-Caveat Lector-
Mike & Kathy Moxley wrote:
"Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be
based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer
of mankind. It is impossible that it should be
otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent
our civilization and our institutions are
emphatically Christian." - United States Supreme Court, 1892.
MJ:
Unfortunately, the analysis of the case that accompanies
it amounts to little more than a manipulation of the
language of the opinion to distort the actual meaning of
the case, its relevant facts and its stated rule of law.
The facts of Holy Trinity concerned the application of an
Act of Congress titled "An act to prohibit the importation
and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or
agreement to perform labor in the Unites States, its
Territories and the District of Columbia." Holy Trinity
Church, a church located in the city of New York, contracted
with a minister in England to perform services as rector
and pastor at its church. At issue in the case was whether
or not the church's action violated the Act which prohibited
"any person, company, partnership, or corporation ... to
assist or encourage the importation or migration of any
alien ... under contract or agreement ... to perform labor
or service of any kind in the United States."
The holding of Holy Trinity was based on an interpretation
of the purpose of the Act. The Court concluded that the
purpose of the Act was to prohibit the importation of
foreign unskilled persons to perform manual labor and manual
services. A christian minister, the Court reasoned, is a
'toiler of the brain', not a manual laborer; Holy Trinity
Church, therefore, was found not to have violated the Act
when it secured a contract for the holy man's employment.
The Court says the title of the Act implies its meaning,
that only the importation of 'laborers' will be restricted.
The Court then turns to the legislative history, debates,
and comments of the Congressmen involved in drafting the
Act to conclude that the Act was designed to regulate the
domestic unskilled, labor market.
Whether or not America was a Christian Nation was not
even at issue in Holy Trinity. The actual dispute or
controversy the Court had to decide had nothing at all
to do with religion. The parties in Holy Trinity did
not question whether the Immigration Act's purpose was
'for or against religion' generally or specifically.
Mike & Kathy Moxley wrote:
While making certain not to endorse any denomination of
religion over another, the founders of this nation made
it emphatically clear that the principles upon which this
Nation was built are based squarely upon the Bible.
Virtually every one of the 55 writers and signers of the
United States Constitution were members of various Christian
denominations: 29 were Anglicans, 16 to 18 were Calvinists,
2 were Methodists, 2 were Lutherans, 2 were Roman Catholic,
1 lapsed Quaker and sometimes Anglican, and 1 open deist--Dr.
Franklin who attended every kind of Christian worship,
called for public prayer, and contributed to all denominations.
Any authority to support this assertion?
Indeed, the weight of scholarly opinion is to the contrary.
For example, Professor Clinton Rossiter has written:
Although is had its share of strenuous Christians... the
gathering at Philadelphia was largely made up of men in
whom the old fires were under control or had even flickered
out. Most were nominally members of one of the traditional
churches in their part of the country.. and most were men
who could take their religion or leave it alone. Although
no one in this sober gathering would have dreamed of
invoking the Goddess of Reason, neither would anyone
have dared to proclaim his opinions had the support of
the God of Abraham and Paul. The Convention of 1787 was
highly rationalist and even secular in spirit.
(Clinton Rossiter, 1787; The Grand Convention, pp. 147-148.)
Much has also been made of Benjamin Franklin's suggestion that
the Convention open its morning sessions with prayer. His
motion was turned down, however, and not again taken up.
Franklin himself noted that "with the exception of 3 or 4,
most thought prayers unnecessary." (Ferrand, Records of the
Federal Convention of 1787, rev. ed., Vol. 1, p.452.)
Mike & Kathy Moxley wrote:
George Mason is called the father of the Bill of Rights, for
he insisted that the first ten amendments be added to the
Constitution. The purpose for such an addition? "The laws
of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded
by no power on earth," Mason said.
MJ:
You confuse God with Christianity.
<snip> much
Mike & Kathy Moxley wrote:
We the members of the U.S. Taxpayers Party gratefully
acknowledge the blessing of the Lord God as Creator,
Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of this Nation...
The U.S. Constitution established a republic under God,
rather than a democracy.
In a republic governed by Constitutional law rooted
in Biblical law,all life, liberty and property are
safe because Law rules. - Preamble, USTP Platform
MJ:
And the problem with this tale is revealed -- USTP.
The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the
first example of governments erected on the simple principles
of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to
disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and
superstition, they will consider this event as an era in
their history. Although the detail of the formation of the
American governments is at present little known or regarded
either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an
object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any
persons employed in that service had interviews with the
gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven,
more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring
in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be
acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely
by the use of reason and the senses....
-- John Adams, "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government
of the United States of America" [1787-1788];
Mike & Kathy Moxley wrote:
"The rising greatness of our country...is greatly tarnished
by the general prevalence of deism, which, with me, is but
another name for vice and depravity....I hear it is said by
the deists that I am one of their number; and indeed that
some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives
me much more pain than the appellation of Tory (being called
a traitor), because I think religion of infinitely higher
importance than politics....Being a Christian...is a
character which I prize far above all this world has or
can boast."
- Patrick Henry
(from The Life of Patrick Henry of Virginia
by A. G. Arnold in 1854)
MJ:
Akin to quoting Ted Kennedy on gun rights.
Regard$,
--MJ
Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead
of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a
contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal
establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its
fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the
clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition,
bigotry and persecution.
-- James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785
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