Christianity And Reason

Benjamin Franklin

Written by Gary DeMar:

Almost every modern critic of America’s Christian heritage makes the claim that America was founded solely on Enlightenment principles as they get to define them. For evidence they refer to Benjamin Franklin. . . .

Franklin was influenced by Cotton Mather’s Essays to do Good, “which perhaps gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the principal future events of my life.”Franklin gives considerable attention to the issue of the moral life in his autobiography (not that he was always moral). . . .

Mather was a Puritan minister who believed and taught “that the power and opportunity to do good, not only gives a right to the doing of it, but makes the doing of it a duty.” Mather saw good works as the reasonable outworking of faith. The Bible says as much: “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20, KJV). Mather’s influence on Franklin can be seen in the actual wording of Franklin’s Autobiography where he acknowledges belief in God and resultant good works: “I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that he made the world, and govern’d it by his Providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue reward, either here or hereafter. . . .”

Many historians believe America was founded on the principles of the Enlightenment because of the emphasis on reason by a number of thinkers of that era. While it’s true that most Enlightenment thinkers elevated reason to the position of a secular god, reason, logic, and science were staple disciplines among early Christian thinkers that gave rise to science. “The language of Europe and America had as its common feature an emphasis on calm, rational discourse, but we must not confuse this with rationalism,” the belief that reason alone was the basis for all knowledge. By the time Franklin came along, there had been a long history of scholarship in the colonies that rested on the foundation stones of Special Revelation, reasonable inquiry, and scientific investigation. . . .

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Muppet Existentialism In Song?

The Need For Discernment

In the words of John Murray:

A shepherd protects his sheep from their enemies. Wolves enter in among the sheep. The wolves which harass the church of God are emissaries of false doctrine and of evil practice. Satan is never out of his diocese and his specialty is to destroy the pure witness and the fellowship of the church of God. Perhaps there is no more ominous feature of members of the church than the lack of discernment; they can listen to what is good and true, and to what is bad and false, without discrimination. If we are to live in a world where the enemy is active and error is rampant, we must be imbued with a good measure of critical faculty, and here the elders in tending the flock must cultivate for themselves, and inculcate in the members of the church, that sensitivity to truth and right, so that they and the people will be able to detect the voice of the enemy.

Jesus said of His sheep, “a stranger will they not follow,

for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:5).

But this discernment does not operate in a vacuum, and it does not act mechanically; it acts in the context of intelligent apprehension and understanding of the truth. (Collected Writings of John Murray, v1)

Christianity And John Witherspoon

John Witherspoon

John Witherspoon was a president of Princeton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a Ratifier of the US Constitution. He held strong views on the importance of the influence of Christianity upon American civil society:

“It is very evident that both the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New are at great pains to give us a view of the glory and dignity of the person of Christ. With what magnificent titles is He adorned! What glorious attributes are ascribed to him!… All these conspire to teach us that He is truly and properly God – God over all, blessed forever!”

“[I]f you are not reconciled to God through Jesus Christ – if you are not clothed with the spotless robe of His righteousness – you must forever perish.”

“[H]e is the best friend to American liberty who is the most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country.”

Thanksgiving: An American History

From the research and writing of David Barton:

The Pilgrims set sail for America on September 6, 1620, and for two months braved the harsh elements of a storm-tossed sea. Upon disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they held a prayer service and then hastily began building shelters; however, unprepared for such a harsh New England winter, nearly half of them died before spring.  Emerging from that grueling winter, the Pilgrims were surprised when an Indian named Samoset approached them and greeted them in their own language, explaining to them that he had learned English from fishermen and traders. A week later, Samoset returned with a friend named Squanto, who lived with the Pilgrims and accepted their Christian faith. Squanto taught the Pilgrims much about how to live in the New World, and he and Samoset helped forge a long-lasting peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians. Pilgrim Governor William Bradford described Squanto as “a special instrument sent of God for [our] good . . . and never left [us] till he died.”

That summer, the Pilgrims, still persevering in prayer and assisted by helpful Indians, reaped a bountiful harvest. As Pilgrim Edward Winslow (later to become the Governor) affirmed, “God be praised, we had a good increase of corn”; “by the goodness of God, we are far from want.” The grateful Pilgrims therefore declared a three-day feast in December 1621 to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends – America’s first Thanksgiving Festival. Ninety Wampanoag Indians joined the fifty Pilgrims for three days of feasting (which included shellfish, lobsters, turkey, corn bread, berries, deer, and other foods), of play (the young Pilgrim and Wampanoag men engaged in races, wrestling matches, and athletic events), and of prayer. This celebration and its accompanying activities were the origin of the holiday that Americans now celebrate each November. . . .

America’s first national Thanksgiving occurred in 1789 with the commencement of the federal government. According to the Congressional Record for September 25 of that year, the first act after the Framers completed the framing of the Bill of Rights was that:

Mr. [Elias] Boudinot said he could not think of letting the session pass without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would move the following resolution:

Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer. . . .

Mr. Roger Sherman justified the practice of thanksgiving on any single event not only as a laudable one in itself but also as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ. . . . This example he thought worthy of a Christian imitation on the present occasion.

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The War Against The Imperfection Of Others

From Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editor Paul Greenberg:

“The other day, an outfit here in Arkansas opposed to the usual definition of marriage as between a man and a woman put out the list of all those who had signed a petition to insert that traditional definition of marriage into the state constitution. Why publicize their names? For no apparent purpose except to harass those who had exercised their constitutional right to petition their government. And to make them a target for retribution. Circulating such a public record is perfectly legal, and perfectly petty. Like publishing a list of all the citizens in the state who have a concealed-carry permit. That’s been done, too. Why do such a thing except to embarrass them for exercising their constitutional right to bear arms? What turns some of us into the kind of crank who cannot tolerate disagreement? How do they get that way? Here’s my theory: They lack some quality that allows them to move graciously through life. So they strike out against those who do not mirror their own every opinion or inclination. They seem to live in a purely abstract world in which all that counts is their argument with the real one. They are unable simply to disagree; they must quarrel. They seem unable to tolerate the natural differences out there in the world, and are determined to make it conform to their own idea of perfection.”

Man’s Basic Problem And The Constitution

Written by Gary DeMar:

[O]ur nation’s founding fathers understood man’s basic problem. There was the general acknowledgment of human sinfulness, even among those who had been “refined” by education and breeding: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9). Most of us don’t want to believe such negative things about people, since we don’t believe such things about ourselves. Today’s materialist climate does not account for sin. There are “environmental” or “systemic” reasons why people do what they do. But sin? God forbid. . . .

Most colonists grew up with the New England Primer (1690) which began the study of the alphabet with “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.” Some might claim that the indictments leveled against the human race as a whole by these pre-moderns should be excused since they were formulated in a pre-scientific age prior to the development of psychiatric theories which tell us “I’m OK—You’re OK.” And even if you’re not, you can always blame your mother, your father, your teacher, or the Little League or cheerleading coach for your disturbed and sensitive condition. If you can’t find fault in any of these, there is always, “My genes made me do it.” There is a genetic cause for nearly every malady today. . . .

Our nation’s founders acknowledged the sinfulness of man and took it into account when they developed the system of government that has been the envy of the world. “As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust,” wrote James Madison in 1788, “so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form.”

Alexander Hamilton “remarks upon the ‘folly and wickedness of mankind,’ and declares that he regards ‘human nature as it is, without flattering its virtue or exaggerating its vices.’ Consequently, he believes that ‘men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious.’” Hamilton’s “pessimistic view of man is shared by John Jay, the third author of the Federalist, who sees men as governed by ‘the dictates of personal interest’ and who will therefore ‘swerve from good faith and justice.’” Thomas Jefferson astutely observed that “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution. . . .”

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The Psychology Of The Left

Quoting columnist Burt Prelutsky:

“Being a conservative, I naturally spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to psychoanalyze left-wingers, trying to figure out what makes them tick. God knows I’m not bragging. It is, after all, time I could otherwise devote to alphabetizing my canned goods or trying to make contact with Harry Houdini, but I know from the large number of emails I receive that I’m not alone. The lunacy on the left is enough to turn a lot of us into little Sigmund Freuds.”

Ayn Rand’s Contribution To Literature And Freedom

Prior to becoming a Christian, I was an atheist and avid reader of Ayn Rand’s many articles and books. Although there are profound points of disagreement I now have with Ms. Rand’s philosophy of “Objectivism,” she should be honored for her intellectual contributions to the cause of liberty and opposition to government intrusion in the free-market system. She was a true patriot who supported individual rights in opposition to government control of our daily lives. Her works of fiction and non-fiction are well worth reading.

Power

Quoting George Orwell:

“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. … We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end.”

Freedom’s Imperfections

Thomas Sowell

Quoting economist Thomas Sowell:

“‘Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.’ We have heard that many times. What is also the price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections. If everything that is wrong with the world becomes a reason to turn more power over to some political savior, then freedom is going to erode away…. Ultimately, our choice is to give up Utopian quests or give up our freedom. This has been recognized for centuries by some, but many others have not yet faced that reality, even today. If you think government should ‘do something’ about anything that ticks you off, or anything you want and don’t have, then you have made your choice between Utopia and freedom.”

The Conservative Agenda

Quoting President Ronald Reagan:

“Ludwig Von Mises, that great economist, once noted: ‘People must fight for something they want to achieve, not simply reject an evil.’ Well, the conservative movement remains in the ascendancy because we have a bold, forward-looking agenda. No longer can it be said that conservatives are just anti-Communist. We are, and proudly so, but we are also the keepers of the flame of liberty. And as such, we believe that America should be a source of support, both moral and material, for all those on God’s Earth who struggle for freedom. Our cause is their cause, whether it be in Nicaragua, Afghanistan, or Angola. When I came back from Iceland I said — and I meant it — American foreign policy is not simply focused on the prevention of war but the expansion of freedom. Modern conservatism is an active, not a reactive philosophy. It’s not just in opposition to those vices that debase character and community, but affirms values that are at the heart of civilization.”

Christianity Is The Pillar Of Freedom

Jedidiah Morse

Jedidiah Morse was the historian of the American Revolution. He was an educator and is considered the “Father” of American Geography. Concerning the American civil institutions, he wrote:

“To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. All efforts made to destroy the foundations of our Holy Religion ultimately tend to the subversion also of our political freedom and happiness. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation… in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom… Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government – and all the blessings which flow from them – must fall with them.”

The Rights Of Men

Quoting Mark Alexander:

On July 4th of 1776, our Founders, assembled as representatives to the Second Continental Congress, issued a declaration stating most notably: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. … That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”

In other words, our Founders affirmed that our rights, which are inherent by Natural Law as provided by our Creator, can’t be arbitrarily alienated by men like England’s King George III, who believed that the rights of men are the gifts of government.

Reagan On Our Gallant Veterans

Quoting President Ronald Reagan:

We’re gathered today, just as we have gathered before, to remember those who served, those who fought, and those who — those still missing, and those who gave their last full measure of devotion for our country. We’re gathered at a monument on which the names of our fallen friends and loved ones are engraved, and with crosses instead of diamonds beside them, the names of those whose fate we do not yet know. One of those who fell wrote, shortly before his death, these words: “Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.”

Well, today, Veterans Day, as we do every year, we take that moment to embrace the gentle heroes of Vietnam and of all our wars. We remember those who were called upon to give all a person can give, and we remember those who were prepared to make that sacrifice if it were demanded of them in the line of duty, though it never was. Most of all, we remember the devotion and gallantry with which all of them ennobled their nation as they became champions of a noble cause.

The Constitution And The Economy

Walter Williams

Quoting economist Walter E. Williams:

“Thinking about today’s massive deficits, we might ask: Where in the U.S. Constitution is Congress given the authority to do anything about the economy? Between 1787 and 1930, we have had both mild and severe economic downturns that have ranged from one to seven years. During that time there was no thought that Congress should enact New Deal legislation or stimulus packages along with massive corporate handouts. It took the Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt administrations to massively intervene in the economy. As a result, they turned what might have been a two or three-year sharp downturn into a 16-year depression that ended in 1946. … Here’s my question: Were the presidents in office and congresses assembled from 1787 to 1930 ignorant of their constitutional authority to manage and save the economy?”

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Life And Freedom

Patrick Henry

Quoting Patrick Henry:

“Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Fort Hood Soldiers Murdered By Political Correctness

It is very interesting to me that when the story of the Fort Hood massacre hit the major news outlets, it seemed that the primary goal of the mainstream media was to portray that the 13 dead and 30 wounded were victims of a poor guy who had a psychological break-down. We were told over and over that this incident had nothing to do with terrorism or radical Muslim beliefs.

Now we learn that coincidently he attended the very controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia (2001) at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists. The preacher at that time was Anwar al-Awlaki who has been accused of supporting attacks on British soldiers and encouraging terrorist organizations.

Col. Terry Lee, who worked with the killer, said Major Hasan had said, “Muslims shouldn’t be fighting Muslims.” Back in June, when a Muslim convert assassinated a U.S. soldier at a recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas, Col. Lee said that Major Hasan seemed happy about the event and that he was confronted by other officers.

One psychiatrist recalled a lecture Hasan gave when he was a medical resident at Walter Reed. “It freaked them out.” These lectures are supposed to focus on a particular disease or disorder and recent research or treatment options. Instead, Hasan reportedly harangued the doctors and staff about what the Quran taught about non-believers going to hell, being scalded, beheaded, etc.

The evidence certainly indicates that Major Hasan was committed to radical Islam and growing increasingly hostile to the American military. People were increasingly aware of his ideology and yet he was not discharged from the military.

This was not a sudden psychological break-down. Hasan’s actions prior to Thursday demonstrate that he had thought this action through and made plans. Last Thursday, Major Hasan drove on to the base, smuggling with him two guns, a semi-automatic fn 5.7 millimetre known as a “cop killer”, and a revolver. He bought the fn 5.7 in August from the Guns Galore store in Killeen, across the street from the mosque.

Witnesses say he shouted “Allahu Akbar” — Allah is great! — before opening fire in the crowded building where troops were waiting to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, both wars that Hasan angrily opposed. “Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor,” he reportedly said earlier this year, referring to the U.S. — the country he swore to protect.

The politically correct mindset continues to ignore the nature of the enemy we are facing in radical Islam. It has infected and hindered the conduct of our military and intelligence agencies. If Major Hasan had not been protected as a Muslim by political correctness, he would already have been discharged from the military and this tragic event would never have taken place. Political correctness is self-deceiving and it is painfully obvious that our military leaders have been pressured to enforce political correctness to a greater degree than sound military procedures and discipline.

But, what should we expect? Common sense has been expelled from the halls of congress.

Keith Mathison’s Top Ten Books

Keith A. Mathison (M.A., Reformed Theological Seminary; Ph.D., Whitefield Theological Seminary) is dean of the Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies and an associate editor of Tabletalk magazine at Ligonier Ministries. He is the author of Dispensationalism: Rightly Dividing the People of God?; Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope; The Shape of Sola Scriptura; Given For You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper; and From Age to Age: The Unfolding of Biblical Eschatology. He is editor of When Shall These Things Be?: A Reformed Response to Hyper-Preterism and associate editor of The Reformation Study Bible.

1. John Calvin – Institutes of the Christian Religion.

2. Martin Luther - Commentary on Galatians.

3. Robert Bruce – The Mystery of the Lord’s Supper.

4. John Owen – The Mortification of Sin.

5. The Nicene Creed, The Chalcedonian Definition, and either The Three Forms of Unity or The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms.

6. F. F. Bruce – The Defense of the Gospel in the New Testament.

7. Geerhardus Vos – The Pauline Eschatology.

8. Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death.

9. J. R. R. Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings.

10. Although it’s not a book, I would encourage every Christian to read and re-read John Newton’s letter “On Controversy.”

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Journalists Without Shame

From The Desk of Jim O’Neill:

[W]e simply must stop believing the misinformation, propaganda, misdirection, obfuscation and outright lies that the Far-Left has spread, and is currently spreading. I’ll give you a case in point.

The White House is currently spreading the lie that the only reason that any mention of “senior counseling” is in the Obama-Care bill, is because a Republican, Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia), insisted on it. This is typical left-wing misdirection.

This is what Isakson himself, had to say about it, “The White House and others are merely attempting to deflect attention from the intense negativity caused by their unpopular policies. I never consulted with the White House in this process and had no role whatsoever in the House Democrats’ bill. . . .”

And how about the “doctor” at Representative Jackson Lee’s town hall meeting. You know Lee—the Congresswoman who, at one of her town hall meetings, chatted on her cellphone while a cancer survivor tried to speak to her.

It turns out that the “doctor” who praised Obama-Care at Lee’s town hall meeting, isn’t a doctor at all. She’s merely an o-bot for the Far-Left. Perhaps you’ve seen the picture of “doctor” Maria Isabel sitting at her Obama campaign desk, under a Che Guevara flag.

The point here, is that you absolutely, positively, unequivocally, cannot trust anything that comes from the Far-Left and/or the Obama Administration. They’re liars, and they have honed their skill at it to a fine sheen.

So why, you might ask, isn’t the MSM (main stream media) up in arms about any of this (we know why the ACLU doesn’t care). The answer, of course, is that they are for the most part indoctrinated obama-ites. They media might as well be wearing invisible WWOD (What Would Obama Do) bracelets—or more to the point: What Would Obama Have Us Do.

Most of those who ply the trade these days, are pitiful excuses for “journalists.” They have destroyed what was once a respected profession. “Finally…have you no shame!”

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Obama’s “Science Fiction” Advisor

Written by Gary Bauer:

Many people are totally perplexed by the Obama Administration’s push to impose a massive “cap and trade” tax on energy production in the middle of a severe recession. By President Obama’s own admission, “under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket.” Cap and trade will kill jobs in energy-intensive industries like manufacturing, hike consumer prices on virtually every product, and may well push America over the brink from recession to depression. Why are we doing this? It could well be that President Obama is acting in part on the recommendations of his science advisor, Dr. John Holdren.

CNSNews reports that during the 1970s Holdren was an advocate of “de-development”. What is “de-development”? It’s exactly what it sounds like – a radical idea to destroy America’s economy, especially its industrial base, via environmental regulation. These “progressives” literally wanted to take us backwards in time economically. Don’t believe me? Consider this passage from his book:

“The need for de-development presents our economists with a major challenge. They must design a stable, low-consumption economy in which there is a much more equitable distribution of wealth than in the present one. Redistribution of wealth both within and among nations is absolutely essential, if a decent life is to be provided to every human being.”

He goes on to label certain technological advances as undesirable, things like “fission power, giant automobiles, plastic wrappings, genetic engineering, disposable packages and containers, synthetic pesticides…”, and adds that “the halcyon days of unquestioning public acceptance of technological ‘progress’ must disappear forever.”

In other words, capitalism is out; communism is in. Government bureaucrats and central planners will provide you a “decent life,” presumably with plenty of candles to light your hut. At least Holdren had enough common sense to understand that his workers’ paradise might present a major challenge to economists. That’s because centralized government planning doesn’t work. That’s why the Soviet Union no longer exists. I don’t want to try to recreate that failed experiment in socialism here.

The Obama Administration, with the support of most Democrats in Congress, is pushing a cap and trade scheme that will redistribute wealth through higher energy taxes on businesses and successful families and greatly facilitate the “de-development” of the United States.

Believe it or not, it gets worse. [Several] weeks ago I told you about Holdren’s support for “compulsory population control laws,” including “compulsory abortion.” Here’s more about his view of human life: “The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being.”

Did you catch that little nuance? In Holdren’s mind, a living baby “during the crucial early years after birth” is not yet fully human, but “will ultimately develop into a human being.” That kind of dehumanizing rationalization naturally leads one to support “compulsory abortion” and euthanasia. To the central planners, each life is not an asset, but rather a liability to Big Government’s bottom line. The passages in the ObamaCare bill about “end of life” counseling for our senior citizens could have been plagiarized from one Dr. Holdren’s books.

It’s shocking that this man survived the vetting process. Administration officials, including President Obama, should be forced to explain his appointment. Members of Congress should take every opportunity to put this man on the record about his beliefs. If Holdren does not repudiate his own writings, he should be forced to resign.

The Act Of Achievement

Quoting novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand:

“Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes before distribution — or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement.”

Caging Christianity

Written by Gary DeMar:

There are numerous Christians who believe that a personal, private faith is all the gospel requires. Os Guinness described this as “The Private-Zoo Factor,” a religion that is caged so that it loses its wildness. When true Christianity is applied to any part of the world, it blossoms far more fully and colorfully than any other worldview. Contrary successful worldviews must borrow from the Christian worldview in order for them to work. When pagans stopped believing that they lived in “an enchanted forest” and that “glens and groves, rocks and streams are alive with spirits, sprites, demons” and “nature teems with sun gods, river goddesses, [and] astral deities,” at that moment the world and everything in it changed. Everything seemed possible within the boundaries of God’s Providence and law. A Christian worldview made science possible and civil government ministerial rather than messianic. Stanley Jaki, the author of numerous books on the relationship between Christianity and science, comments:

“Nothing irks the secular world so much as a hint, let alone a scholarly demonstration, that supernatural revelation, as registered in the Bible, is germane to science. Yet biblical revelation is not only germane to science—it made the only viable birth of science possible. That birth took place in a once-Christian West.”

Continue reading. . . .

The Alternative To Tyranny

Quoting President Ronald Reagan:

“The Founding Fathers established a system which meant a radical break from that which preceded it. A written constitution would provide a permanent form of government, limited in scope, but effective in providing both liberty and order. Government was not to be a matter of self-appointed rulers, governing by whim or harsh ideology. It was not to be government by the strongest or for the few. Our principles were revolutionary. We began as a small, weak republic. But we survived. Our example inspired others, imperfectly at times, but it inspired them nevertheless. This constitutional republic, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, prospered and grew strong. To this day, America is still the abiding alternative to tyranny. That is our purpose in the world — nothing more and nothing less.”

The Salem Witch Trials And Historical Perspective

From the pen of Dinesh D’Souza:

“And the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the witch burnings? Contemporary historians have now established that the horrific images of the Inquisitions are largely a myth concocted first by the political enemies of Spain-mainly English writers who shaped our American understanding of that event-and later by the political enemies of religion. Henry Kamen’s book The Spanish Inquisition is subtitled “A Historical Revision”, and it is a long book, because Kamen has a lot of revising to do. One of his chapters is called “Inventing the Inquisition.” He means that much of the modern stereotype of the Inquisition is essentially made up. How many people were executed for heresy by the Inquisition? Kamen estimates that it was around 2,000. These deaths are all tragic, but we must remember that they occurred over a period of 350 years. Religion-inspired killings simply cannot compete with the murders perpetrated by atheist regimes. Taken together, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the witch burnings killed approximately 200,000 people over a five-hundred year period. We have to recognize that atheist regimes have in a single century murdered more than one hundred million people.” (What’s So Great About Christianity)