As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world’s law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view .. it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!
Did you know?
As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the Two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments Engraved on each lower portion of each door.
Did you know?
As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see The wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments!
Did you know?
There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington , D.C.
Did you know?
James Madison, the fourth president, known as ‘The Father of Our Constitution’ made the following statement:
‘ We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.’
Did you know?
Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country 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.’
Did you know?
Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.
Did you know?
Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.
Did you know?
Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of interpreting the law would begin making law an oligarchy the rule of few over many.
Did you know?
The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said:
‘Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers.’
How then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 220 years in this country is now suddenly wrong and unconstitutional?
Let’s put it around the world and let the world see and remember what this great country was built on.
I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete if I didn’t. Now it is your turn…
It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it is very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having the Ten Commandments on display or ‘In God We Trust’ on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don’t we just tell the other 14% to Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!
If you agree, let’s hear it! Email it forward and/or place this on your blog!
Dani (8)
Michael (7)
Randall King (7)
Ben (3)
Dianne (3)
A book you might like, which address alot of the details of this. Sworn on the Alter of God, by Gaustad, is about Thomas Jefferson’s and his struggle to insure religious freedom, and exactly what that means. He felt that his great achievement wasn’t the Declaration of Independence, but the Statue of Religious Freedom for the State of Virginia that he fought for decades to be implemented. He was the “furtherest” of our founding fathers from what is considered Christian thought and to see HOW God fearing he is, really goes to show how far we have gotten from those founding principles.
Thanks. That would be great to read.
Amen.
I have read most of this before. I agreed then; I agree now. I pray we all stand up and be counted in our fight to KEEP God in everything we say and do. Please, God, help us all to do this.
I don’t agree because there are certain freedoms that this country allows for and it goes both ways. Telling 14% of people to sit down and shut up is a little closeminded, don’t you think?
Let me say that I did not write this but I do agree with it. I do not have a problem with non-Christians and their freedom to believe or not believe, but I also feel the fight by many to remove Christianity and all traces of it from this country’s very history is wrong. I believe in freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.
Ahhh, but we are a free country, so we should reserve the right to have freedom from religion if one so chooses. Christianity isn’t the only thing under attack in the current state of the world.
I’m sure it’s not the only thing under attack but I still say we are not free from religion entirely. We cannot be. Wherever we go people have a right to display crosses, Nativity scenes, or any other religious symbols in their yards. Churches stand by the side of many public roads. People have a right to free speech and press to talk “religion” if they so desire. We cannot avoid it so why make a big stink about some ten commandments carved into a building. Those “ten commandments” don’t actually state the commandments. Who cares about an image of two tablets with the Roman numerals 1-10? I cannot see giving additional rights to the unreligious just so they can avoid religion altogether, especially when it is completely unrealistic to think a person can actually avoid religion.
I think people should be able to avoid religion if they so choose. The reason people give a stink if the Ten Commandments are carved into a building is that, in most cases, it is a government or city building that is supposed to represent all people… not just the Christian faith. And the Ten Commandments do not represent the beliefs of all people.
My point is that religion cannot be avoided entirely. You will drive by churches, you will hear it on the radio, you will see it on the TV, etc. So, a couple of carvings of an old man holding some stone tablets with numbers on them are really nothing to be bothered by. They are not imposing religion on anyone, so there is no issue of seperating church and state here.
I understand what Eric is saying in that religion shouldn’t be forced upon anyone. The thing is that it isn’t. You can change a radio station or tv channel, you can keep driving by that church building. You can or cannot celebrate Christmas. You aren’t having religion forced on you by some dude with two tables is carved on a building. There is no flashing sign saying I’m Moses you must devotely follow my religion.
You know who else is carved onto the Supreme Court building. Other major historical lawgivers: Muhammad, Hammurabi, and Confucius. That certainly doesn’t mean that I follow the religious ideals of them.
Here’s what the architect said about it…
MacNeil did not intend his sculptures to have religious connotations. Explaining his work, MacNeil wrote, “Law as an element of civilization was normally and naturally derived or inherited in this country from former civilizations. The ‘Eastern Pediment’ of the Supreme Court Building suggests therefore the treatment of such fundamental laws and precepts as are derived from the East.”
Those are excellent points. It’s kind of my thinking even as a Christian to want those ten commandments to stay but not really because of religion, but because of the historical value. If I believed those statues and carvings of Moses could somehow convert people by seeing them, then maybe I would think differently. As of now they simply represent a piece of American history. Granted, they do remind us of the biblical ethics this country was built upon, but why attempt to erase history?
I think religion is forced upon everyone everyday. Its on the money we spend. I got a Jesus Film movie in the mail in December. Granted, I could have thrown it away, but golly, that sounds like something is being forced upon me when I didn’t ask for it.
Its easy to say to turn the other cheek when its a stance that one supports. That’s all I’m saying.
What a pampered world we live in where someone equates seeing something to being forced to believe it. People talk like the phrase “In God We Trust” on our money is destroying our religious freedom. When a soldier breaks down your door and arrests you because you were practicing the wrong religion, then you can talk about forced religion. We have a very dim concept of what it’s truly like to live without such freedom. We are spoiled and it becomes very apparent when we debate such trivial things, I think.
I whole-heartedly agree. You know, the statement that is used so often today “separating church and state” derives from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
As you can see, the amendment clearly states that NO LAW CAN BE MADE. Neither having “In God We Trust” nor any other display of religious nature on any government property violates any of the rights an individual has been given by the constitution.
Amen, brother.
I personally have no problem with “In God We Trust” on our money, but I cannot stand it when people use it as a defense… such as “You have to believe in religion because you use money that has God’s name on it everyday.” And, yes, I have heard that arguement before. The thing is that we don’t have a choice in the matter on that topic. People have a right to be offended by that because it is a government of the people, and to have God’s name on it is like an endorsement of a religion. The government is supposed to represent all people.
I just think everyone and every group has an agenda in this country. Whether it be the Christian agenda, the gay agenda, the black agenda, the conservative/liberal agenda… and there is nothing wrong with recognizing that everyone has an agenda and calling it as such. Just because one agrees with the topic doesn’t make it any less of an agenda.
…to have God’s name on it is like an endorsement of a religion.
Read that Amendment again. The government can believe and endorse any religion they want. What they cannot do is force us, by law, to believe and practice.
You’re exactly right on your other points, Eric.
Notice that in the Constitution it forbade the “Federal” government from establishing a religion. It was perfectly Constitutional for a state to establish a religion when the Constitution was drafted and passed.
“As morality and piety rightly grounded on evangelical principles will give the best and greatest security to government and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations to due subjection; and as the knowledge of these is most likely to be propagated through a society by the institution of the public worship of the Diety and of the public instruction on morality and religion; therefore, to promote these important purposes, the people of this State have a right to empower, and do hereby fully empower, the legislature to authorize, from time to time, the several towns, parishes, bodies corporate, or religious societies within this State to make adequate provisions at their own expense for the support and maintenance of the public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality.”
From: The Consitution of New Hampshire.
This STATE constitution not only encouraged religion and religious institutions, but they also FUNDED them. This was also true with most other states in the early years of our country.
I just thought it was interesting how some places now make it illegal to display public Nativity scenes and the Ten Commandments when, originally, religion was encouraged and SPONSORED by the states.
As the old Bob Dylan song goes, “The times they are a changin’.”
Bob Dylan was right. Great reference, by the way. (Big Dylan fan) Anyway, you’re right Vins. I read a good book by Harold Hunt called The Lost History of Calvinism which talks about the early days of this country before even the Revolutionary War. Early on, this country did not even endorse “freedom of religion.”
Many things have been written, I believe that our spirtual freedoms, and personal beliefs(are just that) must remain ever changing in our changing times.Due to a super high tech society, instant communication, and the incrediable amount of knowledge amassed, we must change how we percieve things, how we deal with over population, global warming, nucluar hollicost, epidemics, a lot of things change since 0 A.D. that wasn’t thought of, but without a belief in some entity and a moral code that is taught we would be doomed as all races and cilivations of our planet..WE NEED SPRITUAL LAWS TO GUIDE US and believe in..
The 14% is trying to tell us, the 86 %, to sit down and shut up. If you don't like the American way of life then no one is asking you to stay and change our country to fit you. I am sure that China would love to have control over you.
The Declaration of Independance states that through our Creator we gain our rights. So, without a Creator we have no rights, it just so happened that the people who founded this nation were trying to escape from the British so they could practice their own religion, the Christian faith. No one is say that you cannot believe differently, we are just saying that the majority is represented by that and so it is part of our government because we are the government.