AMERICA’S LOST HERITAGE

Robert S. Fackler, MD

 

 

Have you ever stopped to consider why this country, which occupies only a small segment of the land mass of the earth, and in which lives only a small percent of the world’s population, has become the wealthiest, freest, and most productive of the nations of the world?

 

Is it because our country has more natural resources than any other? I think not. The Native American tribes had these resources available but had not even begun to develop them. And think of the enormous natural resources of Asia, Africa, or South America. Then name a country which in the last 220 years has provided its people and the rest of the world with such advances in housing, food supply, technology, and health and at the same time has, when called on, protected the freedom of people around the world.

 

What is unique about our country? I think it is that we have a system of government which is based on Judeo-Christian principles which originated in the mind of God and which may be found in the Word of God. Our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights were written by men who had a deep knowledge of, and respect for, the Bible. Let me review some history that you may not find in modern textbooks.

 

A storm-tossed, 66-day voyage across the wintry Atlantic Ocean in 1620 carried the small, slow merchant vessel Mayflower into an honored place in American history. Crowded on board were the men, women, and children who founded Plymouth, the first permanent colony in North America settled by families. (Thirteen years earlier a group of a very different make-up settled at Jamestown, Virginia, but only remnants remain.) These people who founded Plymouth are now called Pilgrims and were the first colonists who came to the New World to gain religious liberty. They were also the first to draw up a written agreement providing for “such a government and governors as we should by, common consent, agree to make and choose.” This historic document, signed on the ship, is known as the Mayflower Compact.

 

The Pilgrims left England because the English king, James 1, did not permit freedom of religion. Everyone was expected to belong to the state church, the Church of England. The Puritans set out to “purify” the state church. The Separatists wanted to have a separate denomination.

 

Leaders among the Pilgrim Fathers had been members of a small congregation of Separatists. Persecuted, they determined to seek a home where they could worship as they chose. Fleeing to Holland, these farming folk founded a church and a religious community. However, being uncomfortable in the Dutch industrial and commercial city, they decided to go into the wilds of the New World where they might keep their native language and customs. After three years of discussion and preparation they returned to England and obtained a patent from the Virginia Company of London to settle in the territory then called Virginia. Lacking money for supplies and expenses, they contracted with a group of merchants to finance them. In return they were to work for seven years and share their output with the merchants.

 

On the Mayflower in Southampton harbor were other English Separatists and a group of “strangers” recruited by the merchants. After two unsuccessful starts they finally set sail for the New World on September 16, 1620. Historians have wondered how more than 100 passengers found sleeping space. There was no privacy, no sanitary facilities, and fresh water was too scarce to be used for washing. The stench in the crowded quarters must have been almost unbearable. Without fresh provisions many passengers contracted scurvy (vitamin C deficiency disease) during the 66-day voyage. Because of a terrible storm, they finally sighted land off Cape Cod and found a safe mooring on November 21, 1620.

 

They had reached land at a point considerably north of Virginia, where their patent called for settlement. Thus they were outside the jurisdiction of the London company. Some form of government was needed since a few of the “strangers” were threatening to “use their own libertie” on landing. Before the ship anchored they drew up the Mayflower Compact, a type of church covenant adapted for civil purposes. All men known to be of age signed it. It read:

 

“In ye name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by ye grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland, King, Defender of faith, etc. Haveing undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and the furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the generall good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”

 

The Compact was one of the earliest plans for self-government by the European colonists in America. William Bradford was elected as governor of the Plymouth Colony in 1621. On his grave in Plymouth, Massachusetts are the remarks:

 

“Under this stone rests the ashes of William Bradford, a zealous Puritan, and sincere Christian Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1621 to 1657, (the year he died) aged 69, except 5 years, which he declined.

Let the right hand of the Lord awake. (in Hebrew)

What our fathers with so much difficulty attained do not basely relinquish.” (in Latin)

 

“I will make them conform or harry them out of the land.” This was the threat of King James 1 of England made to the Puritans when they asked him to “purify” the Church of England of certain ceremonies and usages derived from the Roman Catholic Church, which they disliked. These Puritans were not dangerous revolutionaries, but plain citizens of England - farmers, merchants, professional men, and scholars - especially from the University of Cambridge.

 

In 1630, ten years after the Pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony, Governor John Winthrop landed in Massachusetts Bay with 700 people on 11 ships. Thus began the Great Migration, which lasted 16 years and saw more than 20,000 Puritans embark for New England. In 1643 Winthrop organized the

New England Confederation among the colonists of New Plymouth, Massachusetts and New Haven, Connecticut. They covenanted together under the Constitution of New England Confederation:

 

“Whereas we all came to these parts of America with the same ends and aim, namely, to advance the kingdom 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 review these events to point out the kind of persons and the motives of those persons who came to this continent in the 1600s, which set the stage for the establishment of a new kind of country with a new kind of government when compared with the feudal system from which they came.

 

Throughout most of human history, laws have protected the rights of existing property owners - people in government and their friends - while discouraging the acquisition of property by those who currently own little or nothing. That was the character of feudal law. Thomas Jefferson was greatly influenced by the writings of John Locke, an English philosopher of the late 1600s, who wrote “Two Treatises of Government” in which were 102 references to the Bible. Jefferson believed that the right to acquire property should be available to all. Primogeniture (requiring land ownership to pass from father to first-born son) and entail (requiring the owner to keep the land intact to pass on to his son) limited that right. Jefferson called for a legal system that permits everyone to buy, sell and use his property without asking permission of the government. This would do away with legally mandated special privileges that have no reference to individual achievement.

 

Over the next 100 years the colonies expanded and grew in numbers. Not all of the people in the colonies were as spiritual as the early settlers of New England, but the preaching of George Whitefield in Georgia and Jonathan Edwards in Massachusetts tended to bring the colonies together, rich and poor, free and slave, educated and uneducated. Their work during the 1730s was known as the Great Awakening. Benjamin Franklin, whose Puritan father emigrated from England in 1682, scientist, philosopher, publisher, and agnostic early in life, later wrote, “People everywhere are becoming religious. You can’t walk down the street without hearing Psalms being sung. People’s manners are improving too. Philadelphia is a different place.”

 

The relationship of the colonies with mother England was never calm and in 1765 the Stamp Act brought forth the cries of “taxation without representation.” Though the Stamp Act was repealed a year later, the tea tax precipitated the Boston Tea Party in 1773. The First Continental Congress convened on September 5, 1774 and sent petitions of colonial grievances to King George III of England.

 

In October 1774, John Hancock, President of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts said, “We must humble ourselves before Almighty God. We must ask Him if we are wrong in some way. We must pray for a peaceful settlement to our differences.” The Congress wrote to Massachusetts Bay, “If God does not will peace, then we must resist. It becomes our Christian duty to resist. Continue steadfast dear brothers. Remember that your dependence is on God. Defend those rights which heaven gave and no man can take.”

 

Then on March 23, 1775 in the Virginia House of Burgesses, Patrick Henry gave his famous declaration, “There is no longer room for hope. If we wish to be free, we must fight! ... An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us! ... We are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power... We shall not fight alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and will raise up friends to help us... Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

 

The Second Continental Congress, meeting on May 10, 1775 created the Continental Army and adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. John Hancock was the only one of the 56 signers to affix his signature on that date. He is reported to have said, “Gentlemen, the price on my head has just doubled.” (Incidentally, 27 of the 56 signers had had seminary education.) The rest signed it on August 2. All made this pledge, “For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” Samuel Adams said, “We have put God back in His proper place. He reigns in heaven. May His kingdom come.”

 

In the Declaration of Independence we are endowed by our Creator, not by our government, with “certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” God is referred to three other times in this document.

 

John Quincy Adams said, “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: It connected in one indivisible bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”

 

Years of struggle ensued with final surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia on October 17, 1781 and the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. The states acted separately, establishing their own currencies and taxes on goods. The Articles of Confederation proved inadequate and a Federal Constitutional Convention was convened in May 1787. A new Constitution of the United States was finished on September 17th of that year and ratified on June 21, 1788.

 

In Isaiah 22:33 we find: “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us.” Notice that our Supreme Court, Congress, and Presidency are patterned after this verse. And without giving all the relevant references, I assure you that many of our laws originate in the book of Deuteronomy.

 

Benjamin Franklin who is best remembered for flying a kite in a lightning storm said, “Whoever will introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity will change the face of the world.”

 

You all remember who said, “give me liberty or give me death”? But did you know that Patrick Henry also said, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

 

John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court said, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

 

And so we see that over 220 years ago a group of men got together to form a new nation. Men who relied not on their own wisdom but on the eternal wisdom of an eternal God. In that period many nations have had many forms of government; France has had 7 and Italy has had 48. Our form of government has not changed; or has it?

 

Many of our first settlers came to this continent seeking freedom from governments which dictated the lives of their people even to the way in which they were to worship their God. The state ruled the church and often corrupted it. This was not unique to one denomination but included at least the Lutheran Church in Germany, the Roman Catholic Church in Italy and the Anglican Church in England.

 

Therefore our founding fathers felt it necessary to write the first amendment to our Constitution, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof... ” note that the words “state”, “church”, and “separation” do not appear in this amendment. This wording was used to protect the church from the government, not the government from the church. In 1796 the Supreme Court confirmed the intent of the amendment in the case of Runkel vs. Winemiller in which the opinion said that by our form of government the Christian religion is the established religion and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed on the same equal footing.

 

Then in 1 802 the Danbury Baptist Society became concerned that the Congregationalist denomination was about to become the state church of Connecticut. They wrote to Thomas Jefferson whose reply stated that the First Amendment established a “wall of separation between church and state”, but that wall is a one-way wall. It keeps the government from running the church but makes sure that Christian principles will remain in government.

 

In 1811 the Supreme Court in People vs. Ruggles said that “whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government.” In 1854 the House Judiciary Committee stated that at the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, not only one sect... In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity.. .that was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants. Again in 1878 the Supreme Court reaffirmed Christianity as the focus of our legal system. By 1892 the Supreme Court of the United States had used no fewer than 87 historical and legal precedents to come to the same conclusion.

 

Then in 1947 after the packing of the Court by the “New Deal” administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt a completely new direction was begun. In the case of Everson v. Board of Education the Court came to the conclusion that “The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable.” At that time Dr. William Jones, a psychiatrist said, “There is nothing so absurd but if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.” Thus was born the “separation of church and state.”

 

After that start, challenges to our Christian heritage were quickly made. In 1962 in Engel vs. Vitale, totally without legal precedent or historical base, prayer was removed from public school. This was followed in 1963 by other cases removing religion and even the 10 Commandments. James Madison, chief architect of the Constitution, had said, “We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, but upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the 10 Commandments.” Now they were gone!

 

At that time 97% of the people of the nation believed in God but the Court sided with the 3%. George Washington once said, “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” He was right! Let’s look at what has happened in our country from 1963 to 1990.

 

Teen pregnancy is up 553%

Sexually transmitted diseases are up 226%

Divorce is up 117%

Single parents with children are up 1 60%

Living together without marriage is up 536%

Violent crimes are up 794%

SAT scores were down 80 points

 

Some would blame these changes on poverty, in spite of the fact that in the last thirty years we have spent about five trillion dollars on social welfare programs. And think back to the Great Depression of the 1930s when the unemployment rate was 25%. Families were together and crime was low. The only poverty which brings these devastating results is spiritual poverty.

 

John Adams said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by religion and morality... Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

 

John Witherspoon, another signer of the Declaration, said, “Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled by a power within them or a power without them, either by the Bible or by the bayonet.”

 

In his farewell address George Washington said, “Of all the habits and dispositions which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great principles.”

 

Our country has been subverted - from within. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech which is intended to protect political dissent. Many years ago the Supreme Court said that the amendment did not permit a person to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. Yet that same amendment has been used to protect filth, pornography and the promotion of cop killing. Could it be said that this “protected speech” has caused more injury and death than would be caused by the crowd rushing out of the theater?

 

Our country needs to recognize the evil which has replaced the religion and morality of our founding fathers. We are permitting one and one half million babies to be dismembered every year. Greed has replaced hard work and we have come to expect something for nothing in the state lotteries, in trading commodities, and in tax-supported entitlements. We have allowed violent gangs to take over the cities while law-abiding citizens barely feel safe in their own homes. Our public schools are teaching tolerance for every perverse lifestyle while censoring anything which suggests religion or morality. Where will it all end? The solution is in you and me individually, and in all of us collectively.

 

Alexis de Tocqueville, a famous French statesman, historian, and social philosopher toured our country beginning in 1831. He wrote a two-part work entitled “Democracy in America.” In it he related,

 

“I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors ... in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution… Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

 

The contemporary buzzwords seem to be diversity and tolerance, but these do not appear in any of our founding documents or letters. If we hold fast to our original heritage of religion and morality we can continue to be good and great.

 

In the 1830s Charles Finney, a preacher and evangelist from upstate New York was instrumental in starting the second Great Awakening thereby setting the stage for the expunging of slavery from our country. Finney was later president of Oberlin College in Ohio which was the first in America to award college degrees to women and blacks. America had again returned to its spiritual roots. Unfortunately after the Great Depression of the 1930s America turned, not to God, but to the government for the solutions to their poverty.

 

Our country needs our prayers. Our leaders need our prayers. God-fearing men and women must be unashamed of their faith and convictions and, knowing the historical facts, be willing to speak out the truth when confronted with the misinformation about America’s Godly heritage.

 

Permit me to inject a personal note ... I was born in Illinois and brought up by good parents who took me to church every Sunday and taught me the difference between right and wrong. I was given those indispensable supports of religion and morality, but I did not have a personal relationship with God. As an adult I finished school, married, served in the navy, entered pediatric practice, and became a good hypocrite. We went to church, I sang in the choir, took care of my family, and was superficially respectable. I had attained my goals educationally, professionally, financially, and socially. I had a lovely, supportive wife and three obedient and growing children, but I was restless and developing bad habits. You have all heard about down and outers. I was an “up and outer.”

 

Then at age 39 by the grace of God and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I recognized and confessed my sinfulness; my bad attitude and bad activities, and asked Jesus, the Christ, to reshape my life. When I consider the direction in which I was headed I am very thankful for His work in my life and in our family, and we are still learning.

 

Nowhere is it better said than in 2 Chronicles 7:14. “If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

 

I would like to close with the simple, generic prayer that was first banned from our schools in 1962. “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.” Amen.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Original Intent by David Barton, Wallbuilder Press, 1996.

Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence by David Barton, Wallbuilder Press, 1995 (a reprint of an 1848 original by B. J. Lossing).

America’s God and Country. Encyclopedia of Quotations by William J. Federer, Fame Publishing, Inc., 1996.

The Columbia Viking Desk Encyclopedia. The Viking Press, 1953.

Keys to Good Government by David Barton, Walibuilders, Inc., 1994.

The Foundations of American Government by David Barton, Walibuilders, Inc., 1992.

America’s Godly Heritage by David Barton, Walibuilders, Inc. 1992.

Red Sky in the Morning by Bill Bright & John Damoose, New Life Publications, 1998.

Vindicating the Founders by Thomas G. West, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 1997.

Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia. The Learning Company, Inc. 1998.

 

 

Presented first before the Canandaigua Scientific Association January 20, 2000.