Author: Dreisbach, Daniel
Genre: Politics / Government
Tags: Democracy / Government / Politics
Series:
Debra Conley‘s Review:
Every Christian ought to read this book and be familiar with its arguments in light of the anti-Christian “separation of church and state” culture in our courts, many of them declaring any form of public Christianity unconstitutional. We have priceless religious freedom guaranteed in our Constitution, guarantees we are losing in the courts. In exploring this, Dreisbach clearly explains the metaphor Jefferson used in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Church; it was never in the U.S. Constitution, and the original intent of Jefferson’s metaphor was not anything such as we hear today. The danger pointed out by this author is the lack of scholarship in going to original documents and authorities. Indeed there are many first hand accounts written by contemporaries of Jefferson, notably Presidents John Adams and James Madison (who authored most of the Constitution), who gave the phrase no such rendering as the courts do today. Those letters which give clear, first-hand interpretations of original intent are totally ignored. The catalyst for changing this original intent came in the form of a Supreme Court Justice.
In summarizing the court’s ruling on Everson v. Board of Education of 1947 (commonly referred to as busing laws) which set the courts on its anti-all-Christian bent, Dreisbach says, “Citing no source or authority other than Reynolds (the previous case which had resurrected the metaphor from Jefferson’s letter), Justice Hugo L. Black, …invoked the Danbury letter’s “wall of separation” passage.” (p. 100). Dreisbach’s point is that the U.S. Constitution was given no reference as the reasoning for Black’s decision, only the phrase, already distorted from the Reynold’s case (p. 97-98). To the discredit of many others who have followed Black, example after example is given of justices and lawyers who refuse to return to the source (the U.S. Constitution) for a position and instead use the already strained metaphor and distortion written by Black as the factual basis for their arguments.
A twentieth century book by Dave Breese titled, Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave needs to add Justice Hugo Black as the eighth man. With his distortion of Thomas Jefferson’s metaphor and the aid of the ACLU (p. 101), he single handedly changed the course of history, reducing this Christian-born nation to court mandated atheism, void of its heritage and its anchor. A good point made by author Dreisbach is that the U.S. Constitution says to make no laws of any kind regarding religion; it is a state issue. If any federal law has been made, whether pro or con, that law is what should be declared unconstitutional.