03 Sep 08 A Christian Nation gone awry - The Basic Truths and Facts

The Supreme Court Building, Washington DC - Depicting Mosses

I would like to especially thank the people at ChristianParents.com: http://www.christianparents.com/lrconst.htm , and the people at Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution .  They have provided much of the information in my research on the subject. 

This Great Nation of ours was founded on the beliefs so profoundly spelled out in the “Declaration of Independence” written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 when it became evident that war was about to break out with the British homeland and we would have to fight for our independence.  The founding fathers from all of the colonies gathered in Philadelphia to sign the document. 

Jefferson’s document was accepted and adopted by the colonies.  It was signed by almost all of the members of the Continental Congress representing the 13 colonies of the new world.  All but George Washington signed the Declaration of Independence, who was in New York at the time preparing to defend Manhattan against the British. 

Of the 55 signers of the ‘Declaration, fifty-two (52) were orthodox Christians, (I.e.: they lived by the word of the Bible), and the other three believed that the Bible is the true word of God.  In short, the Declaration of Independence was founded on extremely strong Christian convictions.  The sample remarks listed taken from Christianparents.com, but can be found in original text in the national archives with copies of the original documents in many of the historical museums all over the nation.  ChristianParents.com states:

 From: http://www.adherents.com/gov/Founding_Fathers_Religion.html  

•  Founding Fathers                               # of Founding          % of Founding
• Religion                                                      Fathers                      Fathers          
• Episcopalian/Anglican                                       88                            54.7%
• Presbyterian                                                        30                            18.6%
• Congregationalist                                               27                            16.8%
• Quaker                                                                   7                               4.3%
• Dutch Reformed/German Reformed                 6                               3.7%
• Lutheran                                                                5                                3.1%
• Catholic                                                                  3                                1.9%
• Huguenot                                                                3                                1.9%
• Unitarian                                                                3                                1.9%
• Methodist                                                               2                                1.2%
• Calvinist                                                                 1                                0.6%       
• TOTAL                                                              204

NOTES: The table above counts people and not “roles,” meaning that individuals have not been counted multiple times if they appear on more than one of the lists above. Roger Sherman, for example, signed all three foundational documents and he was a epresentative in the First Federal Congress, but he has been counted only once.  In the table above, some people have been counted more than once because they changed religious affiliation from one denomination to another. Thus, the individual amounts added together total more than 100%. This method is used because it results in accurate numbers for each individual religious affiliation. For example, a total of 7 Quakers are shown in the table above. There were indeed 7 Quakers who were in this group. (However, not all of these were life-long Quakers.) For the most part, very few Founding Fathers switched denomination during their lifetime (less than 8%), so double-counting has occurred only rarely in this table. Quakers, in fact, are more likely to have switched denominations than members of any other religious denomination. Along with taking up arms and supporting military action against the British, a large proportion of Quaker Founding Father officially renounced or were expelled from the ardently pacifistic denomination they had been raised in and Religious Affiliation of U.S. Founding Fathers joined another denomination (usually Episcopalians).

 Note: The words and sentiment of any of the founding fathers can be found in the National Archives, libraries, museums, and of course the World Wide Web.  The many testaments from any you so choose with reference to God, the Bible, and Christianity, are numerous and sufficient to fill a library.  However, I believe the following few statements will suffice for anyone willing to listen: 

• “You do well to wish to learn our arts and our ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention.” - George Washington
• ” Let…statesmen and patriots unite their endeavors to renovate the age by…educating their little boys and girls…and leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.” - Samuel Adams
• “History will also afford frequent opportunities of showing the necessity of a public religion…and the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern.” - Benjamin Franklin

 Why is it important to stress the Christian convictions of our forefathers?  The purpose of many of those who relocated to the new world was to flee religious persecution, to seek the freedom they yearned to have..  As a matter of fact, it is the Christian foundation of the ‘Declaration and the Constitution that gives us the right to practice the religion of our choosing. 

The war was fought and independence was won.  The process of forming a new nation under God, is under way.  The Constitution of the United States of America is penned by Pennsylvania Governor Morris who was also the most active member of the Constitutional Convention. He spoke 173 times. He also advocated that : “education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God.”

An early House Judiciary Committee affirmed the Founder’s lack of pluralistic intent when it declared: “Christianity …was the religion of the founders of the republic, and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.”  Those of us who have taken some courses in law, know the ambiguity of legal language – but, in the case of our fore-fathers they managed to keep the text simple and made their intent clear.  “Only one adequate plan has ever appeared in the world, and that is the Constitution of the United States of America, U.S.A., Declaration of Independence, Christian dispensation.” - John Jay, ORIGINAL CHIEF-JUSTICE U.S. SUPREME COURT

• “The United States of America were no longer Colonies. They were an independent nation of Christians.” - John Qunicy Adams 
•  “One page in history is worth a volume of logic”.  History shows the intent and purpose of our founding fathers. Contemporary logic is wrong whenever it contradicts the clear explanations of those men who wrote the Constitution. 
•  97% of the founding fathers, were indeed of strong Christian belief, and extremely clear – if not blunt in their intention of the laws spelled out in the Constitution, its marriage to the Declaration of Independence and how those laws shall govern this Country.   

The Founders believed the Declaration’ was the foundational document in formulating the Constitution of the United States.  It took the founding fathers another twelve (12) years to write.  It was not written overnight, and much thought and dedication went into it.  If was finally ratified.

That great Constitution, which was written and based on the content of the Declaration of Independence, clearly meant to work in conjuction with each other (see the proof in part II). The first State to ratify the Constitution was Delaware with a vote of 30 Yes and 0 No’s on December 7^th, 1787 and the last being Rhode Island with 34 for and 32 against, on May, 29^th, 1790.  So why is it that we celebrate the birth of our Great Nation on July 4^th?  It is because the founding fathers considered the birth of these United States of America, the day that our independence was so ‘declared’ on July 4^th 1776.  But, together - The Constitutional form of government. That which is spelled out by the ‘Declaration and the Constitution together will lead and maintain this land as a free nation, “One Nation, under God with Liberty and Justice for All” .  It is for this reason that President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a graduate of West Point and a formidable  national historian had the words “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance during his administration.  Wikipedia defines him as: 

• Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969), nicknamed “Ike”, was a General of the Army (five-star general officer) in the United States Army and U.S. politician, who served as the 34^th President of the United States (1953–1961). During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.[1]

As President, he oversaw the cease-fire of the Korean War, kept up the pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, made nuclear weapons a higher defense priority, launched the Space Race, enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System.

The Founders dated their government acts from the year of the Declaration rather than the Constitution. The date of the Declaration of Independence was the recognized date of Sovereignty and Independence of the United States. In the Declaration, the Founders established the foundation and the core values on which the Constitution was to operate. The Constitution was never to be interpreted apart from those values expressed in the Declaration.

Samuel Adams pointed out: Before the formation of this Constitution this Declaration of Independence was received and ratified by all the States in the Union, and has never been disannulled.”  

The Constitution of the United States was ratified by the Colonies in 1787: 

                         Date                              State                                   Yes         No 

1.      December 7, 1787           Delaware                                30           0
2.      December 12, 1787         Pennsylvania                        46         23 
3.      December 18, 1787         New Jersey                            38           0 
4.      January 2, 1788               Georgia                                  26           0 
5.      January 9, 1788               Connecticut                        128         40  
6.      Fbruary 6, 1788               Massachusetts                  187        168  
7.      April 28, 1788                  Maryland                              63          11 
8.      May 23, 1788                   South Carolina                  149           73 
9.      June 21, 1788                   New Hampshire                  57           47 
10.      June 25, 1788                   Vrginia                                 89           79 
11.      July 26, 1788                    New York                            30           27 
12.      November 21, 1789         North Carolina                 194           77 
13.      May 29, 1790                   Rhode Island                      34           32  

[1] NATO – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); French: Organisation du Traité de l’Atlantique Nord (OTAN); (also called the North Atlantic Alliance, the Atlantic Alliance, or the Western Alliance) is a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. The NATO headquarters are in

ssels, Belgium,^[3] the organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. 

So, if the Law’s of our land clearly define the nation as a Christian Nation, why is there so many controversial rulings from the Supreme Court pertaining specifically to Christianity?  The banning of the Bible, prayer, the Ten Commandments in public,  etc., etc., etc.  

This answer lies in the Supreme Court judiciaries in power at the time of the controversial decision.  For instance, at the time the Supreme Court was formed in 1778, the judiciaries consisting of six (6) judges, one Chief Justice, and five associates,  were obviously of Christian faith and clearly understood the intent of the law and the founding fathers of our nation.  The Constitution was non-existent at that time and would not be written for another ten years.  They based their decisions based on the foundation of the Declaration of Independence.  This is reflected in the statement made by the first Chief Justice: 

“Only one adequate plan has ever appeared in the world, and that is the Constitution of the United States of America, U.S.A., Christian dispensation.”- John Jay, ORIGINAL CHIEF-JUSTICE U.S. SUPREME COURT

Of course, Chief Justice John Jay, was appointed by the then President of the United States, President George Washington, who defines his position with the statement: “You do well to wish to learn our arts and our ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention.” - George Washington 

And of course, the first judiciaries, who were appointed by Washington, were confirmed by the 1^st Congress who consisted mostly of the former members of the Continental Congress of the colonies – whom we pointed out earlier were firm and orthodox Christians.  The Supreme Court judiciaries at that time were: 

•                                                            Chief         Service         Birth 
•  Name / State                     Assoc Justice          Justice          Yrs            Place           Born/Died        Religion 
• John Jay , N.Y.                                               1789–1795      5               N.Y.             1745 1829         Episcopalian
• James Wilson, Pa.               1789–1798                                  8               Scotland       1742 1798         Episcopalian
• John Rutledge, S.C.*           1790–1791          1795                1               SC                1739 1800         Church of England
• William Cushing, Mass.      1790–1810                                20               Mass.          1732 1810          Unitarian
• John Blair, Va.                     1790–1796                                  5               Va.               1732 1800         Presbyterian
• James Iredell, N.C.               1790–1799                                 9               England       1751 1799          Episcopalian
• Thomas Johnson, Md.         1792–1793                                 0               Md.             1732 1819          Episcopalian
• William Paterson, N.J.          1793–1806                               13              Ireland         1745 1806          Protestant
• Oliver Ellsworth, Conn.                                  1796–1800       4              Conn.          1745 1807          Congregational

From ChristianParents.com a researcher writes: “During the next hundred years humanism grew bolder in its attack against the founding fathers ideas of education and more and more schools omitted the Bible. Fewer and fewer remembered the exhortations of those men who established this nation to follow Christ and give Christian teaching in the schools, as the backbone and main course of our schools.

The ax has been laid to the very roots of our Constitution. The Supreme Court now makes laws. Not only does it make laws, it overthrows those which have existed for generations upon generations of Americans and calls them unconstitutional. Why? Because of the new morality that says, the end justifies the means, and if it seems good do it. And no man stood strong enough to stop that encroachment when it happened. The Founders would have denied what the Warren Court did on the grounds of Treason.

Why Treason? Because the Founders believed that whosoever attacked the strength and education of Christianity attacked this great nation which was founded on the principles of Christianity. It’s OK to exercise free speech on the streets if one wants to attack Christianity, but it is High Treason for a judge to throw down laws that were established to protect Christian education according to individual faith of Americans. Constitution of the United States of America, U.S.A., Declaration of Independence,

The Socialist minded judges took a bold stroke at our roots and they got away with it. No one impeached them for Treason. Under the power of Mass Media, the public was given opium of “it’s all for the good of the nation”, and they sat back in their false humility and failed to stand up for Right.

U.S.A. IDENTIFIED BY THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life,  liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The Declaration of Independence appeals to God no less than three times. Four to those who can see His Name in the phrase “protection of divine providence”. Five to those who can admit the phrase “created equal” means created by God, not evolved from chaos.

Contrary to what is currently taught at most federal and state schools, Samuel Adams pointed out this strong lesson which is contradicted in courts today: “Before the formation of this Constitution…this Declaration of  Independence was received and ratified by all the States in the Union and has NEVER been disannuled.” The Declaration and the Constitution were viewed as inseparable and interdependent documents.  The men who wrote it declared within it their undying faith towards God for all generations to see and follow.

The Articles of Incorporation call the entity into existence and the By-laws then explain how it will be governed.  Therefore the governing of the corporation under its by-laws must always be within the purposes and framework set forth in its Articles. The By-laws may neither nullify nor supersede the Articles. The Constitution neither abolished nor replaced what the Declaration had established; it only provided the specific details of how American government would operate under the principles set forth in the Declaration.

PROOF of the Declaration being attached to the Constitution is found in Article VII. The Constitution attaches itself to the Declaration by dating itself as being signed in the twelfth year of the independence of the United States of America!  Now that proves the founding fathers considered themselves to have been living in the USA for twelve years under the government document of the Declaration of Independence. Not only was the Constitution dated in recognition of the Declaration of Independence, also the later government acts were dated from the Independence of the United States of America.

“The Jubilee of the Constitution” by John Quincy Adams explains the Constitution as dependent upon the virtues proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. That’s why the Ten Commandments are inscribed in the Constitution of the United States of America, U.S.A., Declaration of Independence, stone on the Supreme Court building. Those men saw the law of God as the basis of all law for all men always, never to be changed! How can we withhold God and His truth from our educational classrooms for children today? One Nation Under God. United we stand together with Christ. They erected a beacon to guide their children, and their children’s children: for all men who would pursue life, liberty, and happiness…they pointed us to God and to His Son Jesus Christ. They desired that their posterity might look again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew that battle which their fathers began, so that truth, justice, mercy, and all Christian virtue not be extinguished from the schools of this land.

If anyone has taught you doctrines conflicting with the light shining through our Declaration of Independence, come back to the truths that were written then for you to see again now. President Abraham Lincoln reminded the nation of that great truth contained in the Declaration of Independence when he said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

SUPREME COURT decision of 1897: Constitution is the body and letter of which the Declaration of Independence is the thought and the spirit, and it is always safe to read the letter of the Constitution in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.

Our government exists to protect the Constitutional rights of the people. Those rights are protected by the Constitution and its Amendments as the law of the land. Only the people have the incontestable, unalienable, unencroachable right to change the laws which they have established. The elected and appointed officials may not change the law of the Constitution, neither can the courts change the law. Not even the Supreme Court can change any law. Courts only judge situations to which the law applies.

Courts may not judge the law. Not the courts, not the officials, not even the Supreme Court, have the incontestable, unalienable, and unremoveable right to change the law of the land. Only the people. They do it through their elected officials of the many states. But for such power to make laws to exist in the hands of a few appointed men, untouchable by the people, that is the exact thing our Founders denied. They set up the Constitution so only Congress should have the power to make laws, and Congress is elected by the people. Therefore Congress reflects the will of the people. Judges should only apply the law of the people, not make it.”

But, through out the years, with every liberal president elected, liberal judges were appointed.  For example, the decision of the Supreme Court in 1947 to ban prayer from their sessions.

What happened in that year? Why would they make such a devastating and permanent impression on our daily way of life? This simple non-dimensional prayer that read: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee. We beg Thy blessings upon us and our parents and our teachers and our country, Amen.” 

A simple Unitarian non-denominational prayer asking God for guidance for the leaders and teachers of our Country.  This apparently harmless ruling literally dismissed God from the court, God was no longer welcome in our court rooms.  We no longer need His help or guidance.  This could not be taken any other way and it opened the door to eliminate God and Christianity from all interface with public life.  This certainly was not the intent of the Founders of this great nation, nor was it the intent of  the Declaration of Independence.  As a matter of fact, the document is completely devoid of pluralistic intent. This is to say, there is no room for interpretation – it says what it says, nothing more and nothing less. 

Our Federal legislators and Representatives are well aware of this fact, and know the only way to change it is through the people.  Such a change would first require a Constitutional amendment change be put to a vote of the voters,  And, it would require a 2/3 majority of the House to get it there in the first place.  Since 85% of the voting populace is in favor of keeping Christianity in the schools and public places they must sneak the changes through the back door.  And the only backdoor they have without and amendment to the Constitution is to attempt to divorce it from the Declaration of Independence.  This is what the liberal judiciaries are doing to justify the rulings they have made. 

It is up to and time for the 85% silent majority to come alive and speak up, we must write to our representatives in both State and Federal Government and let them know that we know what they are doing and we want it stopped.   

What makes this so significant?  Well when you take into consideration that of the 55 signers of the Deliration of Independence, 52 were orthodox Christians and the other 3 believed that the Bible is the word of God, and all relied on the Bible in their daily life.  This is seen in the very words of the Declaration of Independence which was signed by the 55 congressional members on July 4, 1776.  Do you think for a minute, it was the intent of these God loving, God fearing men to ever exclude God or God’s guidance from any part of federal functionality when they wrote the Constitution or when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and these same men signed it in agreement.

Have not the Supreme Court decisions to ban prayer in their sessions, the reading of the Bible and reciting the pledge of allegiance in the classroom not changed the lives of our children drastically?  Now that you have been made aware of the testimony given by the writings of our Founding Fathers and made matter of public record, do you believe this is their intent?

I am and always will be a patriotic American who would willing give my life for her.  I am however ashamed of our so called political patriotic leaders and Supreme Court judiciaries who let this happen.  Why would the ‘Court make such a decision.  Well we need to look at the structure of the Supreme Court at the time of the ruling.  

• Who sponsored them or placed their names in nomination? 
• Was the Congress in session at that time under Democratic/Liberal or Republican/Conservative control? 
• What was the background of the judiciaries on the bench at the time. 

Wikipedia defines the judiciaries on the bench (USSC), in 1947 as follows:

• Hugo LaFayette Black                  1886-1971        USSC    1937- 1971      FDR (D)          Associate Justice 
• Harold Hitz Burton                        1888-1964        USSC    1945-1958       FDR (D)          Associate Justice 
• Felix Frankfurter                             1882-1965       USSC    1939-1962       FDR (D)          Associate Justice 
• Orville William Douglas                1898-1980       USSC    1939-1975       FDR (D)          Associate Justice  
• Robert Houghwart Jackson          1892-1954       USSC    1941-1954       FDR (D)         Associate Justice 
• Frank Murphy                                 1890-1949      USSC    1940-1949       FDR (D)          Associate Justice 
• Stanley Forman Reed                     1884-1980      USSC    1938-1957       FDR (D)          Associate Justice 
• Wiley B. Rutledge                          1894-1949      USSC   1943-1949         FDR (D)          Associate Justice 
• Frederick Moore Vinson                1890-1953        USSC    1946-1953       HST (D)     Chief Justice 

• 1886–1971, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1937–71), b. Harlan, Clay co., Ala. He received his law degree from the Univ. of Alabama in 1906. He practiced law and held local offices before serving (1927–37) in the U.S. Senate. As Senator he ardently supported New Deal measures, conducted Senate investigations of merchant-marine subsidies (1933) and lobbying (1935), and sponsored (1937) the Wages and Hours bill. His appointment to the Supreme Court by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met strong opposition from the public and in the Senate because of his earlier membership in the Ku Klux Klan. Black was, however, a staunch defender of civil liberties, and he became the leader of the activists on the Supreme Court, consistently opposing congressional and state violations of free speech and due process.
• Burton, Harold Hitz, 1888–1964, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1945–58), b. Jamaica Plain (now part of Boston), Mass. Admitted to the bar in 1912, he built a prosperous law practice in Cleveland and taught law (1923–25) at Western Reserve Univ. (now Case Western Reserve Univ.). He later served as a representative (1929–31) in the Ohio state assembly and as a reform mayor (1935– 40) of Cleveland. As U.S. Senator (1941–45), Burton vigorously pressed for U.S. participation in the United Nations. Appointed by President Harry S. Truman to the Supreme Court, he firmly supported the decisions overturning racial segregation in schools and public transportation.
• Frankfurter, Felix, 1882–1965, American jurist, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1939–62), b. Vienna, Austria. He emigrated to the United States as a boy and later received (1906) his law degree from Harvard law school. He was assistant U.S. attorney (1906–10) in New York state and legal officer (1911–14) in the Bureau of Insular Affairs. A professor (1914–39) at Harvard law school, Frankfurter was also active during these years outside the academic world. A frequent appointee to special government posts, he fought for the release of * Sacco and Vanzetti, helped found the American Civil Liberties Union, and played an important part in staffing the agencies of the New Deal. His appointment by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the U.S. Supreme Court brought a man of marked liberal tendencies to the high bench; but Frankfurter was also a firm adherent of judicial restraint. Although much concerned with fair legal procedure, he upheld legislation limiting civil liberties in the belief that the government has a right to protect itself through investigative committees and legislation, and that the court must exercise self-restraint in interfering with the popular will as expressed by its representatives. Among his works are The Public and Its Government (1930), The Commerce Clause under Marshall, Taney, and Waite (1937), and Of Law and Men (1956). His lectures appear in Law and Politics, ed. By Archibald MacLeish and E. F. Pritchard (1939, reprint. 1962).
  • *Ferdinando Nicola Sacco (April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were two Italian-born American laborers and anarchists, who were tried, convicted and executed via electrocution on August 23, 1927 in Massachusetts for the 1920 armed robbery and murder of two pay-clerks in South Braintree, Massachusetts. 
• Douglas, William Orville, 1898–1980, American jurist, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1939–75), b. Maine, Minn. He received his law degree from Columbia in 1925 and later was professor of law at Yale. A Democrat, Douglas was appointed (1934) to the Securities and Exchange Commission; as chairman (1937– 39) he pursued a vigorous policy of reform. He was prominent as a proponent of the New Deal and was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He became known on the court for his fervent support of civil rights, conservation, and civil liberties, particularly the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. Consistently liberal, in 1953 he granted a stay of execution to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who had been convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and were subsequently executed (see Rosenberg case). The House of Representatives made an unsuccessful attempt to impeach Douglas for this act. Among Douglas’s published works are case books on business law and volumes on American law and civil rights, including We The Judges (1956) and A Living Bill of Rights (1961). An advocate of outdoor life and an enthusiastic traveler, Douglas wrote many books on these subjects, including Men and Mountains (1950), Russian Journey (1956), My Wilderness (1962), and The Three Hundred Year War: A Chronicle of Ecological Disaster (1972). He also wrote the autobiographies Go East Young Man (1974) and The Court Years (1980). Douglas was sometimes critized for various ethical lapses in his personal life, and the heroic image that emerges in his autobiographical works has been somewhat tarnished by discoveries that he had bent the truth on a number of details, e.g., his youthful health and social status, his military service, and his academic record. Nonetheless, his reputation as an outstanding jurist, staunch protector of privacy and civil rights, and defender of the environment remains intact.
• Jackson, Robert Houghwout (hou’ut) [key], 1892–1954, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1941–54), b. Spring Creek, Pa. Despite the fact that he did not have a law degree, he was admitted to the bar in 1913 after a brief period of study at Albany law school. In 1934, he was appointed general counsel of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. From 1936 to 1938 he served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the antitrust division. A strong advocate of New Deal policies, Jackson became (1938) U.S. Solicitor General. In 1940, he became U.S. Attorney General,and in 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to the Supreme Court. He went on leave (1945–46) from the bench to be U.S. chief counsel at the Nuremberg war crimes trial. His feud with Justice Hugo L. Black probably eliminated him from consideration for Chief Justice when Harlan Stone died. His best-known decision was West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), which struck down statutes that made saluting the flag mandatory for school children, thereby significantly expanding the scope of free speech laid out in the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Known for his eloquent literary style, Jackson defended freedom of religion with particular distinction. He wrote The Struggle for Judicial Supremacy (1940), The Case Against the Nazi War Criminals (1945), and The Supreme Court in the American System of Government (1955).
• Murphy, Frank, 1890–1949, American political figure, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1940–49), b. Harbor Beach, Mich. After serving as a U.S. attorney (1919–20) and as a judge of recorder’s court (1923–30), he was elected mayor of Detroit in 1930 and was widely recognized for his relief efforts. He resigned to become governor-general (1933–35) and later (1935–36) U.S. high commissioner in the Philippine Islands. Elected governor of Michigan in 1936, his settlement of the automobile strike (1937) in Flint, Mich., made him a national figure. In Jan., 1939, Murphy, a New Deal Democrat, was appointed U.S. Attorney General and served until his appointment to the Supreme Court. For a short time in 1942 he left the bench to serve as an army officer. Justice Murphy’s opinions reflected his ardent liberalism. In his dissenting opinion in Korematsu v. United States (1944), he stated that the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans was unconstitutional.  He was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt    
• Reed, Stanley Forman, 1884–1980, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1938–57), b. Macon co., Ky. After receiving the B.A. degree from both Kentucky Wesleyan (1902) and Yale (1906), he studied law at the Univ. of Virginia and Columbia Univ. and then studied in France. A lawyer of Maysville, Ky., he became general counsel of the Federal Farm Board (1929–32) and of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932–35). He was (1935–38) Solicitor General and presented the government arguments in numerous New Deal cases. Appointed to the Supreme Court by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Reed was generally considered a moderate there and often held the balance between the liberal and the conservative members of the court in split decisions.
• Rutledge, Wiley: was President Franklin Delano Roovelt’s eighth and last appointment to the Supreme Court. Rutledge had spoken out in support of Roosevelt’s court-packing plan while dean of the University of Iowa Law School. Roosevelt appointed him to the federal appellate bench in 1939 where Rutledge demonstrated strong liberal credentials. Rutledge proved to be a strong liberal on the High Court. He did not see the Fourteenth Amendment as a limitation on the reach of the Bill of Rights. Due process had meaning that might go beyond specific Bill of Rights provisions.
• Vinson, Frederick Moore, 1890–1953, 13th Chief Justice of the United States (1946–53), b. Louisa, Ky. He received his law degree from Centre College inDanville, Kentucky (1911). He served (1923–29, 1931–38) in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was notable as a fiscal expert. He resigned from Congress to become associate justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and later chief justice of the U.S. Emergency Court of Appeals. He was director of the Office of Economic Stabilization (1943–45) and served briefly as federal loan administrator (Mar., 1945) and as director of the Office of War Mobilization (Apr.–July, 1945) before becoming Secretary of the Treasury (1945– 46). Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone’s death led to his appointment as Chief Justice by President Truman, a position which he held until his death. Although not remembered for an outstanding career on the Supreme Court, Vinson did make several significant decisions concerning internal security legislation. In American Communications v. Douds (1950) he found requirements that members of labor unions swear to their nonmember ship in the Communist party constitutional; in Dennis v. United States (1951), he upheld the conviction of eleven leaders of the Communist party for violations of the Smith Act. 

Who appointed them?  All but one of the judiciaries involved in this decision were appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt who was in office for 4 terms from 1933 to 1945.  The one judiciary not appointed by him, was appointed by Harry S. Truman, his Vice President and predecessor.  Although judiciaries are suppose to be non biased and neutral, they tend to vote along the lines of the person responsible for their lifelong appointment. As presidents tend to pick nominees who appear to be in-line with their way of thinking, decisions seem to fall in that presidents party favor for the most part.  Judiciaries are not suppose to make law, but rather interpret the Constitution and the laws of the Nation.

Before judging President Roosevelt, you must take into consideration the happening of events that led to the appointments of the judiciaries that made such an impact of our current system of laws that allowed the banning of God and the Pledge of Allegiance from the classroom.  It actually all started in  1929  The year of the “great depression”.  Herbert Hoover was elected president and took office in January o that year and the “great depression”  hit in August, six months after he took office.  The American public placed the fault of “the depression” squarely on his shoulders. 

Keep in mind this was a “world depression”  not just limited to the Americas or the western hemisphere.  As a matter of fact it had already hit Japan and was spreading worldwide. The entire world economy was in ciaos. 

Consider the definition of a recession is: “a decline in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for 2 or more months.”  So what defines a Depression?  Most people define one from the other as such:  A “recession”, is when a neighbor loses their job.  A “depression” , is when you lose yours.  Well, actually a “depression” isn’t a lot different than a “recession” except that it hits harder and lasts longer.  If you’re interested in a good explanation of the difference between the two click on :  http://economics.about.com/cs/businesscycles/a/depressions.htm . It’s about the best definition I’ve seen so far.

President Roosevelt, was doing everything he could to bring the country out of this economic disaster, but was running into one obstacle after another.  Many of his proposals were being rejected and overturned by the Supreme Court as “non Constitutional”.  He was getting frustrated and tried to get a law passed through Congress to raise the number of judiciaries assigned to the court from 9 to 15.  This attempt, seemed to have an effect on the court and they reversed a previous decision ruling against one of his projects and turned it in his favor.  Congress eventually rejected his proposal and voted it down.  President Roosevelt, may have lost his bid to stack the ‘Court at that time, but was in office for 4 terms (16 years) and made his 8^th and last appointment in 1945, the year he died in office.  His predecessor, also a liberal democrat, Harry S. Truman, made the 9^th appointment to the ‘Court.  It was this Supreme Court that made the first decision that led the way to more “God out of our life” decisions.

The banning of the prayer from their sessions was probably a major factor when they once again ruled on a religious topic in 1963, when the Supreme Court of that era made another controversial ruling which ruled  “Bible reading was outlawed as unconstitutional in the public school system”.

The court justified its position be stating: “If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could and have been psychologically harmful to children”.  Who were the judiciaries responsible for this ruling? A quick search on the internet reveals the fact that it was the ruling of a liberally heavy Supreme Court: 

• Orville William Douglas     1898-1980     USSC     1939-1975      FDR (D)      Associate Justice
• Hugo LaFayette Black       1886-1971      USSC     1937- 1971     FDR (D)      Associate Justice
• Tom Cambell Clark              1898-1977      USSC    1949-1968       HST (D)      Associate Justice
• Earl Warren                          1891-1974      USSC    1953-1969       Ike  (R)        Chief Justice
• John Marshall Harlan         1899-1971      USSC    1955-1971       Ike  (R)        Associate Justice
• Joseph William Brennan    1908-1997      USSC    1956-1990       Ike  (R)        Associate Justice
• Potter Stewart                      1915-1985      USSC    1958-1981       Ike  (R)        Associate Justice
• Arthur Goldberg                  1908-1990      USSC    1962-1965       JFK (D)       Associate Justice
• Byron Raymond White      1917-2002       USSC    1962-1993       JFK (D)       Associate Justice 

• Douglas, William Orville, 1898–1980, American jurist, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1939–75), b. Maine, Minn. He received his law degree from Columbia in 1925 and later was professor of law at Yale. A Democrat, Douglas was appointed (1934) to the Securities and Exchange Commission; as chairman (1937–39) he pursued a vigorous policy of reform. He was prominent as a proponent of the New Deal and was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He became known on the court for his fervent support of civil rights, conservation, and civil liberties, particularly the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. Consistently liberal, in 1953 he granted a stay of execution to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who had been convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and were subsequently executed (see Rosenberg case). The House of Representatives made an unsuccessful attempt to impeach Douglas for this act.
• Black, Hugo LaFayette, 1886–1971, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1937–71), b. Harlan, Clay co., Ala. He received his law degree from the Univ. of Alabama in 1906. He practiced law and held local offices before serving (1927–37)in the U.S. Senate. As Senator he ardently supported New Deal measures, conducted Senate investigations of merchant-marine subsidies (1933) and lobbying (1935), and sponsored (1937) the Wages and Hours bill. His appointment to theSupreme Court by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met strong opposition from the public and in the Senate because of his earlier membership in the Ku Klux Klan. Black was, however, a staunch defender of civil liberties, and he became the leader of the activists on the Supreme Court, consistently opposing congressional and state violations of free speech and due process. 
• Clark, Tom Campbell, 1899–1977, U.S. Attorney General (1945–49), associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1949–67), b. Dallas, Tex.; father of Ramsey Clark. He received his law degree from the Univ. of Texas. Clark joined the Justice Dept. (1937) as a special assistant to the attorney general. He coordinated the forced wartime relocation of West Coast Japanese-Americans and headed the antitrust division before becoming Attorney General in 1945. He was noted for vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws and the introduction of the attorney general’s list of subversive political organizations. He was appointed (Aug., 1949) by President Harry S. Truman to the Supreme Court bench as successor to Frank Murphy. Although his opinions on the court were generally conservative in the matter of alleged subversives, he was a frequent supporter of civil liberties. In a 1963 decision he wrote the majority opinion prohibiting the reading of the Bible in public schools. Clark retired from the court in 1967 after his son, Ramsey, was named U.S. attorney general 
• Warren, Earl, 1891–1974, American public official and 14th Chief Justice of the United States (1953–69), b. Los Angeles. He graduated from the Univ. of California Law School in 1912. Admitted (1914) to the bar, he practiced in Oakland, Calif., and held several local offices. He served (1939–43) as state attorney general and was governor of California from 1943 to 1953. In 1948 he was the unsuccessful candidate for Vice President on the Republican ticket headed by Thomas E. Dewey. In Oct., 1953, President Eisenhower appointed him Chief Justice to succeed Fred M. Vinson. One of the most dynamic of Chief Justices, Warren led the court toward a number of landmark decisions in the fields of civil rights and individual liberties. Among these were the unanimous 1954 decision, written by Warren, ending segregation in the nation’s schools (see Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.); the one man, one vote rulings, which opened the way for legislative and Congressional reapportionment; and decisions in criminal cases guaranteeing the right to counsel and protecting the accused from police abuses. In 1963–64, Warren headed the commission that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy (see Warren Commission). He retired from the bench in 1969. His public papers were edited by H. M. Christman (1959).
• Harlan, John Marshall, 1899–1971, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1955–71), b. Chicago; grandson of John Marshall Harlan. He received his law degree from New York Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1925; he practiced in New York City. He was an assistant U.S. attorney (1925–27), special assistant attorney general of New York state (1928–30), and chief counsel to the New York State Crime Commission (1951–53). Harlan was a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2d Circuit, from 1954 to 1955, when he was appointed by President Eisenhower to replace Justice Robert H. Jackson on the Supreme Court. A conservative on the court, he held a narrow view of the court’s power, believing that the Union judiciary should not interfere in state and local matters, and that political and social evils should be corrected through the political process and not through court action; he nevertheless sided with the majority on many civil-rights cases. Harlan retired from the court in late 1971, shortly before his death.
• Brennan, William Joseph, Jr., 1906–97, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1956–90), b. Newark, N.J. After receiving his law degree from Harvard, he practiced law in Newark. He served as a New Jersey superior court judge (1949–50), appellate division judge (1950–52), and state supreme court justice (1952–56). In 1956 President Eisenhower appointed him to succeed Sherman Minton on the Supreme Court. Brennan became noted as a supporter of individual liberties and guarantees of justice to the poor. In the last two decades of his long service, he was a liberal stalwart among increasingly conservative colleagues; many of his 1,360 opinions were dissents.
• Stewart, Potter, 1915–85, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1958–81), b. Jackson, Mich. After receiving (1941) his law degree from Yale, he was admitted to the Ohio bar. He later practiced law in Cincinnati. A U.S. Circuit Court judge from 1954 to 1958, he was appointed by President Eisenhower to replace Harold H. Burton on the Supreme Court. An advocate of the careful exercise of judicial review, Stewart limited his decisions to narrow questions of law and rarely ruled on broad constitutional issues. 
• Goldberg, Arthur, 1908–90, American labor lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1962–65), b.   Chicago. He received his law degree from Northwestern Univ. in 1929. A corporation lawyer, he became a labor specialist after representing the Chicago newspaper guild in a strike (1938) against the Hearst papers. In World War II he served in the Office of Strategic Services as contact man with the European underground labor movement. He was (1945–48) professor of law at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. In 1948 he was appointed by Philip Murray to be general counsel of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and the United Steelworkers Union. Goldberg was a central figure in the merger (1955) of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the CIO, and he led the fight to expel the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from the AFL-CIO. Appointed U.S. Secretary of Labor in 1961, he was credited with settling several serious labor disputes. In 1962 he was appointed by President Kennedy to the Supreme Court, where he was one of its more liberal members. He resigned (1965) when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him U.S. representative to the United Nations; he held that post until 1968. In 1970, he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor of New York state. He wrote AFL-CIO: Labor United (1956).
• White, Byron Raymond, 1917–2002, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1962–93), b. Fort Collins, Colo. An All-America football player nicknamed “Whizzer” who later starred as a professional, White was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa at the Univ. of Colorado, from which he graduated as valedictorian in 1938. He then went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar (1939–40), and received his law degree at Yale in 1946 after serving in the navy in World War II. White served (1946–47) as law clerk for Chief Justice Frederick Vinson before going to Denver to practice corporate law. He supported John F. Kennedy for the presidency in 1960, and was appointed deputy attorney general in 1961. In 1962, Kennedy named him to succeed Charles E. Whittaker on the Supreme Court. After President Nixon’s conservative appointments to the court, White became known as a “swing” justice, generally voting with the liberals on civil-rights cases, but with the conservatives on personal liberty and criminal-justice issues. He was one of two justices to dissent from the Roe v. Wade (1973) abortion decision, and in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) he wrote a decision that upheld Georgia’s sodomy statutes. White retired from the Court in 1993. 

Analysis: The simple study discloses three judiciaries left from the FDR/HST era (liberals), four Eisenhower appointees, (conservatives), and two JFK appointees, (liberals).  In the 1947 decision of the all liberal court appointed by FDR (8)/HST (1), I can’t find a count or roster anywhere and must assume the ruling was a unanimous decision.   However, in the 1963 ruling to remove the Bible from the classroom it was a 5/4 count with 5 liberal judges and 4 conservative judges sitting on the bench at that time. 

I believe, should we continue to analyze all decisions pertaining to matters of right to life vs. pro-life, and religious matters in public you will come to the same conclusion I have.  I must admit my guilt and laxity in these matters in the past, but I am happy I accepted the challenge to research this.  So, unless you are a party voter that votes only for the party of your affiliation, the internet is a wonderful tool containing all the information one needs to make an informed decision.   

Religious Affiliation of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence 

• Religion                             # of signers        % of signers
• Episcopalian/Anglican       32                           57.1%
• Congregationalist                13                           23.2%
• Presbyterian                         12                           21.4%
• Quaker                                     2                             3.6%
• Unitarian orUniversalist       2                              3.6%
• Catholic                                   1                             1.8%     
• TOTAL                                 56                          100% 

               Name of Signer                  State                           Religious Affiliation        

• Charles Carroll                     Maryland                   Catholic
• Samuel Huntington             Connecticut              Congregationalist
• Roger Sherman                    Connecticut              Congregationalist
• William Williams                 Connecticut              Congregationalist
• Oliver Wolcott                    Connecticut              Congregationalist
• Lyman Hall                          Georgia                      Congregationalist
• Samuel Adams                    Massachusetts        Congregationalist
• John Hancock                     Massachusetts        Congregationalist
• Josiah Bartlett                     New Hampshire       Congregationalist
• William Whipple                 New Hampshire       Congregationalist
• William Ellery                      Rhode Island            Congregationalist
• John Adams                        Massachusetts        Congregationalist; Unitarian
• Robert Treat Paine             Massachusetts        Congregationalist; Unitarian
• George Walton                   Georgia                      Episcopalian
• John Penn                           North Carolina          Episcopalian
• George Ross                       Pennsylvania            Episcopalian
• Thomas Heyward Jr.         South Carolina          Episcopalian
• Thomas Lynch Jr.              South Carolina          Episcopalian
• Arthur Middleton              South Carolina          Episcopalian
• Edward Rutledge               South Carolina          Episcopalian
• Francis Lightfoot Lee       Virginia                       Episcopalian
• Richard Henry Lee            Virginia                       Episcopalian
• George Read                       Delaware                    Episcopalian
• Caesar Rodney                   Delaware                    Episcopalian
• Samuel Chase                     Maryland                   Episcopalian
• William Paca                       Maryland                   Episcopalian
• Thomas Stone                    Maryland                   Episcopalian
• Elbridge Gerry                    Massachusetts         Episcopalian
• Francis Hopkinson            New Jersey                Episcopalian
• Francis Lewis                     New York                   Episcopalian
• Lewis Morris                      New York                   Episcopalian
• William Hooper                 North Carolina           Episcopalian
• Robert Morris                    Pennsylvania            Episcopalian
• John Morton                      Pennsylvania            Episcopalian
• Stephen Hopkins              Rhode Island             Episcopalian
• Carter Braxton                    Virginia                      Episcopalian
• Benjamin Harrison             Virginia                      Episcopalian
• Thomas Nelson Jr.             Virginia                      Episcopalian
• George Wythe                    Virginia                      Episcopalian
• Thomas Jefferson              Virginia                      Episcopalian (Deist)
• Benjamin Franklin              Pennsylvania            Episcopalian (Deist)
• Button Gwinnett                 Georgia                      Episcopalian; Congregationalist
• James Wilson                      Pennsylvania           Episcopalian; Presbyterian
• Joseph Hewes                     North Carolina         Quaker, Episcopalian
• George Clymer                     Pennsylvania          Quaker,  Episcopalian
• Thomas McKean                Delaware                  Presbyterian
• Matthew Thornton             New Hampshire      Presbyterian
• Abraham Clark                    New Jersey              Presbyterian
• John Hart                              New Jersey             Presbyterian
• Richard Stockton                New Jersey             Presbyterian
• John Witherspoon              New Jersey            Presbyterian
• William Floyd                       New York               Presbyterian
• Philip Livingston                 New York               Presbyterian
• James Smith                          Pennsylvania        Presbyterian
• George Taylor                      Pennsylvania        Presbyterian
• Benjamin Rush                     Pennsylvania        Presbyterian

References:

http://www.adherents.com/gov/Founding_Fathers_Religion.html          Adherents.com

http://www.christianparents.com/lrconst.htm ,                                        ChristianParents.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution                          Wikipedia

http://www.loc.gov/index.html                                                                        The U.S. Library of Congress

http://www.archives.gov/                                                                                 The U.S. National Archives

 http://economics.about.com/cs/businesscycles/a/depressions.htm        About.com