The following is an excerpt from Floyd McElveen's book, "Faith of an Atheist".
In the Mayflower Compact, it was clearly stated that spreading the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as freedom to worship without being under a mandated State church, was their purpose.
Patrick Henry endorsed and emphasized this, when he wrote in 1776, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religion, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."
This information and some following truths were taken from a booklet on the internet, "Forsaken Roots," but I also have many more historical facts about the founding of our country in books David Barton wrote.
Page 1 of "Forsaken Roots" asks, "Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence were orthodox, deeply committed Christians?"
Page 2 informs us, "It is the same congress that formed the American Bible Society. Immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and import, 20,000 copies of Scripture for the people of this nation."
George Washington said in part, on September 19, 1796 (pg. 7), "It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible."
John Adams, our second President, was chairman of the American Bible Society. On pg. 10 of "Forsaken Roots," he observantly and astutely comments, "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." How true that has proven to be. The further we get away from God and the Bible, the more corrupt our government, society and schools become, so that now we have virtually no standard of right and wrong, and tremendous moral deterioration is taking place.
On pg. 14 of "Forsaken Roots," we find that in 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools."
The McGuffey Reader, a powerful Christian book, was used in our schools for over 100 years. Over 125 million copies of this book were sold.
Hospitals worldwide were largely a result of Christians and the Christian message.
Page 16 informs us that, "Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first." On. pg. 19, "For over 100 years, more than 50% of all Harvard graduates were pastors." We owe our Constitution, our wonderful and free American Nation, and our educational and judicial system to the Bible, Christians and the Christian faith.
Yet a godless nation, Russia, inundated by Atheistic Communists, provides a stark contrast between atheism and Christianity. With the collapse of Communism and the chaos, corruption and criminal activity, which were unleashed, many Russians became Christians. When the rigid dictatorial regime glued together by fear, disintegrated, they turned to Christ.
While our schools are pandering to the Atheists and Agnostics, lest we offend some, and doing everything possible to get God out of the schools, according to Olga of the Kindness Foundation, Russian schools are now asking that Christianity be taught in their schools. (end of excerpt)
Lord help us to turn back to You as a nation. Help us to put You back in our schools and back in our public square. Instead of focusing our attention on shutting up our faith for fear of offending the non-believers, let us turn our eyes to Jesus so that our land can be healed.