Religion and Government: A Conflict?

Can you imagine any person with strong convictions, morals and values that would not try to practice them in his or her job? Anyone who does not live according to his or her professed values is rightly called a hypocrite, a mask wearer. One of the most important things a leader can do is develop and apply a set of core values.

According to an article entitled,'Under God'in the Wall Street Journal on June 16 2004 By SAMUEL P. HUNTINGTON,

Americans have always been extremely religious and overwhelmingly Christian. The 17th-century settlers founded their communities in America in large part for religious reasons.

Eighteenth-century Americans saw their Revolution in religious and largely biblical terms. The Revolution reflected their "covenant with God" and was a war between "God's elect" and the British "Antichrist."

Jefferson, Paine and other deists and nonbelievers felt it necessary to invoke religion to justify the Revolution.

The Declaration of Independence appealed to "Nature's God," the "Creator," "the Supreme Judge of the World," and "divine Providence" for approval, legitimacy and protection.

(Can you imagine how secularists and leftists would cry if a modern president said such things? George Bush looks mild compared to these statements.)

He also adds:

The Constitution includes no such references. Yet its framers firmly believed that the republican government they were creating could last only if it was rooted in morality and religion. "A Republic can only be supported by pure religion or austere morals," John Adams said.

Washington agreed: "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles."

Fifty years after the Constitution was adopted, Tocqueville reported that all Americans held religion "to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions."

The article by Mr. Harrington is well worth reading.

Ps. If we were not guided by Christian principles, there would be no conflict over abuse of prisoners, a just war, capital punishment, women in leadership or fighting child abuse. Saddam Hussein, Stalin, Hitler and other Pagan societies did all those things with impunity and no one complained.