Wednesday, November 7, 2007

How Did Our Early Judiciary Feel About Religion?

As stated before on this blog, modern writers sometimes claim that the vast majority of our Founders were atheist or deist. Yet their writings do not seem to support this. In my opinion, the fact that they had strong Christian views is noteworthy, because they were able to create and sustain a Federal Government that does not force one to worship any particular way. But they might defined "forced to worship" in a different way than we do now. It seems that now people think that a high school valedictorian stating that she was influenced by Christ is in the same category as our Congress (or a state's legislature) making a law establishing a religion. Why else would school officials pull the plug during her commencement address just as she got to that part of her speech?

U.S. Supreme Court

  • John Jay (1st Chief Justice) - President of the American Bible Society; member of American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He said: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
  • John Marshall - Vice President of the American Bible Society; officer in the American Sunday School Union
  • Smith Thompson - Vice President of the American Bible Society
  • Bushrod Washington - Vice President of the American Bible Society; Vice President of the American Sunday School Union
State Supreme Courts
  • Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, James Kent. Considered the premier jurist in the development of the legal practice in the U.S. In the case of The People v. Ruggles, 1811, his opinion said in part: "We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of those impostors [other religions]"

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