Between the ignorance of the average American citizen regarding our nation’s rich religious history and the open hostility by anti-religious Leftists across the country, it seems not a day passes anymore that doesn’t bring with it a story about religious freedoms of ordinary Americans being infringed by those determined to purge every last vestige of Christianity from American life.

A recent example of this came in the form of a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which ruled that a Ten Commandments monument currently on the grounds of the state capitol violate the Article II, Section 5 of the state’s constitution, which prohibits the use of any government money or property to benefit religion.

After the ruling, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin declared the state’s high court got it wrong, and refused to remove the monument. State Rep. Mike Ritze, whose family paid for the monument in question, points out that the Court, in demanding the removal, ignored its own prior rulings upholding the right to have a 50-foot cross on the state fairgrounds, and many Native American paintings, monuments, and other pieces of art with religious meanings and tones on display at the Capitol and other state properties.

Secularists justify this purging of Christian symbols by invoking the “separation of church and state” argument, one of the most errant and misunderstood phrases in American life. The phrase was derived from an 1802 letter from President Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, which feared Congress was preparing to establish a national religion which would conflict with their own. Jefferson told the Baptists that they need not fear because the Constitution erected a wall of separation which prevented government from establishing a national religion, or from infringing on the free exercise of religion of American citizens.

For those that want to use that argument, they should first explain how it is that Jefferson, who they argue intended in that phrase to ban all religious influence on government, was the same president who used the U.S. Capitol building for Sabbath services for years, until the National Cathedral was built. They should explain how Jefferson could have intended that when it was he who petitioned (and received from) Congress funds for the purpose of sending Christian missionaries out to proselyte among the Native Americans.

Our religious heritage has been so thoroughly scrubbed from our schools and civic life that most Americans today would be shocked to learn how the Founders not only were accepting of religious influence on government, but saw religion and morality (the twin pillars of oppression according to the political Left) as INDISPENSABLE to the safety and perpetuation of our republican form of government.

But don’t take my word for it; take theirs.

“In contemplating the political institutions of the United States, I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes, and take so little pains to prevent them. We profess to be republicans yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government. This is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible.” —Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence (called the “Father of American Medicine” and the “Father of American Psychiatry”)

“Without morals, a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion…are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.” —Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence

“…every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust…shall…make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: ‘I, _______, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; And I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration.” —Delaware Constitution (Original, Article 22) (Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution)

“The general Principles, on which the Fathers Atchieved 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 those 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 believed, 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.” —John Adams, 1823, Letter to Thomas Jefferson

“The American population is entirely Christian, and with us Christianity and Religion are identified. It would be strange indeed, if with such a people, our institutions did not presuppose Christianity, and did not often refer to it, and exhibit relations with it.” —John Marshall, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1801-1835

“It is impossible for those, who believe in the truth of Christianity, as a divine revelation, to doubt, that it is the especial duty of government to foster, and encourage it among all the citizens and subjects. This is a point wholly distinct from that of the right of private judgment in matters of religion, and of the freedom of public worship according to the dictates of one’s conscience.” —Joseph Story, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (called the “Father of American Jurisprudence”)

These sentiments would be upheld for well more than a century and half before the secularists were finally able to begin undermining with effect the religious foundation of this nation, as evidenced by later insights:

“There is no disonance in these [legal] declarations…These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons: they are organic [legal, governmental] utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people…These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.” —unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S., 1892, that declared America a Christian nation

The truth is that, as John Adams wrote, our Constitution was made only for a “moral and religious people, and is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Efforts to undermine religion are nothing less than an effort to destroy the Constitution by destroying its foundations, religion and morality. We would be wise to learn our history and our religious heritage, and then openly and vigorously defend it, not only in our homes, but in the public square as well. Kudos to Governor Fallin for doing her part.