If they can do that, just read, I have given them more than enough material to ponder that will not only dispel your ridiculous assertion that the Founders of this country were not men of faith, and that the laws of our country were not based in biblical law, but will do so with prejudice. I have as well discussed the problems with Christian doictrine, particularly creationism and others.

Because of your George’s inability to follow the conversation and develop both sides of the problem (a natural theology of America as well as a inherent pluralism), you have raised my ire to the point where this conversation is no longer rational. He wanted to do that because he realized he could not win that argument, and so felt that the only thing left to do was piss me off and get me sidetracked on peripherals. He did that very well.

I do not play the game of attempting to manipulate my readers minds. I don’t want them to agree with me because I’m the nicest guy, or the one most sensitive to their hypocritical sensibilities (they’ll watch foul-mouthed entertainers and love them and rail against me for cursing, where’s the justice in that?). I could care less about their sensibilities, or yours.

I want them to see truth, despite myself.

All of these so-called “progressivites” pride themselves on being so cutting-edge, and really hanging it out there and being different.

Let’s see if they can discern a little truth behind all that fake facade of so-called antiestablishment Christianity. I don’t think they can. I think it requires a lot better thinkers than what they have in their churches.

It requires me, warts and all.

Sure, that’s ego, from your perspective. From my perspective it’s called being chained with a divine burden.

I don’t want to play this game anymore guys. The spiritual ignorance of your generation is making me ill.

What do you think happens evertime a judge rendered a judgment in which a criminal has to pay restitution to a family they have committed a crime against? It’s called INDENTURED SERVITUDE.

I getting so pissed off because like some ignornat YEC who refuses to follow the conversation, you want to pick and choose whatever truths and half truths are convienient for you.

You can’t have it both ways. So, slavery in America was caused and supported by athiests, since it was athiests who created the laws which allowed it to flourish and continue. And who were the abolitionists?

Hey, you know what we sing at every ball game in your Atheist America?

God Bless America

“While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. “

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

Oh, and what does the last stanza of the national anthem say?

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our Trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.[4]

Editor’s Note: This comment has been edited for content.

Predictably, you get angry and respond with a wild flurry of cutting and pasting, and as before, very little of it is relevant, and a fair amount of it does not even support your position.

So, you support slavery, and accuse me of a shallow morality? Rather than be angered and respond in kind, I am going to thank you. Thank you, sir, for it is not the moderates and liberals who are going to end Christianity, but your kind; for you will force them to ignore what they have refused to see for so long- the disgusting excuse for ‘morality’ that one finds if one truly takes the Bible seriously, as you certainly do. My hope is that you and others who believe as you do will make it impossible to escape what the Bible really says. Faced with this, some will join you, but I do believe that most people are basically rational, and they will surely cast off the chains which you so willingly wrap yourself in.

The Continental-Confederation Congress, a legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, contained an extraordinary number of deeply religious men. The amount of energy that Congress invested in encouraging the practice of religion in the new nation exceeded that expended by any subsequent American national government. Although the Articles of Confederation did not officially authorize Congress to concern itself with religion, the citizenry did not object to such activities. This lack of objection suggests that both the legislators and the public considered it appropriate for the national government to promote a nondenominational, nonpolemical Christianity.

Congress appointed chaplains for itself and the armed forces, sponsored the publication of a Bible, imposed Christian morality on the armed forces, and granted public lands to promote Christianity among the Indians. National days of thanksgiving and of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” were proclaimed by Congress at least twice a year throughout the war. Congress was guided by “covenant theology,” a Reformation doctrine especially dear to New England Puritans, which held that God bound himself in an agreement with a nation and its people. This agreement stipulated that they “should be prosperous or afflicted, according as their general Obedience or Disobedience thereto appears.” Wars and revolutions were, accordingly, considered afflictions, as divine punishments for sin, from which a nation could rescue itself by repentance and reformation.

The first national government of the United States, was convinced that the “public prosperity” of a society depended on the vitality of its religion. Nothing less than a “spirit of universal reformation among all ranks and degrees of our citizens,” Congress declared to the American people, would “make us a holy, that so we may be a happy people.”

The Prayer in the First Congress, A.D. 1774 The Liberty Window
At its initial meeting in September 1774 Congress invited the Reverend Jacob Duché (1738-1798), rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia, to open its sessions with prayer. Duché ministered to Congress in an unofficial capacity until he was elected the body’s first chaplain on July 9, 1776. He defected to the British the next year. Pictured here in the bottom stained-glass panel is the first prayer in Congress, delivered by Duché. The top part of this extraordinary stained glass window depicts the role of churchmen in compelling King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215.

The Prayer in the First Congress, A.D. 1774
Stained glass and lead, from The Liberty Window, Christ Church, Philadelphia, after a painting by Harrison Tompkins Matteson, c. 1848
Courtesy of the Rector, Church Wardens and Vestrymen of Christ Church, Philadelphia (101)

George Duffield George Duffield, Congressional Chaplain
On October 1, 1777, after Jacob Duché, Congress’s first chaplain, defected to the British, Congress appointed joint chaplains: William White (1748-1836), Duché’s successor at Christ Church, Philadelphia, and George Duffield (1732-1790), pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. By appointing chaplains of different denominations, Congress expressed a revolutionary egalitarianism in religion and its desire to prevent any single denomination from monopolizing government patronage. This policy was followed by the first Congress under the Constitution which on April 15, 1789, adopted a joint resolution requiring that the practice be continued.

George Duffield
Oil on canvas by Charles Peale Polk, 1790
Independence National Historical Park Collection, Philadelphia (103)

Congressional resolution, paying military personnel right page Congressional resolution, paying military personnel left page Military Chaplains Pay
This resolution directed that military chaplains, appointed in abundance by Congress during the Revolutionary War, were paid at the rate of a major in the Continental Army.

Congressional resolution, paying military personnel [left page] – [right page]
Broadside, April 22, 1782
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (102)

Legend for the Seal of the United States, August 1776 (Thomas Jefferson) Legend for the Seal of the United States, August 1776 (Ben Franklin) Proposed Seal for the United States
On July 4, 1776, Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams “to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America.” Franklin’s proposal adapted the biblical story of the parting of the Red Sea (left). Jefferson first recommended the “Children of Israel in the Wilderness, led by a Cloud by Day, and a Pillar of Fire by night. . . .” He then embraced Franklin’s proposal and rewrote it (right). Jefferson’s revision of Franklin’s proposal was presented by the committee to Congress on August 20. Although not accepted these drafts reveal the religious temper of the Revolutionary period. Franklin and Jefferson were among the most theologically liberal of the Founders, yet they used biblical imagery for this important task.

Legend for the Seal of the United States, August 1776 [left side] – [right side]
Holograph notes, Benjamin Franklin (left) and Thomas Jefferson (right)
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (104-105)

Proposed Great Seal of the United States

Proposed Great Seal of the United States:
“Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.” Drawing
by Benson Lossing, for Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, July 1856.
General Collections, Library of Congress. (106)

Congressional Fast Day Proclamation, March 16, 1776 Congressional Fast Day Proclamation
Congress proclaimed days of fasting and of thanksgiving annually throughout the Revolutionary War. This proclamation by Congress set May 17, 1776, as a “day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” throughout the colonies. Congress urges its fellow citizens to “confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his [God's] righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness.” Massachusetts ordered a “suitable Number” of these proclamations be printed so “that each of the religious Assemblies in this Colony, may be furnished with a Copy of the same” and added the motto “God Save This People” as a substitute for “God Save the King.”

Congressional Fast Day Proclamation, March 16, 1776
Broadside
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (107)

Congressional Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, November 1, 1777 Congressional Thanksgiving Day Proclamation
Congress set December 18, 1777, as a day of thanksgiving on which the American people “may express the grateful feelings of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor” and on which they might “join the penitent confession of their manifold sins . . . that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance.” Congress also recommends that Americans petition God “to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.’”

Congressional Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, November 1, 1777
Broadside
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (108)

Congressional Fast Day Proclamation, March 20, 1779 The 1779 Fast Day Proclamation
Here is the most eloquent of the Fast and Thanksgiving Day Proclamations.

Congressional Fast Day Proclamation, March 20, 1779
Broadside
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (109)

Congressional Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, October 11, 1782 Another Thanksgiving Day Proclamation
Congress set November 28, 1782, as a day of thanksgiving on which Americans were “to testify their gratitude to God for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience to his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.”

Congressional Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, October 11, 1782
Broadside
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (110)

Rules and Articles, for the better Government of the Troops . . .page 4 Rules and Articles, for the better Government of the Troops. . .page 5 To all brave, healthy, able bodied well disposed young men. . . .

Morality in the Army
Congress was apprehensive about the moral condition of the American army and navy and took steps to see that Christian morality prevailed in both organizations. In the Articles of War, seen below, governing the conduct of the Continental Army (seen above) (adopted, June 30, 1775; revised, September 20, 1776), Congress devoted three of the four articles in the first section to the religious nurture of the troops. Article 2 “earnestly recommended to all officers and soldiers to attend divine services.” Punishment was prescribed for those who behaved “indecently or irreverently” in churches, including courts-martial, fines and imprisonments. Chaplains who deserted their troops were to be court-martialed.

Rules and Articles, for the better Government of the Troops . . . of the Twelve united English Colonies of North America [page 4] – [page 5]
Philadelphia: William and Thomas Bradford, 1775
Rare Book and Special Collections Division,
Library of Congress (111)

To all brave, healthy, able bodied
well disposed young men. . . .
Recruiting poster for the Continental Army.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania (112)

Extracts from the Journals of Congress, relative to the Capture and Condemnation …page 17 Extracts from the Journals of Congress, relative to the Capture and Condemnation …page 16 Morality in the Navy
Congress particularly feared the navy as a source of moral corruption and demanded that skippers of American ships make their men behave. The first article in Rules and Regulations of the Navy (below), adopted on November 28, 1775, ordered all commanders “to be very vigilant . . . to discountenance and suppress all dissolute, immoral and disorderly practices.” The second article required those same commanders “to take care, that divine services be performed twice a day on board, and a sermon preached on Sundays.” Article 3 prescribed punishments for swearers and blasphemers: officers were to be fined and common sailors were to be forced “to wear a wooden collar or some other shameful badge of distinction.”

Extracts from the Journals of Congress, relative to the Capture and Condemnation of Prizes,
and filling out Privateers, together with the Rules and Regulations of the Navy,
and Instructions to Private Ships of War [page 16] – [page 17]
Philadelphia: John Dunlap, 1776
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (113)

Horn beaker with scrimshaw portrait of Esek Hopkins Commander-in-Chief of the American Navy
Etched on this horn beaker is Esek Hopkins (1718-1802), a Rhode Islander, appointed by Congress, December 22, 1775, as the first commander-in-chief of the American Navy. Hopkins was dismissed, January 2, 1778, after a stormy tenure in which he achieved some notable successes in spite of almost insuperable problems in manning the tiny American fleet.
Horn beaker with scrimshaw portrait of Esek Hopkins
Horn, c. 1876
Mariner’s Museum, Newport News, Virginia (114)

Congressional resolution, September 12, 1782, endorsing Robert Aitken’s Bible…page 469 Congressional resolution, September 12, 1782, endorsing Robert Aitken’s Bible…page 468 Aitken’s Bible Endorsed by Congress
The war with Britain cut off the supply of Bibles to the United States with the result that on Sept. 11, 1777, Congress instructed its Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from “Scotland, Holland or elsewhere.” On January 21, 1781, Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken (1734-1802) petitioned Congress to officially sanction a publication of the Old and New Testament which he was preparing at his own expense. Congress “highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion . . . in this country, and . . . they recommend this edition of the bible to the inhabitants of the United States.” This resolution was a result of Aitken’s successful accomplishment of his project.

Congressional resolution, September 12, 1782, endorsing Robert Aitken’s Bible [page 468] — [page 469]
Philadelphia: David C. Claypoole, 1782 from the Journals of Congress
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (115)

The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Newly translated out of the Original Tongues. . . . Aitken’s Bible
Aitken published Congress’s recommendation of September 1782 and related documents (Item 115) as an imprimatur on the two pages following his title page. Aitken’s Bible, published under Congressional patronage, was the first English language Bible published on the North American continent.

The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Newly translated out of the Original Tongues. . . .
Philadelphia: printed and sold by R. Aitken, 1782
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (116)

An Ordinance for ascertaining the Mode of disposing of Lands in the Western Territory, 1785. Settling the West
In the spring of 1785 Congress debated regulations for settling the new western lands–stretching from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi–acquired from Great Britain in the Peace Treaty of 1783. It was proposed that the central section in each newly laid out township be reserved for the support of schools and “the Section immediately adjoining the same to the northward, for the support of religion. The profits arising there from in both instances, to be applied for ever according to the will of the majority.” The proposal to establish religion in the traditional sense of granting state financial support to a church to be controlled by one denomination attracted support but was ultimately voted down.

An Ordinance for ascertaining the Mode of disposing of Lands in the Western Territory, 1785.
Broadside, Continental Congress, 1785
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (117)

An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, 1787 Northwest Ordinance
In the summer of 1787 Congress revisited the issue of religion in the new western territories and passed, July 13, 1787, the famous Northwest Ordinance. Article 3 of the Ordinance contained the following language: “Religion, Morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged.” Scholars have been puzzled that, having declared religion and morality indispensable to good government, Congress did not, like some of the state governments that had written similar declarations into their constitutions, give financial assistance to the churches in the West.

An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, 1787
Broadside, Continental Congress, 1787
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (118)

Resolution granting lands to Moravian Brethren. right page Resolution granting lands to Moravian Brethren. left page Christianizing the Delawares
In this resolution, Congress makes public lands available to a group for religious purposes. Responding to a plea from Bishop John Ettwein (1721-1802), Congress voted that 10,000 acres on the Muskingum River in the present state of Ohio “be set apart and the property thereof be vested in the Moravian Brethren . . . or a society of the said Brethren for civilizing the Indians and promoting Christianity.” The Delaware Indians were the intended beneficiaries of this Congressional resolution.

Resolution granting lands to Moravian Brethren. [left page] – [right page]
Records of the Continental Congress in the Constitutional Convention, July 27, 1787
National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. (119)

Delaware Indian and English Spelling Book… right page Delaware Indian and English Spelling Book… left page A Delaware-English Spelling Book
David Zeisberger (1721-1802) was a famous Moravian missionary who spent much of his life working with the Delaware Indians. His Spelling Book contains a “Short History of the Bible,” in the English and Delaware languages, on facing pages.

Delaware Indian and English Spelling Book for the Schools of the Mission
of the United Brethren [left page] – [right page]
David Zeisberger
Philadelphia: Mary Cist, 1806
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (120)

———————————
HOME – EXHIBITION OVERVIEW – OBJECT LIST
SECTIONS: I. America as Refuge – II. 18th Century America
III. American Revolution – IV. Congress of the Confederation – V. State Governments
VI. Federal Government – VII. New Republic
———————————
Go to:

* Exhibitions Home Page
* Library of Congress Home Page

Library of Congress
Comments: Contact Us ( October 27, 2003 )

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel04.html

Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.

Note: A portion of Article IV, section 2, of the Constitution was superseded by the 13th amendment.
Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

**************
Slavery/involuntary servitude is still possible under the Constitution.

You all have been conditioned to believe all forms of slavery are evil. Not true. In many places in the world, servitude is the only legitimate form of upward mobility for classes. Without servitude, Hagar would not have have Ishmael and he would not have been the father of twelve great tribes of heathens. Without servitude, women in the ancient world would have been condemned to a life of poverty.

Your’e thinking is so narrow and limited, it makes me sick.

The Colonial Charters

JUNE 20, 1676

“The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgements he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard; reserving many of our Towns from Desolation Threatened, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of late with many of our Confederates many signal Advantages against them, without such Disadvantage to ourselves as formerly we have been sensible of, if it be the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed, It certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be found an Insensible people, as not standing before Him with Thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time of pressing Afflictions:

The Council has thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of this instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour, many Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but we doubt not those who are sensible of God’s Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him returning to us; and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him; the Council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being perswaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and soulds as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ.”

An Act Concerning Religion.

Forasmuch as in a well governed and Christian Common Weath matters concerning Religion and the honor of God ought in the first place to bee taken, into serious consideracion and endeavoured to bee settled, Be it therefore ordered and enacted by the Right Honourable Cecilius Lord Baron of Baltemore absolute Lord and Proprietary of this Province with the advise and consent of this Generall Assembly:

That whatsoever person or persons within this Province and the Islands thereunto helonging shall from henceforth blaspheme God, that is Curse him, or deny our Saviour Jesus Christ to bee the sonne of God, or shall deny the holy Trinity the father sonne and holy Ghost, or the Godhead of any of the said Three persons of the Trinity or the Unity of the Godhead, or shall use or utter any reproachfull Speeches, words or language concerning the said Holy Trinity, or any of the said three persons thereof, shalbe punished with death and confiscation or forfeiture of all his or her lands and goods to the Lord Proprietary and his heires. http://patriotpost.us/histdocs/mdtol.htm

May 19, 1643

The Articles of Confederation between the Plantations under the Government of the Massachusetts, the Plantations under the Government of New Plymouth, the Plantations under the Government of Connecticut, and the Government of New Haven with the Plantations in Combination therewith:

Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel…http://patriotpost.us/histdocs/articles_of_confederation.asp

1639

Whereas it hath pleased the Lord to move the Heart of our dread Sovereigns Charles by the Grace of God King &c. to grant Licence and Libertye to sundry of his subjects to plant themselves in the Westerlle parts of America. We his loyal Subjects Brethern of the Church in Exeter situate and lying upon the River Pascataqua with other Inhabitants there, considering with ourselves the holy Will of God and o’er own Necessity that we should not live without wholesomne Lawes and Civil Government among us of which we are altogether destitute; do in the name of Christ and in the sight of God combine ourselves together to erect and set up among us such Government as shall be to our best discerning agreeable to the Will of God professing ourselves Subjects to our Sovereign Lord King Charles according to the Libertyes of our English Colony of Massachusetts, and binding of ourselves solemnly by the Grace and Help of Christ and in His Name and fear to submit ourselves to such Godly and Christian Lawes as are established in the realm of England to our best Knowledge, and to all other such Lawes which shall upon good grounds he made and enacted among us according to God that we may live quietly and peaceably together in all godliness and honesty. Mo. 8. D. 4. 1639 as attests our Hands.

[35 signatures follow.]