Religion and Government — Equal Partners
After signing the American Declaration of Independence, the new Congress appointed a committee to design a great seal of the United States. Committeeman Thomas Jefferson suggested the seal should include the children of Israel in the wilderness, led day and night by cloud and fire. Committeeman Ben Franklin suggested a more fitting image would be Moses, dividing the red sea, and pharaoh in his chariot being swamped by the returning waters. And the motto: "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."[30]
The Continental Congress hired a chaplain — Rev. Jacob Duche, an Episcopal minister — to open their first meeting in 1774 with prayer. Rev. Duche read the Episcopal Church's assigned scripture reading for that day which just happened to be Psalm 35 that reads, in part, "Plead my cause, O LORD, with those who strive with me; Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, And stand up for my help. Also draw out the spear, And stop those who pursue me." (NKJV) Then Rev. Duche led them into a long and extemporaneous prayer. The Psalm and the prayer were very moving to the delegates. John Adams wrote his wife Abigail, "I never saw a greater effect upon [an] audience. It seemed as if Heaven had ordained that Psalm to read on that morning. I must beg you to read that Psalm."[45]
Congress has been opening with prayer ever since.[45]
The Continental Congress appointed chaplains for itself and the armed forces, ... imposed Christian morality on the armed forces, and granted public lands to promote Christianity among the Indians. National days of thanksgiving and of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer" were proclaimed by Congress at least twice a year throughout the war.[16]
The Minutemen, so called because they could be called to fight a minute's notice had strong ties to Christianity. The Minutemen were largely deacons out of churches because it was people like the Rev Jonas Clark who rallied his church deacons to go out and defend their town from attack. One of the clear teachings they believed was that they had the God given right of self defense; that it was a Biblical right.[45]
Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration and member of Continental Congress: "Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure, which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." - The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry by Bernard C. Steiner 1907, from a letter from Charles Carroll, Nov. 4, 1800.[5]
"It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent, both in the order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governour [sic] of the Universe." — James Madison[39]
"... prior to 1789 (the year that eleven of the thirteen states ratified the Constitution), many of the states still had constitutional requirements that a man must be a Christian in order to hold public office."[26]
"The reason that Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." — President Thomas Jefferson[40]
From The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, Henry P. Johnston, ed. (New York: G.P. Putnams Sons, 1890), Vol. IV, P. 36: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."[13]
"The Promulgation of the great doctrines of religion, the being, and attributes, and providences of one Almighty God; the responsibility to Him for all our actions, founded upon moral accountability; a future state of rewards and punishments; the cultivation of all the personal, social and benevolent virtues — these can never be a matter of indifference in any well-ordered community. It is, indeed,difficult to conceive how any civilized society can well exist without them." — Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story[37]
To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness, which mankind now enjoys . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government - and all blessings which flow from them — must fall with them. — Jedediah Morse, Patriot, called "The Father of American Geography"[28]
James Wilson and William Patterson — placed on the Supreme Court by President George Washington, had prayer over juries in the U. S. Supreme Court room.[13]
We are a Christian people ... not because the law demands it, not to gain exclusive benefits or to avoid legal disabilities, but from choice and education and in a land thus universally Christian, what is to be expected, what desired, but that we shall pay due regard to Christianity? — Senate Judiciary Committee Report, January 19, 1853[5]