In previous “Battleground” articles, I wrote of how the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a 13,000 member, bitter, atheist organization from Wisconsin, had traveled down to Dixie in their quest to remove Christianity from the American landscape.

They’re still here.

Pesky little rodents, aren’t they?

Per foxnews.com:

An Alabama school district has been accused of allowing prayers that invoke the name of Jesus during high school football games, according to a complaint filed by a national atheist organization.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation said the Lauderdale County school district has violated the First Amendment by allowing the prayers at Brooks High School.

School superintendent Bill Valentine confirmed to Fox News that he had received the complaint.

“We’ve referred that complaint to our attorney and we are in the process of reviewing it,” he said.

The complaint was lodged by a single resident who objected to the student-led prayer before high school football games played on school property.

The Times Daily newspaper identified the complainant as Jeremy Green. In an email to the newspaper, Green said he was taking a stand for the so-called “separation of church and state in an effort to protect the constitutional rights of the non-religious.”

“It is not the job of the public school system to endorse religion,” he wrote.

Valentine said that to his knowledge, no one has ever lodged a complaint with the school system about the prayers.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a similar complaint against a school in Arab, Ala. That school decided to end pregame prayers and instead offer a moment of silence.

Valentine said they haven’t made any decision about prayers for Friday night’s football game.

He said the complaint has generated lots of telephone calls – mostly in support of keeping the prayers. He added that most callers have been understanding and “seem to appreciate the quandary we find ourselves in.”

Lauderdale County has about 8,600 students enrolled in public schools and Valentine said the community has a very active religious community.

Among those is David McKelvey, pastor of the nearby First Baptist Church, Killen. He discussed the controversy during his Sunday sermon.

“It’s very sad,” McKelvey told Fox News. “I would think that any other prayer from another religion would not receive this kind of negativity.”

According to David Horowitz’s discoverthenetworks.org:

The Foundation is led by its co-presidents, Dan Barker and his wife, Annie Laurie Gaylor. Barker was a Christian preacher for 19 years before renouncing his faith in 1984. Gaylor, who earned a journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980, co-founded FFRC with her mother and the late John Sontarck in 1978. She is author of the books Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So (1981), and Betrayal of Trust: Clergy Abuse of Children (1988). She also edited the 1997 anthology Women Without Superstition: No Gods, No Masters. Today she edits FFRF’s newspaper, Freethought Today, which is published ten times annually.

In April of 2010, Judge Barbara Crabb (a Clinton appointee), responding to a lawsuit filed by the FFRF, ruled that the National Day of Prayer, scheduled for May 6th of that year, was unconstitutional.    Crabb wrote in her ruling (excerpt):

It goes beyond mere “acknowledgment” of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context. In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience

One might argue that the National Day of Prayer does not violate the establishment clause because it does not endorse any one religion. Unfortunately, that does not cure the problem. Although adherents of many religions “turn to God in prayer,” not all of them do.

Further, the statute seems to contemplate a specifically Christian form of prayer with its reference to “churches” but no other places of worship and the limitation in the 1952 version of the statute that the National Day of Prayer may not be on a Sunday.

This year, on the National Day of Prayer, May 5th, Jay Sekolow, Lead Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, wrote the following:

Just last month [April 2011], a federal appeals court overturned a decision by a federal district court in Wisconsin that declared the National Day of Prayer presidential proclamation unconstitutional. A proclamation like this one issued by President Obama for this year’s event.

As you’ll recall, a decision issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the Court’s Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook rejected an argument by FFRF that they could bring a federal lawsuit because the National Day of Prayer made them feel excluded and unwelcome. Echoing an argument made by the ACLJ in our amicus brief, the court concluded: “Hurt feelings differ from legal injury,” and all plaintiffs ultimately allege is “disagreement with the President’s action.” The decision is posted here. Our amicus brief, in which we represented nearly 70 members of Congress, is posted here.

The appeals court correctly concluded that FFRF does not have the right to silence the speech they don’t agree with and that the organization lacked legal standing to challenge the National Day of Prayer.

While this decision represents a victory for this time-honored tradition, FFRF has already said it plans to appeal that decision.

And, as you also know, that FFRF is currently challenging the constitutionality of the phrase ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance. FFRF is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take a case out of New Hampshire and overturn a lower court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Pledge.

So, FFRF wants to get rid of the National Day of Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance with the phrase ‘under God.’

This is absurd. These challenges not only are legally flawed, but clog our court systems and represent a waste of judicial resources.

We’re standing up for the National Day of Prayer and the Pledge. We will file briefs backing the National Day of Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance as these flawed challenges and appeals continue.

While Jay does, rightfully, toot his own horn a little bit, the important thing is, that Judge’s ruling was overturned.

Average Americans are fighting back.

As President Ronald Wilson Reagan said:

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

As I sit here on an American Sunday morning, my bride sound asleep, here in the quiet of my stately mansion, presently, a bottom floor two-bedroom apartment on a golf course, I ponder the reaction to my recent series of Battleground blogs, concerning the recent actions of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in DeSoto County, Mississippi and Whiteville, Tennessee…and I try not to lose my Witness.

For those that do not know what that means, it means to behave in such a manner that people will doubt that you’re actually a Christian…not unlike a certain resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.

But, I digress…

The reaction of the Eight Per Centers (Atheists) to my posts has hardly been unexpected.

Of course, those Atheists who responded immediately denied that our Founding Fathers were Christians and that our country was founded on a Judeo-Christian belief system.

Evidently, they had never read anything, except what their like-minded non-believing soothsayers allowed them to.  Or else, they would have read historical documents like President George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, written on November 1, 1777, and found at wallbuilders.com:

The committee appointed to prepare a recommendation to the several states, to set apart a day of public thanksgiving, brought in a report; which was taken into consideration, and agreed to as follows:

Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessings on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all blessings, independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And it is further recommended, that servile labor, and such recreation as, though at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment, be omitted on so solemn an occasion.

And, then all the Atheist responders continued to deny Jefferson’s Christianity.

Atheists like to bring up the fact that he wrote a version of the Bible which left out Christ’s miracles.  What they are reluctant to do, though, is explain why he wrote his book that way.  David Barton explains on wallbuilders.com:

The reader [of a newspaper article which Barton is replying to], as do many others, claimed that Jefferson omitted all miraculous events of Jesus from his “Bible.” Rarely do those who make this claim let Jefferson speak for himself. Jefferson’s own words explain that his intent for that book was not for it to be a “Bible,” but rather for it to be a primer for the Indians on the teachings of Christ (which is why Jefferson titled that work, “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth”). What Jefferson did was to take the “red letter” portions of the New Testament and publish these teachings in order to introduce the Indians to Christian morality. And as President of the United States, Jefferson signed a treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe wherein he provided—at the government’s expense—Christian missionaries to the Indians. In fact, Jefferson himself declared, “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” While many might question this claim, the fact remains that Jefferson called himself a Christian, not a deist.

Finally, the Eight Per Centers who replied to my blogs insisted that Crosses and other Chrstian symbols have no place in the Public Square.  They wish for Christians to remain unseen and unheard from, worshiping in private.

Well,  y’all can wish for a unicorn to magically appear in your backyard…but that ain’t gonna happen, either.

As a free nation, all you who are non-believers have every right to exercise your faith.

However, as Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Lapin of the Jewish Policy Center clearly explains:

[I] understand that I live . . . in a Christian nation, albeit one where I can follow my faith as long as it doesn’t conflict with the nation’s principles. The same option is open to all Americans and will be available only as long as this nation’s Christian roots are acknowledged and honored.

…Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the west is doomed. Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah, and Israel am so terrified of American Christianity caving in. God help Jews if America ever becomes a post-Christian society! Just think of Europe!

Is the Rabbi prophetic? I pray that he isn’t.

On August 27th and September 3rd, I wrote two articles chronicling the efforts of the Freedom From Religion Foundation to end prayer at High School Football Games in DeSoto County, Mississippi.   

Their actions in Northwest Mississippi were their standard modus operandi.  They have sued 50 American high schools, in their attempt to ban prayer from public events.

Now, this bunch of bitter individuals from Wisconsin are once again here in Dixie, making life miserable for average Americans.

Fox News reports:

The mayor of Whiteville, Tenn. said his community is under attack from a national atheist organization that is threatening to sue unless they remove a cross atop the town’s water tower.

“They are terrorists as far as I’m concerned,” said Mayor James Bellar about the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “They are alleging that some Whiteville resident feels very, very intimidated by this cross.”

The mayor told Fox News Radio that the cross was erected on the town’s water tower about eight years ago by a private group of citizens. They collected private donations to cover the costs.

It’s just a cross on the water tower,” he said. “All we’re doing is exercising our right to practice our beliefs down here but this organization is now going to stymie that. We’re not out here knocking on doors trying to convert people.”

But the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation said the cross is a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. They’ve given the mayor until the end of October to remove the cross. If he refuses, they have threatened to sue.

“The law is very clear on this,” Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president Dan Barker told Fox News Radio. “A secular city may not promote or hinder religion. We don’t have a problem with believers putting up crosses wherever they want, but this is a cross put up by the city on the city water tower.”

Barker said they’ve been sending letters to the city since last year demanding that the cross be taken down, acting on behalf of an unnamed resident who complained.

“It offends many residents,” Barker said of the cross. “Many of them think the cross symbol is an offensive symbol – that it’s an insult to humanity.”

But Mayor Bellar said he doesn’t believe that’s true.

“As a matter of fact, I don’t even think it’s a Whiteville resident,” he said. “We don’t have people of that belief here and if we do they’re not going to raise that kind of ruckus for the rest of the town.”

Mayor Bellar said he’s inclined to remove the cross rather than face a costly lawsuit.

However, the town council voted to consult with the Alliance Defense Fund about their legal options.

“This is their cause in life – to ride up and down the highway and find small towns that maybe have a religious symbol somewhere on public property,” he said. “I have to admit it – checking their website, they’re batting 100 percent on this stuff.”

As I remarked, when I wrote about these bitter individuals before, if you are an average American like me, you’re probably asking yourself, gentle reader:

Who are these idiots?

Well, according to David Horowitz’s discoverthenetworks.org:

Founded in 1978, the nonprofit, tax-exempt Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) consists of more than 13,000 members and calls itself “the largest association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics) in the United States.” Its mission is “to promote free thought and to keep state and church separate.”

According to FFRF, religion invariably has been a negative force in human societies. “The history of Western civilization shows us that most social and moral progress has been brought about by persons free from religion,” the organization says. “… In modern times, the first to speak out for prison reform, for humane treatment of the mentally ill, for abolition of capital punishment, for women’s right to vote, for death with dignity for the terminally ill, and for the right to choose contraception, sterilization and abortion have been freethinkers [i.e., atheists and agnostics], just as they were the first to call for an end to slavery.”

Upon perusing their website, you’ll read the following:

The Foundation recognizes that the United States was first among nations to adopt a secular Constitution. The founders who wrote the U.S. Constitution wanted citizens to be free to support the church of their choice, or no religion at all. Our Constitution was very purposefully written as a godless document, whose only references to religion are exclusionary.

It is vital to buttress the Jeffersonian “wall of separation between church and state” which has served our nation so well.

Funny.  Jefferson was a faithful attendant of Sunday Church that was held at the Capitol Building.  He once explained to a friend while they were walking to church together:

No nation has ever existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I, as Chief Magistrate of this nation, am bound to give it the sanction of my example.

He also proclaimed

I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens.

Atheists always seem to fall back on Revisionist History to buttress their ideology.

Despite the mayor’s and his town’s fervent desire to stand up to the FFRF, Bellar has announced that the cross will be taken down and moved, as the town cannot afford to fight the organization in the courts.  While the townsfolk are still rightfully upset, the mayor has stated that the cross will be placed on private property on a local highway.  Where, he says, the cross will actually be seen by an even larger audience.

Per gallup.com, 92 % of Americans believe in God.  Therefore, it stands to reason that 8 % do not…and that’s their right, for we are still a free country.

However, what the Foundation, Obama, and the other Progressives attempting to remove Our Creator from day-to-day American Life don’t seem to understand is: 

Salvation is an individual experience, not something that happens to a collective. 

And America, our sacred land,  was built upon individual freedom.

As Americans sit around, relaxing on a sunday afternoon, a man whose only crime is preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ awaits execution in the barbaric country of Iran.

And while this servant of God awaits his fate, the United States Government is in pursuit of an unholy alliance with an organization who can be tracked back to as the root of Islamic Terrorism.

International Business Times reports that:

Iran said on Saturday that Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death for rape, not for the crime of abandoning Islam.

Previous reports indicated that Nadarkhani was found guilty of apostasy because he converted to Christianity as a teenager. Nadarkhani has been sentenced to death by hanging for the crime, which is technically not in Iran’s penal code but is a religious doctrine enforced by an official fatwa.

“His crime is not, as some claim, converting others to Christianity,” Gholomali Rezvani, the Gilan province deputy governor, told Farsn news agency. “He is guilty of security-related crimes.”

However, a December 2010 court ruling issued and signed by Supreme Court judges Morteza Fazel and Azizoallah Razaghi mentions the religious charges against Nadarkhani and nothing more.

But, hey, don’t worry, Pastor, the Obama Administration sent the mullahs in Iran a harshly worded letter on your behalf:

Pastor Nadarkhani has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which is a universal right for all people,” the statement released by the White House read. “That the Iranian authorities would try to force him to renounce that faith violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses all bounds of decency, and breaches Iran’s own international obligations. A decision to impose the death penalty would further demonstrate the Iranian authorities’ utter disregard for religious freedom, and highlight Iran’s continuing violation of the universal rights of its citizens. We call upon the Iranian authorities to release Pastor Nadarkhani, and demonstrate a commitment to basic, universal human rights, including freedom of religion.

While at the same time, Obama and his administration are trying to make nice with one of radical Islam’s biggest organizations:

Per reuters.com

U.S. officials have met members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, a U.S. diplomat said, after Washington announced it would have direct contacts with Egypt’s biggest Islamist group whose role has grown since U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

Washington announced the plans in June, portraying such contacts as the continuation of an earlier policy. But analysts said it reflected a new approach to the way it dealt with a group which Mubarak banned from politics.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked in an interview broadcast on Saturday with Egypt’s Al-Hayat television whether Washington would be ready to work with a future government that included members of the Brotherhood.

“We will be willing to and open to working with a government that has representatives who are committed to non-violence, who are committed to human rights, who are committed to the democracy that I think was hoped for in Tahrir Square,” she replied, according to a U.S. transcript.

Under the former Egyptian president, the Brotherhood was banned and its members often detained. Mubarak often presented himself as the bulwark preventing Egypt’s slide into Islamist hands, an approach that analysts said help secure him backing from Washington and other Western powers wary that Egypt could turn into another Iran or Gaza.

The group took a backseat in the early part of the anti-Mubarak uprising, which was broadly led by youth groups who put national concerns above religion. But the Brotherhood and its party have taken a increasingly prominent role since.

The diplomat said the U.S. contacts had been with “high-level” members of the Brotherhood’s party but did not give names. From the U.S. side, he said the contacts were not at ambassadorial level but he did not give further details.

Why did I call the Muslim Brotherhood one of radical Islam’s biggest organizations?

David Horowitz’s discoverthenetworks.org explains:

The “family tree” of modern-day terrorist groups traces its roots back to the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni organization founded in 1928 by the Egyptian activist Hasan al-Banna. Egypt has historically been the center of the Brotherhood’s operations, though the group maintains offshoots throughout the Arab-Muslim world and is also active in the United States and Europe. Islam expert Robert Spencer has called the Muslim Brotherhood “the parent organization of Hamas and al Qaeda.”

The Brotherhood was founded in accordance with al-Banna’s proclamation that Islam should be “given hegemony over all matters of life.” Accordingly, the organization seeks to establish a unified caliphate (kingdom) spanning the entire Muslim world. It also aspires to make Islamic law (Shari’a) the sole basis of jurisprudence and governance on earth. Toward this purpose — encapsulated in the Brotherhood’s militant credo: “God is our objective, the Koran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations” — the Brotherhood since its founding has supported the use of armed jihad to achieve its ends against its enemies, most notably the United States and Israel.

One of the Muslim Brotherhood’s offshoots, al Qaeda, is most famous for having carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The group was founded in approximately 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and Muhammad Atef — the latter a native Egyptian and a onetime member of the terrorist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Al Qaeda’s overriding objective is to establish a worldwide caliphate governing all the earth via the dictates of Islamic Law. Crucial to the achievement of that goal is the destruction of America by any means necessary. As one Al Qaeda Training Manual makes explicitly clear, violence is the preferred method of dealing with the enemy:

“Islamic governments have never and will never be established through peaceful solutions and cooperative councils. They are established as they [always] have been by pen and gun, by word and bullet, by tongue and teeth.”

The manual further exhorts jihadists to “pledge … to make their [the infidels’] women widows and their children orphans … to slaughter them like lambs and let the [rivers] flow with their blood.”

Just think, the Government of the United States of America, who have sworn to protect and defend us from enemies foreign and domestic, is negotiating with these barbarians.

God save the Union.

Christianity has played a predominant role in the building of our nation.  In fact, the Capitol building itself was used for church services, even before Congress moved into the building, and continued to be used for Sunday Church Services until well after the Civil War.

The approval of the Capitol for church was given by both the House and the Senate on December 4, 1800, with House approval being given by Speaker of the House, Theodore Sedgwick, and Senate approval being given by the President of the Senate, Thomas Jefferson, whose approval came while he was still officially the Vice- President but after he had just been elected President.

According to David Barton at wallbuilders.com:

Jefferson attended church at the Capitol while he was Vice President 5 and also throughout his presidency. The first Capitol church service that Jefferson attended as President was a service preached by Jefferson’s friend, the Rev. John Leland, on January 3, 1802. 6 Significantly, Jefferson attended that Capitol church service just two days after he penned his famous letter containing the “wall of separation between church and state” metaphor.

U. S. Rep. Manasseh Cutler, who also attended church at the Capitol, recorded in his own diary that “He [Jefferson] and his family have constantly attended public worship in the Hall.” Mary Bayard Smith, another attendee at the Capitol services, confirmed: “Mr. Jefferson, during his whole administration, was a most regular attendant.” She noted that Jefferson even had a designated seat at the Capitol church: “The seat he chose the first Sabbath, and the adjoining one (which his private secretary occupied), were ever afterwards by the courtesy of the congregation, left for him and his secretary.” Jefferson was so committed to those services that he would not even allow inclement weather to dissuade him; as Rep. Cutler noted: “It was very rainy, but his [Jefferson’s] ardent zeal brought him through the rain and on horseback to the Hall.” Other diary entries confirm Jefferson’s attendance in spite of bad weather.

…Jefferson was not the only President to attend church at the Capitol. His successor, James Madison, also attended church at the Capitol. 14 However, there was a difference in the way the two arrived for services. Observers noted that Jefferson arrived at church on horseback 15 (it was 1.6 miles from the White House to the Capitol). However, Madison arrived for church in a coach and four. In fact, British diplomat Augustus Foster, who attended services at the Capitol, gave an eloquent description of President Madison arriving at the Capitol for church in a carriage drawn by four white horses.

The series of cacophonous thuds you just heard were the “I’m-smarter than-you” Atheists from both sides of the aisle, falling off their chairs.  You see, they (all 8% of them) will argue until they are blue in the face that Jefferson and Madison were not Christians, and our founding documents were not based on a Judeo-Christian system of beliefs.

Then, they go out to feed the unicorn in their backyard.

Jefferson told his friend, William Bradford (who served as Attorney General under President Washington), to make sure of his own spiritual salvation:

[A] watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.

Concerning Christianity, Jefferson said:

The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.

The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.

I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.

I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.

But, what about Jefferson’s re-writing of the Bible, leaving out Jesus’ miracles, you ask? David Barton answered that question in 2001, in a letter to a newspaper, in response to a reader:

The reader, as do many others, claimed that Jefferson omitted all miraculous events of Jesus from his “Bible.” Rarely do those who make this claim let Jefferson speak for himself. Jefferson’s own words explain that his intent for that book was not for it to be a “Bible,” but rather for it to be a primer for the Indians on the teachings of Christ (which is why Jefferson titled that work, “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth”). What Jefferson did was to take the “red letter” portions of the New Testament and publish these teachings in order to introduce the Indians to Christian morality. And as President of the United States, Jefferson signed a treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe wherein he provided—at the government’s expense—Christian missionaries to the Indians. In fact, Jefferson himself declared, “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” While many might question this claim, the fact remains that Jefferson called himself a Christian, not a deist.

The other Founding Father whom Atheists claim was one of them is James Madison.

Per David Barton:

James Madison trained for ministry with the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, and Madison’s writings are replete with declarations of his faith in God and in Christ. In fact, for proof of this, one only need read his letter to Attorney General Bradford wherein Madison laments that public officials are not bold enough about their Christian faith in public and that public officials should be “fervent advocates in the cause of Christ.” And while Madison did allude to a “wall of separation,” contemporary writers frequently refuse to allow Madison to provide his own definition of that “wall.” According to Madison, the purpose of that “wall” was only to prevent Congress from passing a national law to establish a national religion.

Also, as this writing shows, Madison wanted all public officials – including Bradford – to be unashamed concerning their Christian beliefs and testimony:

I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way.

Did you know that Madison was a member of the committee that authored the 1776 Virginia Bill of Rights and approved of its clause declaring that:

It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.  ?

And, per Barton, Madison’s proposed wording for the First Amendment demonstrates that he opposed only the establishment of a federal denomination, not public religious activities.  The proposal reads:

The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established.

But, wait.  There’s more:

In 1789, Madison served on the Congressional committee which authorized, approved, and selected paid Congressional chaplains.

In 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided a Bible Society in its goal of the mass distribution of the Bible.

Finally, throughout his Presidency (1809-1816), Madison endorsed public and official religious expressions by issuing several proclamations for national days of prayer, fasting, and thanksgiving.

So, if you run into one of those individuals who, when it comes to accepting the Faith of our Founding Fathers, proves that denial is not just a river in Egypt, you can respond with one or all of three things:

1.  Quote from this article.

2.  Give him/her this link to wallbuilders.com.

3.  Show them this excellent video, in which David Barton conducts a historical tour of the Capitol Building.

God Bless America!

 

 

Ten years ago today, the unthinkable happened:  America was the victim of the largest Islamic Terrorist Attack ever on our soil.

Per the Executive Summary of the 9/11 Commission Report:

At 8:46 on the morning of September 11, 2001, the United States became a nation transformed.

An airliner traveling at hundreds of miles per hour and carrying some 10,000 gallons of jet fuel plowed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. At 9:03, a second airliner hit the South Tower. Fire and smoke billowed upward. Steel,glass,ash,and bodies fell below.The Twin Towers, where up to 50,000 people worked each day, both collapsed less than 90 minutes later.

At 9:37 that same morning, a third airliner slammed into the western face of the Pentagon. At 10:03, a fourth airliner crashed in a field in southern Pennsylvania. It had been aimed at the United States Capitol or the White House, and was forced down by heroic passengers armed with the knowledge that America was under attack.

More than 2,600 people died at the World Trade Center; 125 died at the Pentagon; 256 died on the four planes. The death toll surpassed that at Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

This immeasurable pain was inflicted by 19 young Arabs acting at the behest of Islamist extremists headquartered in distant Afghanistan. Some had been in the United States for more than a year, mixing with the rest of the population. Though four had training as pilots, most were not well-educated. Most spoke English poorly, some hardly at all. In groups of four or five, carrying with them only small knives, box cutters, and cans of Mace or pepper spray, they had hijacked the four planes and turned them into deadly guided missiles.

Our enemies throughout the Muslim World danced in the streets, thinking that they had struck a crippling blow, demoralizing “The Great Satan”, and thinking that Americans would meekly cower in our homes after their attack.

That night, President George W. Bush addressed the nation:

Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.

The victims were in airplanes or in their offices — secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers. Moms and dads. Friends and neighbors.

Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.

The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger.

These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.

Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.

Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government’s emergency response plans. Our military is powerful, and it’s prepared. Our emergency teams are working in New York City and Washington, D.C., to help with local rescue efforts.

Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks.

The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening for essential personnel tonight and will be open for business tomorrow.

Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business as well.

The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I’ve directed the full resources for our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

Now, 10 years later, the mastermind behind the mass murder, Osama bin Laden is dead, sent to Hell by an American Navy Seal team.  While still dangerous, the Islamic Terrorist Organizations have been dealt crippling blows by our intelligence services and our fighting men and women.

Hiding out in their caves, these barbarians sit, scratching their heads, trying to figure out why these Americans are different from others they have attacked around the world.

Why have they failed?

The answer is simple.  Allow me to present a very special teacher to explain it to you, gentle reader:

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, did something not to be forgotten.  On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.

‘Ms. Cothren, where’re our desks?’

She   replied, ‘You can’t have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.

They thought, ’Well, maybe it’s our grades.’

‘No,’ she said.

‘Maybe it’s our behavior.’

She told them, ’No, it’s not even your behavior.’

And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom

By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren’s classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

The final period of the  day came and as the puzzled  students found seats on the floor of the desk less classroom, Martha Cothren said, ‘Throughout the day no one  has been able  to tell me just what he/she has done to earn the  right  to sit at the desks that are  ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.’

At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it.

Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.

Martha said, ‘You didn’t earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it’s up to you to sit in them.  It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don’t ever forget it.’

By the way, this is a true story. And this teacher was awarded Teacher of the Year for the state of Arkansas in 2006.

Americans understand the Cost of Freedom.  Freedom is not free. 

So, on this solemn anniversary, please take a moment to say a prayer for all those who lost their lives that fateful day, including the New York City First Responders,  and for all of our Best and Brightest, who have lost their lives in defense of our sovereign nation.

GOD BLESS AMERICA.

Last week, in my article titled, The War Against Christianity in America – Battleground:  DeSoto County, MS, I told you about the efforts of a group of bitter Atheists from Wisconsin, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, to take away prayer from high school football games, in the county in which I live.

Their efforts were for naught.  While they did succeed in getting the DeSoto County School Board to ban prayer over the stadium loudspeakers, they did not count on Americans exercising their Freedom of Religion, and reciting the Lord’s Prayer, en masse, from the stands.  Nor,were they prepared for the teams’ quarterbacks telling their fellow players to take a knee and leading them in prayer after the game.

This week, these bitter frustrated whiners are at it again.

The DeSoto Times Tribune reports:

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which last week notified the DeSoto School District board that it had received complaints about school prayer, has now turned its attention to the distribution of Gideon Bibles.

FFRF notified the school district on Monday that it has received complaints saying Gideons distribute bibles to DeSoto County students during instructional time of the school day, prompting the organization to ask the school to no longer allow the activity.

The letter asking to stop bible distribution references the U.S. Supreme Court Ruling from Berger v. Rensselaer Central School Corporation.

In the letter, the foundation’s attorney, Stephanie Schmitt, says, “Public schools have a constitutional obligation to remain neutral toward religion.” The letter continues, “In allowing Gideons to distribute bibles to elementary school students, DeSoto County Schools is placing its ‘stamp of approval’ on the religious messages contained in the Bible.”*

The complaint issued to the Freedom From Religion Foundation mentioned two specific schools, Oak Grove Central Elementary and DeSoto Central Elementary schools where the Bible distribution has taken place.

This complaint followed a letter the organization sent to the DeSoto County Schools Superintendent Milton Kuykendall asking him to apologize and to retract a statement he made last week in reference to the organization’s request that the district no long allow pre-game prayers to be led over the public address system.

The letter asking for Kuykendall to retract his statement refers to him saying, “…this organization out of Wisconsin doesn’t really care if we have prayer in our schools. They see an opportunity to try and accuse us of breaking the law and therefore give them a chance to sue our district and win a law suit and take millions of our funds.”

In the same statement, Kuykendall was responding to outraged parents and community members, telling them they cannot ban prayer but cannot allow school officials to pray or the schools’ public address systems to be used to broadcast the prayer. He went on, “As law-abiding citizens, we can not pick and choose the laws we want to obey.”

A representative from the DeSoto County School Board said they do not wish to comment further at this time.

Once more, if you are an average American like me, you’re probably asking yourself, gentle reader:

Who are these idiots?

Well, according to David Horowitz’s discoverthenetoworks.org:

Founded in 1978, the nonprofit, tax-exempt Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) consists of more than 13,000 members and calls itself “the largest association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics) in the United States.” Its mission is “to promote free thought and to keep state and church separate.”

According to FFRF, religion invariably has been a negative force in human societies. “The history of Western civilization shows us that most social and moral progress has been brought about by persons free from religion,” the organization says. “… In modern times, the first to speak out for prison reform, for humane treatment of the mentally ill, for abolition of capital punishment, for women’s right to vote, for death with dignity for the terminally ill, and for the right to choose contraception, sterilization and abortion have been freethinkers [i.e., atheists and agnostics], just as they were the first to call for an end to slavery.”

FFRF promotes its message through a variety of vehicles, including a weekly national radio program; a newspaper titled Freethought Today; a “freethought billboard campaign”; scholarships “for freethinking students”; high-school and college “freethought essay competitions” with cash awards; annual national conventions honoring a “Freethinker of the Year” for state/church activism; and the sale of educational products, bumper-stickers, music CDs, winter solstice greeting cards, and books promoting “freethought.” The Foundation also provides speakers for events and debates on subjects related to religion, and has established a “freethought book collection” at the University of Wisconsin Memorial Library.

The Foundation is led by its co-presidents, Dan Barker and his wife, Annie Laurie Gaylor. Barker was a Christian preacher for 19 years before renouncing his faith in 1984. Gaylor, who earned a journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980, co-founded FFRC with her mother and the late John Sontarck in 1978. She is author of the books Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So (1981), and Betrayal of Trust: Clergy Abuse of Children (1988). She also edited the 1997 anthology Women Without Superstition: No Gods, No Masters. Today she edits FFRF’s newspaper, Freethought Today, which is published ten times annually. Since October 2007, she and her husband have co-hosted a one-hour weekly radio program called Freethought Radio, which is [was, thank God] broadcast by Air America Radio.

FFRF Co-President, Annie Laurie Gaylor, issued a press release in 2010, in a simular case, which read:

What we need is a little accountability from the school district. This is irresponsible advice. Public schools may not serve as conduits and facilitators for the Gideons — an aggressive and predatory Christian male missionary society which openly targets fifth-grade students. Children in our public schools are a captive audience. These adult missionaries need to pick on someone their own size and stay out of our public schools.

Per gallup.com, 92 % of Americans believe in God.  Therefore, it stands to reason that 8 % do not…and that’s fine, we are still a free country.

However, I fail to see how the dissemination of the Book of Faith that was embraced by our Founding Fathers can, in any way, harm the young, developing minds of today’s schoolchildren. 

If fact, in my humble opinion, quite the opposite is true.

High School Football on Friday Night.  It’s something wholly American.  A rite of passage that unites families behind their son, nephew, cousin,  and/or neighbor, as they strive on the field of competition.

Here in DeSoto County, Mississippi, in America’s Heartland, last night held a special significance, as average Americans stood up on their hind legs, defying a bitter minority group seeking to limit their right of Religious Freedom.

A group from Wisconsin, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, several days ago, sent a letter to the Schools Superintendent, insisting that the pre-game prayer, spoken over the stadiums’ loudspeakers, a tradition held in DeSoto County as long as anyone can remember,  be silenced.

Who is the Freedom of Religious Foundation and why should they be concerned about prayer at high school football games in Mississippi?

According to their website:

The purposes of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., as stated in its bylaws, are to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

Incorporated in 1978 in Wisconsin, the Foundation is a national membership association of more than 17,000 freethinkers: atheists, agnostics and skeptics of any pedigree. The Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt, educational organization under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3). All dues and contributions are deductible for income tax purpose.

What Does the Foundation Do?

• Publishes the only freethought newspaper in the United States, Freethought Today

• Sponsors annual high school, college and grad student essay competitions with cash awards

• Conducts lively, annual national conventions, honoring state/church, student, and freethought activism

• Sponsors an online forum for members

• Bestows “The Emperor Has No Clothes” Award to public figures for “plain-speaking on religion”

• Promotes freedom from religion with educational books, literature, music CDs

• Provides speakers for events and debates

• Maintains a Web site at http://www.ffrf.org

• Broadcasts Freethought Radio

• Places freethought billboards and bus signs

…First Amendment violations are accelerating. The religious right is campaigning to raid the public till and advance religion at taxpayer expense, attacking our secular public schools, the rights of nonbelievers, and the Establishment Clause.

The Foundation recognizes that the United States was first among nations to adopt a secular Constitution. The founders who wrote the U.S. Constitution wanted citizens to be free to support the church of their choice, or no religion at all. Our Constitution was very purposefully written as a godless document, whose only references to religion are exclusionary.

It is vital to buttress the Jeffersonian “wall of separation between church and state” which has served our nation so well.

Funny.  Jefferson was a faithful attendant of Sunday Church that was held at the Capitol Building.  He once explained to a friend while they were walking to church together:

No nation has ever existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I, as Chief Magistrate of this nation, am bound to give it the sanction of my example.

He also proclaimed

I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens.

But, I digress…

DeSoto County Schools went along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s request, despite the disappointment of many students and parents.

And that’s when Americans started organizing.

Y’see, teammates traditionally would take a knee after the game to thank the Lord for a good game and His blessings and to pray for those injured during the game.  And their parents were bound and determined that their young men were not going to have that freedom taken away from them.

So, last night, instead of the coach telling the team to take a knee, the quarterback did.

Earlier, on Friday morning, students and parents held a prayer walk outside DeSoto County Schools.

As the bright, blessed day gave way to the dark, sacred night in DeSoto County, parents and students began to pray.

According to student Paige Lewis:

If they’re saying that we can’t pray over a loudspeaker, then we’re going to pray alone.

Earlier in the week, The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a second letter to School Superintendent Milton Kuykendall.  They not only asked the district to stop praying before school events, but also demanded an apology for the comments the superintendent made in a letter sent out earlier this week.

Cheeky, huh?

These bitter whiners were upset that Kuykendall wrote:

In my opinion, most people do not realize that this organization out of Wisconsin doesn’t really care if we have prayer in our schools. They see an opportunity to try and accuse us of breaking the law and therefore give them a chance to sue our district and win a lawsuit and take millions of our funds. This is money that is needed to pay teachers and educate our students.

According to Professional Atheist, Annie Laurie Gaylor, of the Foundation:

It hurts our reputation to have a public official saying we just complained to make money, nonetheless millions. We never make any money on our litigation. That’s ridiculous.

What she was alluding to, is the fact that they have sued 50 American high schools, in their attempt to ban prayer from public events.

Well, your salary comes from somewhere, Wendy Whiner.

As her and her compatriots’ heads no doubt exploded, hundreds of parents and students spontaneously gathered to pray aloud before the opening kick-off of high school football games across DeSoto County Friday.

Per the local newspaper, the DeSoto Times Tribune:

At the Olive Branch game, spectators began to pray the Lord’s Prayer in unison around 7:15 p.m. just moments before the Olive Branch High School Conquistadors and Memphis Trezevant took to the field.

The same was the case at Hernando High School just prior to kickoff against Pontotoc.

The Rev. Mike Coker, pastor of the Refuge Church in Hernando led a prayer outside Tiger Stadium before the game and encouraged people in the crowd to pray.

After the singing of the national anthem, people in the stands recited the Lord’s Prayer.

A large group of Horn Lake High School and Lake Cormorant High School parents also joined in saying the Lord’s just prior to the Horn Lake – Lake Cormorant football game at Horn Lake.

The group prayer was not sponsored by the DeSoto County School system and was led by parents, not teachers or administrators.

At their meeting this past Monday, DeSoto County School Board members stood by their current policy which states that “school administrators, teachers and staff shall take a neutral approach regarding the promotion of prayer or other religious activities in schools or at school-sponsored events. They cannot interfere with students exercising their religious rights as permitted by law and they cannot tell or suggest to students that they should pray or participate in religious activities. Prayer over the intercom or at school-related activities shall not be allowed except as specifically stated above.”

What the Foundation, Obama, and the other Progressives attempting to remove Our Creator from day-to-day American Life don’t seem to understand is: 

Salvation is an individual experience, not something that happens to a collective. 

And America, our sacred land,  was built upon individual freedom.

During a Vice-Presidential Debate in 1992, Ross Perot’s running mate, distinguished Admiral James Stockdale, uttered a phrase which many of us have asked since time in memorial:

Who am I?  Why am I here?

On the occasion of my 500th post on this blog that bears my name, I would like to reflect on those questions for a moment.

As my introductory page states, I am a 52 year old Christian American Conservative.  I was raised by members of The Greatest Generation.  My father landed at Normandy.  I love God and I love this Sacred Land that I was blessed to be born in.

I am the youngest of three children, growing up with a step-sister, who is gone now, and a sister, with whom I remain close.  I am a well-trained husband, and I  am the father of a special daughter, who has been a blessing to me over and over again during her 24 years.  I have helped to raise three step-sons, and am proud of all three of them, as I am equally proud of my two grown nephews and my niece.   And I plead guilty to spoiling my 3 and 1/2 year old grandson, Robert.

I am a son of the South, currently residing in the Northwest corner of Mississippi, after living the majority of my life in Memphis, Tennessee.

I love music, having sung in churches since I was 19, a legacy from my earthly father, who possessed a beautiful tenor voice.  I have also played rhythm guitar since that age.  I even got to see Elvis Presley in concert in the early 70s from the top row of the Mid-South Coliseum.  He was wearing a blue jumpsuit.

The majority of my generation had similar experiences, as I did, growing up.

We had basketball goals hanging on our carports.  We played football in our front yards.  We had black light and Farrah Fawcett posters in our rooms.  And we all ran out and bought Frampton Comes Alive double albums.

We said yes ma’am/sir and no ma’am/sir, when addressed by our parents or any adult, especially in the South.  And all the parents in our neighborhood treated us like we were their kids.

The origin of my web identity goes back to 2008, right before the national election.  I found a Conservative website named Hot Air, owned and managed by the phenomenal Conservative, Michelle Malkin.  I wanted to contribute comments, but I needed an anonymous handle.  I came up with the name kingsjester in homage to the King of Kings, and because of the fact that I bear the middle name of King, as did my father before me.

The  jester part of my handle came from the fact that, like my father before me, I love to laugh, and having been blessed by God with a quick wit, and a quicker mouth, well…it just seemed natural.

I am currently in my sixth year of reading God’s Word all the way through.  I read 4 chapters a morning, before I sit down to write this blog.  I view this not as a ritual, but a necessity.  He teaches me something new every day.

My Conservatism comes naturally, having been raised by my parents to love this country, and watching them exercise good old-fashioned American values in our home.  My political leanings were solidified for me in the 1980s, as I was privileged to spend my 20s during the presidency of Ronald Wilson Reagan.

I suppose that is why I so fiercely oppose the presidency and actions of Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).  Having seen and experienced so many great things that living in our country has to offer, it chapped my hindquarters to watch a sitting President of the United States go around the world, apologizing for the greatest country on God’s green Earth.

And then, later in this nightmare called a presidency, this Chamberlain wannabe, who is supposed to be defending our country from enemies foreign and domestic, held secret meetings with fanatic worshipers of the very ideology that was responsible for massacring 3,000 of our citizens on September 11, 2011.  Frankly, it made my blood boil.

And now, this bozo and his minions in the MSM, and on both sides of the aisle, are attacking the grassroots movement known as the Tea Party.  In fact,  syndicated columnist and hardcore Lib, Leonard Pitts, Jr, reports that:

…The noteworthy thing about the CNN/ORC poll, which was conducted Aug. 5-7, is not simply that it found 51 percent of Americans now regard the tea party unfavorably, up from 26 percent when they first started asking this question in January 2010. No, what’s telling is where the dislike is coming from. You see, the spike does not reflect a change of mind from the tea-party faithful. Approval numbers have remained relatively stable over the 19-month history of the survey, starting out at 33 percent, peaking to 38 percent twice, falling back to 31 percent this month. Once one drinks the tea, apparently, the tea stays drunk.

No, the fluctuation has come from those who previously knew nothing about the party. Twenty-four percent of Americans said in January of last year that they had never heard of it. Only 5 percent say that now.

As that number has fallen, tea party disfavor has risen.

To put that more simply: The more Americans learn about this movement, the more they dislike it.

Bull.  The Tea Party is America.  That oversampled CNN poll is nothing but a worthless Liberal propaganda tool.

So, tell me, Leonard…How do you explain the fact that, just yesterday, gallup .com reported that Obama’s job approval rating is now tanking at a new low of 39%, compared to Bush’s 60% at the same time in his presidency?

Thanks, everybody, for your support.  We’ve got a lot of work to do.  November 2, 2010 was just the opening act. It’s up to all of us. 

I know that I’ve got at least another 500 posts in me.  We’re just gettin’ started, y’all.  Let’s roll!