Throughout my diverse teaching career the subject I most commonly taught was U.S. History.  Having spent my early years on the east coast, much of what I taught was set in places that were familiar to me. The inscriptions that I often read in those places were filled with Christian words and ideals.  It was obvious to me that our country had a Christian foundation.  Aren’t those inscriptions still there?  Aren’t our founding documents full of Biblical references?

What would be the purpose of denying this foundational connection to the Christian Religion?  Perhaps there are those who would go another way, to change the foundation.  Can you change the foundation without destroying the building?  If the foundation is faulty, don’t you have to build a new building?  What would be the foundation for this new building?

I will close with this excerpt from George Washington’s Farewell Address from 1796:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

[This is a repost from last August.  I thought it worth revisiting in light of the current political circus.]