”Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is
acknowledged. When our Founding Fathers passed the First Amendment, they sought to protect churches from government interference. They never intended to
construct a wall of hostility between government and the concept of religious
belief itself. … To those who cite the First Amendment as reason for excluding
God from more and more of our institutions every day, I say: The First Amendment
of the Constitution was not written to protect the people of this country from
religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government
tyranny.” ― President Ronald Reagan
“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.” – President John Adams
“The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.” – John F. Kennedy
“Education is useless without the Bible. The Bible was America’s basic text book in all fields. God’s Word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct.” – Noah Webster
”The only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.” – Benjamin Rush
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable.” – George Washington
“The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests.” – President Andrew Jackson
“In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. – President Abraham Lincoln
“For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the Constitution] a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.” – Alexander Hamilton
“Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.” ―
William Penn
“We have this day [Fourth of July] restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His Kingdom come.” – Samual Adams
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.” – President Thomas Jefferson
”Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first, the most basic, expression of Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God’s help, it will continue to be.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The way liberals are interpreting the First Amendment today is that it prevents anyone who is religious from being in government.” ― Rush Limbaugh
”I believe that the next half century will determine if we will advance the cause of Christian civilization or revert to the horrors of brutal paganism.” – President Theodore Roosevelt
“The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.” – President Calvin Coolidge
“Once abolish the God and the government becomes the God.” ― G.K. Chesterton
“I will raise my voice as long as God gives me sound or ability, against this
Communistic idea that the Government will take care of us all, and everything
belongs to the government. It is wrong!” ― David O. McKay
“For years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our
government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe
He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His
protection if we demand He leave us alone?” ― Anne Graham
“I have lived, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Rights are either God-given as part of the divine plan, or they are granted by
government as part of the political plan. If we accept the premise that human
rights are granted by government, then we must be willing to accept the
corollary that they can be denied by government.” ― Ezra Taft Benson
“We should remember that the Declaration of Independence is not merely a
historical document. It is an explicit recognition that our rights derive not
from the King of England, not from the judiciary, not from government at all,
but from God. The keystone of our system of popular sovereignty is the
recognition, as the Declaration acknowledges, that ’all men are created equal’
and ’endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.’ Religion and God
are no alien to our system of government, they’re integral to it.” ― Mark R.
Levin
“America is ensnared in self-indulgence and its future hangs in the balance. Our
moral and spiritual foundations are rapidly being destroyed. Our arrogance is
producing a socialist state that is becoming our god. The entitlement state of
mind has created a nation that looks to the government for the answer to our
problems, when the only answer is, “Our Father which art in heaven.” ― John
Hagee
“The Limit of this obligation to obedience [to the civil government] will be
found only when we are commanded to do something contrary to the superior
authority of God (Acts iv. 19; v. 29); or when the civil government has become
so radically and incurably corrupt that it has ceased to accomplish the ends for
which it was established. When that point has unquestionably been reached, when
all means of redress have been exhausted without avail, when there appears no
prospect of securing reform in the government itself, and some good prospect of
securing it by revolution, then it is the privilege and duty of a Christian
people to change their government – peacefully if they may, forcibly if they
must.”
― Archibald Alexander Hodge
“If there is no final place for civil disobedience, then the government has been
made autonomous, and as such, it has been put in the place of the living God.” ―
Francis August Schaeffer
“The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount…If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State.” ― President Harry S. Truman
“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.” – Patrick Henry
Speaking of those “intolerant Muslims”, I tutored a man from Kandahar when he learned I am a writer and needed help writing his research papers. David (Daud) was always fun to work with, and after paying me $20 per session, also took me out for a hamburger. David and I went in quest of the best hamburger in town. It was a fun time with a person from another culture. He told me he was young when Soviet troops stormed Kandahar and drug people out of their homes in the middle of the night. He knew no English when he arrived as a refugee on our shores.
One night, David invited me to an Afghan wedding. This was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever seen. The bride wears green, which represents fertility and satiety, and everything is highly ritualized. As something still special to my heart about that night, since I was the only Caucasian in the room, the bride’s father, who traditionally goes to the meal first, asked me to precede me. This is a high honor. I was quite moved.
Perhaps when you’re out judging others, perhaps you will be more effective judging others by judging them as individuals, not as groups you about which you know nothing.
If only we could tell at a glance which ones wanted to kill us and which ones would hold us in high esteem as honored guests. Tell those families of murdered service men who were merely trying to do their job and train Afghanis to fight for their freedom but were shot in the back for their efforts to not judge those who murdered their loved one.
Just because you had a good experience doesn’t mean the rest of us who are well aware of who drove those planes into the twin towers are going to feel the same way. Who is cutting off the heads of Christians in the Middle East? How do you know he knows nothing? I think he knows quite a lot. You are the naive one. Wake up already!
I hired a Muslim nanny right after 911 & became quite familiar with the moderates & their culture. However to equate experiencing some positive relationships in the US with what’s going on in this crazy immigrant situation is just plain ignorant.
Lisa. . . you and Gordon Hilgers are the ones that are ignorant. Both of you must of forgotten about the September 11 attacks, 2,996 people were killed: 2,977 victims with the 19 Islamic Muslim terrorist perpetrators. These immediate deaths included 246 victims on the four planes, 2,606 victims inside the World Trade Center and in the surrounding area, and 125 victims at the Pentagon.
All of those killed were civilians excepting 71 law enforcement officers and 343 firefighters who died in the World Trade Center and on the ground in New York City, one law enforcement officer who died when United Airlines 93 crashed into the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and 55 military personnel who died at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. Overall, 2,605 U.S. citizens died in the attacks but an additional 372 non-U.S. citizens (excluding the 19 Isamic Muslim terrorist perpetrators). More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks, including the United Kingdom (including the British overseas territory of Bermuda) (67 deaths), the Dominican Republic (47 deaths), and India (41 deaths).
Oooo. . . should I post more like the Boston attack? Better yet. . . try clicking on this web sites above link about the evil of Islam, for it’s a real eye opener.
Thank you, Mr. Gordon Hilgers, for sharing you story with us.
Possible you story would have had more respect if it had ended with the two short sentences: “This is a high honor. I was quite moved.”
To continue on with your characterization of others, dissolves the passion in your story. Judgments are made by trillions of people every second of each day. Many times, these judgments are made for self defense and the preservation of life, liberty and freedom.
So, please be kind in you thinking of others as you wish others to be kind to your friend. The word MOSLEM is spelled and used in all caps to shout the warning to others who have not had your favorable experience.
It takes very little research to find why MOSLEM is used. Obviously, there is 1400 years of unfavorable experiences received by the million of dead people in many countries.
There are only about 8 billion people on the planet.