Friday, July 1, 2011

Hello, JULY Prophet

(Today's intelligent reading)


James Madison, before becoming the Father of the U.S. Constitution, had a hand in prepping Virginia's official state documents. They were 'preparing for rain*' as they toiled and prayed for separation from Great Britain.  He submitted this in his role as a VA State Delegate:

"Amendment(s) to the Virginia Declaration of Rights
18. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our CREATOR, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, that all men are equally to enjoy the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate, Unless the preservation of equal liberty and the existence of the State are manifestly endangered; And that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.
May 29-June 11, 1776" **

So it seems clear that the later penned U.S. Constitution's first amendment was not intended by the "framers" to keep religion out of government. It was penned that government be kept out of religion.

Further, as Madison's Christian forbearance prescribed, women wearing the hijab may be amenable to our religious freedoms, but sharia law most certainly would not be.  Judicial rule, if our judges be of an intelligent and honest stripe, must concur that Islam is antithetical to "the existence of the State and the preservation of equal liberty." 

Our founders were not just a Christian people, intending a Christian republic for a Christ-centric future. They were students of world history (to a degree that would stun our typical doctorates), and they knew what tales Islam inspired across the Chronicles of the world's great nations.

I would do well to study again the histories of North Africa, Spain, Portugal, Indonesia...

Happy Fourth of July.

(Christ's Church has lost her salt. I share the fault)


* B. Kendrick, Facing the Giants    **James Madison - Writings, Library of America, 1999, Jack N. Rakove, ed.

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