Wishfull Thinking

Denying Truth, Supporting Fantasy…

“The very paucity of evidence has permitted a latitude of interpretation in which writers have created Madison in the image of their own religious convictions.”  James Hutson

“If law has its source in man’s reason, then reason is the god of that society”…and, “Every law system must maintain its existence by hostility to every other law system and to alien religious foundations, or else it commits suicide.”  R. J. Rushdoony

Chalcedon has published an article by Joseph Farinaccio entitled “Madison, Denominations, and the First Amendment”.  It is a well organized, well written, polemic complete with footnotes. The writer appears to support the religious plurality encoded in our Constitution.

I will concede at the outset that the various Christian denominations that immigrated into the colonies made it impossible to specify a particular religious denomination without resorting to coercion.  I will also concede that many of our Founders supported Christianity as a moral restraint on the populace and that they publically expressed this preference.  However, if a man is described as being a Christian I want to read of a reverent use of the Savior’s name (not references to an esoteric god) as a public testimony.  Support for the ethics of Christianity is not tantamount to being a Christian.

Farinaccio writes concerning James Madison , “He, along with most of the other delegates, held deep Christian convictions regarding the flawed nature of man and the tendency of government to drift towards corruption and tyranny.”  It is true that man has a “flawed nature” and that governments tend to drift toward “corruption and tyranny” but this knowledge does not translate into “deep Christian convictions”.  Pagans can and do understand man’s detrimental quest for power and the cancerous nature of government.

Ignoring the fact that many of the powerful backers of Federalism were ardent Freemasons Farinaccio extends his postulation by quoting John Eidsmoe, “It was because Madison exalted religion that he favored religious liberty. Since he revered the Christian religion above all others, he wanted it to flourish in its purity, free from the corruption that inevitably came with state support.”  Farinaccio and Eidsmoe reason like David Barton  concluding that support for a supposed Christian principle constitutes reverence for the Christian religion.  The reasoning is faulty.  Real Christians publically attest to their Faith. Freemasonry is not compatible with Christianity.   While there is no proof that Madison was a Freemason there was suspicion and suspicion of Masonic connections should be cause for alarm.  When ones Christian convictions are not apparent to everyone, it is probable they are weak or do not exist.

Edwin S. Gaustad wrote a book entitled “Faith Of Our Fathers”.  It, too, is quoted in support of Madison’s Christianity, “In Madison’s view, religious liberty issues, such as church establishment, would be left up to the states to decide in their own legislatures and courts, as in Virginia. ‘Madison believed that assurances respecting religious and other liberties did pertain, most appropriately to the states.’”

What kind of situation would we have if the states established Christian religions and the President was a Muslim, a Satanist, or an atheist?  I receive emails on a daily basis lamenting the tendency of President Obama to cater to Muslims.  Most of the writers, many considering themselves Christians, believe it is deplorable that we might have a Muslim president.  Very few understand that the First Amendment and Article VI of the Constitution open the door for a Muslim president or an individual of any or no religious persuasion to occupy our highest office.  This unlocked door left our nation open to burglary.

The Constitution is not an inane document.  Taxation is a form of tyranny and the Constitution provides the Federal Government with the power to tax.  It provides power to regulate commerce and to coin money, to raise armies and declare war, and to enter into treaties and control the state militias.  On top of these formidable powers it forbids the states from defending themselves, from entering into treaties, coining money, or collecting import duties. When the individual states ratified the Constitution they created a degree of tyranny and, unlike King David, decided they would fall into the hands of men rather than the hands of God. The Federal Government was no longer a creation controlled by the states but was now a superior entity with substantial control over its creators.

Contemporary Christians in the United States are living under the results of allowing an anti-Christian government to rule over them.   We are a nation that claims to be over 70 percent Christian ruled by a government that closes the door on Christianity and promotes the Satanistic practices of homosexuality and abortion with the tax dollars of its citizens.  Gaustad’s assumption that Madison wanted religious preference to remain with the states was a long reach.  When the Federal government was given power over the states and had the privilege of selecting any religion a state that differed with it would be quickly harassed into compliance.

Faminaccio cites Madison’s opposition of a bill sponsored by Patrick Henry that would have established Christianity as the religion of the Commonwealth.  Madison was afraid the results of defining “Christianity” would be despotic.  This kind of secular thinking forced our nation into the evil religion of humanism where sovereignty is transferred from God to humanists who pose a much greater threat to life and limb than despotic Christianity.   We cringe at stoning adulterers but shrug off a million innocent humans slaughtered without cause by a power-mad government. This insanity is acceptable to disobedient American Christians but it is not acceptable to the Christian God of Justice and peace.

The Constitution was written by men who believed in the Laws of Nature and Natures God.  Rev. R. J. Rushdoony wrote: “The concept of natural law has been appealing to many scholars over the generations.  Whereas God’s law is written and not subject to change, natural law is known through reason, and that gives the scholar an opportunity to become the source of the law because he is ostensibly the voice of reason…This in Western thought, was the undermining of Christendom.”

Thomas Jefferson, James Madison’s neighbor and close friend, referred to the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God in the Declaration of Independence.   Many Christians associate belief in undefined natural law with Christianity.  To do so is a serious error. The lion does not yet lie down with the lamb; nature is fallen as well as man.

When there is not enough evidence of belief in the Savior to prevent pagans from using individuals and documents to support secularism, Christians should be dubious about trying to establish Christianity.  The Bible cautions us about reticence on expressing our belief in public.  When a person’s beliefs are questionable their actions are also questionable.

Powerful men with agendas often cover their faces with masks intending to create different impressions with different appearances.  We are called to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.  We must be careful about attributing Christianity when its existence is not clearly evident.

The truth is that under the tenets of our Constitution if President Barak Obama was born in the United States he has every right as an elected official to rule our nation and support the Muslim religion and even the construction of a mosque at the 9/11 site, if he wishes.  Christians must accept the legal vacuum freedom of religion created.

If the men who assembled in Philadelphia in 1787 had been Christians the meeting would have been open, convened with an invocation, and conducted with serious concern for the government God outlined in His Word.  The truth is that the leaders of that meeting were not interested in extending the dominion of God.  They sought to devise a human solution using reason and Christians who support their conclusions enthrone the same sinful deity – reason.