Painting by Arnold Friberg, 1976 Isaac Potts, who was 26 years old in 1777

said I saw it myself, “In that woods pointing to a close in view, I heard a

plaintive sound as, of a man at prayer,. I tied my horse to a sapling and went

 quietly into the woods and to my astonishment I saw the great George

Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his cocked

 hat on the other. He was at Prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to

 interpose with his Divine aid, as it was ye Crisis, and the cause of the

country, of humanity and of the world.” 

"Breathes there a man with soul so dead that to himself he has not said

 
Judeo-Christian Values have a foundational role in America,

beginning with the Declaration of Independence:  "We hold

these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created

equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain

unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the

pursuit of happiness..." 

Since the pursuit of happiness, as Sigmund Freud surmised, is tied to human love and to creative work and play, the principles of American Judeo-Christian Values can rightly be summarized as the honoring of God-given Life, Liberty and Creativity. This seed of American Social Justice was then fleshed out in the U.S. Constitution through reason and common sense, unencumbered by the dysfunctional religious and secular traditions and laws of Old Europe. 

Our Founding Fathers separated church from state, but they wisely did not separate God from state; they acknowledged God as the source of our rights, and, in fact, they were careful to place Biblical morality directly into our founding documents and laws, and into our values and culture precisely to help prevent a future of totalitarian or tyrannical rule in America.  The combination of keeping Judeo-Christian religious morality in the state, as opposed to the church it's self; and, additionally, setting up our laws based on reason and common sense has contributed to the American Character, and to what is known as "American Exceptionalism." 

Our Founding Fathers were religious in a new way, the Judeo-Christian way, and they were the liberals of their day by deducing that our political and human rights come from a power higher than human government; but they were conservative to Biblical morality.  There was and still is a connection between God and Liberty; He is the author of it.  It is ironic that American Conservatives are now the champion of this our most liberal founding principle; and also an irony that most American Conservatives are wholly unaware of their connection with the liberal founding ideas of this great republic.  It is also an irony that many American Liberals have turned a blind eye to the required connection between God and Liberty.  As Thomas Jefferson and John Adams noted, as you will see below, Liberty cannot survive among men without its Divine connection.

In Judeo-Christian America one finds the idea of equality before God and the law, but not government forced economic equality.   Modern European culture has stressed the value of economic equality rather than Liberty, and their governments unjustly enforce the principle.  This has led to the failed European inventions of Socialism and Communism.  Socialists in America have been lured into this failed European idea of social justice.  Socialism is a failure in that it unjustly suppresses human creativity by excessively taxing away its rewards, and by foolishly giving economic reward to many who, even though mentally and physically able, fail to honor their Divine privilege and duty to work creatively. 

Thus, Socialism is a dual insult to God-given creativity.  Communism was much worse in that it also dishonored the sacredness of human life and liberty.  Communism was the inevitable result of separating not just church from state, but God from state.  Communism dishonored God's gifts of Life, Liberty and Creativity.  European cultures have historical ties to authoritarian and totalitarian systems dating back to the Roman Empire.  Even European Christianity was, for a time, contaminated by its links to authoritarian rule. 

American Judeo-Christian Culture, on the other hand, has been linked to honoring Life, Liberty and Creativity from the outset; deriving its wisdom from the lights of reason, common sense, and both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament Christian Bible.  Thomas Jefferson and the great majority of our Founding Fathers explicitly put God into the national life of the United States, by putting the Creator into the Declaration of Independence.  It is important that American Liberty has something to do with God; that is something for students to know and discuss, even if they are not particularly religious.  This does not represent some form of tyranny of the religious majority or an injustice; it was in fact the wisdom of our Founding Fathers to stand in opposition to tyranny and injustice by acknowledging the source of our rights -- those rights originating from God rather than from King George III, or for that matter from the Soviet or Chinese Politburo, or a courthouse, or a legislature.

America is a melting pot of diverse people including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Atheists; and from the Judeo-Christian perspective, all are made in God's image.  We have in America a multiethnic society, and that is good.  What would be unhealthy for America would be for it to become Balkanized, something likely to happen with the atrophy of Judeo-Christian American Culture and Values.  Worse yet would be for America to adopt the toxic values which exist in some parts of the world and which are endemic in some foreign cultures.  The values of Fascism, Nazism, Communism or Totalitarian Islamic Sharia Law for example must never metastasize into our American Culture, rooted in Judeo-Christian values.  These values have been with us from the beginning and they have made us strong and successful.  These Judeo- Christian Values should be kept central to the American Spirit and Culture even as we have become more multi-ethnic. 

Some of the words of our Founding Fathers will illustrate American Judeo-Christian Values and our separation of church and state, but not the separation of God from state, and provide grounding for our understanding of social justice. 

Thomas Jefferson wrote: 

"all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ...."  

He also wrote: 

"God who gave us life gave us liberty.  Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?"  He also wrote:  "Almighty God hath created the mind free.  ... All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion..." 

He also wrote: 

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." 

Our Founding Fathers wrote the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: 

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." 

President George Washington said this when proclaiming our National Thanksgiving Holiday:

"It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God ...."

John Adams wrote this: 

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.  Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.  Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." 

Later, Abraham Lincoln wrote these words about the Bible: 

"In regard to this great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to men.  All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.  But for it we could not know right from wrong." 

He also spoke these words at the Gettysburg Address: 

"...that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."  

The following are the Judeo-Christian Values embraced by the American Republic and People.

I am indebted to Dennis Prager who has listed Judeo-Christian Values and elaborated on this subject long before I took it up; and those who know his work will recognize many of his thoughts.

1.  Our sense of right and wrong and our sense of wisdom come from the use of reason and common sense, but also, and importantly, from the Bible which, by faith was considered by our Founding Fathers to be God's inspired text; and not just from the mind or heart of man.  This faith lead to the mottos: "In God We Trust" and "One Nation under God."  Our Founding Fathers were believers in the God of the Bible, even if some were not orthodox Christians, and they put that faith into the Declaration of Independence, into our laws, into our national monuments, and into our culture.  Faith is a part of American Culture, something Atheists, Secularists, Humanists and those of other religions should acknowledge and accept as historically accurate truth.  To remove the results of Biblical Faith from America is to undo what the Founding Fathers have wrought.

2.  Truth is Sacred; there can be no liberty or justice, and little happiness without it.  Jesus connected truth and liberty when he said "the truth shall make you free."  In the Book of Exodus of the Hebrew Bible God describes Himself:  "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth..."   In Deuteronomy God is described this way:  "He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice."  Listen to King David in Psalm 25:  "Show me your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.  Lead me in Your truth..."; and in Psalm 51:  "Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom." 

3.  Human life is the first gift of God, and it is of infinite value since man is made in the image of God.  Judeo-Christian Values have lead to a culture of life in America, not a culture of death.  Americans with Judeo-Christian Values will defend innocent God-given life.

4.  Our Liberty is a gift from God and stated so in the Declaration of Independence.  It is also stated in the New Testament Christian Bible:  "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty."  Americans with Judeo-Christian Values will defend their God-given Liberty from tyranny and terror.

5.  Human creativity is also a gift from God and is not to be unjustly suppressed by totalitarian, tyrannical or excessively taxing government.  The work ethic is an important part of Judeo-Christian Values since honorable work is a reflection of God-given human creativity.  Human reason is also a part of God-given human creativity, and it has led to scientific knowledge and technological progress.  Reason and science are important aspects of Judeo-Christian Values.  Human creativity is central to the pursuit of happiness, but does not guarantee it; totalitarian systems such as Communism or Islamic Sharia Law guarantee utopian happiness, but don't deliver it.

6.  "Establish justice."  This is commanded repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible.  This is how it has been done in America:  Honor Life, Liberty and Creativity.  Liberty in practical terms means: Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, no established or state-supported religion, right to bear arms and act in self-defense, uninterrupted elections and the division of powers into its three branches.  Where our culture is now headed in the wrong direction, in my opinion, is to provide special rights for certain groups of people.  Our Founding Fathers acknowledged these basic rights for all people, and our Civil War enforced it for the American slaves when they were denied their God-given Liberty.

7.  "Hate Evil".  This is commanded three times in the Hebrew Bible; this is from the book of Proverbs: "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil."  Hear the Prophet Isaiah: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness...."  Americans with Judeo-Christian Values, as opposed to Europeans, still believe in the death penalty for pre-meditated murder, and America is still the nemesis of terrorists and tyrants - see the seal of the state of Virginia. 

8.  "Love your neighbor" - commanded in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles.  "Love your enemy" - commanded in the New Testament Christian Bible.  Generations of Americans, starting with our Founding Fathers, have had to square the values of "Hate Evil" with "Love your enemy."  This has been done by hating the evil within the enemies of God-given Life and Liberty, but not hating the evil-doer him/herself.

9.  In the Judeo-Christian Value System there is a natural and common-sense balance between compassion and courageous confrontation of evil.  This can be seen metaphorically as a natural balance between femininity and masculinity; both good and necessary.  The secular culture of Europe and of many in the United States today have unwisely suppressed the masculinity of Judeo-Christian American Culture, and this has put our society out of balance.

10. From Many, One:  e pluribus unum.  Ethnicity and race don't matter, but values do matter.  We Americans should consider ourselves blessed to live under God-given Liberty in the same melting pot; and we are privileged to pursue happiness through creative work and play, unencumbered by excessive government.  Those things that divide us, such as race or ethnicity, can be viewed metaphorically as our various styles; and are not very important.  Those things of lesser importance should melt into what is very important and which should unite us: our value of Life, Liberty and Creativity - those rights defined by the Declaration of Independence, and rightly identified as the gifts of God.

11. The natural resources of the Earth, including the animals, along with the rest of creation should be honored and well cared for, but also used and enjoyed; and never worshiped.

I am retired military (U.S. Army), and I think that, except for bringing The United States of America into the community of nations, ending Slavery in the Americas, ending Fascism, Nazism & Communism in Europe, and ending the Japanese conquest of the Asian-Pacific basin, war and the threats of war have not solved mush in the last 250 years. Please don't get me wrong here, I am not pro-war and I am not anti-war, I am pro-active and pro-action. I’m well read, so I have to think that anyone who takes Noam Chomsky seriously must be one of those people who always hate America First, without thinking that there might be a real reason for our America first policies. I have a love of classical music both Asian and Western, I have a degree in environmental science and although I have never used it in the work force I still keep up with what is going on in the field. I work for the U.S. Government, as a subcontractor, where ever and when ever I'm needed. I love the Fareast, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and parts of China. I have worked in the aviation field for over 30 years. I enjoy good conversations with intelligent people. I am a dichotomy of rational and irrational philosophies that at times drives me and I must admit some of my friends up a wall (I'm sorry for my friends) . It took me three decades before it dawned on me that my political opponents were every bit as Patriotic as I was. Sometimes a person gets so wrapped up in the issues that they lose sight of the bigger issue. That issue is, as Americans we are all in this together and together we shall stand or fall. It is up to each of us to decide what it will be. I was brought up in a military family. So we did not talk about ‘black’ Americans or ‘Mexican’ Americans. To my dad the Chief, they were just Americans. Rather then a Red State and Blue State dichotomy I was taught to see a Red White and Blue America. It’s true though there really are people in the world, even some Americans I’m sad to say, that hate America because of our freedoms. In most countries in the world even in Europe to criticize your government might bring you a visit from the police. We really are a blessed nation that we can stand in the public forum and complain about our government. Try that in; Russia, Iran, Burma, Syria, the list really is too long to enumerate. Last, but not least I believe This little girl has the voice of an angel and the soul of an opera star
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THESE ARE THE MEN & WOMEN OF D COMPANY 4-501ST AVIATION, SOME OF THE BEST SOLDIERS THAT I HAVE EVER KNOWN.  

Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule. The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong. D. MacArthur, 12 May 1962

 
Thomas Jefferson said religion was "a matter which lies solely between man and his God." Therefore, the citizens of this fledgling country Jefferson helped create would have the unparalleled freedom: To seek Truth and Knowledge without the leash of government telling them how to do it. The first Amendment states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion it does not state that Congress shall not respect religion. American fundamentalist beliefs are what made the American Republic. It was the Declaration of Independence that justified revolution by invoking "inalienable rights" given to Mankind by our Creator. When reading the Declaration of Independence, you can see the expression of a tradition of how society and government is structured. Jefferson and others did not discuss and formulate something people had to accept anew, but reflected established beliefs from the 150 years prior. The philosophers of the Enlightenment had everything to do with the way Americans lived at that time. Americans created their unique Tradition based on what had come before. They stood on their own feet, supported their own families and their own communities like the free Englishmen they were. Those who prospered helped those who did not. They educated all the children. They encouraged creative thinking, invention and entrepreneurial dream chasing. That tradition built the wealthiest, most productive and creative nation in the world, the only one based upon individual liberty and freedom. The Constitution is the foundation of American government and the process by which we make Federal law but it is not the foundation of American freedom and free thought. The Constitution was and is a way to control the population and run the Republic. I’m not saying that it is a bad thing; I’m just saying that, that is why it was made. America was and is a spectacular advancement for civilization, a religiously pluralist society was born that need not fear being tortured or executed for pursuing knowledge, science, or diverse philosophies. Yes a new age had dawned and it had dawned because of our Judeo-Christian religion not the lack of it. We should also never forget that if we had not been English Crown Colonies with English history and laws we might never have been. One should never forget that America was for all intense and purpose brought about by Christians and members of the Hebrew faith. There are Secular Progressives who will tell you that is a lie and that Christians are Taliban wannabes also a lie and that there are Christian hit squads out there being trained by followers of Pat Robertson or someone like him, or lies to that effect. Don’t you believe it, don’t you believe it for a second!  

 

Snipers from the 82nd Airborne Division, Great Americans 

There are those who would tell us that Christianity and Christians had nothing to do with the making of America. They call those of us that believe our country was based on Christian concepts, Christian propagandist. These self same people would tell you that the most dangerous person alive today is a Christian or for that matter a Jew who really believes in God. There are hundreds of documents that reference our Judeo Christian values and our reverence for God as a nation, but the Atheists and non-believers love to quote just one governmental document, “The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli”, and specifically article XI, which is commonly misused in editorial columns, articles, as well as in other areas of the media, both Christian and secular. I have seen numerous reports from some very good people who have been misled by the claims that are being made, namely, that America was not founded as a Christian nation. Advocates of this idea use the Treaty of Tripoli as the foundation of their entire argument, and I believe you deserve to know the truth regarding this often misused document. There are those who think that this Treaty was a one page document and nothing could be further from the truth. They would have you believe that Washington signed the Treaty, also not true. The following is an excerpt from Author/Publisher David Barton's book Original Intent: “To determine whether the "Founding Fathers" were generally atheists, agnostics, and deists, one must first define those terms. An "atheist" is one who professes to believe that there is no God; an "agnostic" is one who professes that nothing can be known beyond what is visible and tangible; and a "deist" is one who believes in an impersonal God who is no longer involved with mankind. In other words, a "deist" embraces the "clockmaker theory" that there was a God who made the universe and wound it up like a clock; however, it now runs of its own volition; the clockmaker is gone and therefore does not respond to man. Today the terms "atheist," "agnostic," and "deist" have been used together so often that their meanings have almost become synonymous. In fact, many dictionaries list these words as synonym”. Those who advance the notion that this was the belief system of the Founders often publish information attempting to prove that the Founders were irreligious. One of the quotes they set forth is the following: The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion. GEORGE WASHINGTON The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli is the source of Washington's supposed statement. Is this statement accurate? Did this prominent Founder truly repudiate religion? An answer will be found by an examination of its source. That treaty, one of several with Tripoli, was negotiated during the "Barbary Powers Conflict," which began shortly after the Revolutionary War and continued through the Presidencies of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. The Muslim Barbary Powers (Tunis, Morocco, Algiers, and Tripoli) were warring against what they claimed to be the "Christian" nations (England, France, Spain, Denmark, and the United States). In 1801, Tripoli even declared war against the United States, thus constituting America's first official war as an established independent nation. Throughout this long conflict, the four Barbary Powers regularly attacked undefended American merchant ships. Not only were their cargoes easy prey but the Barbary Powers were also capturing and enslaving "Christian" seamen in retaliation for what had been done to them by the "Christians" of previous centuries (e.g., the Crusades and Ferdinand and Isabella's expulsion of Muslims from Granada). In an attempt to secure a release of captured seamen and a guarantee of unmolested shipping in the Mediterranean, President Washington dispatched envoys to negotiate treaties with the Barbary nations. (Concurrently, he encouraged the construction of American naval warships to defend the shipping and confront the Barbary "pirates" a plan not seriously pursued until President John Adams created a separate Department of the Navy in 1798.) The American envoys negotiated numerous treaties of "Peace and Amity" with the Muslim Barbary nations to ensure "protection" of American commercial ships sailing in the Mediterranean. However, the terms of the treaty frequently were unfavorable to America, either requiring her to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars of "tribute" (i.e., official extortion) to each country to receive a "guarantee" of safety or to offer other "considerations" (e.g., providing a warship as a "gift" to Tripoli, a "gift" frigate to Algiers, paying $525,000 to ransom captured American seamen from Algiers, etc.). The 1797 treaty with Tripoli was one of the many treaties in which each country officially recognized the religion of the other in an attempt to prevent further escalation of a "Holy War" between Christians and Muslims. Consequently, Article XI of that treaty stated: As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims and as the said States of America have never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mohammedan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. This article may be read in two manners. It may, as its critics do, be concluded after the clause "Christian religion"; or it may be read in its entirety and concluded when the punctuation so indicates. But even if shortened and cut abruptly ("the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion"), this is not an untrue statement since it is referring to the federal government. Recall that while the Founders themselves openly described America as a Christian nation (demonstrated in chapter 2 of Original Intent), they did include a constitutional prohibition against a federal establishment; religion was a matter left solely to the individual States. Therefore, if the article is read as a declaration that the federal government of the United States was not in any sense founded on the Christian religion, such a statement is not a repudiation of the fact that America was considered a Christian nation. Reading the clause of the treaty in its entirety also fails to weaken this fact. Article XI simply distinguished America from those historical strains of European Christianity which held an inherent hatred of Muslims; it simply assured the Muslims that the United States was not a Christian nation like those of previous centuries (with whose practices the Muslims were very familiar) and thus would not undertake a religious holy war against them. This latter reading is, in fact, supported by the attitude prevalent among numerous American leaders. The Christianity practiced in America was described by John Jay as "wise and virtuous,” by John Quincy Adams as "civilized,” and by John Adams as "rational." A clear distinction was drawn between American Christianity and that of Europe in earlier centuries. Noah Webster, so aptly explained: The ecclesiastical establishments of Europe which serve to support tyrannical governments are not the Christian religion but abuses and corruptions of it. Daniel Webster similarly explained that American Christianity was: Christianity to which the sword and the burning stake or hot branding iron are unknown and a "general tolerant Christianity is the law of the land”! Those who attribute the Treaty of Tripoli quote to George Washington make two mistakes. The first is that no statement in it can be attributed to Washington (the treaty did not arrive in America until months after he left office); Washington never saw the treaty; it was not his work; no statement in it can be ascribed to him. The second mistake is to divorce a single clause of the treaty from the remainder which provides its context. It would also be absurd to suggest that President Adams (under whom the treaty was ratified in 1797) would have endorsed or assented to any provision which repudiated Christianity. In fact, while discussing the Barbary conflict with Jefferson, Adams declared: “The policy of Christendom has made cowards of all their sailors before the standard of Mohammed. It would be heroic and glorious in us to restore courage to ours”. 

You are a Social Liberal (60% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (60% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist (60e/60s) Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

 
HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD 

 

 

THESE ALLIES, THESE HONORED FRIENDS THESE GLOROUS SONS OF YORK, WE FEW, WE HAPPY FEW, WE BAND OF BROTHERS; FOR THOSE THAT SHED THEIR BLOOD WITH ME AND MINE SHALL SURELY BE MY BROTHERS. 

OUR BROTHERS IN ARMS FROM BELOW THE EQUATOR