Page 27 - Heavenly Signs III by Mel Gable

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CHAPTER 4: PRAYER – 1963

This mighty nation was based upon the principle of “In God We Trust.” Do we still believe this as a people and a
nation? How could judgment come upon a nation “In God We Trust”? Could it be because this truth is no longer
shared by a majority of its people? Maybe it is due to the fact that this nation no longer believes in Biblical
principles. When did this begin to happen to this nation? It was with the gradual decline in Biblical truth that
started some fifty years earlier. It all begun in taking prayers and Bible reading out of schools and replacing it
with an atheist view of the world. This was later followed by taking creation out of the schools and replacing it
with evolution. Isn’t evolution now taught as if fact and not as a theory at many universities in the country?

Christianity was the basis for our nation, the guideline for our Declaration of Independence. Even though there
are many who deny this amazing truth. This nation has slipped away from this truth and Christians today are
criticized and considered as being radical or old-fashioned in their beliefs. Our government, which was first a
Christian based principle system, has changed into a corrupt system. This includes taking prayer out of the public
schools. But, we need to pray for our broken country and nation.

Prayer has always been part of the culture of the United States of America, its people and its foundation. George
Washington himself was a devout Christian, as were most of the founding fathers. The hand of God directed the
Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution as well as the Declaration of Independence. Christianity found its way
into the very heart of our nation and remained the pulse of this country until 1962. The year 1962 accounts for
the tragic downfall of young people in America. That year, the Supreme Court prohibited prayer in schools.
Ironically, the Supreme Court judges struck prayer from our nation's educational system in the same building
where the Ten Commandments were hanging. They destroyed this part of our heritage, threw it away like a used
scrap of paper. They considered it useless in the present day school system. Yet, many of our past presidents
have prayed in this nation’s “Oval Office.”

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionist, but by Christians; not on
religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ” said Patrick Henry, a founding father and signer of the Constitution. Our
country was founded on Christianity. That Christianity ought not to be taken from us. Because of separation of
church and state, it is now thought to be the legally correct way to bring up our children in the public schools.

Indeed, James Madison, our fourth president, said “Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.” He
would never have approved of the 1962 ruling of the Supreme Court – in fact, he would have cursed it. If our
founders were here today, they would be putting their feet down and changing the United States back to the
righteous ways of the Bible. The Ten Commandments would be hung in schools, prayer would be reestablished
in the schoolrooms and our government's ways would be corrected. It was never the intent of the Constitution
to take these freedoms from us. But, the interpretation by the Supreme Court has removed these freedoms.

John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, said “Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of
your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.” God guided the
fathers to give us the right of prayer – to pray in schools and to pray in public. We have instead succumbed to
the broken ways of the world and obliterated the words of not only our founders but God as well. In John
Hancock's words he makes the following statement “nobly defend those rights …. and no man ought to take from us.”
The separation was to protect the way in which we worship God. Is it justifiable to take God completely out of
the picture in the public schools?

Even England has not departed from this truth. The British Empire that we revolted against for religious
freedom still allows for prayer in the schools. In England and Wales, the School Standards and Framework Act
1998 states that all pupils in state schools must take part in a daily act of collective worship, unless their parents
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request that they be excused from attending.

28 "Collective Worship" and school assemblies: your rights". British Humanist Association. Retrieved 2009-04-21.