Principles of Liberty (Four)

Principle Number Four
By William L. Pressgrove

“Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.”

Because of the philosophical changes that have taken place in the United States, people of this century find it difficult to believe that religion had a prominent role in the establishment of the government of this country. There are many writings that point to the Founding Fathers belief in “Universal Fundamentals” (The 5000 Year Leap, p.77) of religion. The Northwest Ordinance which preceded the Constitution in 1787 “emphasized the essential need to teach religion and morality in the schools. Article 3 states:

“Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encourages.”

In this case “religion...might be defined as a ‘fundamental system of beliefs concerning man’s origin and relationship to the cosmic universe as well as his relationship with his fellowmen.’” (Leap, p.76) Morality under their definition and understanding meant of right and wrong. Knowledge is also defined as being necessary to good government, but the topic that seems most controversial is the religion part (although to my way of thinking it is very difficult for morality to exist in the absence of religion).
As a school teacher, I deal with the issues of students not knowing right from wrong every day. The secular-humanistic philosophy that dominates public education has engrained in the students a narcissistic attitude that is displayed by expressions of “if it feels good, do it.” When asked how many feel that they are religious or if they attend church, less than half are willing to acknowledge any type of religious affiliation or belief. It also explains the, “If I don’t get caught, I did nothing wrong,” statements I get all the time from students that are knowingly violating the Student Handbook.
If this trend continues, the Constitution will not be adequate for the governance of this country. W. Cleon Skousen points out very clearly that the Founding Father’s understanding of the Constitutional principles was that they were sufficient to govern a “religious and moral” people, but that if the time should come when this country would forsake those religious and moral moorings that it would fall into decay and decline. Take a look around, without much difficulty the lack of morality, as defined by the Founding Fathers, is evident in almost every state in the nation.
The fourth principle is one that indispensible to the future and security of this country. If our political leaders continue to ignore it, then the political parties of this country will continue to lose their power and influence in this country. However, in order to maintain their control, they will try to convince the people of this country that the Constitution is outmoded and state that a new constitution needs to be instituted that will resemble socialism more than a republic. We need to work to retain the Constitution in order to retain our freedom because socialism is totalitarianism or tyranny instead of “people’s rule.”