We Value Freedom

Freedom is priceless. Cherished. Fragile. Gal. 5:1 says: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." Freedom is a gift from God, but freedom is not free. Freedom requires sacrifice. Freedom must be nurtured, protected, and defended. We must fight to win it, and fight to keep it. The War on Terror is about freedom--our freedom and the freedom of people oppressed by the threat of terrorism around the world. But there is another war that is raging, not on the rugged mountains of Afghanistan or in the desert sands of Iraq, but a war being fought here in America. Some call it a War on Values, others call it the Culture War.

The Culture War that has been raging for 50 years in America. A war against our nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage. A war against the biblical accounts of our origins as created human beings. A war against our biblical convictions about unborn human life. A war against our biblical beliefs about human sexuality and traditional marriage. A war against our biblical values of faith and family. A war against our freedom of religious expression.

Really, this Culture War in America is a continuation of a Cosmic War fought from the beginning of time between the Sovereign Creator and one of his created beings. We know him as Satan—the adversary and archenemy of God. He began as an angel named Lucifer, but filled with pride and attempted a heavenly "regime change" (Ezek. 28:12-17; Isa. 14:12-15). In the process, Satan persuaded a third of the angels to join his rebellion against God (Rev. 12:4). So Lucifer, the son of the morning, became Satan, the father of the night. Yet, no sooner than he unsheathed his sword of rebellion against Almighty God, the judgment of God fell on him, and he fell from heaven like lightening (Luke 10:18). When Satan failed to overthrow the Paradise of God in heaven, he then set about to overthrow the Paradise God created on earth. And he successfully deceived Adam and Eve into joining his rebellion against God (Gen. 3:1-7). And when God judged them for their sin, in mercy he told them he would send the solution to their sin—the seed of the woman who was the Son of God.

Satan tried to stop his coming, Satan tried to stop His cross, and now Satan is trying to stop His church, and Satan is trying to stop His Kingdom from coming. We are therefore not simply "citizens concerned about moral issues," who may feel the need to "get involved" and "make a difference." Indeed, we are soldiers on a battlefield of a much grander scale fighting in a War that has been waged since the beginning of time with an enemy that desperately seeks to stop God’s kingdom from coming on earth as it is in heaven. While the outcome of this War has already been determined, the end of it will not come until Jesus comes again. In the meantime, we have a battle to fight!

And in war, it is essential that you know the strategy of your enemy. General George S. Patton was one of the most brilliant military strategists in the history of the world. In North Africa, he was engaging the shrewd German General Erwin Rommel, otherwise known as the "Desert Fox." Rommel had written a book entitled Infantry Attacks in which he outlined his strategy. It is said that during the heat of the battle, when the tanks got close enough, General Patton stood up and yelled, "I read your book, Rommel, I read your book!" Patton not only read Rommel's book, he ate Rommel's lunch! He knew every move the Desert Fox would make, and beat him at every turn. Why? Patton knew the strategy of his enemy.

Well our enemy has not written a book, but God has, and in its pages we are told every detail of his strategy. What is Satan’s primary strategy? Jesus said that the devil came to steal, kill, and to destroy—that’s his motive. But what is his method? Jesus told us: the devil is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). So his main tactic is deception (see Gen. 3:1-7; Rev. 12:9). Now the devil doesn't usually come out and tell you a bald face lie, he is subtle in his deception.

President John F. Kennedy once said, "The greatest enemy of truth is often not the lie, deliberate, contrived, and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."¹ Perhaps the greatest deception that the devil has ever perpetrated upon America has been through the myth of the "Wall of Separation between Church and State." This myth was introduced in the 1947 Supreme Court Case, Everson v. Board of Education, in which Justice Hugo Black declared, "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach."²

Since that 1947 court ruling, this famous phrase has been elevated to the status of Constitutional law, despite the fact that the phrase appears nowhere in any of the founding documents, including our Constitution,—including the First Amendment—"Congress shall make no law respecting an Establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" nor is it found in any of the letters, speeches, or writings of the who framed those founding documents. Yet the vast majority of judges, legal experts, and scholars claim that Jefferson’s metaphor of the "Wall of Separation" sums up what the founders intended when it comes to public religious expression. Today, it is recited like a mantra by the media, political leaders, and even some religious leaders. In fact, this myth is so pervasive that most American’s believe it is actually found in the United States Constitution.

Where did this Wall of Separation idea come from? Well it wasn’t entirely original with him, but Thomas Jefferson used that word picture in a letter he wrote on New Year’s Day, 1802 in response to a letter from the Baptist Association in Danbury, Connecticut. Baptists had been oppressed by King James and The Church of England, but when they immigrated to America, they were oppressed by the Puritan state churches here too—having to pay taxes to support a church other than their own. So they wanted some guarantees from Jefferson that the Federal Government was not going to set up a particular denomination as the officially sanctioned, government supported, American Church. They were concerned about their God-given freedom of religious expression being interfered with by the government.

Jefferson reassured the Danbury Baptists in his letter:

"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." So he used the "Wall" to describe the protection believers have from the government.

However, the Courts have lifted Jefferson’s "Wall of Separation" out of context, and they have turned in on its head to mean a two-way wall separating church from state, God from government. And on that basis, the courts are removing all forms of religious expression from public life—public prayer, Bible reading, 10 Commandments plaques and monuments, "Under God" in the Pledge, etc. But is that what Jefferson intended? If it was, then Jefferson was a total hypocrite. His own actions as President are proof that he never conceived that his "Wall of Separation" would be used as it is in our day.

• Jefferson urged local governments to make land available for Christian purposes. In fact, Jefferson signed three separate acts setting aside government lands for the sole use of religious groups and setting aside government lands so that Moravian missionaries might be assisted in "promoting Christianity."
• Jefferson agreed to provide $300 to "assist the said Kaskaskia tribe in the erection of a church" and to provide "annually for seven years $100 towards the support of a Catholic priest" in 1803.
• Jefferson chose to attend church each Sunday in the Capitol building (which Congress voted to use for church services) and even provided the service with paid government musicians to assist in its worship.
• Jefferson also began similar Christian services in his own Executive Branch, both at the Treasury Building and at the War Office.
• Jefferson authored the plan of education for the District of Columbia’s public schools, which included these two text books: The Bible and Isaac Watts’ Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (1707).
• Jefferson praised the use of a local courthouse as a meeting place for Christian services.
• Jefferson assured a Christian religious school that it would receive "the patronage of the government."
• Jefferson proposed that the Great Seal of the United States depict a story from the Bible and include the word "God" in its motto.
• Jefferson closed his presidential documents with the phrase, "In the year of our Lord Christ; by the President; Thomas Jefferson."

Finally, the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State would be particularly troubled by President Jefferson’s statement: "No nation has ever existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I, as Chief Magistrate of this nation, am bound to give it the sanction of my example."

Obviously, Jefferson did not mean for his wall to keep out any religious expression from the government or any of its institutions and yet that is exactly how it was applied in the1947 Supreme Court Case of Everson v. Board of Education. Justice Hugo Black, at one time a member of the Ku Klux Klan--which also believes in the strict separation of church and state--wrote for the majority: "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach."

According to this wording, there could be no influence one way or the other, which was never intended by Jefferson. Here’s the bottom line: The U.S. Supreme Court has ignored the original intent of the Founding Fathers, trashed three centuries of America’s Judeo-Christian heritage, and turned a statement in one of Jefferson's private letters on its head in declaring a two-way "Wall of Separation" between church and state. That 1947 ruling and all of those based on it are fatally flawed.

• The Courts are relying on a private letter, not a public policy statement, the words of which have been divorced from their context of Jefferson’s positions and practice—that’s poor judicial scholarship.
• Jefferson was not present at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, nor was he there when the First Amendment was debated in the first session of Congress in 1789, because he was in France, serving as the U.S. Minister—So to consider Jefferson the sole authority on the First Amendment is poor scholarship.
• The Congressional Records record the months of discussions and debates of the 90 Founding Fathers who framed the First Amendment, and not one of those 90 Framers ever mentioned the phrase "separation of church and state." Not one. If this had been the intent for the First Amendment-as is so frequently asserted-then at least one of them would have mentioned that phrase, but none did--To ignore the 90 men who crafted the document is poor scholarship.

Indeed, to say that the Supreme Court exercised poor scholarship is an understatement. What they did was irresponsible, reckless, and dangerous, and the same is true of the Courts who are following in their footsteps. Using their perverted understanding of the "Wall of Separation," the Courts in America have taken us down the wrong road, based on bad history, guided by flawed sources, leading to unbearable public policy, resulting in a loss of our religious liberty, and ultimately contributing to cultural ruin.

And this is where it matters to you and me, here and now. Because in the years since this ruling came down from the Supreme Court, the "Wall of Separation" has become text and verse for the belief that the First Amendment separated religion from the state, God from government. The logical result is that all religious influences must be removed from the institutions of public life.

The High Court outlawed public prayer in the schools in 1962, out went public Bible reading in 1963, and in 1980, down came the Ten Commandments from school house walls! This agenda of radical secularization has not only been zealously prosecuted by the activist courts, but by extension, the various public entities, school boards, educators, and teachers.

For example, some have declared it to be unconstitutional:

• For Kindergarten students to recite: "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food."
• For a board of education to use or refer to the word "God" in any of its official writings.
• For a student to ask and for the teacher to answer whose birthday is being celebrated at Christmas.
• For two Middle School students to bring their Bibles to class, which were confiscated, called "garbage," and thrown into the trash can by their teacher.
• For some students to pray publicly anywhere in school; an Alabama Judge, Ira Dement, even assigned a tax-payer supported "prayer monitor" in schools to ensure that students did not engage in public prayer.
• For students in nine western states to recite the Pledge of Allegiance including the words: "One Nation, Under God."
• For an Honor Guardsman to say: "God bless you and this family, and may God bless this country" at the graveside of a veteran.
• For a county government building exterior to display our national motto: "In God We Trust."
• For former Chief Justice Roy Moore to display a monument of the 10 Commandments in the Alabama State Capitol building.

Folks that is Judicial Tyranny! These are just a few examples of the misinformation perpetrated by the Courts and applied to public life. Did you know that the Founder’s conceived of the third branch, the Judiciary, as the weakest branch of government, and yet it has become the strongest of all in our day. And these Black-Robed Tyrants are using their unchallenged authority to run rough shod over our religious liberties originally guaranteed by the founding fathers in the first amendment.

From the perspective of the Culture War, their goal is self-evident. These Activist Judges belong to a coalition of people who seek to destroy any reminder of our Judeo-Christian heritage so that they can pursue, without an accusing finger of guilt, their selfish, godless, and immoral agendas—whether it is abortion rights, sexual promiscuity and legalized sodomy, stem cell harvesting, assisted suicide, pornography, etc.

While it is naïve to believe that the courts should receive all the blame, they are not without guilt. Indeed, the moral and spiritual decline of our nation can be charted from that critical time in the early 60's when the Supreme Court rulings came down on public prayer and Bible reading in the public schools. Using 1963 as a benchmark, it is like night and day. Government statistics show various social ills on a fairly flat course up until 1963, but then all the numbers shoot off the charts. In the past 40 years, cohabitation is up 1,000%, violent crimes up 500%, out of wedlock births up 400%, single parent homes up 300%, and divorce is up by over 200% In the last 10 years alone, the number of same sex homes have increased by 400%. Sexually transmitted diseases have also skyrocketed.

Look at our public schools. Thirty years ago, the United States was the "undisputed leader" in educating its population compared with other industrialized nations. Today we are mediocre at best. In fact, from 1963 to 1995, SAT scores plummeted by nearly 100 points. While tests scores were going down, suicide among teens has gone up over 300% during the last 40 years. Back in 1960’s the biggest problems in my school were: chewing gum, talking in class, and walking the halls without permission. Today, it seems that the biggest problems are drugs, rape, and murder. Again, in just 40 years we've gone from "Leave it to Beaver" to "Beavis and Butthead," and from "Mayberry" to "MTV!"

Just step back and look at what America is becoming. Look at the number of broken homes, broken parents, and broken children. Look at the pace at which morals are missing and values are vanishing. Look at the fact that sodomy has gone from the closet, to the classroom, to the congress, to the cabinet, and now to the clergy. Look at the open sewer that is pumped into the homes of America through television, movies, and the internet. Behold the total disregard for human life whether it is unborn in the womb or in the laboratory harvested for stem cells or the aged in a nursing home. Behold the child abuse, the rape, the brutality, the extreme violence, and sexual perversion. Look at all of these things and dare assert that the liberal judges, activists, and educators are right and that our Founding Fathers were wrong about what is best for our nation.

When evangelist Billy Graham received the Congressional Medal of Honor several years ago, he stood up and told the president and the congress, quote: "As we face a new millennium, I believe America has gone a long way down the wrong road. We must turn around and go back and change roads." To that, I say Amen! We have reached a defining moment in this nation, if we continue down the road we are on, we are headed for certain destruction. For the Bible says that all nations that forget God will be turned into hell (Ps. 9:17).

From the perspective of the larger Cosmic War, that is exactly what Satan wants. He wants our nation turned into hell. He wants to stop the Kingdom of God from coming on this earth as it is in heaven, and America is a key battleground. Remember the reason the Pilgrims came here? According to the Mayflower Compact, they came for "the Glory of God" and for "the advancement of the Christian faith." The mission of the Puritans who followed them was to "propagate the Gospel" to the ends of the earth. And America has indeed become the fountainhead of evangelical missions around the world for the last 200 years, with 85% of the money for missions and 80% of the missionaries coming from this nation. No wonder Satan wants to take us down. And a primary part of his strategy is to muzzle the church through the myth of "separation of church and state," so that he can go about his mission unhindered—a mission to steal, kill, and destroy. Unfortunately, he has been all too effective.

As the Psalmist asked (11:3): "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Good question. The foundations are being destroyed, so what can the righteous do?

1. Pray. We need to pray for our nation. We need to pray for revival. We need to pray for spiritual awakening (2 Chron. 7:14). Because that is the only way our nation is going turn around that’s the only way we will escape God’s judgment. We also need to pray for God’s Sovereign will to be done in the upcoming election. And we need to pray for whoever becomes President that he will choose godly men and women to be judges in our nation. Pray.

2. Proclaim. We need to proclaim the good news about Jesus Christ. See the greatest part of the blame for what has happened in America needs to be laid at the doorstep of the church. If we had been obeying the Great Commission over the past 50 years, you wouldn’t have all these atheists running around filing lawsuits through the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State to remove our Christian Heritage, which is not only a right, but a responsibility. See if you introduce a man to Jesus, he gets saved, and adopts a Christian world view—He becomes your friend and fellow soldier, but if you don’t share Christ with him—he remains your bitter enemy. Proclaim.

3. Petition. We need to petition our government with our grievances, like the Founder’s petitioned the King of England with theirs. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of black robed terrorists holding our holding our nation hostage. It is time for you and you and you and believers, and churches, and associations all over America to exercise our rights and responsibilities as the Salt of the earth and the Light of the world. It is time to make an impact on our day. It is time to engage the culture. It is time to let our collective voices be heard. For if we do not use our freedom to defend our freedom we will lose our freedom!

4. Participate. One of the ways is to vote. Founding Father Samuel Adams said: "Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote… that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." It is our Christian duty to vote, but don’t just vote, vote your values. Find out where the candidates stand on the value of religious freedom. Find out which candidates are for a strict separation of church and state. Find out which candidates are aligned with groups like the ACLU and Americans for Separation of Church and State, who seek to remove all public expressions of religion. Find out which candidates are in favor of protecting and even restoring America’s Judeo-Christian heritage. Find out where the candidates stand on our First Amendment right to religious freedom.

Finally, we need to take our place on the front lines of the Culture War in our age, realizing that it is indeed our campaign in the Cosmic War of the ages. We need to be salt that penetrates the rottenness of our society and preserves it against God’s judgment. We need to be the light that dispels the darkness of our day and shines the way to our only hope who is Jesus. We need to be his soldiers, who not only get on our knees and pray for His Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, but we need to get on our feet and fight to make it happen. We can win the battle for America. If the 16 million Southern Baptists and the rest of America’s 60 Million evangelical Christians would join forces in getting on our knees to praying for revival and awakening, and then get on our feet to join the battle, within a generation we could win back all that we have lost, and even extend the Kingdom of God further than ever before. Let’s value our freedom in Christ and share it with those who are in bondage to Satan. For whom the Son sets free is free indeed!