Below are two dramatic examples of America’s spiritual heritage as cited by author and historian William J. Federer:
(1) Shortly before they signed our Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers called our nation to prayer and repentance. This was done just weeks before they, the Continental Congress of 1776, produced and signed our Declaration of Independence, our nation’s birth certificate. Please read each word carefully:
“(March 16, 1776), as recorded in the Journals of Congress, passed without dissent a resolution presented by General William Livingston declaring May 17, 1776, [just seven weeks before the Declaration was signed] as being a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer:
“The Congress … desirous … to have people of all ranks and degrees duly impressed with a solemn sense of God’s superintending providence, and of their duty, devoutly to rely… on his aid and direction…
“We do earnestly recommend Friday, the 17th day of May [1776] be observed by the colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and, by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease God’s righteous displeasure, and, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain this pardon and forgiveness.”
From William J. Federer’s America’s God and Country … An Encyclopedia of Quotations, pages 141, 142:
(2) Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Baptist Association of Danbury, CN, that the new United States Constitution would protect them from further punishment for expressing opposition to the government. The Constitution would indeed provide “…a wall of separation of Church and state…” That wall was to protect them, not separate nor isolate them from public life.
Remarkable evidence of President Jefferson attitude toward the Bible and Scripture is seen in the following fact:
“Thomas Jefferson, while U.S. President (1801-1809), chaired the school board for the District of Columbia, where he authored the first plan of education adopted by the city of Washington. This plan used the Bible and Isaac Watts’ “Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707, as the principal books for teaching reading to students.”
From William J. Federer’s America’s God and Country, an Encyclopedia of Quotations, pages 324, 325
Thomas Jefferson is noted for use of the phrase “…separation of church and state…” But it was that same President Thomas Jefferson that required the reading of the Bible – and a hymn book, every verse of which includes the Bible – as the instrument of teaching public school children to read!
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