Evidence of a Young Earth 8

Note: This blog is titled The History of God in America. However, I’m going to deviate from that subject to post several articles supporting a young earth.

Without millions and billions of years, evolutionary history completely falls apart. Here is the eighth of many credible articles from various branches of science that tell of a world much younger than evolutionists claim.

Evidence 8 of a Young Earth: Comets Disintegrate Too Quickly.

According to evolutionary theory, comets are supposed to be the same age as the solar system, about 5 billion years. Yet each time a comet orbits close to the sun, it loses so much of its material that it could not survive much longer than about 100,000 years.

Many comets have typical ages of 10,000 years. (1)

Evolutionists explain this discrepancy by assuming that (a) comets come from an unobserved spherical "Oort cloud" well beyond the orbit of Pluto, (b) improbable gravitational interactions with infrequently passing stars often knock comets into the solar system, and (c) other improbable interactions with planets slow down the incoming comets often enough to account for the hundreds of comets observed. (2)

So far, none of these assumptions has been substantiated either by observations or realistic calculations.

Lately, there has been much talk of the "Kuiper Belt," a disc of supposed comet sources lying in the plane of the solar system just outside the orbit of Pluto. Even if some bodies of ice exist in that location, they would not really solve the evolutionists' problem, since according to evolutionary theory the Kuiper Belt would quickly become exhausted if there were no Oort cloud to supply it.

References
1. Steidl, P. F., "Planets, comets, and asteroids," Design and Origins in Astronomy, pp. 73 - 106, G. Mulfinger, ed., Creation Research Society Books (1983) 5093 Williamsport Dr., Norcross, GA 30092.
2 Whipple, F. L., "Background of modem comet theory," Nature M (2 Sept 1976) 15.

---

Ray R Barmore

Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Inbound Marketing
Melaleuca

Only Search This Blog

Evidence of a Young Earth 7

Note: This blog is titled The History of God in America. However, I’m going to deviate from that subject to post several articles supporting a young earth.

Without millions and billions of years, evolutionary history completely falls apart. Here is the seventh of many credible articles from various branches of science that tell of a world much younger than evolutionists claim.

Evidence 7 of a Young Earth: Galaxies wind themselves up too fast.

The stars of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, rotate about the galactic center with different speeds, the inner ones rotating faster than the outer ones. The observed rotation speeds are so fast that if our galaxy were more than a few hundred million years old, it would be a featureless disc of stars instead of its present spiral shape. (1)

Yet our galaxy is supposed to be at least 10 billion years old. Evolutionists call this "the winding up dilemma," which they have known about for fifty years. They have devised many theories to try to explain it, each one failing after a brief period of popularity. The same "winding up" dilemma also applies to other galaxies.

For the last few decades the favored attempt to resolve the dilemma has been a complex theory called "density waves." (1) The theory has conceptual problems, has to be arbitrarily and very finely tuned, and lately has been called into serious question by the Hubble Space Telescope's discovery of very detailed spiral structure in the central hub of the "Whirlpool" galaxy, M51. (2)

References:
1. Scheffler, H. and H. Elsasser, Physics of the Galaxy and Interstellar Matter, Springer Verlag (1987) Berlin, pp. 352, 353, 401 - 413.
2. D. Zaritsky et al, Nature, July 22, 1993. Sky & Telescope, December 1993, p. 10.

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Markethive
Inbound Marketing
Melaleuca
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

Evidence 6 of a Young Earth

Note: This blog is titled The History of God in America. However, I’m going to deviate from that subject to post several articles supporting a young earth.

Without millions and billions of years, evolutionary history completely falls apart. Here is the sixth of many credible articles from various branches of science that tell of a world much younger than evolutionists claim.

Evidence 6 Geology: Tightly Folded Rock Strata

When solid rock is bent, it normally cracks and breaks. Rock can only bend without fracturing when it is softened by extreme heating (which causes re-crystalization) or when the sediments have not yet fully hardened.

There are numerous locations around the world (including the famous Grand Canyon) where we observe massive sections of strata that have been tightly folded, without evidence of the sediments being heated.

This is a major problem for evolutionists who believe these rock layers were laid down gradually over vast eons of time, forming the geologic record. However, it makes perfect sense to creationists who believe these layers were formed rapidly in the global, catastrophic Flood described in Genesis.

Evidence for Soft-Sediment Deformation

The conventional dating assigned to the lowest Pliocene, marine sandstone of the Split Mountain Formation assumes an age of several million years. The age assigned to the soft-sediment deformation is middle or late Pleistocene—within the last million years. This dating system assumes that sediments, in a state of deep burial, stayed soft and pliable for millions of years or that the hard, brittle rocks bent with virtually no breaking or cracking! The rocks, however, tell us a different story—one in which the recent global Flood laid down immense deposits of sediments in a short amount of time. Soon after, the subsequent folding of these sediments, while they were still unlithified, produced the dramatic deformation we observe today. God’s hand was in the Flood event…the rocks bear witness to this cataclysm and still speak to us today. (1)

(1) Soft-Sediment Deformation

• To find out more, see Rock Layers Folded, Not Fractured
.

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Markethive
Inbound Marketing
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

Evidence 5 of a Young Earth

Note: This blog is titled The History of God in America. However, I’m going to deviate from that subject to post several articles supporting a young earth.

Without millions and billions of years, evolutionary history completely falls apart. Here is the fifth of many credible articles from various branches of science that tell of a world much younger than evolutionists claim.

Evidence 5 Anthropology: Human Population Growth

It’s amazing what basic mathematics can show us about the age of the earth. We can calculate the years of human existence with the population doubling every 150 years (a very conservative figure) to get an estimate of what the world’s population should be after any given period of time.

A biblical age of the earth (about 6,000 years) is consistent with the numbers yielded by such a calculation. In contrast, even a conservative evolutionary age of 50,000 years comes out to a staggering, impossibly high figure of 10 to the 99th power—greater than the number of atoms in the universe!

It is believed that 2000 years ago, the population of our planet was about 300 million (1). If you continue going back in time using a doubling factor of 150 years, you come to the mathematical number of 12 people existed 5750 years ago. Of course, this doesn't take into consideration the gread flood.

Clearly, the claim that humans have inhabited the earth for tens of thousands of years is absurd!

• For a better look at these calculations, see Billions of People in Thousands of Years.

(1) http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/human_pop/human_pop.html

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Markethive
Inbound Marketing
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

Evidence 4 of a Young Earth

Note: This blog is titled The History of God in America. However, I’m going to deviate from that subject to post several articles supporting a young earth.

Without millions and billions of years, evolutionary history completely falls apart. Here is the fourth of many credible articles from various branches of science that tell of a world much younger than evolutionists claim.

Evidence 4 Biology: Dinosaur Soft Tissue

In recent years, there have been many findings of “wondrously preserved” biological materials in supposedly ancient rock layers and fossils. One such discovery that has left evolutionists scrambling is a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex femur with flexible connective tissue, branching blood vessels, and even intact cells!

According to evolutionists, these dinosaur tissues are more than 65 million years old, but laboratory studies have shown that there is no known way—and likely none possible—for biological material to last more than thousands of years. Could it be that evolutionists are completely wrong about how recently these dinosaurs lived?

• To learn more, see “Ostrich-Osaurus Discovery" and "The Scrambling Continues". We also recommend the article "Fossilized Biomaterials Must Be Young" by Brian Thomas of ICR.

It is not just dinosaur soft tissue, either, but the presence of detectable proteins such as collagen, hemoglobin, osteocalcin, actin, and tubulin that they must account for. These are complex molecules that continually tend to break down to simpler ones.

Not only that, but in many cases, there are fine details of the bone matrix, with microscopically intact-looking bone cells (osteocytes) showing incredible detail. And Schweitzer has even recovered fragments of the even more fragile and complex molecule, DNA. This has been extracted from the bone cells with markers indicating its source such that it is extremely likely to be dinosaur DNA.

Moreover, more recent discoveries show dinosaur soft tissue in samples that are (by their own assumptions) many millions of years older than those in Dr Schweitzer’s original 2005 discovery. As one article states: “The researchers also analyzed other fossils for the presence of soft tissue, and found it was present in about half of their samples going back to the Jurassic Period, which lasted from 145.5 million to 199.6 million years ago…”

A Huge Problem for the Evolutionary Paradigm

Believing proteins could last for tens of millions of years takes enormous faith. According to a report in the science journal The Biochemist, even if collagen were stored at 0°C, it would not be expected to last even three million years. But such is the power of the evolutionary paradigm that many choose to believe the seemingly impossible rather than accept the obvious implication, that the samples are not as old as they say.

   Ostrich-Osaurus” Discovery
   The Scrambling Continues
   Fossilized Biomaterials Must Be Young
   Dinosaur Soft Tissue

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Markethive
Inbound Marketing
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

Evidence 3 of a Young Earth

Note: This blog is titled The History of God in America. However, I’m going to deviate from that subject to post several articles supporting a young earth.

Without millions and billions of years, evolutionary history completely falls apart. Here is the third of many credible articles from various branches of science that tell of a world much younger than evolutionists claim.

Evidence 3 Geology: Earth’s Decaying Magnetic Field

Like other planets, the earth has a magnetic field that is decaying quite rapidly. We are now able to measure the rate at which the magnetic energy is being depleted and develop models to explain the data. Secular scientists invented a “dynamo model” of the earth’s core to explain how the field could have lasted over such a long period of time, but this model fails to adequately explain the data for the rapid decay and the rapid reversals that it has undergone in the past. (It also cannot account for the magnetic fields of other planets, such as Neptune and Mercury.)

However, the creationist model (based on the Genesis Flood) effectively and simply explains the data in regard to the earth’s magnetic field, providing striking evidence that the earth is only thousands of years old—and not billions.

There is now evidence that reversals of the earth’s magnetic field must have taken only a matter of days or weeks within the time-frame of the year-long biblical Flood only 4,500 or so years ago.

After studing several lava flows, scientists concluded that the magnetic polarity transition recorded in the lava flow had to be made in less than two weeks, not a million years!

• For more information
   Rapid Reversals
   Age of Neptune
   Mercury
   Age of the Earth
   The Age of the Universe, Part 2

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Markethive
Inbound Marketing
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

Evidence 2 of a Young Earth

Note: This blog is titled The History of God in America. However, I’m going to deviate from that subject to post several articles supporting a young earth.

Without millions and billions of years, evolutionary history completely falls apart. Here is the second of many credible articles from various branches of science that tell of a world much younger than evolutionists claim.

Evidence 2 Astronomy: Recession of the Moon

The gravitational pull of the moon creates a “tidal bulge” on earth that causes the moon to spiral outwards very slowly. Because of this effect, the moon would have been closer to the earth in the past. Based on gravitational forces and the current rate of recession, we can calculate how much the moon has moved away over time.

If the earth is only 6,000 years old, there’s no problem, because in that time the moon would have only moved about 800 feet (250 m). But most astronomy books teach that the moon is over four billion years old, which poses a major dilemma—less than 1.5 billion years ago the moon would have been touching the earth!

• For more information
Lunar Recession
Age of Moon
The Age of the Universe, Part 2
Our Created Moon

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Markethive
Inbound Marketing
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

Evidence 1 of a Young Earth

Note: This blog is titled The History of God in America. However, I’m going to deviate from that subject to post several articles supporting a young earth.

Without millions and billions of years, evolutionary history completely falls apart. Here is the first of many credible articles from various branches of science that tell of a world much younger than evolutionists claim.

Evidence 1 Geology: Radiocarbon in Diamonds and Coal

Far from proving evolution, carbon-14 dating actually provides some of the strongest evidence for creation and a young earth. Radiocarbon (carbon-14) cannot remain naturally in substances for millions of years because it decays relatively rapidly. For this reason, it can only be used to obtain “ages” in the range of tens of thousands of years.

Scientists from the RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth) project examined diamonds that evolutionists consider to be 1–2 billion years old and related to the earth’s early history. Diamonds are the hardest known substance and extremely resistant to contamination through chemical exchange.

Yet the RATE scientists discovered significant detectable levels of radiocarbon in these diamonds, dating them at around 55,000 years—a far cry from the evolutionary billions!

In addition, samples were then taken from ten different coal layers that, according to evolutionists, dated millions to hundreds of millions of years old based on standard evolution time estimates, all contained measurable amounts of 14C. Samples displayed significant amounts of 14C. This is a significant discovery. Since the half-life of 14C is relatively short (5,730 years), there should be no detectable 14C left after about 100,000 years. The average 14C estimated age for all the layers from these three time periods was approximately 50,000 years. However, using a more realistic Pre-Flood 14C /12C ratio reduces that age to about 5,000 years.

Conclusion

All radiometric dating methods are based on assumptions about events that happened in the past. If the assumptions are accepted as true (as is typically done in the evolutionary dating processes), results can be biased toward a desired age. In the reported ages given in textbooks and other journals, these evolutionary assumptions have not been questioned, while results inconsistent with long ages have been censored. When the assumptions were evaluated and shown faulty, the results supported the biblical account of a global Flood and young earth. Christians should not be afraid of radiometric dating methods. Carbon-14 dating is really the friend of Christians, and it supports a young earth.

Sources:
http://christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c007.html
https://answersingenesis.org/geology/carbon-14/doesnt-carbon-14-dating-disprove-the-bible/
https://answersingenesis.org/geology/carbon-14/radiocarbon-in-diamonds-confirmed/

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Markethive
Inbound Marketing
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

James Madison and James Monroe

(This post is the fifth of a series about Presidents and their religious views.)

* * James Madison

Although educated by Presbyterian clergymen, young Madison was an avid reader of English deist tracts.

Madison as an adult paid little attention to religious matters.

However, some scholars say he leaned toward deism.

* * James Monroe

Little is known about Monroe’s religious beliefs. No letters survived in which he discussed his religious beliefs. Nor did his friends, family or associates comment on his beliefs.

Monroe was raised in a family that belonged to the Church of England when it was the state church in Virginia before the Revolution. As an adult, he frequently attended Episcopal churches.

Monroe believed in God for he said:

   "If we persevere...we can not fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence...My fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor." (1)

(1) http://www.monroefoundation.org/education/43-education.html

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Markethive
Inbound Marketing
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

Thomas Jefferson

(This post is the forth of a series about Presidents and their religious views.)

The religious views of Thomas Jefferson diverged widely from the orthodox Christianity of his era. Throughout his life Jefferson was intensely interested in theology, religious studies, and morality. Jefferson was most closely connected with Unitarianism and the religious philosophy of Christian deism; he was sympathetic to and in general agreement with the moral precepts of Christianity. He considered the religion of Christianity as having "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."

Jefferson used certain passages of the New Testament to compose The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (the "Jefferson Bible"), which excluded any miracles by Jesus and stressed his moral message. Though he often expressed his opposition to clergy and to Christian doctrines, Jefferson repeatedly expressed his belief in a deistic god and his admiration for Jesus as a moral teacher.

Jefferson began attending church services in the House of Representatives, a custom had not yet begun while he was Vice President, and which featured preachers of every Christian sect and denomination. In January 1806, a female evangelist, Dorothy Ripley, delivered a camp meeting-style exhortation in the House to Jefferson, Vice President Aaron Burr, and a "crowded audience". Throughout his administration Jefferson permitted church services in executive branch buildings, which were acceptable to Jefferson because they were nondiscriminatory and voluntary, and because he believed that religion was an important support for republican government.

For Jefferson, separation of church and state was a necessary reform of the religious tyranny whereby a religion received state endorsement, and those not of that religion were denied rights, and even punished. In 1786, the Virginia General Assembly passed Jefferson's Bill for Religious Freedom, which he had first submitted in 1779. It was one of only three accomplishments he put in his epitaph. The law read:

     No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

Jefferson sought what he called a "wall of separation between Church and State", which he believed was a principle expressed by the First Amendment. Jefferson's phrase has been cited several times by the Supreme Court in its interpretation of the Establishment Clause, including in cases such as Reynolds v. United States (1878), Everson v. Board of Education (1947), and McCollum v. Board of Education (1948).

In an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, he wrote:

     "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof", thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

Quote from Jefferson's 1785 Notes on the State of Virginia:

    "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever; that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events; that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest."

During the last hours of Jefferson's life he called family and friends around his bedside and with a distinct tone he uttered:

    "I have done for my country, and for all mankind, all that I could do, and I now resign my soul, without fear, to my God, – my daughter to my country".



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_religion)s

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Markethive
Inbound Marketing
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

John Adams

(This post is the third of a series about Presidents and their religious views.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams

Adams was raised a Congregationalist, since his ancestors were Puritans. According to his biographer David McCullough, "as his family and friends knew, Adams was both a devout Christian, and an independent thinker". In a letter to Benjamin Rush, Adams credited religion with the success of his ancestors since their migration to the New World in the 1630s. He believed that regular church service was beneficial to man's moral sense.

http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/god-in-the-white-house/

In contrast to his predecessor, John Adams was a self-professed "church-going animal" who made no secret of his religiosity. Raised in the Congregational Church, the established church in his home state of Massachusetts, John Adams later became a Unitarian. Unitarianism, a liberal strand of Christianity popular in New England, began in the liberal wing of the Congregational Church. Like other men educated during the period of the Enlightenment, Adams professed belief in a simpler, less mysterious form of Christianity. In a letter to his early political rival and late-in-life friend Thomas Jefferson, Adams wrote “without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company -- I mean hell."

In a second letter to Jefferson, written following the death of his beloved wife, Abigail, Adams ponders the question of the afterlife: "I do not know how to prove physically, that we shall meet and know each other in a future state; nor does Revelation, as I can find, give us any positive assurance of such a felicity. My reasons for believing it, as I do most undoubtedly, are that I cannot conceive such a being could make such a species as the human, merely to live and die on this earth. If I did not believe in a future state, I should believe in no God. This Universe, this all would appear, with all of its swelling pomp, a boyish firework. And if there be a future state, why should the Almighty dissolve forever all the tender ties which unite us so delightfully in this world, and forbid us to see each other in the next?"

http://johnadamsinfo.com/was-john-adams-a-christian/92/

There are many famous quotes of John Adams on religion, especially in response to the Atheism of Thomas Paine. For John Adams, Atheist beliefs were a threat to a decent and moral society. He rebuked Thomas Paine's criticism of Christianity by declaring that no other religion had more "wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity." But John Adams was independent of mind to recognize consequences of any established religion. In the view of John Adams, Christianity had been twisted over the centuries by authorities who used superstition and division to control the populace, abuse minorities, and lead large scale wars. In the writing of John Adams on religion, he often criticized the Roman Catholic Church for its corrupted structure of power and deceit. John Adams' religion certainly changed during his life, but he always believed in the virtue of Christianity and attended church regularly throughout his life.

Quotes by John Adams

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

“There is no such thing as human wisdom; all is the providence of God”

“The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion.”

“I cannot conceive such a Being could make such a Species as the human, merely to live and die on this earth”

http://christianity.about.com/od/independenceday/a/foundingfathers.htm.

"Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God ... What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be."

   --Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9.

"The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be intended by them in their address, or by me in my answer. And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were United: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.

"Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System."

   --Adams wrote this on June 28, 1813, excerpt from a letter to Thomas Jefferson.

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever."

  --Adams wrote this in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, 1776.

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
619-876-5273
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Inbound Marketing
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

George Washington

(This post is the second of a series about Presidents and their religious views.)

Oath of Office

Washington took the oath of office on April 30, 1789, with his hand on the Bible. Immediately following the oath, Washington added, "So help me God," and bent forward and kissed the Bible before him. He then delivered America's first inaugural address, in which he made note of America's indebtedness to our Creator, stating: No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of Providential agency.

First Inaugural Address April 30, 1789

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.

General Orders – July 2, 1776

The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army—Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect—We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our own Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions—The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny meditated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.

George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation 1789

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”

(Note that Washington was not only asserting that individuals have obligations before God, but that nations do as well. At this point, the United States government was not yet a year old.)

Other Information

During the first meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in September, George Washington prayed alongside the other delegates, including Patrick Henry, John Jay, and Edmund Randolph, as they received the news that war with England had erupted in Boston. Here Anabaptists, Quakers, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Unitarians, and Presbyterians all recited Psalm 35 together as patriots.

Washington believed in a God who responded to prayer and human need. Of his experiences in the battlefield, Washington reported, "By the all powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation."

Farewell Address

Of the link between religion and morality, Washington states in his Farewell Address, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
619-876-5273
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Organo Gold
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

Barack Hussein Obama II

This post starts a very long series about Presidents and their religious views. It seems only appropriate to start with Barack Hussein Obama II. There is a lot of discussion about Obama’s religion based on many things that he says and statements in his books. He seems overly sympathetic to Islam while professing to be a Christian. He often refers to the holy koran. Keeping with the one God belief, the koran can’t be holy unless he believes Allah is the one God, therefore he wouldn’t be a Christian. So, the debate continues.

Most of this article is taken from http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/god-in-the-white-house/ unless otherwise noted.

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA II

Raised in a secular household, Obama embraced Christianity after a spiritual awakening during his 20s. The sermons of Pastor Jeremiah Wright combined scriptural lessons with a call to social activism, which appealed to Obama, who was at the time a community organizer. Obama joined Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

Obama later described his decision: "I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life. It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn't fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. The questions I had didn't magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn't suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works."

In January 2008, Obama told Christianity Today: "I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life." On September 27, 2010, Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views saying "I'm a Christian by choice. My family didn't—frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers' and sisters' keeper, treating others as they would treat me. (1)

Obama's personal religion became a topic of debate and speculation during the 2008 election campaign, when opponents suggested that Obama was either a Muslim because of his father's heritage or a racist Christian, based on some of the Rev. Wright's controversial sermons. During the campaign, Obama was ultimately forced to separate himself fully from the pastor, and he resigned his 20-year membership at Trinity.

As a candidate, Obama delivered the keynote speech at a conference organized by the liberal evangelical minister Jim Wallis. "Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square," he said. "Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King -- indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history -- were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women should not inject their 'personal morality' into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition."

In the same speech, Obama criticized the religious right and their argument of political issues. "I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons," he said, "but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all."

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama#Cultural_and_political_image

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
619-876-5273
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Other Websites:
Organo Gold
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting
Lose weight with Venus Factor

Only Search This Blog

Faith in a Provident God

(This article was taken from the book “Rediscovering God in America” by Newt Gingrich featuring the photography of Callista Gingrich. This article is the eleventh and the last one based on that book)

The World War II Memorial

“The real fire within the builders of America was faith – faith in a Provident God whose hand supported and guided them: faith in themselves as the children of God … faith in their country and its principles that proclaimed man’s right to freedom and justice.”

   Dwight D. Eisenhower
   Thirty-fourth President of the United States

During World War II, the government issued seventeen million Bibles to the soldiers with a message in them from Generals Eisenhower and Marshall. In addition, many of the government printed World War II posters contained religious imagery.

The World War II Memorial was officially dedicated May 32, 2004, Memorial Day. In his proclamation for a day of prayer for permanent peace, President George W. Bush offered these words on behalf of a grateful nation.

“Today, all who wear the uniform of the United States are serving at a crucial hour in history, and each has answered a great call to serve our Nation on the front lines of freedom. As we continue to fight terrorism and promote peace and freedom, let us pray for the safety and strength of our troops, and for God’s blessing on them and their families, and for those that have lost love ones.”

Arlington National Cemetery

The inscription on the Tomb of the Unknowns reads, “Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Soldier Known But To God.”

John F. Kennedy

“The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”

   John F. Kennedy
   Thirty-fifth President of the United States

Kennedy’s inaugural address concluded:

“With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help but knowing that here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.”

For a very insightful conclusion to this book, pick up a copy of "Rediscovering God in America" by Newt Gingrich featuring the photography of Callista Gingrich.

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
619-876-5273
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Other Websites:
Organo Gold
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting

Only Search This Blog

The White House

(This article was taken from the book “Rediscovering God in America” by Newt Gingrich featuring the photography of Callista Gingrich. This article is the tenth of many based on that book)

THE DIVINE AUTHOR OF EVERY GOOD GIFT

“And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17) we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.”

  James Madison
  Fourth President of the United States
  Chief Architect of the Constitution

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES IN THE WHITE HOUSE

The White House is perhaps the most recognizable Washington, D.C., landmark, but it also plays seasonal host for many religious observances. As you approach the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, look just ahead to the left. In front of the White House and adjacent to the National Mall is the Ellipse, the site of the National Christmas Tree and the National Hanukkah Menorah. Despite a number of legal challenges, the Pageant of Peace takes place each year on the Ellipse. In addition to the National Christmas Tree and Hanukkah Menorah, it features Christmas trees from each of the states, a nativity scene, and nightly musical performances.

The tradition of placing a decorated Christmas tree in the White House began in 1889. While it started as a gathering for President Harrison's family and friends, the lighting of the White House Christmas tree has become a national tradition. In 1929, First Lady Lou Henry Hoover started the unbroken custom of first ladies trimming the "official" White House Christmas tree. In 1961 First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy began the tradition of selecting a theme for decorations, modeling it after Peter Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite ballet. First Lady Laura Bush selected themes such as "Home for the Holidays" and "All Creatures Great and Small" to adorn the tree.

Since 1878, American presidents and their families have celebrated Easter Monday by hosting an "egg roll" party on the White Houses lawn, one of the oldest events in White House history. The original site for this tradition was the grounds of the U.S. Capitol until Congress passed a legislation forbidding it. In response, President Rutherford B. Hayes officially opened the south lawn of the White House to local children and families to continue the tradition of egg rolling on Easter. Successive presidents have sustained this custom, canceling it only for occasional poor weather and two world wars.

Through the years, the White House has also been the site of prayer services and other religiously themed gatherings. After the Civil War, First Lady Lucy Hayes and President Rutherford B.Hayes hosted prayer services and hymn singing for members of the Cabinet, the Congress, and their families. They also renewed their vows before a Methodist minister in the Executive Mansion on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

President William McKinley also hosted gatherings in the Blue Room of the Executive Mansion on Sunday evenings in which he and visiting clergy would lead the group in hymn singing. If you get the chance to go on the White House tour, be sure to visit the State Dining Room. The fireplace mantel contains a prayer by President John Adams:

  “I pray to heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that hereafter inhabit it.
  May none but the honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.”

Adams wrote these words to his wife, Abigail, after first moving into the residence in November 1800. President Franklin Roosevelt subsequently discovered Adams' words in the later years of World War II and had them carved into the stone fireplace below a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

In 1953, President Dwight David Eisenhower hosted the National Prayer Breakfast out of a desire to meet with the House and Senate prayer groups and unite the nation's leaders under the common bond of faith. Over the years, the annual tradition has grown to include, by personal invitation, friends from all the fifty states and over one hundred countries throughout the world.

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
619-876-5273
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Other Websites:
Organo Gold
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting

Only Search This Blog

In God I Trust

(This article was taken from the book “Rediscovering God in America” by Newt Gingrich featuring the photography of Callista Gingrich. This article is the nineth of many based on that book)

Ronald Reagan

“Faith and religion play a critical role in the political life of our nation – and always have – and that the church – and by that I mean all churches, all denominations – have had a strong influence on the state.”

  Ronald Reagan
  Fortieth President of the Unites States

Ronald Reagan spoke eloquently and often about his faith in God and how He inspired him and the nation. In 1984, he wrote In God I Trust, a memoir of his life and faith. On March 8, 1983, he declared the following in an address to an evangelical convention:

I tell you there are a great many God-fearing, dedicated, noble men and women in public life, present company included. And yes, we need your help to keep us ever mindful of the ideas and the principles that brought us into the public arena in the first place. The basis of those ideals and principles is a commitment to freedom and personal liberty that, itself is grounded in the much deeper realization that freedom prospers only where the blessings of God are avidly sought and humbly accepted. The American experiment in democracy rests on this insight.

THE RONALD REAGAN BUILDING

The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was deticated in 1998, it covers more than seven acres and houses nearly seven thousand federal employees, along with private sector, non-profit, and international trade organizations.

Outside the main entrance to the building is a statue called "Liberty of Worship." The figure is shown as leaning against the Ten Commandments, yet another allusion to the close tie between religion and liberty. The inscription on the statue states: "Our liberty of worship is not a concession nor a privilege but an inherent right."

THE FAITH OF RONALD REAGAN

It is especially appropriate that the "Liberty of Worship" statue is found outside a federal building named after Ronald Reagan. President Reagan saw religious liberty as an irreplaceable underpinning of our democratic freedoms. This theme can be seen in many of his speeches as president.

In a speech at Georgetown University on its bicentennial, Reagan commended the theme of the celebration: learning, faith, and freedom. "Each reinforces the others, each makes the others possible. For what are they without each other?" He asked the audience to pray that all of America be guided by learning, faith, and freedom. "De Tocqueville said it in 1835, and it's as true today as it was then: 'Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. Religion is more needed in democratic societies than in any other.”

As president, Reagan frequently invoked the words of George Washington, who said that religion and morality were "indispensable supports" to the prosperity of our political system. During a radio address in December 1983, he described one of his favorite paintings, which shows George Washington praying at Valley Forge. He said the painting "personified a people who knew it was not enough to depend on their own courage and goodness; they must also seek help from God, their Father and their Preserver."

At an ecumenical prayer breakfast in August 1984 in Dallas, Texas, Reagan said:

I believe that faith and religion play a critical role in the political life of our nation—and always have—and that the church—and by that I mean all churches, all denominations—has had a strong influence on the state.

And this has worked to our benefit as a nation. Those who created our country—the Founding Fathers and Mothers—understood that there is a divine order which transcends the human order. They saw the state, in fact, as a form of moral order and felt that the bedrock of moral order is religion.

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

One of Reagan's most memorable speeches was delivered before the National Association of Evangelicals in March 1983. In it, he famously called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and promised "one day, with God's help" the world's nuclear arsenals would be totally eliminated.

In the same speech, Reagan attacked the government's "attempts to water down traditional values and even abrogate the original terms of American democracy. Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged."

He then closed the speech with scripture: "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increased strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary."

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
619-876-5273
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Other Websites:
Organo Gold
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting

Only Search This Blog

The Rock Upon Which Our Republic Rests

(This article was taken from the book “Rediscovering God in America” by Newt Gingrich featuring the photography of Callista Gingrich. This article is the eighth of many based on that book)

The Library of Congress

“The highest story of the American Revolution is this: It connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”

     JOHN ADAMS
    Second President of the United States

The Library of Congress was originally established in 1800 as a legislative library. However, it grew into much more.

Today on its website, www.loc.gov, the Library of Congress immodestly describes its mission "to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations."

To accomplish this monumental mission, the Library of Congress employs over 5,000 people and houses approximately 130 million items catalogued on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. This includes over 29 million books and other printed materials, 2.7 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.8 million maps, and 58 million manuscripts, with 10,000 new items added to the collection daily (out of over 22,000 submissions daily).

All this makes the Library of Congress by far the largest library in the world.

THE GREAT HALL

Out of the over one hundred thirty million items in the Library of Congress' collection, only two are on permanent display in the Great Hall. The first is the Giant Bible of Mainz, a handwritten and illustrated version of the Bible considered to be one of the most beautiful ever created.

The second is the Gutenberg Bible, the first mass printed book, which soon made hand-printed books like the Giant Bible of Mainz obsolete. The copy at the Library of Congress is printed on vellum, or animal skin, and is one of only three perfect copies still in existence.

In addition to the two Bibles, the Great Hall displays other evidence of the nation's strong religious underpinnings. The following passages are inscribed on the ceiling and the walls of the Great Hall: "The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not" (John 1:5); "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom and with all thy getting, get understanding" (Proverbs 4:7); and Dante's "Nature is the Art of God."

THE MAIN READING ROOM

Anyone who wishes access to the Library of Congress's books and bound periodicals must first start in the Main Reading Room. Here researchers begin their initial search for knowledge using the electronic resources in the Computer Catalog Center and the Main Card Catalog. Approximately 70,000 volumes are stored in the Main Reading Room reference collection and hundreds of books and bound periodicals are delivered to the Main Reading Room every day for research.

There are several instances of religious imagery and scripture verse found in the Main Reading Room. They include a bronze statue of Moses holding the Ten Commandments and a painting on the ceiling called Judea, showing a young Jewish woman praying.

In addition, two scripture passages are inscribed on the walls: What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God" (Micah 6:8) and "The heavens declare the Glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork" (Psalm 19:1).

"RELIGION AND THE FOUNDING OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC"

In 1998, the Library of Congress held an exhibit called "Religion and the Founding of the American Republic." The exhibit explored the role of religion in the colonies from Jamestown through the post-Revolutionary War era in which many of our governmental and societal institutions were formed. While no longer on display, this exhibit continues to influence thinking about the role of religion in the founding of our great nation.

The exhibit displayed over two hundred artifacts from the founding of the American Republic. This included manuscripts, books, correspondence, and paintings both from the Library's collection and on loan from other institutions. The exhibit was divided into seven sections focusing on the following issues:

     • America as a refuge for those seeking freedom from religious persecution in Europe and how their beliefs formed the foundation for our society;
     • The Great Awakening from 1740 to 1745 and how it led to the drive to independence;
     • The role of religion in the lives of our nation's greatest Revolutionary leaders;
     • The way religion affected those who formed the structure of our government;
     • The policies of our early federal government leaders toward religion;
     • The policies of our early state government leaders toward religion; and
     • The "Golden Age" of Evangelicalism in America through the 1830s.

The exhibits demonstrated with conviction that religion and morality were, in Alexis de Tocqueville's words, "indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions."

I hope that those who left the exhibit asked themselves the following question: "Are the religious and moral supports described by George Washington no longer as important to our nation's well-being? Or do we ban the expression of such supports in our public square at the peril of our Republic?"

     Newt Gingrich

---

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
619-876-5273
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Other Websites:
Organo Gold
Melaleuca
Winning at Sports Betting

Only Search This Blog

The Impact of God

(I actually intented this article to be written some time ago, but it got lost in my directory.)

God has impacted the United States at every turn. Under God, America has become an exceptional nation. From the first days of our government God was an important part of America.

How can it be denied today?

---------------------------------------------------

The Mayflower Compact was written just before the Pilgrims came ashore and states that their mission was undertaken “for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith”.

Modern version:

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.

------------------------------------------------------------

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 and the phrase “One Nation Under god” was added to it in 1954

“In God We Trust” was added to America’s paper currency in 1957, and has appeared on many US coins as far back as 1864.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Popular composer, Irving Berlin, wrote “God Bless America” in 1918. He later revised the song in1938.

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
Through 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
God bless America, My home sweet home.

Many renditions of the song omit the introductory verse and begin with "God bless America..."

------------------------------------------------------

These are all examples that God was intended to be part of our daily lives and part of our American way.

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
619-876-5273
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Website:
Organo Gold

Only Search This Blog

National Day of Prayer

May 2, 2013

California Pastor Greg Laurie opened the National Day of Prayer at the Pentagon, despite opposition from gay rights groups.

Laurie is the honorary chairman of the 2013 National Day of Prayer. The Human Rights Campaign and Outserve had urged the Pentagon to withdraw its invitation to Laurie because he teaches that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

Laurie says, “I’m not trying to censor anybody else and I don’t think they should try to censor us.”

“We have done our best to removed God’s Word and His counsel from our courtrooms, classrooms and culture,” Laurie wrote in an op-ed published by Fox News Thursday. “Despite the fact that we, as a nation, have largely forgotten God, the good news is: God has not forgotten us. He still can bless and redeem our country.”

“They do not want me to pray. They describe me as ‘homophobic’ and so forth. How can you deal with such a situation? We’re in a time in our country now where I’m attacked because I believe what the Bible teaches,” said Laurie, ahead of Thursday’s National Day of Prayer.

“If people want to make it all about that I’m not going to back down. In the immortal words of the great theologian Tom Petty, ‘I won’t back down,’ I won’t. I’m not going to apologize.”

____________________________

Prayer by Pastor Greg Laurie, honorary chairman for the NDOP in Washington, DC, May 2nd, 2013:

Father, we come to You to pray for our nation, the United States of America.

How You have blessed us through the years, Lord! We rightly sing, “America, America, God shed His grace on thee.” Yet we see trouble in our culture today. We see the breakdown of the family, crippling addictions, and random acts of horrific violence.

Lord, we need Your help in America. In recent days, we have done our best to remove Your Word and Your counsel from our courtrooms, classrooms, and culture. It seems, as President Lincoln once said, that we have “forgotten God.” But Lord, You have not forgotten us! You can bless and help and revive our country again.

Scripture tells us that “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Lord, in Your mercy, we ask that You would exalt our country again. We have had a number of great awakenings in America. We have experienced times of refreshing, and revivals that changed not only the spiritual but also the moral landscape. As the psalmist said, “Will You not revive us again, so that Your people may rejoice in You?” (Psalm 85:6).

That is our prayer for America today, Lord. Send a mighty spiritual awakening that will turn the hearts of men and women, boys and girls, back to you. You have told us if we will humble ourselves and pray, and seek Your face and turn from our wicked ways, that You will forgive our sins and heal our land (2 Chronicles7:14).

Forgive us today, Lord, and heal this troubled land that we love so much.

We ask all of this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

____________________________

The 2014 National Day of Prayer was May 2nd.

_____________________________

Contact Me

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
619-876-5273
Skype: barmore4

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Website:
Organo Gold

Only Search This Blog

The Supreme Court

(This is the ninth post based on and inspired by the book “Rediscovering God in America” by Newt Gingrich featuring the photography of Callista Gingrich.)

The Supreme Court

While recent years have seen increasing hostility from the courts to public displays of religion, the Supreme Court itself is filled with them. To start with, all sessions begin with the Court's Marshal announcing: "God save the United States and this honorable court."

The truth is that throughout most of our history, the decisions of the Supreme Court have recognized the fact that we are a religious nation. For example, in the 1952 case Zorach vs. Clauson, the Court upheld a statute that allowed students to be released from school to attend religious classes. Justice William O. Douglas wrote: We are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a supreme being. When the state encourages religious instruction or cooperates with religious authorities by adjusting the schedule of public events to sectarian needs, it follows the best of our traditions. We cannot read into the Bill of Rights a philosophy of hostility to religion.

Religious Imagery in the Supreme Court

The most striking religious imagery at the Supreme Court is that of Moses with the Ten Commandments. Affirming the Judeo-Christian roots of our legal system, Moses can be found in several places: in the center of the East Pediment on 2nd Street NE, as a relief on the southwest corner of the building on 1st Street NE, inside the Upper Great Hall, and inside the actual courtroom as part of the "great lawgivers of history" frieze.

Along the East Pediment of the Supreme Court is a sculpture entitled "Justice the Guardian of Liberty," which features Moses at the center, flanked by Solon and Confucius.

The following court cases are taken from http://www.pewforum.org/files/2007/06/religious-displays.pdf

In 1984, the court took up its first case that specifically involved holiday displays. In that case, the court ruled that a Christmas nativity scene that the city of Pawtucket, R.I., had placed in a municipal square was constitutionally acceptable. The court stated that the nativity scene simply recognized the historical origins of the holiday, one that has secular as well as religious significance. In those circumstances, the justices concluded, the nativity scene did not reflect an effort by the government to promote Christianity

The lack of clear guidelines reflects deep divisions within the Supreme Court itself. Some justices are more committed to strict church-state separation and tend to rule that any government-sponsored religious display violates the Establishment Clause. These same justices also believe that, in some circumstances, the Establishment Clause may forbid private citizens from placing religious displays on public property.

Other members of the court read the Establishment Clause far more narrowly, arguing that it leaves ample room for religion in the public square. In recognition of the role that religion has played in U.S. history, these justices have been willing to allow government to sponsor a wide variety of religious displays. In addition, they have ruled that the Establishment Clause never bars private citizens from placing religious displays in publicly owned spaces that are generally open to everyone

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Pawtucket’s display did not violate the Constitution. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Warren Burger emphasized that government has long had the authority to acknowledge the role that religion has played in U.S. history. This authority suggests, he said, that the Establishment Clause does not require a total exclusion of religious images and messages from government-sponsored displays. He concluded that the local government had included the crèche to “depict the historical origins of this traditional event” rather than to express official support for any religious message.

For Justice O’Connor, government endorsement was the key factor. Courts, she argued, should ask whether a “reasonable person” would view the government’s actions as an endorsement of particular religions. But while endorsement is prohibited, she argued, mere acknowledgement of religion, or of religion’s role in the nation’s history, is not.

RELIGIOUS DISPLAYS AND THE COURTS: Significant Supreme Court Rulings

Stone V. Graham (1980)
The court ruled that a Kentucky statute requiring public schools to post a copy of the Ten Commandments in every classroom was unconstitutional.

Lynch v. Donnelly (1984)
The court ruled that a Pawtucket, R.I., Christmas display, which included a crèche as well as more secular symbols of Christmas, such as a Santa Claus and reindeer, was permissible.

County of Allegheny v. ACLU (1989)
The court struck down a Christmas crèche displayed alone inside a courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pa., but upheld the same city’s broader holiday display that included a Christmas tree and menorah.

Capitol Square Review Board v. Pinette (1995)
The court ruled that Ohio officials were wrong to deny the Ku Klux Klan the right to place a large cross on a public plaza where displays by private citizens were permitted.

McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005)
The court ruled that the placement of framed copies of the Ten Commandments in courthouses in two Kentucky counties was unconstitutional.

Van Orden v. Perry (2005)
The court ruled that a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments on the Texas state Capitol grounds was permissible.

Ray R Barmore
Health and Wellness Coach
The Herbal Guy
San Diego California
619-876-5273
Skype: barmore4
Email Me

Other Blog:
Health and Nutrition

Websites:
Organo Gold
Herbalife

Only Search This Blog