The Reformed Analysis

July 2000

 

Page 2 of 4

back to page 1


Continued...
JEFFERSON AND EDUCATION

We have already established that it was never Jefferson’s intention to have Christianity separated from government and life. His statement to the Danbury Baptist association “wall of separation between church and state” has been misused by both humanists and Supreme Court Judges, to wickedly remove the only source of Truth from our nation. Today’s notion of this “separation” supposedly comes from the 1st Amendment of the Constitution.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”

This Amendment protects the Christian faith and the Christian Churches against a National Denomination. It does not prohibit the exercise of the Christian faith, and the Laws of the Holy Scriptures, to be fully and properly applied in the various institutions of America. This is evident from Jefferson’s declaration as the Chairman of the Washington D.C. school board.

“I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make better citizens.”

In 1781, Thomas Jefferson made this statement in Query XVIII of his notes on the State of Virginia:

“God, who gave us life, gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God. That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; and that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

Jefferson understood three fundamental principles. The first, that God is the Sovereign King and Judge over all the earth. The second, that He is the only Lawgiver, and thus His Laws supercede all others. And thirdly, that education must be fixed upon God’s immutable principles, centered upon the Holy Scriptures, and the Christian Religion.

The Supreme Court ruling in the early 1960’s established that those things which concerned the Bible, or any thing associated with the Scriptures, The Ten Commandments, Religious articles, prayer and God’s Law, was forbidden because of the myth of “separation between church and state.”

The proof of the Supreme court’s action was not based upon any Constitutional law or any other legal article of the Government of the united States, but rather upon the opinion of a secular psychologist. It was upon his opinion that portions of the New Testament contained concepts that could be “psychologically harmful to the youth“. Upon this assessment, the United States Supreme Court upheld a ruling forbidding the Scriptures, and all Christian influence from being recognized in the public schools.

 


Certainly this decision was not based upon an accurate understanding of Jefferson’s statement, but rather it was a complete reversal of his original intention. The Court had violated their office in re-interpreting the Constitution, and establishing a law, which was in direct opposition to the Law of God, and the Law of American liberty.

Since then, the Courts have carried out systematic assaults against the free exercise of the Christian Religion, as it was originally protected, and encouraged, by the united States Constitution.

In Palmer v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago (7th Cir. 1979), a teacher refused to carry out certain aspects of the curriculum because of “personal religious beliefs”. The court acknowledged the teacher’s right to freedom of belief, but also recognized a compelling state interest in the proper education of all its children. The state claimed outright “ownership” over the children as the stewards of what was “proper education”. In other words, no matter what God’s Law dictates, and requires of us, as “creatures created in His Image”, the state has final “say so” over the process of socialization and instruction.

Jefferson wrote concerning the Supreme Court of his day,

“Nothing in the Constitution has given them [the federal judges] a right to decide for the Executive, more than the Executive to decide for them. But the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are Constitutional, and what are not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the legislature and executive also, in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch.”

Jefferson, along with a host of other Executive officers, had already established an Executive and Legislative support for the promotion of the Christian faith. To have the Supreme Court erroneously interpret the Constitution, on matters of the Christian faith, or any other Executive established precepts, was a violation of the Court’s office. For the Court to establish law, was outside of their right and their purpose.


      

continued on page 3

 

 

 

 

Additional issues of "The Reformed Analysis"

Also available:

The Reformed Witness

Other articles by Pastor Paul Michael Raymond

 

 

 

 

www.HisGlory.com

 

 

 

 

Hit Counter

 

 

 

 

 

 

01/19/02