Rare Jewel Magazine

"Lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel."
- Proverbs 20:15

Pledge of Allegiance: Mere Words or Heartfelt Meaning?
Rare Jewel Insight: March 29, 2004

Table of Contents:

COMMENTARY
"Pledge of Allegiance: Mere Words or Heartfelt Meaning?"
DO YOU KNOW...?
The Mayflower Pilgrims did not come to America for religious freedom.
BOOK REVIEW
"What They Believed", by Dr. D. James Kennedy
HOW YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
A 5-Point Plan

1. COMMENTARY

"Pledge of Allegiance: Mere Words or Heartfelt Meaning?"
(by Tim Ewing, Publisher/Editorial Director, Rare Jewel Magazine)

My wife and I just returned home from Washington D.C. where we participated in a prayer vigil and rally at the United States Supreme Court. The vigil and rally were co-hosted by Reverend Rob Schenck, President of Faith and Action, a ministry to Capitol Hill. Also co-hosting the event was Reverend Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition and several other pastors from the National Clergy Council.

While the peaceful rally was going on outside the Supreme Court this past Wednesday, inside the Justices were hearing the oral arguments in the case formally known as Elk Grove Unified School District v. Michael Newdow. At stake is the removal of the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, the final decision is expected by June.

The case involves the Elk Grove School District in California, which is seeking to uphold the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in its schools. Challenging that practice is Michael Newdow, an atheist "minister" who objects to the mention of "God" in the Pledge.

Experience has taught us that there are no guarantees with this Supreme Court, but based on inside reports from friends of ours who were in the Court room on Wednesday, we are hopeful that the decision of the Supreme Court will be to keep the words "under God" in the Pledge.

During Wednesday's rally, Reverend Schenck addressed the several-hundred-strong crowd of "under God" supporters. He recalled a face-to-face conversation he had with Michael Newdow a few days previous: "Dr. Newdow asked me, 'Why aren't you on my side?'. And I said, 'Because I don't trust you, and even more, I don't trust myself. And if we fail to acknowledge God, then only you and I are left to run this country and I don't trust either of us...the safest place to be is under the care of an unchanging God.'"

Our country's Founding Fathers would agree...they knew that mankind and civil governments are not to be trusted as the ultimate authority. Hence, the Founders separated our government into three distinct branches (Legislative, Executive, and Judicial)-each with checks and balances on the other. The Founders knew from personal experience that what government gives, it can also take away. For this very reason, the Founders designed a limited government, established by the people and accountable to the Supreme Authority, our Creator.

The Founders' own words are documented in many original sources including the Declaration of Independence, "...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men." The Founders specifically noted that our Creator God is the source of mankind's rights, not government. Government's only role is to secure and protect those rights.

Our Founders discovered a great truth and built the foundation of our nation accordingly: true freedom can endure only if our government and its public policy are based on Christian values. George Washington wrote, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." Our second president and signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams, wrote, "It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand." From the abundance of writings, official documents and pronouncements during the formation of our nation, we know that in these two quotes, Washington and Adams were referring specifically to Christianity and the moral code contained in God's word, the "Holy Bible".

During the time of our Founders, the Christian ethic was ingrained deeply in the morals of the populace, the civil government they established, and the public policy that followed. America's freedoms and prosperity sprang forth as a direct result of this ethic. (I?ll expand on this assertion in the next issue of Rare Jewel Insight).

Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the Pledge case, we should take heed. Michael Newdow's assault on the Pledge is a warning that we've allowed it to become little more than a ritual that is void of its deep meaning. What else have we neglected? What else have we forgotten about our past, about our nation?s true foundation? Merely preserving the right to say "under God" in our schools is not really the point if for most people these words have no meaning. There is a great work that needs to take place if we are to truly preserve our "One Nation under God". This work begins when we each make an effort to learn the true facts about our nation?s heritage, to understand why our nation has enjoyed freedom and prosperity like none other in history, and we take action accordingly in our circles of influence (beginning with our families).

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2. DO YOU KNOW...?
(by Tim Ewing, Publisher, Rare Jewel Magazine)

Do you know that the Pilgrims did not come to America for religious freedom? You may think I?m splitting hairs here, but stick with me on this for a bit. The Pilgrims had lived in Holland for 12 years prior to embarking on their Mayflower voyage to America. They had enjoyed complete religious freedom in Holland. William Bradford, Mayflower Pilgrim and Governor of the Plymouth settlement, wrote (in third person) about their time in Holland, "They grew in knowledge and other gifts and graces of the spirit of God, and lived together in peace and love and holiness; and many came to them from different parts of England so that there grew up a great congregation." (a)

Of course the importance of being able to worship God freely was of great importance to this body of believers. They literally had to escape from England to Holland due to the persecution by the British government and its State Church. But if all was well in Holland, why did they uproot again and leave for America? Bradford sheds some light for us by outlining three primary factors:

1. Life in Holland was very difficult, requiring "...continual labour and hard fare and other inconveniences." Many in England desired to join their brethren in Holland and enjoy the "liberty of the gospel", yet they did not think they could endure the difficult living conditions.

2. The damaging influence of the Dutch culture on their children, "...the great licentiousness of the young people of the country, and the many temptations of the city, were led by evil example into dangerous courses...tending to dissoluteness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief of the parents and the dishonour of God. So they saw their posterity would be in danger to degenerate and become corrupt."

3. Desire to Evangelize, "...they cherished a great hope and inward zeal of laying good foundations, or at least of making some way towards it, for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the world, even though they should be but stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work."

It is hard to imagine that life in Holland could have been more difficult than what the Pilgrims were going to face in America. Just getting there would be risky enough given the three-month journey through storms across the icy-cold Atlantic in a small boat. During their first winter in America, the Pilgrims lost half their number to death. Despite the potential for heartache, death, trials and tribulations, the Pilgrims stepped out in faith. Driven by their desire to protect their children from the destructive effects of Holland's immoral culture, the Pilgrims embarked for America to lay a foundation for a Christian culture. They did in fact become not just stepping- stones, but giant milestones. They became true American heroes in "so great a work" as laying the cornerstone of our nation.

Think about it! The Pilgrims lived in a country that offered complete religious freedom. Nonetheless, they realized something more was needed to establish a healthy community that could successfully grow and reproduce itself throughout future generations. Religious freedom wasn?t enough by itself. They also needed a civil government and culture built on Christian principles.

More than 270 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, the United States Supreme Court confirmed that the Pilgrim legacy was alive and well. In the 1892 case "Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States", the court explained, "This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation...These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons: they are organic utterances [the accumulation of America's historical documents and previous legal rulings]; they speak the voice of the entire people...These and many other matters which might be noticed add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation." (b)

The Pilgrims proved faithful in becoming stepping stones towards the forming of a Christian nation. In 1892 our Christian nation was largely intact. What can we say about America today? Look at our culture. Is our posterity "in danger to degenerate and become corrupt" like the Pilgrims living in Holland?

Let us capture a vision and commitment as large as that of our Pilgrim forefathers-to protect and re-establish the work they began, and later generations succeeded in establishing, that is, our "One Nation under God".

(a) Pilgrim quotes attributed to William Bradford are found in: William Bradford. "Of Plymouth Plantation: Bradford?s History of the Plymouth Settlement." (Bulverde, Tx: The Vision Forum in association with Mantle Ministries, 1998, original manuscript rendered into Modern English by Harold Paget, 1909), 15, 19-22.

(b) David Barton, "Original Intent: The Courts, The Constitution, & Religion, Special Coral Ridge Ministries Edition." (Aledo, TX: Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc., through arrangement with WallBuilder Press, 1999), 69.