I just read that someone in the legislature was proposing that we have a year of the Bible. This has set off a lot of fiery reaction. It seems most of it revolves around the idea that someohow having a year of the Bible violates the establishment of religion clause. In Turkey President Obama stated that we are not a Christian nation we are not a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. "We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values. " There is a strong move to disassociate our nation from Christianity. My question to Mr. Obama if he were listening would be, where do we get these ideals or set of values and what are they? What set is it that we follow? Our founders knew well where the values and ideals came from. If we say today that they come from our Constitution I would ask which Constitution? The one that allowed Bible reading in schools until 1962-63 or the one we have had since then. Our Constitution as a "Living Document" now means whatever, whoever is in power says it means is what it means. We do not have rights from our creator but now we have rights from our government. That is the foundation for tyranny.
Congress many years ago defined what the establishment of religion meant and although I don't have that decision in front of me since I am just blogging (blowing off a little steam). I recall that some of the criteria necessary for something to violate the establishment cause were there needed to be specific rewards and punishments for compliance or non-compliance and there needed to be people in charge of making sure the laws were being adhered to. Having a year of the Bible is not even close to that. Praying in schools, reading the Bible publicly or saying Jesus is not an establishment of religion. There are no mandated rewards or punishments for such things.
The original confederation of New England States had there own Constitution of sorts which began with this statement, "Whereas we all came to these parts of America with the same end and aim, namely, to advance the kingdome of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to injoy the liberties of the Gospell thereof with purities and peace, and for preserving and propagating the truth and liberties of the Gospell..." (I left some of their spelling in the quote). Now they had a set of values and they knew where they came from. Even Princeton had as one of its founding statements "Cursed is all learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ." Go Princeton!!!! My point is this, "These legislators in Washington have no historical understanding and because of that are governing without a foundation and will eventually prove the well known fact that a house built on a faulty or shifting foundation will not stand for long.
When I was in Elementary school I remember people talking about the Soviet Union and how they were so bad you couldn't even read the Bible in their schools. They adhered to Godless atheism! They were our enemy. From my casual observation it seems to me that we have become our enemy.