"Please God, Don't Give Up On Us"
By Jerry Stewart
Anybody who knows me knows
I love my country, this country, America. I
truly believe that America is the greatest
nation in the world. But when you hear me speak
about the greatness of America, you’ll also know
why I believe we as a nation are so great – its
because of the unbelievable blessing we have
received from Almighty God. And I truly believe
that today more than ever in our history, we
need God’s help. Why? Because there are some in
our nation who are doing their best to push God
out. And when God is pushed out or America – we
are sunk.
Over the last few years there has been a steady
movement in our nation to try and convince us
that the First Amendment to our Constitution
which guarantees religious freedom to us all was
really meant to be a freedom from religion, not
a freedom of religion. Nothing could be further
from the truth. But, the sad truth is that a
very few today are misusing that First Amendment
to our Constitution and are persuading judges
and lawmakers in our America to systematically
take away our freedom that very amendment was
written to protect.
Recently I came across some
writings by a man I had never heard of. His name
was Fisher Ames. He was a Congressman from
Massachusetts in the first session of the U.S.
Congress when the Bill of Rights was being
written. And get this - it was Fisher Ames on
August 20, 1789, who suggested the actual
wording of the First Amendment to our
Constitution. It says this:
“Congress shall make no law establishing
religion, or to prevent the free exercise
thereof, or to infringe the right of
conscience”.
Fisher Ames was the first
to draft these words protecting our freedom of
religion. But just what was his intent? To keep
God out of our schools and government buildings
and public places? No. In fact, to the contrary.
In my research I found a piece written by Fisher
Ames, published that same year, 1789, in the
Palladium magazine, which clearly states his
position. He said:
“We have a dangerous trend beginning to take
place in our education. We’re starting to put
more and more textbooks into our schools. We’ve
become accustomed of late of putting little
books into the hands of children containing
fables and moral lessons. We are spending less
time in the classroom on the Bible, which should
be the principle text in our schools, because
the Bible states these great moral lessons
better than any other man made book”.
Now, does that sound like
the words of a man who wants God out of our
public schools? To the contrary. And he was one
of the authors of that First Amendment to our
Constitution.
Then there was James Madison, our 4th U.S.
President, and the man known as the “Chief
Architect of the Constitution”. He was also a
member of the first United States Congress where
he introduced the Bill of Rights. Now James
Madison was a strong defender of religious
liberty. He believed in this idea of freedom of
religion. But he also believed that no
government should prohibit that same freedom of
religion in all facets, all areas of our nation.
It is clear. Our founding fathers knew the great
part God played in establishing our nation,
America, and they did everything in their power
to keep Him in.
Please God, Don't
give Up on America!
Jerry Stewart
