Help Needed for Camp Constitution’s Annual Family Camp Coming Up In Two Weeks

 

Our 18th Annual Camp starts in two weeks, and we have some families that need financial help.  Please consider donating to their camp fees.  Thanks to the generosity of our camp supports, we have never had to turn away any worthy families or campers for lack of funds.  Our costs for the week are those 13 and older $300, and 12 and under $200.  Please prayerfully consider donating to help give these people a potential life changing experience at our camp.  Donations can be made via our PayPal account accessed from our website’s homepage    www.campconstitution.net      or by check payable to Camp Constitution and mailed to us at 146 Powder Mill Rd. Alton, NH  03809.   And, we still have space available.  If you plan to attend, please reach out by Thursday  July 2 as we have to give Singing Hills a final count on Friday July 3rd.  Here is info on the camp:

 

Camp Constitution  18th Annual Family Camp will be held at the Singing Hills Christian Camp https://www.singinghills.net/ Plainfield, NH. from Sunday July 12 to Friday July 17, 2026

Returning instructors include Pastor David Whitney of the Institute on the Constitution, Catherine White of The Constitution Decoded, Alex Newman, author and host of the Sentinel Report, Kurt Hyde, retired U.S. Air Force Lt, Col, and Rev. Steve Craft, Camp Constitution’s chaplain.


   Guest instructors include Mrs. Julie Wilkinson who played in the movie “”UnPlanned:  The Abby Johnson Story.”  In addition to the classes, the camp will offer marksmanship courses, martial arts, hiking, basketball, volleyball, wiffleball, and optional field trip and swimming, chess, gaga and corn hole tournaments.  Campers and staff end the day with an evening campfire. 

Our theme:  Celebrating our nation’s 250th Birthday

Camp Constitution’s annual camp is a family camp open to entire families, unaccompanied minors, and adults. The cost for the week which includes lodging, meals and class handouts is $300 for those 13 and over. $200. For campers 12 and under, and three and under with parents are free.     A link to the camp registration:  https://campconstitution.net/camp-registration/

For more information contact Hal Shurtleff (857) 498-1309  campconstitution1@gmail.com

 

American Minute with Bill Federer Supreme Court, 1892 – America a “Christian Nation”

U.S. Supreme Court stated in the 1892 case of Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, written by Justice David Josiah Brewer (143 U.S. 457-458, 465-471, 36 L ed 226):

“This is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation” … continue reading …

Download as PDF …

America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations

The Supreme Court continued:

“The commission to Christopher Columbus … (recited) that

‘it is hoped that by God’s assistance some of the continents and islands in the ocean will be discovered’ …

… The first colonial grant made to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 … and the grant authorizing him to enact statutes for the government of the proposed colony provided

‘that they be not against the true Christian faith’ …

… The first charter of Virginia, granted by King James I in 1606 … commenced the grant in these words:

‘… in propagating of Christian Religion to such People as yet live in Darkness …’

… Language of similar import may be found in the subsequent charters of that colony … in 1609 and 1611; and the same is true of the various charters granted to the other colonies.

In language more or less emphatic is the establishment of the Christian religion declared to be one of the purposes of the grant.

… The celebrated compact made by the Pilgrims in the Mayflower, 1620, recites:

‘Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith … a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia’ …

… The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, under which a provisional government was instituted in 1638-1639, commence with this declaration:

‘… And well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union … there should be an orderly and decent government established according to God … to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess … of the said gospel is now practiced amongst us.’

… In the charter of privileges granted by William Penn to the province of Pennsylvania, in 1701, it is recited:

‘… no people can be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyment of civil liberties, if abridged of … their religious profession and worship …’

Coming nearer to the present time, the Declaration of Independence recognizes the presence of the Divine in human affairs in these words:

‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …

appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions …

And for the support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor’ …

These declarations … reaffirm that this is a religious nation.”

Justice Brewer continued in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States:

“While because of a general recognition of this truth the question has seldom been presented to the courts, yet we find that in Updegraph v. The Commonwealth, it was decided that,

‘Christianity, general Christianity, is, and always has been, a part of the common law … not Christianity with an established church … but Christianity with liberty of conscience to all men.’

… And in The People v. Ruggles, Chancellor Kent, the great commentator on American law, speaking as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, said:

‘The people of this State, in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity, as the rule of their faith and practice …

We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of those impostors.’

… And in the famous case of Vidal v. Girard’s Executors (1844) this Court … observed:

‘It is also said, and truly, that the Christian religion is a part of the common law of Pennsylvania’ …

If we pass beyond these matters to a view of American life as expressed by its laws, its business, its customs and its society, we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth.

Among other matters note the following:

The form of oath universally prevailing, concluding with an appeal to the Almighty;

the custom of opening sessions of all deliberative bodies and most conventions with prayer;

the prefatory words of all wills, ‘In the name of God, amen’;

the laws respecting the observance of the Sabbath, with the general cessation of all secular business, and the closing of courts, legislatures, and other similar public assemblies on that day;

the churches and church organizations which abound in every city, town and hamlet;

the multitude of charitable organizations existing everywhere under Christian auspices;

the gigantic missionary associations, with general support, and aiming to establish Christian missions in every quarter of the globe.

These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation …”

Justice Brewer continued:

“Or like that in articles 2 and 3 of part 1 of the Constitution of Massachusetts, (1780)

… ‘It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe …

As the happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality, and as these cannot be generally diffused through a community but by the institution of the public worship of God and of public instructions in piety, religion, and morality:

Therefore, to promote their happiness, and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this commonwealth …

authorize … the several towns, parishes, precincts … to make suitable provision … for the institution of the public worship of God and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality …'”

Brewer added:

“Or, as in sections 5 and 14 of article 7 of the Constitution of Mississippi, (1832:)

‘No person who denies the being of a God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state …

Religion morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government, the preservation of liberty, and the happiness of mankind, schools, and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged in this state.’

… Or by article 22 of the Constitution of Delaware, (1776) which required all officers, besides an oath of allegiance, to make and subscribe the following declaration:

‘I, A.B., do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.'”

Justice David Josiah Brewer had served on the Kansas Supreme Court, 1870-1884.

President Chester A. Arthur appointed him a Circuit Court Judge in 1884, then a Supreme Court Justice in 1889.

Brewer was a nephew of Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field, with whom he serve 9 years on the bench.

Justice Brewer died on March 28, 1910.

In his work, The United States-A Christian Nation, published in Philadelphia by the John C. Winston Company, 1905, Justice Brewer wrote:

“We classify nations in various ways. As, for instance, by their form of government.

One is a kingdom, another an empire, and still another a republic.

Also by race. Great Britain is an Anglo-Saxon nation, France a Gallic, Germany a Teutonic, Russia a Slav.

And still again by religion. One is a Mohammedan nation, others are heathen, and still others are Christian nations.

This republic is classified among the Christian nations of the World. It was so formally declared by the Supreme Court of the United States …”

Brewer continued:

“We constantly speak of this republic as a Christian nation in fact, as the leading Christian nation of the world.

This popular use of the term certainly has significance …

In no charter or constitution is there anything to even suggest that any other than the Christian is the religion of this country.

In none of them is Mohammed or Confucius or Buddha in any manner noticed.

In none of them is Judaism recognized other than by way of toleration of its special creed …”

He concluded:

“While the separation of church and state is often affirmed, there is nowhere a repudiation of Christianity as one of the institutions as well as benedictions of society.

In short, there is no charter or constitution that is either infidel, agnostic, or anti-Christian.

Wherever there is a declaration in favor of any religion it is of the Christian …

I could show how largely our laws and customs are based upon the laws of Moses and the teachings of Christ;

how constantly the Bible is appealed to as the guide of life and the authority in question of morals.”

On August 28, 1947, President Harry S Truman wrote of America to Pope Pius XII:

“Your Holiness, this is a Christian Nation. More than a half century ago that declaration was written into the decrees of the highest court in this land.

It is not without significance that the valiant pioneers who left Europe to establish settlements here, at the very beginning of their colonial enterprises, declared their faith in the Christian religion and made ample provision for its practice and for its support.

The story of the Christian missionaries who in earliest days endured perils, hardship — even death itself in carrying the message of Jesus Christ to untutored savages is one that still moves the hearts of men …”

He added:

“As a Christian Nation our earnest desire is to work with men of good will everywhere to banish war and the causes of war from the world whose Creator desired that men of every race and in every clime (region) should live together in peace, good will and mutual trust …

that mankind shall live in freedom, not in the chains of untruth nor in the chains of a collectivist organization.”

Chief Justice John Jay wrote to John Murray, a Pennsylvania State Representative, October 12, 1816:

“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

When President William Henry Harrison died in office, the next President, John Tyler declared a National Day of Fasting, stating April 13, 1841:

“When a Christian people feel themselves to be overtaken by a great public calamity, it becomes them to humble themselves under the dispensation of Divine Providence.”

In 1838, the New York State Legislature wrote:

“With us it is wisely ordered that no one religion shall be established by law, but that all persons shall be left free in their choice and in their mode of worship.

Still, this is a Christian nation. Ninety-nine hundredths, if not a larger proportion, of our whole population, believe in the general doctrines of the Christian religion.

Our Government depends for its being on the virtue of the people, – on that virtue that has its foundation in the morality of the Christian religion.”

During a cholera epidemic in which 150,000 Americans died, President Zachary Taylor declared a National Day of Fasting.

New Jersey Governor Daniel Haines issued supportive proclamation, published in the Paterson Intelligencer, August 1, 1849:

“Whereas the President … inconsideration of the prevailing pestilence, has set … a Day of Fasting … and whereas I believe that the people of this State recognize the obligations of a Christian nation publicly to acknowledge their dependence upon Almighty God …

… that … they assemble … with humble confession of sin … and … implore the Almighty Ruler of the Universe, to remove us from the scourge … and … restore to us the inestimable blessing of health.”

Francis Scott Key addressed the Washington Society of Alexandria, March 22, 1814:

“The patriot who feels himself in the service of God … will therefore seek to establish for his country in the eyes of the world, such a character as shall make her not unworthy of the name of a Christian nation.”

Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, who Lincoln later appointed Chief Justice, assigned Director of the U.S. Mint James Pollock, former Governor of Pennsylvania, with the task of adding “In God We Trust” to the two cent coin.

James Pollock’s Report was printed by U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1863, page 190-191:

“We claim to be a Christian nation — why should we not vindicate our character by honoring the God of Nations …

Our national coinage should do this. Its legends and devices should declare our trust in God – in Him who is ‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords’ …

The motto suggested, ‘God our Trust,’ is taken from our National Hymn, the ‘Star-Spangled Banner.'”

President William Taft stated December 6, 1912:

“We are a world power …

Our responsibilities in the Pacific and the Atlantic … require us … to clothe ourselves with sufficient naval power … to give weight to our influence in those directions of progress that a powerful Christian nation should advocate.”

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who did not support President Truman dropping the atomic bomb, had stated August 10, 1945:

“If we, as a professedly Christian nation, feel morally free to use atomic energy in that way, men elsewhere will accept that verdict.

Atomic weapons will be looked upon as a normal part of the arsenal of war and the stage will be set for the sudden and final destruction of mankind.”

Award-winning actor Pat Boone replied in the article “The President Without a Country” (June 6, 2009, WND.com):

“You surely can’t be referring to the United States of America, can you? America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its inception! Seventy percent of her citizens identify themselves as Christian.”

President John F. Kennedy was inaugurated in 1961.

The same year, he sent a greeting to President Quadros of Brazil, January 31, 1961:

“Once in every twenty years presidential inaugurations in your country and mine occur within days of each other …

To each of us is entrusted the heavy responsibility of guiding the affairs of a democratic nation founded on Christian ideals.”

Download as PDF …

Read as American Minute post

Who is the King in America? And Who are the Counselors to the King? An Overview of 6,000 Years of History and Why America is Unique

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Major League Baseball puts itself in bull’s-eye of new federal discrimination investigationby Bob Unruh World Net Daily

 

Confirmation comes after officials threaten players for writing a Bible verse reference on ‘Pride’-themed caps

Major League Baseball, like a lot of other leftist institutions and organizations, promotes the LGBT lifestyle choices adopted by a small minority of Americans.

Its teams create rainbow-themed jerseys or hats or whatever, and then demand that players wear them, to promote the team’s ideologies.

Some players have declined. In fact, a minor league team was forced to forfeit a game this week when the players simply rejected the gay-promoting jerseys.

Others, in the MLB, have adopted a different strategy. They wrote a Bible verse reference on the gay-promoting caps.

The reference was from Genesis where God describes how he uses the rainbow as a promise not to flood the earth again. And of course it addresses the “rainbow” used by the leftists.

The MLB threatened those players with punishment, and now is in hot water.

The Department of Justice has entered the fight brought by MLB against its Christian players.

The agency’s Civil Rights Division has referred the league to federal investigators over warnings issued to San Francisco Giants pitchers who wrote Bible verses on their “Pride Night” caps.

Among the players participating in a protest are Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker.

The MLB immediately warned that “further writing” could result in “discipline.”

Of course, the league previously promoted the Black Lives Matter agenda, and annually mandates the promotions for LGBT lifestyle choices.

Fox said, “In a June 18 letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon announced that her division had referred the matter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ‘for further investigation.'”

The suspicion is that MLB violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

“The Civil Rights Act prohibits MLB and its franchises from unreasonably burdening the rights of players with religious objections to serving as the League’s vehicle for pro-Pride messages,” said Dhillon.

She warned the league: “This double standard – under which players may not inscribe Bible verses on hats for one game only but may wear ‘Black Lives Matter’ patches for one game only — calls MLB’s true motives into question and raises serious concerns about MLB’s compliance with Title VII.”

 

MLB also has learned fans aren’t pleased.

The Texas Rangers don’t have a “Pride Night,” and Terry, a fan, said, “I’m so thankful that the Rangers are recognizing family, faith, and everything good about this country.”

 

 

Todd from Waxahachie, Texas, agreed with the players’ faith message and felt the league should be supporting free speech, Fox said.

.

“I think it’s about re-centering on what a rainbow means; It’s a promise from God that he would never flood the earth again,” he said. “So, I think that it also supports freedom of speech as well.”

“Everyone has their own belief system, their own faith system, whether it’s for Pride Month or for religious beliefs,” Emily from Rockwall, Texas, said. “And I think we all should be allowed to support what we believe in.”

 

Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@wndnewscenter.org.

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Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh’s articles here.

(The above reposted with permission from World Net Daily

What the Constitution Means to Me By Sergei Stahl

(This essay was written by a student at the Freedom Project Academy-FPA. FreedomProject Academy | K-12 Online School. Live or self-paced classes.

For the second year in a row, FPA  sponsored an essay contest with the winner and his or her family getting a free week at Camp Constitution’s annual family camp. This was the winning essay.)

Freedom Project Academy
Entering Grade 5
May 31, 2026

The Constitution means freedom. When people started living under the Constitution, they became to more free. The government can’t do whatever it wants. This is different from other countries. This is why people want to come to the United States from other countries. They want to be free.
The Constitution helps us serve the Lord. The Constitution says that the Congress can’t stop us from serving the Lord in the way that we want. This helps us become better people.
The government doesn’t have the power to take away rights. Our rights come from God, not from government. For example, we have the right to serve the Lord. Government doesn’t give us that right. It comes from God. So, it’s not right for the government to tell us how to do that.
The Constitution means we don’t have a king. A king controls everyone in his kingdom. A king can do whatever he wants. If you disagree with the king, he can kill you, or put you in jail without a trial. He can bomb countries. The Constitution gives us a president. The President can’t do whatever he wants. There’s a list of things he can do. That’s it. The President’ doesn’t have the right to go to war.
We have a responsibility to learn about the Constitution. We should learn about it so that we know what it says. If we don’t know what it says, we won’t know if someone is following it. If someone asks you to tell them about a book, and you’ve never read it, you won’t be able to tell them. It’s the same way with the Constitution.
The Constitution shows us that we can change our government. It has changes called amendments. When people found things that needed to be changed in the Constitution, they changed them. The first ten amendments are called the Bill of Rights. The first amendment says that the government can’t make you pay taxes to support any church.
Without the Constitution, government would be more powerful. We wouldn’t be able to say whatever we want. We could only go certain places. We would have to get permission from the government to go certain places. We would pay more taxes. We would have to work more to pay for our needs.
The Constitution means stability. Some countries have had over 20 constitutions. This means they are unstable. But we’ve had our Constitution for almost 240 years. It has only been changed twenty-seven times. So our country is much more stable.
Some countries don’t even have a written constitution. If it’s not written down, the people can’t read it. If the people can’t read their constitution, they don’t know what’s in it. If they don’t know what’s in it, the people can’t know if they government is doing what it’s supposed to do.
The Constitution limits the government. It won’t allow the government to freely bomb places. It even says that if the government wants to take your house, they have to pay you for it. If the government wants to search for things in your house, they can’t just do it without permission. They need to ask a judge to approve it and get permission to only search for certain things.
The Constitution doesn’t work unless we follow God. This is because it’s just words on paper. If we just do whatever we want, we won’t have a good world and the world would be wicked. And, we would have to have lots and lots of government to stop people from hurting each other. We would be less free.
I’m grateful for the Constitution. It helps us make sure that people don’t have too much power. When people have too much power, they do whatever they want, and they could tell everyone not to worship God. This is not a good thing.
If you read the Constitution, you’ll be more educated. You’ll learn how our government should work. You’ll also learn how our government should not work. You’ll also appreciate our Founding Fathers, and they will not be forgotten. You’ll also learn new words. You’ll learn what’s good and bad in government. You can learn about the people who signed the Constitution.
God helped with the Constitution. He helped people know how to put it together. He gave the people examples of things to write. He helped them learn from history. I hope we can all learn more about the Constitution.

The Weekly Sam: The Founding Fathers on Education and Morality

 

It is a pity that American children are not being taught more about the Founding
Fathers of America and what their vision of America was. Even when I was going to
public school back in the 1930’s and ’40’s, very little was taught about our Founding
Fathers concerning their religious and moral beliefs. We learned about George
Washington as a great soldier and a great leader, but virtually nothing about his
religious convictions. The same was true of all the other noted Founding Fathers:
Jefferson, Adams, Hancock, Franklin, Hamilton. They were great revolutionary leaders
who crafted the Declaration of Independence, fought a six-year war against Great
Britain, crafted the Articles of Confederation and then the Constitution which is the
basis of our political system. Surprisingly you can teach a great deal about all of that
with virtually no mention of religion.

In fact, we were taught more about the atheist Tom Paine than about any of the great
American religious and intellectual leaders, such as Jonathan Edwards, Timothy
Dwight, George Whitefield, Jotm Witherspoon, John Dickinson, George Mason,
Jonathan Mayhew, Nathanael Emmons, Jedidiah Morse, Noah Webster, and others.
Why was this the case? Because by the 1930’s the progressives had already made
sure that religion was removed from American public schools. Yet, in those days it was
still possible for a school principal to read a psalm from the Bible at assembly. Of
course, that is no longer the case. In fact, the schools have become so anti-Christian
that it is forbidden to even mention the word Christmas.

John Leo in U.S. News & World Report (Jan. 6, 97) wrote that in Fayette County,
Kentucky, school bus drivers were warned not to say Merry Christmas to any of the
children, and in West Orange, N.J. a student was reprimanded by the high school
dean for singing “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” on school property. And the
principal of Loudoun High School in Virginia told student editors to keep the
newspaper as secular as possible and “to be careful that they don’t associate the
upcoming holiday with any particular religion.” One wonders how they were supposed
to do that inasmuch as the upcoming holiday celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ! Talk
about censorship. I wonder what the ACLU or People for the American Way are going
to·do about that.

Some schools now only allow instrumental versions of traditional carols. The words
are too controversial and violate the sacred separation of church and state.
And that’s why the religious convictions of our founding fathers cannot be taught to
American children in our public schools. These poor children no doubt get the
impression — if they are taught at all about the founding fathers — that they were men
with no religious convictions at all and that religion simply did not exist as a vital
spiritual force in America when in reality it was the very force that made America
possible. If they are taught anything at all about religion in early America it is usually
about those mean, bigoted Puritans who hounded the poor witches of Salem.

And yet, what the Founding Fathers had to say about God is so inspiring that I wish
there were a way that American children could be made aware of this. It’s easy
enough for homeschoolers to get this knowledge. David Barton has written books
which deal with this subject, and an excellent book by William J. Federer, titled
America’s God and Country, Encyclopedia of Quotations, is filled with wonderful
quotations from Columbus to the present day, proving that Belief in God and doing
work to fulfill God’s promises is the most important theme in the entire American
enterprise. Christopher Columbus wrote in his Book of Prophecies:

It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to
sail from here to the Indies … .
There was no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit. because he comforted me with rays of
marvelous illumination from the Holy Scriptures . .. encouraging me continually to press forward. and
without ceasing for a moment they now encourage me to make haste.
In a letter written in 1493 to Spain’s General Treasurer Gabriel Sanchez, Columbus
wrote:

That which the unaided intellect of man could not compass, the spirit of God has granted to human
exertions, for God is wont to hear the prayers of His servants who love His precepts even to the
performance of apparent impossibilities. Therefore, let the king and queen, our princes and their most
happy kingdoms, and all the other provinces of Christendom , render thanks to our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.

In June of 1630, ten years after the Pilgrims founded the Plymouth Colony, Gov. John
Winthrop landed in Massachusetts Bay with 700 people in 11 ships, thus beginning
the Great Migration, which lasted 16 years and saw more than 20,000 Puritans embark
for New England. In a sermon aboard the ship Arbella before disembarking on the
shores of New England, Winthrop said:

We are a Company, professing ourselves fellow members of Christ, and thus we ought to account
ourselves knit together by this bond of love .. ..
Thus stands the cause between God and us: we are entered into covenant with Him for this work. We
have taken out a Commission, the Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles … .
We must hold a familiar commerce together in each other in–all meekness, gentleness, patience, and
liberality. We must delight in each other, make one another’s condition our own, rejoice together, mourn
together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our Commission and Community in this
work, as members of the same body .. ..
We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our
enemies, when He shall make us a praise and glory, that men of succeeding plantations shall say, “The Lord
make it like that of New England.”
For we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.

That’s the kind of religious fervor and covenantal love that permitted the Puritans to
create a Christian civilization in the wilderness of the new world. And from that
community came some of the most learned men of God that Christendom has ever
known. Harvard College was founded in 1636 for the purpose of training up a learned
clergy. And indeed it did. Increase Mather, who became President of Harvard, was
one of the first to criticize the British monarch, Charles II, for demanding in 1684 the
return of the charter which had given the colonists the right to govern themselves. He
wrote:

To submit and resign their charter would be inconsistent with the main end of their fathers’ coming to New
England.. .. [Although resistance would provoke] great sufferings, [it was] better to suffer than sin. Let
them trust in the God of their fathers, which is better than to put confidences in princes. And if they suffer,
because they dare not comply with the wills of men against the will of God, they suffer in a good cause.
Already you can see the seed of the War for Independence being planted in the soil of
New England.

Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian whose preaching began the revival known as
the Great Awakening, was the third President of Princeton University. Concerning the
Great Awakening, he wrote:

And then it was, in the latter part of December, that the Spirit of God began extraordinarily to … work
amongst us . . .. In every place, God brought His saving blessings with Him , and His Word, attended with
Spirit … returned not void.

George Whitefield, the famous dynamic evangelist of the Great Awakening, preached
up and down the Eastern seaboard of America. Benjamin Franklin wrote that he was
able to hear Whitefield’s voice nearly a mile away. Whitefield wrote:

Those who live godly in Christ, may not so much be said to live, as Christ to live in them … . They are led by
the Spirit as a child is led by the hand of its father ….
They hear, know, and obey his voice . … Being born again in God they habitually live to, and daily walk with
God.

Sarah Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards, wrote of Whitefield:

It is wonderful to see what a spell he casts over an audience by proclaiming the simplest truths of the Bible .
. Our mechanics shut up their shops, and the day laborers throw down their tools to go and hear him
preach , and few return unaffected . Franklin wrote:

It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless
or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if ali the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk
thro ‘ the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.

On matters of education, in 1750 Franklin wrote to Dr. Samuel Johnson, the first
president of King’s College (now Columbia University):
I think with you , that nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in
wisdom and virtue .. .. I think also, general virtue is more probably to be expected and obtained from the
education of youth, than from the exhortation of adult persons; bad habits and vices of tt’,e mind being,
like diseases of the body, more easily prevented than cured.
I think, moreover, that talents for the education of youth are the gift of God; and that he on whom they are
bestowed, whenever a way is opened for the use of them, is as strongly called as if heard a voice from
heaven.

Franklin wrote in his Autobiography this prayer that he prayed every day:
o powerful goodness! Bountiful Father l Merciful Guide l Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my
truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to
thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me.

Wouldn’t that be a wonderful nonsectarian prayer for school children to recite each
day? It is said that Franklin was a Deist. He had been brought up and educated as a
Presbyterian, but he rejected many of the doctrines of the Presbyterian faith. But he
writes in his Autobiography:

I never doubted , for instance, the existence of the Deity; that he made the world , and governed it by his
Providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are
immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter.

In July 1776, Franklin was appointed to a committee to draft a seal for the newly
formed United States. He proposed:
Moses lifting up his wand, and dividing the red sea,and pharaoh in his chariot overwhelmed with the
waters. This motto “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”

In 1787 Franklin wrote in a letter:
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more
need of masters.

At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Franklin, disturbed by the bitter debates
among the delegates, said in a speech to the convention:

I have live, Sir, 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 . .
We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in
vain that build it.” . .
I therefore beg leave to move–that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its
blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business,
and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

It should be noted that prayers have opened both houses of Congress ever since.
It would take a full day to talk of the religious character of George Washington who was
so deeply conscious of his Christian faith. He believed that he was miraculously
saved from death after a battle in 1755. He wrote to his brother:

But by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability
or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt,
although death was leveling my companions on every side of me’

As Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army Washington often prayed and fasted,
invoking God’s protection and providence during the entire War of Independence. He
appointed chaplains for every regiment. In 1789, at his inauguration as the first
President of the United States, Washington said :

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the
present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to
the Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations and whose
providential aids can supply every human defect,
that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a
Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes; .
No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men
more than the people of the United States.
Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been
distinguished by some token of providential agency .

Washington’s inaugural address should be required reading in every American public
school. But, of course, all of Washington’s references to God would send the ACLU
and People for the American Way screaming to the Supreme Court that such an act
would be a violation of the separation of church and state. That’s how far we’ve come.

On Oct. 3, 1789, Washington issued a National Day of Thanksgiving Proclamation in
which he stated :

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will , to be
grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor . .
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of l\Jovember next, to be
devoted by the people of these United States .. . . that we then may all unite unto him our sincere and
humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a
nation; for the Signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in thecourse
and conclusion of the late war;
for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enloyed; for the peaceable and
rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety
and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with
which we are blessed

The proclamation goes on for another long paragraph. But it is obvious where the
hearts of the American people turned to for their blessings. Today, our school children
think that the Pilgrims thanked the Indians on Thanksgiving Day. Our children are
being lied to by our educators, and I ask you, what good can come from such lies?
One merely has to read the prayers that Washington wrote in his own personal prayer
book to understand how deeply he was imbued with the Holy Spirit and how deeply
he relied on God for all matters of importance in his life. And it is this aspect of
Washington’s character that is rarely if ever referred to in history textbooks. Even so
great a man as Washington could fall to his knees and pray for forgiveness. In one
prayer, he wrote:

I have sinned and done very wickedly, be merciful to me, 0 God, and pardon me for Jesus Christ sake.
Thou gavest Thy Son to die for me; and has given me assurance of salvation, upon my repentence and
sincerely endeavoring to conform my life to His holy precepts and example

Praise God for such a man as George Washington, the father of our country. Isn’t it a
tragedy that American children are no longer taught about this tower of a man who
should be their hero. I remember when I was in first grade, there was a portrait of
George Washington in our classroom. That portrait looked down upon us children and
we revered him. It was the Stuart portrait, in which the bottom part was unfinished. But
to me it looked as if George Washington were in heaven.
Americans revered George Washington with good reason. But today he is just a figure
on a one dollar bill.

Another great American whose godly influence was felt by millions of children was
Noah Webster, whose blue-backed speller taught millions to read and spell. In 1828,
Webster completed his American Dictionary of the English Language. In this
dictionary are constant references to God and the Bible, for Webster was an orthodox
Christian. He stated:

Education is useless without the Bible.
God’s Word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct
He also wrote:
In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under
a free government ought to be instructed . … No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian
religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free
people
great

This strong American adherance to Biblical religion impressed the French historian
Alexis de Tocqueville who traveled throughout America in the early 1830’s and wrote a
marvelous book about his observations. He wrote:

In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, . . there is no country in the world where the
Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no
greater proof of its utility andof its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over
the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.
America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be
The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of
freedom .
The Amerians combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is
impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.
It is hard for us to believe that thirty years later this Christian nation would be torn
asunder and plunged into a civil war that took a half million American lives. Men
prayed to the same God on both sides of the conflict. In his second inaugural address
after the defeat of the Confederacy, Lincoln said:

The prayers of both [sides] could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The
Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that
offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” .. .
And then Lincoln concluded with these famous words :

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let
us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have
borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and
lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Indeed, only Christian charity could restore the United States as one nation, under
God, with liberty and justice for all.

America’s Christian heritage is so rich, so powerful, so sustaining, that even President
Clinton felt compelled to end his second inaugural address, stating:
May God strengthen our hands for the good work ahead, and always, always bless our America.

(The above article was written in the mid 1990s, and comes from the Sam Blumenfeld Archive:

http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm

The Blumenfeld Archives

NJ City Agrees To Raise Christian Flag After Denying Permit: News Release from Liberty Counsel

 

JERSEY CITY, NJ – As a result of Liberty Counsel’s January 2026 demand letter, the city of Jersey City has agreed to grant organizers of the Children of Faith Parade a permit to raise the Christian flag at city hall after the city initially denied the request.

Before the letter, parade organizers had consistently included a ceremonial raising of the Christian flag at city hall for their annual parade since 1979. However, in August 2025 the city unlawfully denied the permit citing violation of the Establishment Clause and that the decades-long practice of granting their permit was an “administrative error.” Now, the Jersey City officials have agreed to let organizers raise the Christian Flag on September 8, 2026, for their annual Children of Faith Parade.

In the letter, Liberty Counsel informed city officials about its unanimous 2022 victory in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, a case where Boston officials denied raising the Christian flag in an open forum. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled cities that open their flagpoles to the public cannot selectively exclude religious viewpoints when they allow other private groups to speak. Liberty Counsel noted that Jersey City’s flag program had previously permitted other ideological and religious flags, including for the “Jersey City LGBTQ+ Pride Festival;” the “Independence Day of Pakistan Flag Raising Ceremony” for the Muslim Council North America and Muslim Federation of New Jersey; and the “3rd Annual Palestine Flag Raising Ceremony,” among others.

In Shurtleff, the High Court ruled 9-0 that raising the Christian flag under Boston’s public flag-raising program did not amount to government speech or violate the Establishment Clause since the city had opened its flagpole to private speech and was not selecting or communicating the message. Rather the High Court ruled, denying the Christian flag amounted to unequal treatment and was unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.

Since Jersey City’s flag program is almost identical to Boston’s, Liberty Counsel had requested Jersey City approve the flag-raising permit for the 2026 parade to avoid the city violating the First Amendment.

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We commend Jersey City officials for making the right decision to grant the Christian flag-raising permit for the Children of Faith Parade. Jersey City had stated that raising the Christian flag in their public forum would violate the Establishment Clause, but it does not. The opposite is true. Denying raising the Christian flag in a public forum is the actual First Amendment violation. The clear message from the U.S. Supreme Court is that government cannot favor one viewpoint and censor another in a public forum. Municipalities like Jersey City can legally permit both secular and religious commemorative emblems when they open their flagpoles to public expression.”

For media interviews, please email media@LC.org.

Happy Flag Day

From the White House:

 

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

On June 14, 1777, the delegates of the Second Continental Congress adopted a resolution declaring “that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.”  In the 250th year of our glorious Republic, this Flag Day celebrates the American People, whose enduring spirit allows our beloved and timeless tricolor standard to fly as the greatest symbol of freedom, democracy, and sovereign strength the world has ever known.

At its inception, the Stars and Stripes symbolized America’s fundamental precepts of liberty, justice, and dependence on Almighty God.  Our Nation’s official banner and the principles that propelled our Founding Fathers to boldly undertake the most consequential act of self-governance of all time have withstood the test of time.  The flag is a physical representation of our storied past, shared sacrifice, common heritage, and divine destiny.  From the frozen ground of Valley Forge to the blood-soaked field of Gettysburg; from the triumphant beaches of Normandy to the desolate face of the Moon; and from the granite steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the heart of every patriot who continues to define American Excellence to this day — wherever our beautiful flag flies, America’s greatness follows.  After nearly two and a half centuries, through every tragedy and triumph, Old Glory remains the strongest beacon of sovereignty and hope the world has ever known, thanks to the devoted patriots of the past who made it so — and it is up to us to keep her flying proudly for generations to come.

Our beautiful flag is a global ensign of America’s indominable spirit, matchless power, and endless resolve to achieve a more perfect Union.  This sacred symbol of the American people, carried by generations with incredible courage and unshakable faith in the promise of our Nation, deserves our deepest admiration, protection, and respect.  Last year, I signed an Executive Order to preserve the dignity of our flag by enforcing accountability for acts of desecration tied to violence and lawlessness.  We also authorized the revocation of visas, residency, and naturalization for foreign nationals who desecrate the banner under which millions of American patriots have fought and died.  As President, I will always wield the full power of my office in defense of our flag’s sacred honor, and I will never rest in my commitment to ensure that the proudest emblem of liberty is forever treated with the reverence it has so dearly earned.

Next month, America will celebrate the most important milestone in our history — 250 glorious years of blessed Independence — and the Red, White, and Blue will preside over jubilant commemorations from sea to shining sea.  It will billow atop flagpoles in sprawling cities and on neighborhood porches in small towns; it will fly over beaches, stadiums, parks, iconic landmarks, and military bases.  Our flag will wave in the hands of children at parades and festivals and flap solemnly as a sentinel over hallowed cemeteries of the fallen.  On Flag Day, during National Flag Week, and throughout the summer of this historic year, may our majestic flag soar as a triumphant symbol of all the American people have achieved and serve as a shining herald of the new Golden Age that lies before us.

To commemorate the adoption of our flag, the Congress, by joint resolution approved August 3, 1949, as amended (63 Stat. 492), designated June 14 of each year as “Flag Day” and requested that the President issue an annual proclamation calling for its observance and for the display of the flag of the United States on all Federal Government buildings.  The Congress also requested, by joint resolution approved June 9, 1966, as amended (80 Stat. 194), that the President issue annually a proclamation designating the week in which June 14 occurs as “National Flag Week” and calling upon all citizens of the United States to display the flag during that week.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim June 14, 2026, as Flag Day and the week starting June 14, 2026, as National Flag Week.  I direct the appropriate officials to display the flag on all Federal Government buildings during this week, and I urge all Americans to observe Flag Day and National Flag Week by displaying the flag.  I also encourage the people of the United States to proudly observe with all due ceremony those days from Flag Day through Independence Day, set aside by the Congress (89 Stat. 211), as a time to honor America, to celebrate our heritage in public gatherings and activities, and to publicly recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fiftieth.

 

DONALD J. TRUMP

 

Camp Constitution’s Annual Family Camp One Month Away. Spaces are Still Available

 

      Camp Constitution  18th Annual Family Camp  is one month away.    It will be held at the Singing Hills Christian Camp https://www.singinghills.net/ Plainfield, NH. from Sunday July 12 to Friday July 17, 2026  We still have rooms available.  We have to give Singing Hills a final headcount on July 3.  So, if you are planning on attending, please let us know.

Returning instructors include Pastor David Whitney of the Institute on the Constitution, Catherine White of The Constitution Decoded, Alex Newman, author and host of the Sentinel Report, Kurt Hyde, retired U.S. Air Force Lt, Col, and Rev. Steve Craft, Camp Constitution’s chaplain.


   Guest instructors include Julie Wilkinson who played in the movie “”UnPlanned:  The Abby Johnson Story.”  In addition to the classes, the camp will offer marksmanship courses, martial arts, hiking, basketball, volleyball, wiffleball, and optional field trip and swimming, chess, gaga and corn hole tournaments.  Campers and staff end the day with an evening campfire. 

Our theme:  Celebrating our nation’s 250th Birthday

Camp Constitution’s annual camp is a family camp open to entire families, unaccompanied minors, and adults. The cost for the week which includes lodging, meals and class handouts is $300 for those 13 and over. $200. For campers 12 and under, and three and under with parents are free.     A link to the camp registration:  https://campconstitution.net/camp-registration/

Can’t attend but would like to help a worthy youngster or family attend camp?  Please consider making a donation to Camp Constitution.  Donations can be made via our PayPal account accessed from our website’s homepage   https://campconstitution.net/   or by check payable to Camp Constitution and mailed to Camp Constitution C/O Hal Shurtleff 146 Powder Mill Rd. Alton, NH  03809.

For more information contact Hal Shurtleff (857) 498-1309  campconstitution1@gmail.com

 

A Letter to Youth by Youth: Freedom Lives or Dies with Us By Alise Uhl

My fellow young Americans, 85 years ago on December 7, 1941, our country was attacked on a lazy, peaceful day at Pearl Harbor. It dealt a devastating blow. One that could have knocked America to her knees. It did the opposite.

We took to the skies.

A select few of our young pilots were called upon to execute a top-secret counterattack on Japan. Doolittle’s Raid was practically a suicide mission.

Our country didn’t know it at the time, but they turned their eyes on those young men for justice.

And those pilots and bombardiers didn’t run. They didn’t hide. They didn’t buckle when they had already seen so much.

No.

They stepped forward.

They chose to give up the rest of their lives, give up marrying their sweethearts, and give up meeting their children so that American children could live, breathe, marry, and die in freedom.

Just a few generations later, those children are you and me.

If our nation now turned its eyes on us, could they trust us?

Loving our country and her people means more than basking in the freedom to say whatever we want. More than pushing for our generation to get its way because we are going to be the next ones to lead. More than wanting only “the fun part of freedom.”

Everyone should have freedom of speech. Every man and woman was born with that right. But will what we currently shout taste bitter in the mouths of our offspring, or will it be the anthem they sing as they teach their kids what freedom is?

Do those who mentored us have the assurance that the next generation is not simply waiting their turn to take political office for personal interests? Do they know that we won’t forget, trample over, take advantage of, or reverse the good they have accomplished?

Are we ready?

World War II was our last just war. Nearly a century ago. Our army mobilized only after Congress declared war on an attacking nation. If another country assaulted ours today, and Congress declared war, and the people demanded justice, would they get it?

When we look back to just one of the wars that shaped America, we realize the nation put herself into the hands of boys who were forced to become men. She put herself into the hands of young women who became nurses, stood behind those men, and helped many of them through their dying breaths.

Do we know what it is like to walk through a war memorial and truly honor those men and women who paid the ultimate price for freedom? To look back and silently promise them that their story, their lives, their deaths will not be forgotten?

This is not just history. This is our heritage. And when our heritage becomes a part of us, it refuses to become a relic of the past.

Are we willing to give more than a mere moment of silence to the same cause that our fathers were willing to fight and die for? To give our sweat, our tears, our fight, and, if it comes to it, our blood?

I don’t just speak of foreign wars and affairs or a power rising against us from without.

There is an enemy within. It is the crushing wave of false ideology, projected as truth, penetrating the young minds of our kids. It is the stifling of the God-fearing American spirit under the sweeping hail of propaganda.

I have testified at my state capitol for the same causes and worked in the same campaigns as older generations of patriots have. And I saw them stand. They left a legacy you and I still live in the wake of every day. Americans know what happened over the last six years in our schools, our hospitals, our churches, and even our homes because they fought for us to know. I interacted with ordinary people who chose to stand and paid for it dearly.

Some lost their livelihoods, their health, and some even their right to walk free. It began with one voice here, and another voice there. They alone risked what big government, big business, and people with power would bring down on them for their action. Yet, it was enough to inspire others to rise with them.

Because of them, Americans are now more informed, and therefore more equipped, to fight propaganda in our midst.

But, young people, are we? 

It isn’t enough for one of our voices to be heard. It isn’t enough for one patriot to salute. We need a young generation of patriots who will salute. A people who together speak. A nation that falls on its knees in acknowledgment of the God of righteousness. Young citizens who hail the Constitution, its protection of our rights, and its checks and balances will rise up and say the pledge proudly as one nation under God. And never get over it.

One truth. One God. One more chance.

What our country thinks of these principles will alone determine the question of her greatness.

I know what it is like to be in the company of patriots. I have more rarely found it my honor to be in the company of young patriots.

The colors. They must be hoisted again. Not by the aged, patriotic, should-be-honored generations that have gone on before us.

No.

They must be passed on to and raised and upheld by our young, strong, responsible arms that will carry them for our children. Freedom isn’t free. Let it sober us. Those who fought for us have to know they can trust us. That we aren’t just progressing our way, but the way God, Designer of our liberty, gives us the responsibility to. Not just for ourselves, but for our posterity.

Freedom – it lives or dies with us.

We are the remnant.

By Alise Uhl, 18 years old, and a 2024 Camp Constitution attendee.

 

The Weekly Sam: Christianity Versus Islam

 

Because we live in such a highly secularized society, we cannot believe that America could ever become
involved in a religious war in this day and age. Yet ferocious religious wars have been going on all over the
place: in Northern Ireland, in Israel, in the Balkans, in Sudan, in India, in Kashmir, and in Russia. But
history is a very harsh taskmaster and refuses to let us Americans escape into our secular fantasies and
liberal hot houses for long. Thus, it is vitally important for us to reconnect with the human race’s never
ending history of religious struggle. That a group of Islamic terrorists, trained in a remote war-torn, famine
ridden, hell-hole in Asia, could organize the kind of mind-boggling attack against America that took place on
September 11, 2001, means that America is not only not exempt from history, but has been dragged
kicking and screaming back into the middle of it.

Back in 1588, Christopher Marlowe, master of historical drama, wrote his famous Tamburlaine 2. In it there
is a fascinating scene in which the Christian King Sigismund of Hungary and Orcanes, the Muslim King of
Natolia, both former enemies, decide to establish peace between them in order to join forces to defeat
Tamberlaine the Great, the cruel, pagan conqueror of Asia.
Both men confirm their commitment with an oath. King Sigismund vows:

“By Him that made the world and sav’d my soul,
The Son of God and issue of a maid,
Sweet Jesus Christ, I solemnly protest
And vow to keep this peace inviolable!”

King Orcanes vows:

“By sacred Mohamet, the friend of God,
Whose holy Alcoran remains with us,
Whose Glorious body, when he left the world,
Clos’d in a coffin mounted up the air,
And hung on stately Mecca’s temple-roof,
I swear to keep this truce inviolable!”

But as the story goes, it was King Sigismund who later broke the truce and was defeated and killed by the
Muslims.

While the history of the struggle between Christians and Muslims for control of Europe was for a time
settled after the Muslims were expelled from Spain in 1492, and driven back from the gates of Vienna to
Asia and Africa, the Islamic enclaves that remained in the Balkans led to the recent wars in Bosnia and
Kosovo. The Serbs had considered themselves as the Christian bulwark against further Islamic incursions
in Europe, and therefore could not understand why they were being bombed by fellow Europeans and
Americans.

You had to know history to understand what Bosnia and Kosovo were all about and what bin Laden’s men
were doing in the Balkans. That conflict proved that the war between Christianity and Islam has never
ended. Over the ages, it simply took on different forms. The rise of European power put a lid on Islamic
ambitions and the Muslim world became the backwater of history until the discovery of oil in the twentieth
century. But in the nineteenth century, the Islamic Barbary states of North Africa could still make trouble for
the Infidel. They took possession of American and European commercial vessels, held their crews for
ransom, and enslaved other Christians. Our first war after independence was fought during the Jefferson
administration against the Muslim pirates and kidnappers of Tripolitania. It is known in the history books as
the Barbary War, in which U.S. Marines staged their first invasion of foreign soil. Hence, the Marine
anthem: “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.”

In order to finally put an end to the piracy and barbarism coming out of North Africa, France decided to take
over Algeria. During the 1830s and 1840s, the French imposed their rule over the territory, encouraging
Europeans to settle there. The result was a flourishing French colony and an end to Barbary piracy. France
maintained order in North Africa until the end of World War II, when the anti-colonialist movement got
underway. Both liberals and communists joined in forcing the European powers to give up their colonies.

In Algeria, however, over a million Europeans had settled in the territory and the coastal departements
were considered an integral part of France. However, when Charles de Gaulle gained power at the height
of the Algerian uprising, he decided that France should quit Algeria because the Moslems could never
become true Frenchmen. And so France abandoned Algeria, and a million Europeans took to the boats.
Today, the invasion has been reversed. Five million Muslims, mostly Algerians, live in France. They make
up ten percent of the population and are part of the resurgent Islamic power in Europe. Christianity is now
so weak in France that one wonders if it is capable of resisting the assumption of Islamic power.

We have been told by our leaders and the media that we are not at war against the Islamic religion. We
are at war against terrorism. But what they all prefer not to recognize is that the spiritual power behind that
terrorism, the power that drives otherwise intelligent human beings to undertake suicidal missions against
the infidel is the religion of Islam. Of course, there are millions of Muslims who just want to lead normal
lives. Unfortunately, after September 11, 2001, nothing is “normal” anymore.

In an alarming article in the November issue of Commentary magazine, Daniel Pipes contends that
Islamist militants are serious about their plan to conquer America. He writes:

“The first missionaries for militant Islam, or Islamism, who arrived here from abroad in the
1920’s, unblushingly declared, “Our plan is, we are going to conquer America.”

The audacity of such statements hardly went unnoticed at the time, including by Christians who
cherished their own missionizing hopes. As a 1922 newspaper commentary put it:

“To the millions of American Christians who have so long looked eargerly
forward to the time the cross shall be supreme in every land and the people
of the whole world shall have become the followers of Christ, the plan to win
the continent to the path of the ‘infidel Turk’ will seem a thing unbelievable.

But there is no doubt about its being pressed with all the fanatical zeal for
which the Mohammedans are noted. Pipes writes further:

“As a teacher at an Islamic school in Jersey City, near New York, explains, the “short-term
goal is to introduce Islam. In the long term, we must save American society.” Step by step,
writes a Pakistan-born professor of economics, by offering “an alternative model” to
Americans, Muslims can transform what Ismail Al-Faruqi referred to as “the unfortunate
realities of North America” into something acceptable in God’s eyes.”

The irony in all of this is stunning. For years the Christian right has been trying to get Americans to live
godly lives, but with very limited success. The fact that 85% of American parents put their children in pagan
public schools is an indication of how strong our liberal secular culture is. It controls the curriculum in our
schools and universities. It controls most of the print media, the electronic media, and most of what comes
out of Hollywood. And American schools are now teaching American children all about Islam. While the
Bible has been eliminated from the classroom, apparently the Koran hasn’t. How else can you teach about
Islam?

Recently, the Reverend Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian relief agency, called
Islam “wicked and violent.” He said, “I don’t believe this is a wonderful, peaceful religion. When you read
the Koran and you read the verses from the Koran, it instructs the killing of the infidel, for those that are
non-Muslim.”

As the son of Billy Graham, Franklin is the designated successor to his father’s longtime evangelical
ministry. He delivered the benediction at Bush’s inauguration. But now he’s in trouble with the White
House, which sponsored a Ramadan dinner for 50 ambassadors from Islamic countries with a traditional
meal and prayer. Also, the Muslim chaplain of Georgetown University recently officiated at the opening
prayers of the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill.

The moral seems to be that if Islamist terrorists bomb the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and kill
5,000 Americans, other Islamists get invited to the White House for a special dinner prepared to their
specifications: no pork. Now that Americans are being invited to be kind to Muslims, where will all of this
lead?

Graham said, “It wasn’t Methodists flying into those buildings, it wasn’t Lutherans. It was an attack on this
country by people of the Islamic faith.” And that’s why the latter are now favored guests at the White
House! Of course, the President is doing this to keep the Islamic states in line while we war against the
terrorists which these states harbor.

But if we are being encouraged by our born-again President to be kind to our Muslim neighbors, shouldn’t
Christians see this as a missionary opportunity? Why not introduce Muslims to the loving grace of Jesus
Christ? One of the reasons why Americans find it difficult to become friendly with Muslims is because
sooner or later their rabid hatred of Israel will surface. Americans in general don’t like to hate anybody, and
they are uncomfortable with people who are haters.

Christianity preaches love. Islam preaches hate. That is why hatred of Israel fills the psyche of so many
Muslims. Abnormal, pathological hatred is not healthy. It requires constant energy to be sustained at the
level it exists among Muslims. And that is why life is so miserable in many Islamic countries. And that is
why Palestinian refugees have preferred to remain in refugee camps for 50 years rather than do something
constructive with their lives. They prefer to live with festering, enduring hatred, and teach it to their
children, rather than accept forgiveness and peace. No true Christian could ever waste his life that way.

Yet, the United Nations aid agency accepts these refugee camps as perfectly normal for the Arab Muslims.
After World War II, millions of displaced persons found new constructive lives in countries all over the
world. But in the Middle East, Palestinian hatred is used to torment the world about Israel.
It is to be hoped that one of the first things the new government of Afghanistan might do is recognize Israel
and establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. It would signal a dramatic change in the attitude of
Muslims toward Israel.

Indeed, let us be loving and concerned with the well being of our Muslim citizens, and let us convey to
them that Jesus will save them from their sickening hatred and grant them life renewed.