers often fasted and prayed, petitioning God both publicly and privately.  They were continually expressing gratitude to the Almighty as the nation survived one major crisis after another.
     It was also the intent of our country's First Fathers to teach religion and not only allow but welcome God in our schools.  *Gasp!*  you say.  But what about separation of church and state!  Yeah, well I will address that here later. 
     In 1787, Congress passed the famous Northwest Ordinance which said:
"Article 3: Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. (Basic American Documents, Littlefield, Adams & Co., Ames, Iowa, 1953, p, 66.)
     In 1962 and 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court issues two bans.  Both bans were the result of lawsuits against the teaching of religion and religious practices in public schools. Basically stating that organized prayer in schools was a violation of the separation of church and state. It was decided that publicly funded schools were an extension of the state, and that organized prayer or bible readings were a form of proselytizing. The bans not only banned mandatory prayer in schools but also banned the daily reading of bible passages.

     The lawsuits were supported by several organizations but the most outspoken supporter for banning prayer in schools came from Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the founder of American Atheists, Inc.

Read more:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_and_by_whom_was_prayer_taken_out_of_public_schools#ixzz1F1W6oVjz

     Allow me to let you in on a little secret.  The phrase "wall of separation between the church and the state", (which those who want to wipe God clean off the American History roadmap, love to use as a means for arguing their point of view), isn't even in the Constitution.  It was a phrase coined by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptists on January 1, 1802.  His purpose in the letter was to calm the fears of the Danbury, Connecticut Baptists, assuring them that the wall  had been erected to protect them.  The metophor was used exclusively to keep the state out of the church's business, not the other way around.

     According to a survey conducted by the Pew Forum Survey on Religion, posted in the Washington Post, 92% of Americans believe in God.

     So my argument is this:  If 92% of Americans believe in God, why in the heck do we stand idly by and let the other 8% , at the most , take God out of our schools, off of our court house lawns,  out of the Pledge of Allegiance, etc.

     There are those who are working very hard to see God erased from this wonderful country of ours and the horrific thing is;  they are making pretty good strides.  The saddest thing though, is that the 92% of us on the God fearing side are allowing it.

     If they succeed in ripping God out of the founding, the history, the worship, merely the use of His name on a state and national level,  than the very thing that makes this country  so special and a country of miracles will all go away.  We will be left with a country that is no different from any other.  I frankly don't want to live in a country that is just like another, if I did, I would move.  I am so proud of this, The United States of America.  And I am sick of people slamming her and apologizing all over the place for her.  John Adams stated "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (The Changing Political Thought of John Adams, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ., 1966, p. 189.) This is a country like no other, and I really hope and pray that if it came down to it, that the 92%  who believe in God will rise up and demand that America will not be raped of the things that make her the only land of it's kind.  God's hand is here.  It is a blessed land and only we her citizens can cause her downfall by sitting back and letting the minority, the squeaky wheels, dictate what we will and won't allow.

     So another one of my passions is music, but that is for another day.  For now, please enjoy this video which was shared with me on fb, which sums up the feelings I hold in my heart and conveys the message better than my words can say.