Bonnie Alba
Prayers of millions a part of history
By Bonnie Alba
Millions of Americans come together on National Prayer Day to raise their collective, repentant and prayerful voices to God for our country, our leaders, our people.
According to recent surveys many citizens, self-identified Christians, doubt that America was ever a Christian nation. Some believe that America began Christian, but have since deserted their Christian roots.
Decades of U.S. Supreme Court decisions have misinterpreted the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment to mean "religion shall be totally separated from the state...." In turn, God, prayer, and the Bible have been banned from educational institutions.
Relativists have dominated our educational system and scrubbed America's Christian heritage from America's historical memory. Consequently younger generations have little to no knowledge of the historical involvement of God from the first settlers' arrival through America's establishment as a Republic, even to the present time.
No longer are communities able to grow "citizens of good character" in homes and classrooms who both uphold the biblical values and standards once taken for granted. This has led to the denial that the United States was ever a Christian nation.
An annual National Prayer Day was not needed in the first centuries of our constitutional nation. Why? What's the difference between then and now?
In the early centuries of America, the Christian religion and the Good Book permeated the majority of homes, civil institutions, schools and the political sphere. It is recorded in the older histories and writings of the founding fathers and many who came after them.
Who steadfastly held to God's providence and participation in the establishment of the United States?
A few names immediately come to mind: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, George Washington, John Madison, John Jay, Thomas Paine, and many more. All of the signers of the U.S. Constitution were men who believed God was intertwined with their deliberations.
Would those intelligent godly men recognize today's society and government? Would they recognize modern America's public square and political sphere fraught with fears of Christian offense? Would they stand aghast at the immoral behaviors idolized and accepted as normal?
Daniel Webster, American politician, diplomat, and one of the greatest orators in American history stated:
"If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; If God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendance; if the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; ..."
Modern technologies have opened up a world where virtue is belittled while immorality and vulgarity rule. One's character is a matter of individual choice while freedom and liberty are interpreted as any self-serving behavior so long as you don't mention God.
In this era of victimhood practices, we are prone to put the blame and responsibility on our elected leaders, but from where do those leaders come? From the people. We are to blame if we do not have virtuous leaders — if we fail in raising up civilized, moral generations.
Our first president, George Washington, in his farewell address of September 19, 1796, stated:
"...Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion (Christianity) and morality are indispensable supports."
All the founders believed that their prayers and relationships with God went hand in hand. In 1787, when the constitutional debate bogged down in heated argument, Ben Franklin did a remarkable thing. He calmly requested they all pray to the higher authority, not just at that moment, but each time they met.
At the bicentennial celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1820, Daniel Webster spoke these words:
"Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious (Judeo-Christian) sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens."
This year's theme is "Prayer... America's Hope" and is taken from Psalm 33:22 which states: "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."
In these unstable times, America is divided. Like the Founders, we turn to God in Hope that he will hear us and answer our pleas for America...for our people and for our nation.
© Bonnie Alba
May 7, 2009
Millions of Americans come together on National Prayer Day to raise their collective, repentant and prayerful voices to God for our country, our leaders, our people.
According to recent surveys many citizens, self-identified Christians, doubt that America was ever a Christian nation. Some believe that America began Christian, but have since deserted their Christian roots.
Decades of U.S. Supreme Court decisions have misinterpreted the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment to mean "religion shall be totally separated from the state...." In turn, God, prayer, and the Bible have been banned from educational institutions.
Relativists have dominated our educational system and scrubbed America's Christian heritage from America's historical memory. Consequently younger generations have little to no knowledge of the historical involvement of God from the first settlers' arrival through America's establishment as a Republic, even to the present time.
No longer are communities able to grow "citizens of good character" in homes and classrooms who both uphold the biblical values and standards once taken for granted. This has led to the denial that the United States was ever a Christian nation.
An annual National Prayer Day was not needed in the first centuries of our constitutional nation. Why? What's the difference between then and now?
In the early centuries of America, the Christian religion and the Good Book permeated the majority of homes, civil institutions, schools and the political sphere. It is recorded in the older histories and writings of the founding fathers and many who came after them.
Who steadfastly held to God's providence and participation in the establishment of the United States?
A few names immediately come to mind: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, George Washington, John Madison, John Jay, Thomas Paine, and many more. All of the signers of the U.S. Constitution were men who believed God was intertwined with their deliberations.
Would those intelligent godly men recognize today's society and government? Would they recognize modern America's public square and political sphere fraught with fears of Christian offense? Would they stand aghast at the immoral behaviors idolized and accepted as normal?
Daniel Webster, American politician, diplomat, and one of the greatest orators in American history stated:
"If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; If God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendance; if the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; ..."
Modern technologies have opened up a world where virtue is belittled while immorality and vulgarity rule. One's character is a matter of individual choice while freedom and liberty are interpreted as any self-serving behavior so long as you don't mention God.
In this era of victimhood practices, we are prone to put the blame and responsibility on our elected leaders, but from where do those leaders come? From the people. We are to blame if we do not have virtuous leaders — if we fail in raising up civilized, moral generations.
Our first president, George Washington, in his farewell address of September 19, 1796, stated:
"...Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion (Christianity) and morality are indispensable supports."
All the founders believed that their prayers and relationships with God went hand in hand. In 1787, when the constitutional debate bogged down in heated argument, Ben Franklin did a remarkable thing. He calmly requested they all pray to the higher authority, not just at that moment, but each time they met.
At the bicentennial celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1820, Daniel Webster spoke these words:
"Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious (Judeo-Christian) sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens."
This year's theme is "Prayer... America's Hope" and is taken from Psalm 33:22 which states: "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."
In these unstable times, America is divided. Like the Founders, we turn to God in Hope that he will hear us and answer our pleas for America...for our people and for our nation.
© Bonnie Alba
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