Sunday Rising – Part 2
TimeWatch Editorial
February 09, 2017
Continuing the subject of Sunday Rising, we will take another look at the “American State Papers Bearing on Sunday Legislation. We made the point in part one, that there were many at the time ho desired to amend the Constitution of the United States in order to include the actual reference to The Lord Jesus Christ. We even provided an actual copy of the Amendment as they would have liked it to be. The Amendment was rejected. However, the attempt was never abandoned. In Williams Bakely’s book is contained a description of the organization named “The National Reform Association” who had championed the cause of the Amendment. Here is what Blakely had to say about the organization.
"The object of this Society shall be to maintain existing Christian features in the American Government, to promote needed reforms in the action of the government touching the Sabbath, the institution of the Family, the religious element in Education, the Oath, and Public Morality as affected by the liquor traffic and other kindred evils ; and to secure such an amendment to the Constitution of the United States as will declare the nation's allegiance to Jesus Christ and its acceptance of the moral laws of the Christian religion, and so indicate that this is a Christian nation, and place all the Christian laws, institutions and usages of our government on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land." American State Papers Bearing on Sunday Legislation. [1st Edition] Compiled and Annotated by William Addison Blakely, Of the Chicago Bar. (1890). Page 343
In spite of the fact that the urgent call to Sunday Worship has not yet risen to the forefront. It is clear then, that the drive to establish beyond any doubt, that the United States is a Christian Nation, includes the idea that Sunday must be the day of worship. Blakely now establishes, correctly so, that the opinion held by the National Reform Association is incorrect.
“This association is based upon the entirely erroneous idea that because civil governments —" the powers that be "— are ordained of God, they are therefore religious, and have a right to legislate upon religious matters ; and that Christianity, being the only true religion, and this country having been settled largely by Christian people, the national government should recognize the Christian religion as the national religion, and enforce Christian " institutions," particularly the Sunday institution, by law, and thus indicate that " this is a Christian nation." It is the same old theocratical theory of government adopted by Constantine and the church bishops of his time, which led to all the evils of church establishments in the Old World, and to all the Religious persecutions and horrors of the Inquisition and the dark ages. As with the bishops in Constantine's time, the leaders in this movement fail to recognize the distinction so clearly drawn by Christ between things which belong to Caesar and those which belong to God.” American State Papers Bearing on Sunday Legislation. [1st Edition] Compiled and Annotated by William Addison Blakely, Of the Chicago Bar. (1890). Page 343
The method used to persuade by the Bishops of old, to coerce and intimidate opened up the way to persecutions and horrors unimaginable. The obvious flaw in this attempt to create a Christian Nation is revealed in Blakely’s next paragraph.
“They wished for recognition of Deity and of Christianity in the national Constitution. Such a declaration would by no means make all the people in the nation religious. It would produce faith in no one, nor would it increase by a single individual the number of Christians in the nation. Nor would it give any guarantee or assurance that the rights and liberties of the people under it will be respected. Rather it may be taken as a signal for oppression. Thus far the Constitution of the United States has contained no such declaration, and yet it has been a charter of liberty.” American State Papers Bearing on Sunday Legislation. [1st Edition] Compiled and Annotated by William Addison Blakely, Of the Chicago Bar. (1890). Page 343
But alas! During the civil war, the war of rebellion, the Southern States took their opportunity to lay out for themselves a structure of a Constitution, which reflected their view of the nation. Says William Blakely, the Constitution of the Southern Confederacy, which was organized to perpetuate human slavery, contained such a declaration. Its preamble read as follows:
"We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity — invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God — do ordain and establish the Constitution for the Confederate States of America." McPherson's “History of the Rebellion," page 98.
The long held desires remain the same. Today the goal of a Christian Nation still guides the thinking of those who seek to establish Dominion. In fact it would appear to them to be much closer now than before. Adam Lee, writing for the Alternet website back on October 4, 2011 chose the topic “Conservatives want America to be a Christian Nation: Here is what that would actually look like.” In that article he quoted then Presidential Candidate Rick Perry:
"America is going to be guided by some set of values," Perry told a crowd of 13,000 students and faculty members yesterday at a sports arena on the school's campus. "The question is going to be, 'Whose values?'" He said it should be "those Christian values that this country was based upon." It's worth calling attention to Perry's obnoxious rhetorical ploy of using "Christian values" to refer only to his own very specific, right-wing set of beliefs -- preemptive war, gay-bashing, tax cuts for the rich, creationism in schools, deregulating corporations, dismantling the social safety net, the standard Republican package -- as if he owned or had the right to define all of Christianity. In reality, there's such a huge diversity of opinion among self-professed Christians past and present that the term "Christian values" could mean almost anything.” Adam Lee, “Conservatives want America to be a Christian Nation: Here is what that would actually look like.” Alternet website, October 4, 2011
Note how far these Christian Nation dreamers have come! Now according to Jeff Nesbit on Time’s Website on Aug. 15, 2016 “Donald Trump Vowed to Close the Gap between Church and State” They can hardly wait.
Cameron A Bowen
