Bleaching Out Historical Religious Expression

Dear Friends:

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Matthew 22:21). Secularists and strict separationists like to point to this verse to show that even Jesus opposed mixing religion and politics. We don’t live under Caesar, and even if we did, Caesar would be bound to follow God’s limitations on his civil office because God’s image is stamped on him. Jesus would have told Caesar, “Render unto God the things that are God’s.”

Many modern civil governments contend that they rule at no one’s discretion. Their legitimacy is self-imposed. It’s no wonder that secularists attack any suggestion that might lead to the truth that civil government is under God’s sovereign rule and the freedoms of citizens are God-ordained and not a gift from the State. In a 1982 message, Francis Schaeffer made the following point:

We must understand something very thoroughly. If the state gives the rights, it can take them away – they’re not inalienable. If the states give the rights, they can change them and manipulate them. But this was not the view of the founding fathers of this country. They believed, although not all of them were individual Christians, that there was a Creator and that this Creator gave the inalienable rights – this upon which our country was founded and which has given us the freedoms which we still have – even the freedoms which are being used now to destroy the freedoms.¹

Here’s a recent example of what Schaeffer saw in 1982. “Bradley Johnson had banners hanging in his classroom at Westview High School in San Diego, Calif., for more than 17 years with phrases like ‘In God We Trust’ and ‘All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed by Their Creator,’ only to have the principal order them torn down during the 2007 school year.” Another sign that had been hanging in his classroom for 25 years “contained the words ‘In God We Trust,’ ‘One Nation Under God,’ ‘God Bless America’ and ‘God Shed His Grace On Thee.’”² Each of these postings is part of America’s religious history. “In God We Trust” is our nation’s official motto and appears prominently in the House of Representatives. That Americans are “endowed by their Creator” is found in the Declaration of Independence. “One Nation under God” is from the Pledge of Allegiance. The phrase “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954, by a joint resolution of Congress. “God Bless America” is a patriotic song originally written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938 because of the rise of Adolf Hitler. Here are the words from the stanza that include the words “God Bless America”:

God Bless America,

Land that I love.

Stand beside her, and guide her

Through the night³ with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans, white with foam

God bless America, My home sweet home.

“God Shed His Grace on Thee” is a line from the patriotic song “America the Beautiful.” In all these examples, America’s religious heritage is evident. The principal of Westview High School did not see it this way. He considered their posting in a government school to be a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion….” United States District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez objected using historical, legal, and logical arguments, methods of inquiry that should be taught in all schools:

May a school district censor a high school teacher’s expression because it refers to Judeo-Christian views, while allowing other teachers to express views on a number of controversial subjects, including religion and anti-religion? On undisputed evidence, this court holds that it may not…. It is a matter of historical fact that our institutions and government actors have in past and present times given place to a supreme God. “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.”⁴ As the Supreme Court has acknowledged, “[t]here is an unbroken history of official acknowledgment by all three branches of government of the role of religion in American life from at least 1789.”⁵

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Fostering diversity, however, does not mean bleaching out historical religious expression or mainstream morality. By squelching only Johnson’s patriotic and religious classroom banners, while permitting other diverse religious and anti-religious classroom displays, the school district does a disservice to the students of Westview High School and the federal and state constitutions do not permit this one-sided censorship.⁶

It was this type of arbitrary edict based on a purging of the historical record that led a number of our nation’s Founders to insist on a national government with strict limitations.

SOURCES:

¹ Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer (in his message entitled “A Christian Manifesto” given in 1982 at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in FL).

² “Teacher wins major victory for God in school” WorldNetDaily (March 1, 2010).

³ In the 1918 version, the word was “right.”

⁴ Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 313 (1952).

⁵ Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677, 686 (2005) (quoting Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 674 [1984]).

⁶ Bradley Johnson vs. Poway Unified School District, et al. (2010), Case No. 07cv783 BEN (NLS). Also see Article 1, Section 2(a) of the California Constitution which reads: “Every person may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of this right. A law may not restrain or abridge liberty of speech or press.”

Respectfully,

Mark