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10th amendment, 1st amendment, christianity, Faith, george washinton, nullification, prayer, propaganda, religious liberty, state sovereignty, U.S. Constitution
Alas, it is nothing new that slander, propaganda, and the ridicule of large swaths of the American body of people passes for “news” these days. Sometimes though, it just gets under the skin, you know, even if you are aware that it’s meant to get under your skin. The New York Daily News gives us one recent example in its attack on Christians, The U.S. Constitution, and North Carolina state legislators.
I’ll get to that, but first, some background.
Mar. 13, 2013: ACLU-NCLF files federal lawsuit (Lund, et al. v. Rowan County) seeking a judgment that the Rowan County Board of Commissioners practice of opening their meetings with Christian prayer violates the US and NC Constitutions, and therefore seeking to ban the practice.
Mar. 19, 2013: Rowan County Board of Commissioners votes unanimously to fight the lawsuit after a public meeting, which of course, opened with a prayer. Nearby Forsyth Co., NC lost a similar court battle that lasted 5 years and cost $280,000, culminating in a decision which prompted nearly two dozen NC communities to stop prayer in government meetings.
Apr. 01, 2013: General Assembly of North Carolina passes House Joint Resolution (H.J.R. 494), proclaiming (introducing) “The Rowan County, NC, Defense of Religion Act of 2013”. The NC General Assembly in this resolution, both generally and with respect to religion, is asserting state sovereignty, “declaring that the State of North Carolina does not recognize the authority of federal judicial opinions arising from the exertion of powers not granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States”.
US Constitution, Amendment I:US Constitution, Amendment X:Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
NC Constitution, Article I, § 13: Religious Liberty:The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
NC Constitution, Article IX, § 1: Education EncouragedAll persons have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and no human authority shall, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience.
Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools, libraries, and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.
…and then, from charlatans and propagandists at the New York Daily News we get this:
Headline: Let us pray! North Carolina lawmakers propose bill that challenges U.S. Constitution
The ‘Defense of Religion Act’ would allow prayer in public institutions, including schools. Opponents say it would overturn a long line of U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
“Let us Pray!”??? Does this not ring of condescension and ridicule? “Oh look, the stupid little rednecks want to pray.” Demeaning, snobbish, elitist, disgusting.
“Challenges U.S. Constitution”??? This is a flat out LIE. The resolution honors the Constitution, and challenges the authority of the federal government where it dishonors the Constitution.
And don’t you just love it how people, when it suits them, hold up Supreme Court precedent as beyond reproach. The fact is that the Court has gotten it wrong before in their rulings, and will again, and nobody is above criticism or censure in our system.
Washington’s bound copy of the Acts of the First Congress
The Daily News article is adorned with an image of George Washington’s beautifully bound copy of the “Acts of the First Congress” encased in glass. Beneath the image reads the caption: “The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights proclaims a separation between church and state. The new bill would specifically allow the County Commission of Rowan County, about an hour north of Charlotte, to continue opening its meetings with Christian prayers.”
“The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights” implies theses are divided entities, which is misleading, and to what end I don’t know. But what follows is another blatant falsehood, the assertion that the Constitution “proclaims a separation between church and state”. Read the 1st Amendment above, and find that proclamation.
The United States Congress may not “establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience.” was James Madison’s interpretation of this clause when discussed in the House of Representatives Aug. 15, 1789. In other words, the 1st Amendment is about protection from federal religious coercion.
Speaking of the U.S. House, it has opened its proceedings with prayer since the beginning, and still does to this day. To suddenly allege this practice is and always was unconstitutional is absolute drivel.
The story concludes with the following quotes:
From the ACLU: (the bill’s sponsors) “fundamentally misunderstand constitutional law and the principle of the separation of powers that dates back to the founding of this country.”
From a “legal scholar”: “They basically want to ensure that a long line of U.S. Supreme Court rulings have no validity either here in Rowan County or here in the entire state. They’re basing it on — to put it mildly — discredited legal theory that the states can deny the power of the federal government within their jurisdiction.”
No Constitutional provision forbids prayer in public institutions, and any federal laws or rulings to that effect are invalid and unconstitutional inventions. States are among the separate powers that date back to founding of this country, so far back in fact that they predate and even created the powers of the federal government. And where states deny specific power to a federal government adrift of its Constitutional bounds, it’s not “legal theory”, it’s duty.
Finally, and since the NY Daily News saw fit to display with prominence President Washington’s book because hey, it looks cool and official and says “President” on it and people would never doubt a story with that picture, I leave with this:
George Washington, in his 1796 Farewell Address: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.
Tell us again, you who seek to bastardize our principled founding and rip out the heart of our Christian heritage, how it is that your mythical separation of church and state ought to be considered as a valid “interpretation” of Constitutional protections of liberty; tell us again how there is no place amidst government for religion and morality; tell us again that hayseed states have no right to defend themselves against an overbearing, increasingly tyrannical and centralized federal government; tell us, so we at least know that dishonor has a name.
~tdv
Related:
- James Madison Rebukes Nullification Deniers ~Publius Huldah
- Once we were States. Once we would say “NO” ~subconch
- The Lie of “Separation of Church and State” & the U.S. Supreme Court’s Usurpations of Power ~Publius Huldah
Image credit
SubConch 
Great news! One State begins to understand that the supreme Court is not ABOVE the Constitution – that the “creature” is actually subject to its terms!
Yes, PH, very heartening! It would be good to see this thing keep its legs.
An interesting side note, Republicans gained control of both chambers of the NC state legislature in 2010 (held in 2012), for the first time since 1898, when Democrats bent on disenfranchising blacks, took control.
Those R’s still need lots of guidance – there is a move in the NC Legislature to push the despicable “parental rights amendment”. R’s are so easily deceived…..
Reblogged this on JUSTICE FOR RAYMOND and commented:
Another attempt to intimidate a state to conform to the religious disbelief of the ACLU. Wishing North Carolina success in their persuit of their right to open meetings with Christian prayer.
Keep their feet to the fire and don’t let the RINO’s rule the lame R’s. Success to NC.
I think there should be absolute separation between church and state but that is not my point here. There is no doubt that it has become acceptable, no even more precise, fashionable to bash Christians and white males. This Hollywood agenda sickens me.These “enlightened” people are the biggest hypocritical group of all.
Carl, you understand, I trust, that it is not your opinion on the issue which is important – but what is the original intent of the Constitution.
And what does the Constitution actually say? It says nothing about “separation of church and state” – that is not a constitutional standard.
What it says is that Congress may make no law respecting “an establishment of religion”.
There is a world of difference between the two. So the issue is, What is an “established religion”?
Our Framers told us precisely what it is: It is a church which is supported by taxes & tithes assessed from The People.
So what the 1st Amendment actually prohibits is this:
Congress may make no law setting up a religious denomination which is to be supported by taxes & tithes collected from The People; and
Congress may not interfere with the States’ choices of which church – if any – they decided to establish or disestablish.
Our decline is due to our replacing Fixed Principles with our own precious opinions. And the big joke is that our precious opinions are not even “ours” – we have been conditioned to adopt them.
Thank you all for sharing this piece with your readers and friends, and for taking the time to comment. The humble subconch weblog rarely accommodates such multitudes. :]
This glimmer of fortitude in Rowan Co. and in the NC legislature is a welcome sight indeed. That it needs to be displayed at all, and at such cost, is a great and unnecessary injustice. Might the both serve as examples.
As for the R’s, I’ll stick with them so long as they stick with the small r principles laid out by the framers, as would I with a D on the same grounds, if I could find one.
I never was arrogant enough to presume I know better than the founders, so theirs is the principled place to start with all things political. I mean, just look what we built atop the footings they built… seriously. Has there ever been a nation such as ours, or is there?
PH, Assignment accepted on the PRA thing… so don’t say yet why it’s despicable, aside from the base “why declare that things shall not be done, which there is no power to do?”(Hamilton, Fed.No.84) And that last paragraph of yours is profound.
PRA? You can be cryptic!
I posted the link to your post about the NC Resolution on my FB page and got 49 “likes” & 21 “shares”.
We are so hungry for good news. This was the only good news I have heard in a long time.
It was the philosophy of Pragmatism which took over here in the last quarter of the 19th century which induced us to abandon the concept of Absolute Truth and fixed Standards & fixed Principles in favor of our own feelings on the issues.
And of course, once we abandoned Reason, Logic, Facts, and the concept of Fixed Standards & Truths & Principles; we became ripe for manipulation by our conditioners.
That is how we ended up with a Country of people chanting the same lies.
HOW do we turn it around? Do we really have to collapse first? And then, several generations down the road, perhaps there will be an opportunity to start over again?
@ Publius Huldah – you are about to get 1 more like and 1 more share. and that is from a resident in North Carolina whose friends are also in North Carolina. This is the first I’ve heard of this most welcome news. A hearty THANK YOU VERY MUCH for it.
PH: Ha. I was referencing the proposed Parental Rights Amendment that you mentioned above, about which I was ignorant, so pretended to accept my independent research of the efficacy thereof as a homework assignment.
I figured the FB link was your doing, but had no way of verifying that without a page of my own. A warm welcome to your friends. It might be of some comfort to the bill’s sponsors, and others, to know that so many of us actually find their strength as “good news”.
Here is the link to the NC General Assembly’s status page on H494. From there we can drop a line of support to the resolution’s fourteen sponsors (Primary sponsors are Rep. Carl Ford and Rep. Harry Warren). Notes of support might also be directed via the Rowan County Board of Commissioners site (Jim Sides, Chairman).
To the remedy for our condition, this is something I struggle with endlessly.
One trouble is that if I had the cure, it might be self-defeating to tell of it, if it were the sort of thing that could be told. This is akin to giving one’s battle plan to the enemy, or the game plan to the other team, as they will surely find an advantage in it, or absorb it as their own. Another problem is not unlike telling an addict to stand still while we make him not an addict anymore, from which he will bolt to the nearest street corner. So there’s that.
The integrity of a republic is directly proportional to the integrity of its people, both in terms of intellect and virtue. Ignorance and vileness begets ignorance and vileness, the manipulations thereof, corruption, and tyranny.
We are the problem, because the problem is ours to have, until we are no longer willing or permitted to lay claim to it. Moreover we’ve no idea there is a problem, or are unable to define it.
Sorry, redundancies.
The want of truth is enlightenment’s predecessor, and I pray God that it finds us. From that, in this age, the craving is easily satiated, such as by honorable people like you.
Who knows, maybe tomorrow the whole of popular culture, media and entertainment, and every infected institution, will suddenly realize that they’ve been scammed for a century, that our founders got it right, and then promptly let the great body of the American people in on the secret. Or maybe not.
Whatever traffic and response this piece has gotten is deserved. It was well thought out and well written. Thank you. It is hard to take the media seriously these days, but when they can tell such blatant and atrocious lies to their subscribers and get away with it, you begin to see why we must. They truly are the propaganda arm of liberal fascism, and are arguably more dangerous than its actual enforcers. I am always happy to read about rumblings of state interposition like this. At crucial times it may very well be the last thing standing between tyranny and the few non-superficial rights the people still retain.
Thank you, Henry, that means a lot. This piece is not unlike throwing a shoe at the television, only time is slowed by reason before its release from my hand. :]
It’s ironic that I first found the news of NC’s H494 by the very article that I expose here. A simple Google News search for “U.S. Constitution” led me to it. To further the irony, it’s likely the Daily “News” piece received fiftyfold attentions over this criticism of it, and it was probably rare that its authenticity was questioned or even explored. Dangerous indeed.
And the caustic dissonance is made complete, as the press stands secured in their liberty by the same Article that guards the other liberty that they seek to diminish!
Your comments are superbly succinct, and appreciated.