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David
Roos
Debate
on the phrase "Under God."
Mr.
Michael Newdow, the publicly declared atheist, sued the
state of California for having the Pledge of Allegiance
said in the state-sponsored schools, although as we know,
any child or parent can choose not to participate in the
recitation. The Ninth Circuit ruled that the recitation
constituted an "endorsement of religion." in violation
of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The
U.S. Supreme Court took up the case and plans to hand down
a decision by next June. The justices must decide if the
U.S. Congress exceeded its powers when it inserted "under
God" into the pledge in 1954.
So
where did Congress find these words "under God?"
They are found in the words of Lincoln, the thoughts of
Jefferson, the general orders of Washington and go all the
way back to England.
This
phrase is familiar to anyone who memorized Lincoln's Gettysburg
Address in high school. Dr. John Pierson, Executive Director
of the John M. Olin Foundation, reminds us that in 1863
Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Gettysburg
Cemetery. He wanted to honor the soldiers who had died there
three months earlier, yet he sought to give it a deeper
meaning.
The
Civil War, according to Lincoln "began as a struggle
to preserve the Union but grew into a war to eliminate slavery."
Then Lincoln dedicated the site to the "unfinished
work …remaining before us." Said Lincoln, "we
here, highly resolve, that these dead shall not have died
in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth
of freedom." Lincoln's second inaugural address given
a little more than a year later, saw the civil war as punishment
visited by God on both the North and South for their complicity
in slavery.
States Lincoln, "if God wills it, until every drop
of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn
with the sword." It is as if Lincoln could hear echoes
of Thomas Jefferson in his mind. "Indeed," declared
Jefferson, "I tremble for my country when I reflect
that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever."
Moreover,
Lincoln may very well have borrowed this phrase "under
God" from George Washington himself. General Washington
sought to rally his troops for battle against the British
on July 2, 1776. Orders Washington "the time is now
at hand which must probably determine whether Americans
are to be free men or slaves…the fate of the unborn millions
will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of
this Army."
And
if you desire to go back even further to England, it can
be found on January 4, 1649. The people had de-throned King
Charles I. The Rump Parliament met in the House of Commons
and passed a resolution stating, "the Commons of England,
in Parliament assembled, do declare, that the people are,
under God, the origin of all just power."
In
closing, Jefferson worried that just such a day might come
as Mr. Newdow envisions. Jefferson asked "can the liberties
of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their
only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people
that these liberties are of the gift of God?" I'm afraid
Mr. Michael Newdow does not know his American history and
the clear intentions of the Founders.
Commentary
on John Witherspoon
One
of the most forgotten founding fathers and mothers of our
American Republic is John Witherspoon one of the 56 signers
of the Declaration of Independence. And according to distinguished
American scholar Dr. Michael Novak "Witherspoon is
the most influential academic in American history."
Yet our radio listeners probably have never heard of him!
Witherspoon
was professor of religion at the University of Glasgow in
Scotland when the trustees from Princeton University came
calling and finally wooed him away to the United States
with a mandate to revitalize this extraordinary school of
higher learning as its incoming president. And that's exactly
what he did! Like Benjamin Rush at the University of Pennsylvania,
Witherspoon adopted the Scottish model of college education
and so ushered in at Princeton science as an equal partner
in the curriculum along with classical languages, history,
English, and moral philosophy.
It
was one of Witherspoon's closest disciples, James Madison,
who is called the father of the American Constitution. Madison
stayed on for another year at Princeton to continue advance
tutorials with Witherspoon in Hebrew and was exposed to
the most advanced Scottish thinkers of the day. Although
Witherspoon did not attend the Constitutional Convention
in 1787 his indirect influence was greatly felt. Twenty-five
college graduates were at the convention, nine were from
Princeton, only four from Harvard, and fewer still from
Yale.
In
addition to Madison, Witherspoon taught one vice-president
of the United States, twelve members of the Continental
Congress, five delegates to the Constitutional Convention,
49 U.S. representatives, 28 U.S. senators, three supreme
court justices, nine cabinet officers including three attorney
generals, one secretary of state and two foreign ministers,
plus scores of officers in the Continental Army. He also
taught 12 governors, 33 state and U.S. federal court judges
and 13 college presidents. Because of his profound impact
American higher education remained by-in-large the Scottish
model all the way down to World War I.
As
a delegate to the second Continental Congress Witherspoon
on May 17, 1776 and as a Presbyterian clergyman delivered
a sermon published widely on the mean of Divine providence
for a young America in the light of the struggles of the
people of Israel against their kings. This famous sermon
was distributed in over 500 Presbyterian churches throughout
the colonies. And it helped prepare the way for the supreme
act of the Declaration of Independence seven weeks later
on July 4, 1776. States the delegates "and for the
support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection
of Divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
lives, our fortune and our sacred honor."
This
forgotten founder deserves our national recognition. I'm
David Roos.
October
8th, 2003
Jonathan
Edwards Birthday
Probably
the only brush with Jonathan Edwards that you might have
had in your lifetime was in some American Literature class
in college where you read his famous sermon, "Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God". This sermon was likely
a sample of the literature from the First Great Religious
Awakening in the United States (1720-1745).
This month, October the 5th, some teachers and students
of American protestant Christianity will have celebrated
his 300th birthday.
Edwards
showed his brilliance when he was a mere ten years of age
writing a treatise on the "Nature of the Soul".
At age 12 he composed a treatise on "The Habits of
Spiders". He matriculated to Yale University at age
13, and graduated at the top of his class.
This
child prodigy became the most important theologian this
country has produced, and a philosopher whose ideas reverberated
throughout America's literature, arts, and culture. Yet,
at the same time, he was one of America's greatest evangelists
as the pastor of a prestigious local congregation for 23
years. He continued to ignite the First Great Religious
Awakening while serving as its intellectual champion. Finally,
he rounded out his career at Princeton University as its
President, but unfortunately his life was cut short by smallpox.
As
Gene Edward Veith puts it "just as Thomas Aquinas reconciled
classical philosophy with Catholic Christianity in Europe
so Jonathan Edwards reconciled the enlightenment with protestant
Christianity in America."
Edwards refuted the atheistic and deist views of his contemporaries
but took what he considered the valid contributions of the
Enlightenment and appropriated them to a Biblical world
view. He took the cynical views of Hobbes about human nature,
and Hume's chain of deterministic causality and made it
serve his Old Testament doctrine of the Fall of Man.
But Edwards did more. With his Lockean psychology he emphasized
the significance of sense perception. The whole world of
nature, said Edwards, is God's creation, and therefore His
self-expression. It is the beauty of nature that testifies
to the beauty of God and his love.
Edwards
influence went beyond theology. His understanding of the
beauty found in God's world was seen in the grand landscape
paintings of the Hudson River artists. His awareness of
the darkness that dwells in the human heart was evident
in the writings of Hawthorne and Melville. His rehabilitation
of John Locke and others made them palatable to many of
the deeply religious founders that brought this Republic
to its inception. The enormous influence of the First Great
Religious Awakening helped transcend colonial and denominational
barriers as nothing in America had done before. And thus
hastened the day when the American Revolution moved the
country toward allowing all the Declaration of Independence
proclaimed.
I
am delighted to call attention to the American icon, Jonathan
Edwards, on this his 300th birthday.
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