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Atheist anti-Christian support group sues Texas Gov. Rick Perry

In this corner is the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist anti-Christian support group, and in the other corner is the very foundation upon which the country in which the FFRF was established is based: the freedom of religious expression.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has only one out of tune note to play: file lawsuits, play the underdog victim and beg for money. Dan Barker is the co-founder of the group and adheres to the positive affirmation of God’s non-existence sect of atheism (at least until such a time as he is challenged, at which time he temporarily converts to the mere lack of belief in god(s) sect—see Some celebrity New Atheists who positively affirm God’s non-existence).

Kris Alingod notes (in Atheists sue to block Texas governor from promoting Christian prayer rally):

A group of atheists and agnostics is suing Texas Gov. Rick Perry for organizing and promoting a prayer rally that it says violates the constitutional principle of separation of church and state…its lawsuit…says the governor is “giving the appearance that the government prefers evangelical Christian religious beliefs over other religious beliefs” and that “nonbelievers are political outsiders”…

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The official announcement from his office calls the event a “non-denominational, apolitical, Christian prayer meeting hosted by the American Family Association,” a group that believes “a culture based on Biblical truth best serves the well-being of our country.”

The governor’s proclamation itself does not mention AFA or Christianity. It cites moments in history when leaders turned to prayer, such as in 1787 when Benjamin Franklin urged for prayer in an address before the Constitutional Convention.

The event’s website…describes the gathering as a “non-denominational, apolitical Christian prayer meeting” but says the event has adopted AFA’s statement of faith, which declares “the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.”

The website further says, “People of all ages, races, backgrounds and Christian denominations will be in attendance to proclaim Jesus as Savior and pray for America.”

According to the lawsuit of  the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the governor’s organization, promotion and participation in the prayer rally violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits federal and state governments from endorsing or showing preference for one religion over another, or for religion over other beliefs, such as atheism.

Bryan Fischer responds (in Freedom From Religion Foundation needs grammar lesson):

…First, secular fundamentalists kicked prayer out of school. Now they are trying to kick it out of the public square altogether.

The folks at FFRF are like the Puritans of old, who were afraid that some people, somewhere, were enjoying themselves. The folks at FFRF are desperately afraid that someone, somewhere, is enjoying the free exercise of religion…

Now there is a wall there [in the Consititution], but it is not between church and state. It is a high and impenetrable wall between the state and the church. The state is forbidden by the First Amendment from meddling in the affairs of the church. It can’t tell it what to believe, how to worship, what to pray, or what to preach from its pulpits.

But there is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits the church from impacting the state, whether it does so by speaking truth to political power, or by advancing its cherished moral ideals in the public square.

It is interesting that Bryan Fischer specifically notes that the state cannot determine what is to be preached from the pulpits. However, recently, Nancy Pelosi attempted to do just that—see Is Nancy Pelosi Anti-Antidisestablishmentarianism? and Nancy Pelosi Preaches, Again—All Hail the Obama Theocracy

James H. Hutson, who is chief of the manuscript division at the Library of Congress and compiler of the book The Founders on Religion – A Book of Quotations, was interviewed by Christianity Today on the issue of the Founding Fathers and prayer (Rob Moll, The Founding Fathers’ Days of Prayer – The young country often found it needed to turn to God):

[Rob Moll] Days set aside for prayer have a long tradition in this country. Tell me about John Adams proclamation of days of prayer and fasting.

[James Hutson] That was an old practice that went back to the Continental Congress. They proclaimed thanksgivings and days of fasting and humiliation twice a year from at least 1776 to 1783. The state governments did it constantly. Jefferson, when he was governor of Virginia also proclaimed a day. He didn’t do that as President, however.

[Rob Moll] Washington proclaimed one, too. He was requested by Congress to proclaim a thanksgiving at the end of the first session of Federal Congress in 1789.

[James Hutson] By the time Adams did it, the political temperatures had heated up a bit, and the Republicans—that would be Jefferson’s party—opposed this on the grounds that this was an undue, inappropriate promotion of religion by the President. I don’t know that they used those exact terms, but they weren’t happy with it…

[Rob Moll] I was surprised to see Franklin say during the Constitutional Convention, “I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?” Franklin then asked to start each day of the Constitutional Convention with prayer.

[James Hutson] He pointed out that in the early days the Continental Congress and the Confederation Congress, in the dark days of the revolution, always began their sessions with prayer. He made this request for prayer at a particularly difficult and contentious time in the Constitutional Convention when it looked like the states might not be able to agree on anything and dissolve themselves. So the Convention was in some danger of dissolving. So Franklin asked for prayer every day…

Finally, consider more American History 101:

Mayflower Compact:

We…having undertaken a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these present, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic…

Declaration of Independence:

…to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitled them…for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence…

George Washington: Speech to Delaware Chiefs, May 12, 1779:

You do well to wish to learn our arts and way of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do every thing they can to assist you in this wise intention.

George Washington: From a circular letter to the Governors of the States on disbanding the army, Headquarters, Newburgh, June 8, 1783:

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection…that he would be most graciously pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristic of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation.

George Washington: Address to Congress, Dec. 23, 1783:

I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life by commending the interests of our dearest county to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of them, to his holy keeping.

Thomas Jefferson: An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, passed in the Assembly of Virginia in the beginning of the year 1786:

Well aware that Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion, who, being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do.

Abraham Lincoln: Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863:

…we here highly resolve that these dead [due to the Civil War] shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Samuel Adams stated, “Revelation assures us that righteousness exalteth a nation.”

Many oaths of office as well as the oath of citizenship state, “I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

There are entire books written on the issue of the faith of the Founding Fathers of the USA, the quotes could be multiplied by the hundreds. Do not let the phrase separation of church and state stop you from claiming what is your Godly American heritage.

Perhaps someday a Neo-Declaration of Independence will be written and include these words:

…We hold these relative preferences to be self-evident, that all non-gender specific personages evolve equally, that they are endowed by random chance with certain unalienable rights, that among these are abortion, liberalism and the pursuit of hedonism. That to invent these rights, governments are instituted among aforementioned personages…

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