-Caveat Lector-
>The Ten Commandments are the foundation of law in our country and
>the moral backbone of our society -
Balderdash.
Not Balderdash. The statement is true.
Here are just a few quotes from the founders of this nation and other prominent Americans who would disagree with you, Nessie:
"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOD."
- President James Madison
"The fundamental basis of this nation's law was given to Moses on the
Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the
teaching we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul.
I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don't have
the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a
totalitarian government which does not believe in the right for
anybody except the state."
-President Harry S. Truman
"The highest story of the American Revolution is this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."
-President John Adams
On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation and on His merits; not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts.
-Charles Carroll, Signer of the Declaration
History will also afford the frequent opportunities of showing the
necessity of a public religion, from its usefulness to the public; the
advantage of a religious character among private persons; the
mischiefs of superstition, &c. and the excellency of the Christian
religion above all others, ancient or modern. -Ben Franklin
Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin
to the principles of the Christian religion.
The religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of
Christ and his apostles
This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free
constitutions of government.
-Noah Webster
"I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in
three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the same in
substance, equal in power and glory. That the Scriptures of the old
and new testaments are a revelation from God and a complete rule to
direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him."
-Roger Sherman, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the US
Constitution
"The rights essential to happiness.... We claim them from a higher
source - from the King of kings and Lord of all the earth."
- John Dickinson; signed the Constitution and a member of the
Continental Congress
"We have no government armed in power capable of contending in human passions ubridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."-
John Adams, address to the militia of Massachusetts, 1798.
"Rights come from GOD not the state. You have rights antecedent to any
earthly governments rights that can not be repealed or restrained by
human laws. Rights derived from the great legislator: God."
- John Adams
"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to
form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the
miseries and evil men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice,
oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or
neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."
- Noah Webster
"Our ancestors established their system of government on morality and
religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be
entrusted on any other foundation than religious principle, not any
government secure which is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever
makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens."
- Daniel Webster
I think it proper here not only to subscribe to . . . doctrines of the
Christian religion . . . but also, in the bowels of a father's
affection, to exhort and charge them [my children] that the fear of
God is the beginning of wisdom, that the way of life held up in the
Christian system is calculated for the most complete happiness.
-Richard Stockton, Signer of the Declaration
I think the Christian religion is a Divine institution; and I pray to God that I may never forget the precepts of His religion or suffer the appearance of an inconsistency in my principles and practice.
-James Iredell, U.S. Supreme Court Justice under President George Washington
"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
-First Chief Justice of Supreme Court John Jay
"Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is
divine....Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and
mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other."
-James Wilson, a signer of the Constitution and an original Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court
-end-
And there is a lot more proof than just these quotes. The evidence is out there for those that want to know the historical truth.
-----------------------------
-tHE eXETREMIST
"Let the children...be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education. The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effectual means of extirpating [removing] Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools."
-Benjamin Rush, Founding Father
