Our founders saw religion as the most powerful civilizing institution which could provide and sustain the moral base upon which our republic was built — and without which it would collapse.
From time immemorial, people have disputed whether or not there is such a thing as natural law which governs the affairs of men. Natural law theorists believe that just as there are natural laws regarding physics and chemistry, there are natural laws regarding good and evil, right and wrong, that are independent of our ability to properly discern them.
The founding of America itself is a good example of this fundamental premise of divine natural law. After using the phrase 'the laws of nature and nature's God,' the Declaration of Independence observes: 'We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.'
After gaining our independence, as the greatest American political minds searched world history for ideas, they paid a lot of attention to ancient Greece — the cradle of democracy. They liked the idea of self-government but were troubled that the Greeks were not able to sustain their form of government permanently. As they sought the reasons why, they considered the idea of virtue and concluded that the efficacy of democracy depended upon the level of virtue within the people.
Our founders saw religion as the most powerful civilizing institution which could provide and sustain that moral base upon which our republic could be successfully built and without which, it would ultimately collapse like the Greeks before them. Consequently, they believed it to be imperative to encourage and support religion.
Joseph Story, the recognized expert on American Constitutional Law, described the prevailing view of the drafters: 'Probably at the time of the adoption of the constitution, the general, if not universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state, so far as it is not incompatible with the private rights of conscience.'
The phrase 'separation of church and state' was coined by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury, Connecticut, Baptist Association in 1802. Contrary to what many believe, it is not a phrase found anywhere in the First Amendment. Jefferson's intent was to prevent a particular religious sect from becoming the official national religion — not to banish religion from public life.
At the time the Constitution was adopted, some states had established religions supported by taxpayer dollars. The First Amendment was specifically directed at the federal Congress — not the states. The states were free to handle these issues however the people of those states desired through their own state constitutions.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift of God?
It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.