America was built on a belief in God, and there’s just no way to deny that fact | The Matt Walsh Blog

America was built on a belief in God, and there’s just no way to deny that fact | The Matt Walsh Blog



The country was founded on a belief in a creator God and has OFFICIALLY endorsed
the concept from the very beginning. That is the reality. It is not
really up for debate. You may wish to turn America into something else,
but do not pretend that you are turning it into what it was always
designed to be. Have the courage of your convictions. Make your case for
an Atheist America, but do not stand there and tell me that America has
always been atheist.


The evidence against you is staggering:


-Five mentions of God in The Declaration of Independence.


-In God we trust – the motto found in the National Anthem and on coins dating as far back as 1860.


-The Continental Congress issuing the first national proclamation of thanksgiving to God.


-The Continental Congress calling for national repentance of sins.


-Church services being held inside the Capitol Building during the time of the Founders.


-The President swearing in on a Bible. (This is not required, but
it’s a custom many have followed. George Washington kissed a Bible
after swearing his oath.)


-Swearing on a Bible in court, “so help you God.”


-Federal Oaths that require federal officials to say “so help me God.”


-The Chaplain of the United States Senate.


-Every Senate session beginning with a prayer.


-“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of
Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and
humbly to implore His protection and favor.” – George Washington.


-“You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and
above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater
and happier people than you are. Congress will do every thing they can to assist you in this wise intention…” – George Washington’s speech to the Delaware Indian Chiefs.


-“The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human
government upon the first precepts of Christianity.” – John Adams


The list goes on and on.


Two can play at the “Founding Fathers religion quotes” game, I
realize. I’m sure hundreds of secularists are busily Googling “Thomas
Jefferson anti-religion quotes” as we speak. It’s true that some of the
Founders were skeptical of “organized religion” (as opposed to
disorganized religion, I guess?) but none of them were atheists.


Jefferson was a Deist; a fact that only enhances the case for him
being very accepting of God in the public square. Deists believe that
the truth of a Divine Creator can be ascertained through observation and
reason. In other words, they viewed God as an Absolute Reality (same as
any other theist) but disagreed on the application of the reality.


Would Jefferson the Deist think that the governors of men should be required to ignore the Absolute Reality of God?


I doubt it. And the Declaration of Independence seems to indicate otherwise.


After all, we don’t need to cherry pick random statements from dead
men, or even analyze the religiosity that is undeniably ingrained in our
official laws and customs. We need only think about the philosophy that
serves as the foundation of our country. It is a philosophy of Natural
Rights. Our Natural Rights come from Natural Law. Natural Law
— particularly since Augustine and, later, St. Aquinas’ Summa
Theologica — has been understood as a set of foundational moral laws
that are inherent in human beings.


Natural Law, and
thus Natural Rights, either come from nature itself, or they come from
the Creator of Nature. If they come from nature itself, then all
democratic notions are in stark defiance of Natural Law. In nature, the strong survive and the weak are preyed upon. That is the law of the jungle; the law
of beasts. We, however, subscribe to the transcendent notion that all
humans possess a certain dignity which entitles them to certain
liberties. This immaterial dignity did not come through an evolutionary
process. It was endowed somehow. If it means anything, then it must be
more than a “social contract” or a policy of government.


The dignity exists. It is real. It means something. It comes from somewhere.


That “somewhere” must be God.


Without God, your rights are an abhorrent perversion of the only True Natural Law — the Law
of Mother Nature – and they are conditionally granted to you by
bureaucrats and politicians, who can revoke them at any time and for any
reason.


The Declaration of Independence might not be a legal document, but it
is a philosophical document. It is America’s Manifesto. It explains
that we have rights which are endowed on us by a Creator God. Every good
thing about America has grown from this basic starting point.


But… the Separation of Church and State, you shout.


Should I insult your intelligence by reminding you that no such
phrase exists in the Constitution? In fact, the First Amendment makes no
mention of “separation,” “church,” or “state,”
in any order or combination. The First Amendment puts no limit on
religion at all. Instead, it limits the governments ability to interfere
in religion, and permanently codifies our right to the “free exercise
thereof.”


When Thomas Jefferson used the notorious phrase “Separation of Church and State”
in his letter to the Danbury Baptists, he was describing a one-sided
wall where the corruption of the Government could not infiltrate and
infect the operations of the Church. He only chose those particular
words because he was speaking to Baptists. He thought it might resonate
with that crowd, considering the founder of the Baptist Church in
America, Roger Williams, had written 150 years earlier about the need
for a “wall of separation between the garden of the Church and the wilderness of the World.”


So when the Supreme Court later used this letter to justify its legal
opinion in Everson vs. Board of Education, it was really deciding case law based on part of a sentence written by a 17th century Baptist preacher.


Stellar work there, Your Honors.


Remember, the settlers were escaping a country that persecuted
Catholics after King Henry VIII threw a hissy fit when the Pope wouldn’t
change Canon Law to suit the
king’s habit of divorcing and/or murdering his wives. The Crown was
declared the “only supreme head of the Church in England,” and guys like
Thomas More were summarily beheaded and chopped into pieces for
refusing to recognize the king’s spiritual authority.


In other words, they were leaving a country where government had intruded on religion — not the other way around.


(**NOTE: I’m not saying that most of the North American settlers were
Catholics fleeing Henry VIII. I’m only using this as an example of the
sort of persecution religious people suffered under British rule.)


But, my atheist friends, I think you know all of this. Or at least some of it.


This country was built by God fearing men and women who intended
to enshrine and protect the very rights that could only come from God
Himself. God has always been central to America, both officially and
unofficially, publicly and personally. This is
the incontrovertible truth. It is a historical reality, and not one that
can be reasonably debated.


If you would like to change America into something else, you are free to try. But have the guts to admit what you are doing. Be honest.