Gingrich, Newt: Rediscovering God In America [Archive]

Wilson L. Deaton

6th January 2007, 03:16 PM (15:16)

Allow me... The following was "copied and pasted" from Bob's txt file (hence the format):

There is still one book on the New York Times Bestseller list, and it is Newt
Gingrich"s "Rediscovering God In America."
Inside the front flyleaf, he extends the Invitation "for you to join me on a
walk through America's capital city, Washington D.C.
He continues, "This walking tour is not just a look at the architexture and
beauty of our nation's capital; it is a tour of American history, of the great
men and women, the great events, the great documents and great institutions, the
great ideas--all shaped decisively by the genuine belief thatwe are a nation
under God--that are at the heart of our freedom as Americans and our identity as
a people.
The next time a friend or colleague says that religious expression has no
place in the public square and that discussion of God has no place in our
children's history and government classes, you will only need to tell them about
what you experienced on this simple walk to remind them of God's role in
America's history--and America's future." --Newt Gingrich

Jefferson's immortal words about unalienable rights coming from our Creator
echoed the thinking of so many of the Founding Fathers.
Four years before the Declaration of Independence was written, John Adams
wrote: "If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce and
give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end
of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom
being the gift of God Almighty, is not in the power of Man to alienate this
gift, and voluntarily become a slave."
In 1775, Alexander Hamilton wrote that "the sacred rights of mankind are not
to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They were written,
as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of divinity
itself; and can never be erased or obscurred by mortal power."
John Dickinson, a Pennsylvania Quaker and signer of the U.S. Constitution,
wrote in the same year of the Constitution's adoption that "Kings or parliaments
could not give the rights essentail to happiness--we claim them from a higher
source--from the King of Kings and the Lord of all the Earth. They are not
annexed to us by parchments or seals. They are created in us by the decrees of
Providence, which establish the laws of our nature. They are born with us; and
cannot be taken from us by any human power."
During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin (often
considered one of the least religious of the Founding Fathers) proposed that the
Convention begin each day, with a prayer. As the oldest delegate, at age eighty
one, Franklin insisted that "the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see
of this truth--that God governs in the Affairs of Men."
Mr Gingrich says that the secular Left wants desperately to leave out any
references to God in our public square, in our schools and in our courts. But
they still have to deal with Abraham Lincoln"s second inaugural address that
contains 14 references to God and 2 Bible verses in his 703-words, that are now
carved into the wall of the Lincoln Memorial in a permanent affront to every
radical secularist who visits this public building.
How can anyone believe that the Founding Fathers wanted to leave God out of
the government when you read such statements as these:

"True religion affords to government its surest support." George Washington

"Religion is the only solid Base of morals and Morlas are the only possible
Support of free governments." Governor Morris

"The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in
religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be
no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments."
Benjamin Rush

On July 2, 1776, as the Constitutional Congress was meeting in Philadelphia to
declare independence, George Washington was gathering his troops on Long Island
to meet the British in battle. Washington wrote in the general orders to his men
that day:
"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine
whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves....The fate of
unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage
and conduct of this army."

The very same week we were declaring our independence from Great Britain,
Wshington was asserting that American independence ultimately depended on God.
It was Benjamin Franklin who said: "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?"
It was Thomas Jefferson who said: "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 the gift of God?"
Many years later it was Ronald Reagan who said: Our young friends--yes, young
friends, for in our hearts you will always be young, full of the love that is
youth, love of life, love of joy, love of country--you fought for your country
and for its safety and for the freedom of others with strength and courage. We
love you for it. We honor you. And we have faith that, as He does all His sacred
children, the Lord will bless you and keep you, the Lord will make His face to
shine upon you and give you peace, now and forever more." This is carved on the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
There was one more person I would like to quote, and he was a Supreme Court
Justice from 1837 to 1910 named Justice David Jospeh Breiver. He penned these
words: "The American nation form its first settlement at Jamestown to this hour
is based upon and permeated by the principles of the Bible."