LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

WorldNetDaily: Don't Speak About Religion And Politics?

Over the past couple of years there has been much debate over the civil display of religious inscriptions, like the Ten Commandments (also called the Decalogue).

I was shocked to read this past week Bob Unruh's exclusives on WND about how the U.S. Supreme Court is even now silencing the truths about the Commandments in its own building.

People often say to stay clear of discussing religion and politics. True patriots don't do that. That is why I will address both in this article.

Revolutionary Thought about the Decalogue

I've learned some things recently about the Ten Commandments and the foundations of our country, excellently documented by David Barton and Wall Builders

Let me share just a few with you.

Noah Webster, the man personally responsible for Art. I, Sec. 8, paragraph 8, of the U. S. Constitution, explained two centuries ago: ''The duties of men are summarily comprised in the Ten Commandments, consisting of two tables; one comprehending the duties which we owe immediately to God – the other, the duties we owe to our fellow men.''

John Quincy Adams, who fought during the Revolution, served under four presidents before becoming one, and who was nominated (but declined) a position on the U. S. Supreme Court under President Madison, similarly declared: ''The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code; it contained many statutes ... of universal application-laws essential to the existence of men in society, and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws.''

John Witherspoon, president of Princeton and signer of the Declaration, and one who served on over one hundred committees while in Congress, declared: ''The Ten Commandments .. are the sum of the moral law.''

The fact is our Founding Fathers introduced the tenets of the Ten Commandments not only into their families but into law, to promote civility and morality for everyone.

God's Law and the Law of the Land

Of course our founders were merely passing along the religious and moral baton, as the Colonialists handed it to them.

The proof of that is found in the fact that every early American Colony (all thirteen except Rhode Island under Roger Williams) incorporated the complete Decalogue into its own civil code of laws.

For example, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, established in 1638-39 as the first written constitution in America and considered the direct predecessor of the U. S. Constitution, stated that the governor and his council of six elected officials would ''have power to administer justice according to the laws here established; and for want thereof according to the rule of the word of God.''

Even in 1638, the Rhode Island government adopted ''all those perfect and most absolute laws of His, given us in His holy word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby. Exod. 24. 3, 4; 2 Chron. II. 3; 2 Kings. II. 17.''

The following year, in 1639, the New Haven Colony unanimously adopted its ''Fundamental Articles'' to govern that Colony as well with ''the Scriptures.''

From Pride to Silence

Historians, government officials, and even our courts used to proudly declare our country's relationship with the Ten Commandments.

As late as 1917, the Supreme Court of North Carolina declared:

Our laws are founded upon the Decalogue, not that every case can be exactly decided according to what is there enjoined, but we can never safely depart from this short, but great, declaration of moral principles, without founding the law upon the sand instead of upon the eternal rock of justice and equity.

In 1950, the Florida Supreme Court similarly made known:

A people unschooled about the sovereignty of God, the Ten Commandments, and the ethics of Jesus, could never have evolved the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. There is not one solitary fundamental principle of our democratic policy that did not stem directly from the basic moral concepts as embodied in the Decalogue ...

Unfortunately, America's once code of conduct has now turned into a code of silence!

The Ten Amendments?

It doesn't take a historian to figure out that the Ten Commandments and its law giver (Moses) played a very significant role in the moral and civil foundations of our nation.

Their influence was so profound that their imagery was indelibly displayed upon many civil structures and monuments, both state and federal.

Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin created a seal for the new United States, each separately proposing Moses and the Exodus prominently in the symbol.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Moses is the only one of twenty-three law givers facing with a full-frontal view, still staring down on the proceedings.

Even on the U.S. Supreme Court, there are six depictions of Moses and the Ten Commandments, though, as WND recently reported, tourists are now being told there is only one, and that the tablets etched with the Roman Numerals I-V and VI-X now depict the ''Ten Amendments'' or the Bill of Rights.

Such blatant educational oversight is one of the reasons I've joined with The National Council on Bible Curriculum to bring a state certified Bible course (elective) into the public schools nationwide. You can join us.

Follow Our Fathers

Friends, I am a patriot and an optimist at heart. I must admit, however, that recent attempts these past few years to suppress the truths about our country's heritage are raising even my blood pressure.

I believe the voices of our Fathers echo down through the generations in hope of helping us remedy the rampant degradation in our nation.

I, as with many of you, still believe we can remain a great country, but that will only be accomplished by rising up new generations of decent, law-abiding, people-loving, and God-fearing citizens.

And how can we create such a society?

I believe our Founding Fathers had the answer: by not being afraid to establish some common absolutes, a code of conduct, like the Ten Commandments.

His commentary is sprinkled through with links to other articles, and to the website for the Bible course. You'll have to go directly to WND to get those though. I've spent enough time on this drek.