Paul Simon, age 81, is eleven years older than I am, and he grew up in Queens, New York. In one of his well known songs, Kodachrome, from his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, the opening line of Kodachrome is;
When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder I can think at all
I don’t know what the curriculum was in high schools in Queens, New York in the mid to late 1950s, but in the high school I attended in the mid to late 1960s, graduating in 1971, we had exemplary teachers in the area of history and English. Do they still teach those subjects in American schools today? It appears not. And if they do the curriculum has become so distorted, so biased, and at the pace of things it is likely that within four, or five years, high schools will be teaching the majority of Founders were not only slave owners, focusing more on that than anything else in their history, to perhaps shifting to teaching the majority of America’s Founders were transgender and homosexual.
They already have and do teach this, infer this, with regard to Abraham Lincoln, why not begin doing so with regard to men who wore powdered wigs and fancy dress?
When I think of what I learned in high school, and the history classes I was in, having history classes from the seventh grade every year through senior year, I learned two things regarding the separation of church and state, and why it is important this exists.
Even though the separation of church and state is not written in the U.S. Constitution. The ESTABLISHMENT of A RELIGION by the GOVERNMENT was mentioned, but not the separation of church and state as it has become hotly debated and known over the past 70 years, ever since the burgeoning of the late 1950s, into the turbulent 60s wherein lies, distortions, misinformation, radicalism, communism, socialism, Satanism, the occult, the Age of Aquarius — the burgeoning New Age Movement [merely paganism repackaged and rebranded to appear more appealing and seductive]
The establishment clause used by the minions, ministers, and legions enslaved to and serving Satan use the following from the First Amendment to put forth their case, which is solely directed at Christianity and no other faith;
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
There are two reasons those words were written into the First Amendment.
The primary reason was historical. Historical experience. Beginning with the first to sail from England to what would become America, as they eventually landed in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims fled the ironfisted and powerful, more powerful than the monarchy and the Parliament, Church of England. THEE ONLY RECOGNIZED FAITH in England. So powerful, so repressive, and still greatly serving its roots in the Church of Rome that the Church of England leadership had a history of incarcerating and burning alive Christians who dared go against the long-established Church of Rome Catholicism. This occurred from the reign of Henry VIII 1509-1547, known primarily for breaking from Rome over his lust and desire for Anne Boylyn, yet Henry kept the heresies law and the rules of Catholicism alive and well, murdering Protestants who were deemed heretics. Those who preached the Word of God, and took the Word of God to the people of the land. This true Christian, Protestant persecution went on from the reign of Henry VIII through the reins of Edward VII (1547-1543), Mary 1 (1553-1558), Elizabeth 1 (1558-1603), and into the reign of James 1 (1603-1625).
63 Protestants were murdered during the reign of Henry VIII.
2 under the reign of Edward VII.
284 under the reign of Mary 1.
9 under the reign of Elizabeth 1.
2 under the reign of James 1.
The Church of England was the most powerful entity in England. And the monarchy carried out the bidding of the Chruch of England.
There was much and constant resistance to the Reformation. To taking the Word of God to the people. To printing the Holy Bible in the language of the people.
It was the ESTABLISHMENT of a SINGULAR RELIGIOUS ENTITY within government, not separate from the state, which the framers determined to keep the new American government from adopting. What they knew from their experience with the Church of England. They were wise. Clearly much wiser than we are today.
The Founders were NOT anti-Christian, anti-God, mere Deists, anti-Christ, or anti-Holy Bible.
Far from it. What they were greatly concerned about was this new nation, America, allowing a singular church, such as the one they were extremely familiar with having been born and grown up under its powerful oppressive shadow in England to take hold in America.
Thomas Jefferson conducted Sunday Christian worship services in the rotunda of the U.S. Congress building.
Most of them recognized God’s Providence as being responsible for the founding of America.
Learn the facts. Learn the history. Learn the truth.
Tragic and ironic that America has become the cauldron of anti-God, anti-Christ, and anti-Christianity it has while creating and putting forward the bulk of unsound doctrine, and false teachers, and embracing and accommodating every immorality and abomination under the sun.
We idolize n lust after material wealth and have made gambling a god, legal everywhere. Promoting it constantly. Wasting hundreds of billions of dollars while complaining we don’t have enough money.
We idolize murder and lies having made the premeditated murder of children not only permissible — but law! Fighting tooth and nail to maintain this law!
We have pushed and fought to legitimize and make legal drugs known to remove people from reality and into potentially dangerous places within their minds. To legalize and legitimize the escape from reality and to remain in a drug-induced stupor perpetually. Desiring and pushing hard to make all drugs legal including LSD, heroin, and all truly harmful drugs.
We have been given over to a reprobate, wicked, unrighteous mind accommodating, adopting, applauding, and approving, yes APPROVING of every sexual perversion and immorality under the sun fighting desperately to make these things the law of the land [see Romans 1]!
And we truly expect in our turning from God, turning from Christ, turning from the Holy Spirit, and turning from the Bible to prosper and go forward without dire consequences? Well, a people refusing to believe in and obey God, a nation refusing to believe the Word of God might well establish such perversity and errant thought in its collective mind and perpetuate the evil within them, but what of those professing to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Learn the facts. Learn the history. Learn the truth.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
Need clarification regarding that carefully worded statement? Congress, the law-making body of the U.S. government, contrary to the masses of ignorant in America that believe the President or the Supreme Court can make laws, and determine laws, no, only the U.S. Congress can create a law and pass the law by a vote of the Congress. Presidents merely sign the bill into law or attempt to veto it. The jurists on the Supreme Court are to merely interpret the law according to the Constitution. Not to be activist judges, not to attempt to make law themselves.
Only the U.S. Congress can write a bill that will become law.
So, Congress can’t write a bill making A RELIGION — singular word usage is very important, that goes back to the quality English I was taught in high school though my writing does not necessarily reveal the quality of those English classes — Congress shall not establish A RELIGION, a national religion tied directly to the government.
There is to be religious freedom. Something many died for and many fled from the Church of England’s ironfisted ways that forsook Christianity and became an overly powerful and corrupted entity of man.
The Founders were all to familiar with the history of having one powerful “religion” in the land that was more powerful than any other office or entity in the land.
They opposed this. They did not oppose God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Bible, or the teaching and preaching of Christianity in schools, in government institutions, in the land.
A lesser reason for not establishing a singular religion directly tied to the government involved money. The government being beholden to and paying for the maintenance, promotion, and growth of that singular established religion.
Just as the monarchy and the British Parliament were financially beholden to the corrupted Church of England.
Okay, now let’s move on…
If ever under the impression upon reading something originating from the source Religion News Service do not be lax and off guard in thinking such a source would be affirming and understanding of religion, of faith, and even perhaps was pro-God, pro-Jesus, pro-Holy Bible, or pro-Christian and Christianity. Because that would be a mistake.
Religion News Service serves Satan more than it serves the Lord or the truth.
Keep in mind always — Satan and his minions and ministers don’t need to focus and put their efforts in on those attending strip clubs, bars getting drunk and resorting to myriad sins along the way, gambling places, casinos, prostitutes, and those who frequent them, and the murderous, adulterous, thieving and blasphemous. Those loyally serving Satan without him and his minions or ministers ever having to do any constant attention to them.
No, the Evil One, that Old Dragon the devil and his legions of minions and ministers focus upon and work relentlessly within churches. Within those in the ministry. Within the hearts and minds of professed Christians.
Do not believe this? Have you never read or understood the parable of the sower?
The Parable of the Sower
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”
The Purpose of the Parables
(Isaiah 6:1–13; Mark 4:10–12; Luke 8:9–10)
Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
“‘“You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
The Parable of the Sower Explained
“Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Matthew 13:1-23
It is good to read the entire chapter:
As well as:
and…
And know that the words, the laws of any man, any nation that goes against the Word of God are not to be heeded or adopted.
Yes, we are to respect and obey authority, but not when it goes against sound doctrine, the truth, against God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, or the Bible, and dilutes, distracts, defames, and diminishes the faith and following of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do not be deceived by such entities as Religion News Service, or any other you may find yourself placing trust and loyalty in that is not well grounded in the Word and professing that Jesus is Lord.
…And the high priest questioned them, saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
Acts 5:27b-32
Don’t be lax. Don’t be lazy. Don’t follow the crowd, the majority, the words of men and women, or children as so many choose to do. Especially in the times in which we live. Learn the history. The facts. The truth.
And live accordingly.
First and uppermost in the Word and ways of the Lord. As His disciple, His true follower.
And learn and know the history of man. No need to be a scholar, approach this as if you were working towards a Ph.D. or even a certificate of merit. Do it as required to become fluent and literate in real history to know it, not fall prey to the deception and cunning of lying evil people, and to mature and strengthen your faith and following of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus knew and knows history well.
So did the people of His time.
Tragically the people of our time are too much Paul Simon and flippant, derisive, deploring, and ignoring history. A huge mistake. Huge mistake.
Didn’t someone once utter, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?”
The world is on an ever accelerating escalating loop of ignorance of history preparing the mistakes faster and faster and in ever greater quantity and severity.
Do not be counted in that number.
If truly within the remnant, the followers of Christ, it behooves one then not to become politicized, not placing any nation or thing above God, above Christ, above the Holy Spirit, or above the Holy Bible and this requires in part the learning of real history. The history of man and woman and this world.
Knowing that Satan and his legions of minions and ministers place their focus and effort within the churches, within the hearts and minds of those turned to God, those seeking God, those committed to the Lord in an attempt to weaken them perhaps lead them astray, muddle the words and beliefs within their heart, and to pull them from following Christ to adopting more of the world.
Be vigilant and always aware dear ones. Always vigilant and aware. Going to the Word of God always. Continually. Going to the Lord in prayer. Taking everything to the Lord in prayer.
Of the four places the seed is sown let us be of the latter and not of the first three…which the majority are. The remnant. Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not merely declaring within ourselves to be Christians. True followers. And to do this we need to know, understand, and believe what is written in the Word of God pertaining to this.
Tragically, the majority professing faith in Jesus in America are more grafted and focused on American politics and the words of men rather than the words of Jesus, the words of God.
Ken Pullen, A CROOKED PATH, Monday, May 8th, 2023
No, the framers were not more about protecting religion from the state than vice versa
Monday, May 8, 2023
By Author Unknown — merely stated “Opinion by Religion News Service ”
Reprinted from Religion News Service
(RNS) — A columnist can only hope that his weekly efforts are not a one-way dole of wisdom but actually a conversation with readers. My column arguing that the Constitution does in fact separate church and state has restored my faith that someone is out there.
In the latest round of responses, Notre Dame law and political science professor Rick Garnett tweeted that the Constitution “distinguishes religious and political authority, mainly for the purpose of protecting the former from the latter.”
Was protecting religious from political authority really the framers’ main purpose?
I asked Garnett to provide some evidence for his claim, and he referred me to “Religious Freedom, Church-State Separation, and the Ministerial Exception,” an article he co-authored a dozen years ago with the three colleagues with whom he’d submitted an amicus brief in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC.
In that case, decided in 2012, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that federal discrimination laws do not apply to religious organizations’ selection of religious leaders, thus establishing the so-called “ministerial exception” as a matter of constitutional right under the First Amendment’s religion clauses.
Arguing on behalf of the exception, Garnett and company (including the senior counsel of the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom) give the concept of church-state separation as powerful an endorsement as you’re likely to find anywhere, tracing it back to Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket, whose insistence on the right of clerics not to be tried in civil court led to his being assassinated on the orders of King Henry II in 1170.
“For nearly a thousand years, the tradition of Western constitutionalism — the project of protecting political freedom by marking boundaries to the power of government — has been strengthened by the principled commitment to religious liberty and church–state separation,” they wrote.
The catch is that, in the minds of these conservative legal scholar-advocates, church-state separation is all about protecting the church from the state; the other way around not so much. When we get to the early American republic, the authors focus on a few examples where founding fathers — notably Madison and Jefferson — say explicitly that the federal government is barred from intervening in ecclesiastical affairs.
But those statements hardly prove that constitutional separation was “mainly” intended to protect religious authority. If it had been, you’d expect those representing religious authority to have warmly embraced it. They didn’t.
Consider Connecticut’s Oliver Ellsworth, who not only helped write the Constitution but sat on the conference committee that hammered out the Bill of Rights. After serving briefly as chief justice of the United States and then as ambassador to France, he returned home and in 1802 headed the state government committee created to respond to those pesky Baptists who were demanding the end of Connecticut’s Congregationalist establishment.
Just as you don’t get to withhold your taxes from useful institutions like public schools and courts of law, so, wrote Ellsworth, “on the same principle of general utility, in the opinion of the committee, the legislature may aid the maintenance of that religion whose benign influence on morals is universally acknowledged.”
Sixteen years later Connecticut did get rid of its establishment, but that was anything but welcomed by the Congregationalists. “It was as dark a day as ever I saw,” wrote the state’s foremost religious authority, the Rev. Lyman Beecher, in his autobiography. “The injury done to the cause of Christ, as we then supposed, was irreparable.”
In due course Beecher came to consider disestablishment “the best thing that ever happened to the State of Connecticut.” By cutting the churches off from dependence on state support, it “threw them wholly on their own resources and on God.” Amidst the Second Great Awakening, those resources proved more than plentiful.
But that was the wisdom of hindsight. At the time, Beecher and company considered those promoting the separation of church and state in his state to be doing the devil’s work. For their part, the separationists wanted to stop the state’s favoritism toward Congregationalism — in a word, to keep the state from acting on behalf of religious authority.
Or, as we might say, to protect the state from religion.
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