Newt Gingrich in Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich
On Education:
Removing God from Pledge of Allegiance assaults our identity
There is no attack on American culture more destructive and more historically dishonest than the relentless effort to drive God out of America’s public square. The 2002 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the phrase “under God” is
unconstitutional represents a fundamental assault on our American identity. A court that would unilaterally modify the Pledge of Allegiance as adopted by the Congress in 1954, signed by President Eisenhower, and supported 91% of the American people is a
court that is clearly out of step with an America that understands that our unalienable rights come from God. How can the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, overrule the culture & maintain its moral authority? It can’t. The Supreme Court begins
each day with the proclamation “God save the United States and this honorable Court.” This phrase was not adopted as a ceremonial phrase of no meaning: it was adopted because justices in the 1820s actually wanted to call on God to save the US & the Court
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p. 6
Dec 31, 2006
On Education:
Removing “God” from Pledge assaults our identity
There is no attack on American culture more destructive and more historically dishonest than the secular Left’s relentless effort to drive God out of America’s public square. The 2002 decision by the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the phrase “under God” is unconstitutional represents a fundamental assault on our American identify. A court that would unilaterally modify the Pledge of Allegiance as adopted by the Congress in 1954, signed by
President Eisenhower, and supported by 91% of the American people is a court that is clearly out of step with an
America that understands that our unalienable rights come from God.
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p. 6
Dec 31, 2006
On Government Reform:
Insist on judges who understand our rights come from God
For most Americans, the blessings of God have been the basis of our liberty, prosperity, and survival as a unique country.For most Americans, prayer is real, and we subordinate ourselves to a God on whom we call for wisdom, guidance, and salvation.
For most Americans, the prospect of a ruthlessly secular society that would forbid public reference to God and systematically remove all religious symbols from the public square is horrifying.
Yet, the voice of the overwhelming majority of Americans
is rejected by a media-academic-legal elite. Our schools have been steadily driving the mention of God out of American history. Our courts have been literally outlawing references to God, religious symbols, and prayer.
We have passively accepted the
judiciary’s assault on the values of the overwhelming majority of Americans. It is time to insist on judges who understand that throughout our history, Americans have believed that their fundamental rights come from God and are therefore unalienable.
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p. 9-10
Dec 31, 2006
On Government Reform:
Insist on judges who understand our rights come from God
- For most Americans, the blessings of God have been the basis of our liberty, prosperity, and survival as a unique country.
- For most Americans, prayer is real, and we subordinate ourselves to a God on whom we call for wisdom, guidance,
and salvation.
- For most Americans, the prospect of a ruthlessly secular society that would forbid public reference to God and systematically remove all religious symbols from the public square is horrifying.
Yet, the voice of the overwhelming majority of Americans is rejected by a media-academic-legal elite that finds religious expression frightening and threatening, or old-fashioned and unsophisticated.
It is time to insist on judges who understand that throughout our history--and continuing to this day--Americans have believed that their fundamental rights come from God and are therefore unalienable.
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p. 9-10
Dec 31, 2006
On Government Reform:
Our rights come from God, not from government
As the most consequential document of freedom in human history, the Declaration of Independence is the most important document held in the National Archives. It was influenced by the Magna Carta of 1215, a contract of rights between the British king and
his barons generally regarded as the first step toward guaranteed liberties in Britain. However, the Declaration of Independence differs from the Magna Carta in one essential way: The Founding Fathers believed that our rights as human beings come from
God, not from the kind or the state. Thus, they rejected the notion that power came through the monarch to the people; but rather, directly from God.The Declaration of Independence contains four references to God: as lawmaker, as Creator, as Supreme
Judge, and as Protector. The Declaration of Independence represents both the genesis and heart of American liberty. Our rights come from our Creator, not the government, sovereign, or King.
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p. 29-30
Dec 31, 2006
On Principles & Values:
Constitution says freedom OF religion, not FROM religion
The first ten amendments to the Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights. Amendment I begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”The language clearly prohibits the
establishment of an official national religion, while at the same time protecting the observance of religion in both private and public spaces. In fact, two of the principal authors of the First Amendment, Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison, who were also our third and fourth presidents, respectively, both attended church services in the Capitol building, the most public of American spaces. During Jefferson’s presidency, church services were also held in the
Treasury building and the Supreme Court. Therefore, these Founding Fathers clearly saw no conflict in opposing the establishment of an official religion while protecting the freedom of religious expression in the public square.
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p. 31-32
Dec 31, 2006
On Principles & Values:
Supreme Court hostile to religion, but building based on it
While recent years have seen increasing hostility from the courts to public displays of religion, the Supreme Court is filled with them. Notice that all sessions begin with the Court’s marshal announcing: “God save the United States and this honorable
court.”Throughout history, decisions of the Supreme Court have recognized that we are a religious nation. For example, in the 1952 case Zorach vs. Clauson, the court upheld a statute that allowed students to be released from school to attend religious
classes.
The most striking religious imagery at the Supreme Court building is that of Moses with the Ten Commandments. Affirming the Judeo-Christian roots of our legal system, they can be found in several places: at the center of the sculpture over the
east portico of the building, inside the actual courtroom, and finally, engraved over the chair of the Chief Justice, and on the bronze doors of the Supreme Court itself. There is also a sculpted marble depiction of Mohammad on the wall.
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p. 85-89
Dec 31, 2006
On Principles & Values:
Creator as source of liberty is literally written in stone
The first rays of sun on our Nation’s Capital each morning illuminate [the Washington Monument]. And there on the top is inscribed Laus Deo (“Praise be to God”). These simple words, for the eyes of heaven alone, are a fitting reflection of George
Washington’s conviction that liberty is owed to divine blessing. [One can see in any tour of Washington DC] that our Creator is the source of American liberty--it is literally written into the rock, mortar, and marble of American history.
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p.130-131
Dec 31, 2006
On Principles & Values:
Media-academic-legal elite imposes radical secularist vision
A media-academic-legal elite is energetically determined to impose a radically secularist vision against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Americans. This outlook rejects the wisdom if the founding generation as outdated and treats the notion
that our liberties come from God as a curious artifact from the 1770s but of little practical importance for more enlightened times.
This elite is especially hard at work in the courts and in the classrooms where it is attempting to overturn two centuries of American self-understanding of religious freedom and political liberty.
In the courts, we see a systematic effort by this elite to purge all religious expression from American public life. The ongoing attempt to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance is only the most well-known of these mounting efforts.
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p.131-132
Dec 31, 2006
On Civil Rights:
Five justices banned school prayer against American majority
The views by the media-academic-legal elite are completely at odds with the overwhelming majority of Americans. Once five justices decided we could not pray in schools or at graduation or could not display the Ten Commandments, we lost those rights.
If five justices decide we cannot say that our nation is “under God,” then we will also lose that right. They are not only arbitrarily rewriting the law of the land but are usurping the legitimate rights of the legislative branch to make the laws.
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p.132-133
Dec 31, 2006
On Government Reform:
Supreme Court has become permanent Constitutional Convention
The media-academic-legal elite have been successful to date at purging all religious expression from American public life. Their success is because for the last 50 years the Supreme Court has become a permanent constitutional convention in which the
whims of five appointed lawyers have rewritten the meaning of the Constitution. Under this new, all-powerful model of the Court, the Constitution and the law can be redefined by federal judges unchecked by the other two coequal branches of government.
This power grab by the Court is a modern phenomenon and a dramatic break in American history. The danger is that the courts will move us from a self-understanding that we are one nation “under God”, to a nation under the rule of the state, where rights
are accorded to individuals not by our Creator, but by those in power ruling over them. History is replete with examples of this failed model of might-makes-right--Nazism, fascism, communism--and their disastrous consequences.
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p.132-133
Dec 31, 2006
On Education:
Replace multiculturalism with patriotic education
In the classroom, the very concept of America is under assault. The traditional notion of our country as a union of one people, the American people, has been assaulted by multiculturalism, situational ethics, and a values-neutral model in which Western
values and American history are ignored or ridiculed. Unless we act to reverse this trend, our next generation will grow up with no understanding of core American values. This will destroy America as we know it, as surely as if a foreign conqueror had
overwhelmed us.It is absolutely necessary to establish a firm foundation of patriotic education upon which further knowledge can be built; otherwise, Americans will lack understanding of American values & how important & great it is to be an American.
It is important to understand what makes America so unique and why generations of diverse people immigrated to this great land for freedom and opportunity. If Americans do not appreciate America, then how can they be ready and willing to defend her?
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p.133-134
Dec 31, 2006
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