The Moral Decline of America Part Two

UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that the first 2 paragraphs of this post may not be 100% historically accurate. For that I apologize. I resent ANY implication, however, that I intentionally mislead my readers, or purposefully chose to lie to further my cause. What good would that possibly do? For the record:

"On September 1, 1782, a committee that had been appointed to consider Aitken's petition asked the chaplains of the Congress of the Confederation, the Rev. Dr. {{William White (Bishop of Pennsylvania)William White]] of Christ Church and the Rev. George Duffield of the Third Presbyterian Church, to examine his Bible for accuracy. On September 12, based upon the report of the committee, the Congress of the Confederation approved "the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion, as well as an instance of the progress of the arts in this country" and recommended his Bible to the American people." (wikipedia.org)

In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools." (Forsaken Roots)

Did you get that? American Revolution: 1776. Six years later, in the forming of a fledgling government, the Congress of these United States RECOMMENDED AND APPROVED the Holy Bible for use in ALL SCHOOLS.

Listen to these words of Mr.William Holmes McGuffey: "The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our notions on character of God, on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions. From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. From all these extracts from the Bible I make no apology." His text book called The McGuffey was used in public schools until 1963. (Forgotten Roots)

So what happened?

Many people believe that the first major "attack" on God was the removal of prayer in public schools in 1962. While this was the first huge, national ruling against God, a year previously the state of Maryland had the dubious distinction of being the first state ruled against by the Supreme Court, in regard to God and their state constitution.

In 1961, an atheist named Roy Torcaso ran for a public commission, but was denied because he wouldn't agree with the provision in the Maryland State Constitution which made “a declaration of belief in the existence of God” mandatory for holding public office. The Supreme Court basically overruled God and overtly promoted atheism. (some information taken from The Forerunner, Gary Bergel).

In 1962, prayer was banned from public school. A parent of one of the students disagreed with the principal reading a prayer in the morning and took it to court. All the way to the Supreme Court. So ONE parent, and NINE judges, made a decision that effected our nation in a devastating manner.

Other decisions to kick God out followed:
In 1963 -- ABINGTON SCHOOL DIST. v. SCHEMPP -- banned school-directed recital of the Lord's Prayer and reading of Bible passages as part of "devotional exercises" in public schools.


In 1965, the Courts ruled it unconstitutional for a child to pray aloud in the school cafeteria.

In 1980 -- STONE v. GRAHAM -- banned the posting of the the Ten Commandments on public school classroom walls.

In 1985 -- WALLACE v. JAFFREE -- banned observance of "daily moments of silence" from public schools when students were encouraged to pray during the silent periods.

In 1990 -- WESTSIDE COMMUNITY BD. OF ED. v. MERGENS -- held that schools must allow student prayer groups to organize and worship if other non-religious clubs are also permitted to meet on school property.

In 1992 -- LEE v. WEISMAN -- outlawed prayers led by members of the clergy at public school graduation ceremonies.

In 2000 -- SANTA FE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT v. DOE -- banned student-led pre-game prayers at public high school football games. (http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa070100a.htm)

I have heard MANY people say, "Well I'm just one person, what can I do? I vote, it doesn't matter." My answer? Madalyn Murray O'Hair. This ONE woman formed a group called the American Atheists, and single-handedly took prayer out of public school, saying it was a violation of the First Amendment and against separation of church and state. (Even though in the United States separation of church and state was originally intended to protect established state Christian churches from being replaced by a church chosen by the federal government.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state
(More on that later.)

“God’s laws are not watered down to suit anyone; if God did that He would cease to be God. The moral law never alters for the noblest or the weakest; it remains abidingly and eternally the same.” Oswald Chambers

I love this quote by Oswald Chambers. God's law is God's law. He will not be mocked. We will reap what we sow. And if we continue to allow individual people to take their cause more seriously than we as "the church" take ours, it will not be long before we start reaping!

I read an interesting article that reminded me of Ephesians 6:12: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

My friends, please hear me clearly. We are not fighting against the Madalyn Murray O'Hairs and Obamas of the world: we are fighting against the principalities of darkness. Sound scary? Well, that's because it is!

But we do NOT need to be afraid, because in I John 4:1-6 we are told:

"Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God... and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."

Do you see? We fight against the ruler of this world, the devil. And to be frank, we are not doing a very good job. We need to get off the phone, turn off the TV, stop facebooking (and I'm preaching to the choir here as well!) and get on our knees for this country.

Please don't believe that bad things are just coincidences or people are just mean. There are forces at work that we can not see in the physically realm. And they are very, very real. And they mean business. Do you?