THE COOPERATION OF CHURCH & STATE:
                                   In the founding and development of the United States of America                                   
                                                                             Quotations compiled by N.J. Lund, Ph. D.
                                                                                                     May 13, 2004

1.  George Washington, 1st President; ‘father of our country’: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”  (Farewell Address, Sept. 17, 1796).

2. John Adams, 2nd President: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion...Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  (Letter to Mass. Militia, Oct. 11, 1798).

3. Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President: “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…” (Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776);  “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?” (Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, 1777).

4. Benjamin Franklin, a co-drafter of the Declaration of Independence: “We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings that, ‘except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’  I firmly believe this.  I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel…  therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessings upon our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business; and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service” (Motion for Prayers at the Constitutional Convention, June 28, 1787).   " Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."  (April 17, 1787).

5. U.S. Supreme Court: “Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government… because it tends to corrupt the morals of the people, and to destroy good order” (People v. Ruggles, 1811).

6. Abraham Lincoln, 16th President: “It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God… But we have forgotten God... we have become too self-sufficient… It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people” (Thanksgiving Proclamation, November, 1863).

7. U.S. Supreme Court: "Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of Mankind… our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian ... This is a religious people. This is historically true… this is a Christian nation" (Justice Josiah Brewer, Feb. 29, 1892. Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States.)

8. U.S. Supreme Court: "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being" (Justice William O. Douglas, Zorach v. Clauson, Feb. 29, 1952).

9. U.S. Supreme Court: “But the greatest injury of the ‘wall’ notion is its mischievous diversion of judges from the actual intentions of the drafters of the Bill of Rights.. The ‘wall of separation between church and State’ is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging.  It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned” (Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Wallace v. Jaffree, 1984; Dissenting); "We should not deny what is true: that from the Judeo-Christian tradition come our values, our principles, the animating spirit of our institutions" (Aguilar v. Felton, 1985).

What is at stake?

Richard John Neuhaus: “The primary reason for the ‘no establishment’ clause is not to prevent the church from taking over the state but to prevent the state from taking over the church.  The church is the particular society within society that bears institutional witness to the transcendent purpose to which the society is held accountable… Religion is the singular institution that … keeps the state under transcendent judgment…” (The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America, 2nd ed., Eerdmans, 1984, pp. 117-118).

Charles Colson: “Governments, with rare exceptions, seek to expand their power beyond the mandate to restrain evil, preserve order, and promote justice.  Most often they do this by venturing into religious or moral areas.  The reason is twofold: the state needs legitimization for its policies and an independent church is the one structure that rivals the state’s claim for ultimate allegiance… [The church] was the only institution in Germany that offered any enduring or mean-ingful resistance [to Hitler and the Nazis].” (Kingdoms in Conflict, Zondervan, 1987; pp. 114; 174). 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: “If I were called upon to identify the principal trait of the entire 20th century, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than this statement: Men have forgotten God” (Templeton Prize Award Speech, Buckingham Palace, May 10, 1983).