Lexington & Concord, and the Right to Keep & Bear Arms “To Disarm the People is the Best Way to Enslave Them”-George Mason – American Minute with Bill Federer
The sun never set on the British Empire.
It was the largest empire in world history.
Out of nearly 200 countries in the world, only 22 were never controlled, invaded or attacked by Britain.
In April of 1775, the British Royal Military Governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, sent 800 British Army Regulars, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, on a preemptive raid to seize guns from American patriots at Lexington and Concord.
George Mason of Virginia stated:
“To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”
A warning was sent from Boston’s Old North Church that the British were coming, as recounted in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride”:
“Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the 18th of April, in 75;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
… He said to his friend, ‘If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light …
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm …
Through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight.”
Paul Revere was captured along the way, but William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott continued the midnight ride.
Revere wrote:
“About 10 o’clock, Dr. Warren sent in great haste for me, and begged that I would immediately set off for Lexington, where Messrs. Hancock & Adams were …
I got a horse of Deacon Larkin … and set off … It was then about 11 o’clock … After I had passed Charlestown Neck … I saw two men on horseback … When I got near them, I discovered they were British officers.
One tried to get a head of me, and the other to take me. I turned my horse very quick, and galloped … to Medford Road.
The one who chased me, endeavoring to cut me off, got into a clay pond, near where the new tavern is now built. I got clear of him …
I went through Medford, over the bridge, and up to Menotomy … I alarmed almost every house, till I got to Lexington …”
Revere continued:
“I … mentioned, that we had better alarm all the inhabitants till we got to Concord; the young Doctor much approved of it …
We had got nearly half way.
Mr. Dawes and the Doctor stopped to alarm the people of a house: I was about one hundred rods a head, when I saw two men … in an instant I was surrounded by four …
The Doctor being foremost, he came up; and we tried to get past them; but they being armed with pistols and swords, they forced us in to the pasture; -the Doctor jumped his horse over a low stone wall, and got to Concord …
Six officers, on horseback … ordered me to dismount … He asked me if I was an express? I answered in the affirmative. He demanded what time I left Boston …
Major Mitchel, of the 5th Regiment, clapped his pistol to my head … and told me he was going to ask me some questions, and if I did not give him true answers, he would blow my brains out.”
In a related story, four months earlier, on December 13, 1774, two British warships set sail for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to seize gunpowder and weapons patriots had taken from Fort William and Mary.
Riding all night to warn the citizens of Portsmouth that the British were coming were Paul Revere and 29-year-old African American Wentworth Cheswell.
Cheswell was constable of Newmarket, New Hampshire, being considered the first African American elected to public office in U.S. history.
Paul Revere also described a spy, Dr. Benjamin Church, who leaked patriot plans to British General Gates before the Battle of Lexington:
“Dr. Church … appeared to be a high son of Liberty. He frequented all the places where they met …
I came across Deacon Caleb Davis. … He told me, that the morning Dr. Church went into Boston … General Gage and Dr. Church came out of a room, discoursing together, like persons who had been long acquainted.
He appeared to be quite surprised at seeing Deacon Davis there …
I was told by another person … that he saw Church go in to General Gage’s House … that he got out of the carriage and went up the steps more like a man that was acquainted …
He did not doubt that Church was in the interest of the British; and that it was he who informed General Gage … that a short time before the Battle of Lexington … Church had no money … and all at once, he had several hundred New British Guineas.”
On April 19th, “Patriots’ Day,” the British continued their march to Lexington and Concord intent on seizing arms and arresting Tea Party leader Samuel Adams and Massachusetts Provincial Congress president John Hancock.
On the way, the British passed through Arlington, Massachusetts.
They stormed the inn where lodged the patriots Elbridge Gerry, Azor Orne and Jeremiah Lee, who was America’s largest colonial ship owner and the wealthiest man in Massachusetts.
Jeremiah Lee was using his ships to smuggle in supplies to the patriots.
When the British stormed the inn, Gerry, Orne and Lee fled wearing only their night clothes and hid, laying on the cold ground in a wet cornfield for hours.
Jeremiah Lee caught a pneumonia and died a few weeks later.
John Hancock had previously experienced British tax collectors confiscating his merchant ship Liberty in 1768
Hancock had declared to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, April 15, 1775:
“In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us, as men and Christians, to reflect that, whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments …
a day … be set apart as a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer … to confess their sins … to implore the Forgiveness of all our Transgression.”
Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull, whom Washington called ‘the first of the patriots’, was the only colonial governor at the start of the Revolution to support the patriot cause.
Trumbull proclaimed a Day of Fasting, April 19, 1775, that:
“God would graciously pour out His Holy Spirit on us to bring us to a thorough repentance and effectual reformation that our iniquities may not be our ruin;
that He would restore, preserve and secure the liberties of this and all the other British American colonies, and make the land a mountain of Holiness, and habitation of righteousness forever.”
As the sun rose, April 19, 1775, there were 800 British regulars approaching Lexington’s town green.
To their surprise, they were met by Lexington’s militia, comprised of 77 men who were mostly members of the Church of Christ, pastored by Rev. Jonas Clark, whose wife was a cousin of John Hancock.
Patriot captain John Parker told the militia:
“Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have War, let it begin here!”
It is disputed who fired first, but the British opened fire and killed or wounded eighteen of Captain Parker’s men.
In his sermon preached a year later, April 19, 1776, Pastor Jonas Clark described:
“Under cover of the darkness, a brigade of these instruments of violence and tyranny, made their approach …
They enter this town … like murders and cut-throats … without provocation, without warning, when no war was proclaimed, they draw the sword of violence, upon the inhabitants of this town,
and with a cruelty and barbarity, which would have made the most hardened savage blush, they shed INNOCENT BLOOD! …”
Pastor Clark continued:
“And the names of Munroe, Parker, and others, that fell victims to the rage of blood-thirsty oppressors, on that gloomy morning …
And from the nineteenth of April, 1775, we may venture to predict, will be dated, in future history, THE LIBERTY or SLAVERY of the AMERICAN WORLD, according as a sovereign God shall see fit to smile, or frown upon the interesting cause, in which we are engaged.”
The American militia retreated, growing to number 400, and took a stand at Concord’s Old North Bridge.
The British fired first, wounding four and killing two.
Militia commander John Buttrick yelled:
“Fire, for God’s sake, fellow soldiers, fire!”
Taking many casualties, the British began a hasty retreat 20 miles back to Boston, being ambushed along the way by John Parker’s militia in “Parker’s Revenge.”
Tragically, in the anger of their retreat, the British shot or bayoneted almost everyone in the town of Menotomy.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow continued his poem:
“You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.”
Longfellow ended:
“So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
… In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.”
Though it took eight long years, Americans won their independence.
A century later, on April 19, 1875, at that same Old North Bridge, patriots were honored by the dedication of the “Minute Man Statue” designed by Daniel Chester French.
On the statue’s base is a stanza of the poem The Concord Hymn, written Ralph Waldo Emerson, April 19, 1860:
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,
And time the ruined bridge has swept,
Down the dark stream that seaward creeps.
… On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We place with joy a votive stone,
That memory may their deeds redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
O Thou who made those heroes dare,
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid time and nature gently spare,
The shaft we raised to them and Thee.”
Two months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Continental Congress, under President John Hancock, declared, June 12, 1775:
“Congress … considering the present critical, alarming and calamitous state … do earnestly recommend … a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer,
that we may with united hearts … confess and deplore our many sins and offer up our joint supplications to the All-wise, Omnipotent and merciful Disposer of all Events, humbly beseeching Him to forgive our iniquities …
It is recommended to Christians of all denominations to assemble for public worship and to abstain from servile labor and recreations of said day.”
The Revolutionary War began with an attempt by government officials to seize citizens’ guns.
Patriots had prepared for this with the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, October 26, 1774, organizing their defenses with one-third of their regiments being “Minutemen,” men who were ready to fight at a minute’s notice.
This idea came from the Bible, where in Ancient Israel every man was armed and ready to defend his family and community:
David B. Kopel wrote in “Ancient Hebrew Militia Law” (Denver University Law Review, July 15, 2013):
“New Englanders intensely self-identified with ancient Israel … Thus, ancient Hebrew militia law is part of the intellectual background of the American militia system, and of the Second Amendment …
Every male ‘from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms’ … were obliged to fight, to go forth ‘armed to battle.’
Men who failed this duty ‘sinned against the Lord.'”
E.C. Wines wrote in Commentaries on the Laws of the Ancient Hebrews, 1853 (NY: Geo. P. Putnam & Co., 1853):
“Moses’ constitution made no provision for a standing army …
The whole body of citizens … formed a national guard.”
- “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side” (Exodus 32:27);
- “They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh” (Song of Solomon 3:8);
- “Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side (Nehemiah 4:17-18).
James Madison wrote (Letters & Writings of James Madison, 1865, p. 406):
“The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprise of ambition …
Kingdoms of Europe … are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
Noah Webster wrote in An Examination into the leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787:
“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe.
The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword because the whole body of the people are armed.”
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote in Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833 (2nd Edition, 1833, p. 125):
“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium (safeguard) of the liberties of a Republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers.”
Machiavelli wrote in The Prince (trans. L. Ricci, 1952, p. 73, 81):
“An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens.”
Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Cooley wrote in The General Principles of Constitutional Law, 1891 (2nd Ed., 1891, p. 282):
“The Second Amendment … was meant to be a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers …
The people … shall have the right to keep and bear arms, and they need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose.”
Patrick Henry, the five-time Governor of the State of Virginia, wrote (Elliott, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions, 1836, 1941, p. 378):
“Let him candidly tell me, where and when did freedom exist when the sword and the purse were given up from the people?
No nation ever retained its liberty after the loss of the sword and the purse …
The great object is, that every man be armed … Everyone who is able may have a gun.”
Joel Barlow, U.S. Consul to Algiers and France, wrote in Advice to the Privileged Orders in the Several States of Europe, Resulting from the Necessity and Propriety of a General Revolution in the Principle of Government, 1792 (reprinted 1956, p. 46):
“The foundation of everything is … that the people will form an equal representative government … that the people will be universally armed …
A people that legislate for themselves ought to be in the habit of protecting themselves.”
Jeffrey R. Snyder, esq., wrote in “A Nation of Cowards” (The Public Interest, 1993, no. 113):
“Classical republican philosophy has long recognized the critical relationship between personal liberty and the possession of arms by a people ready and willing to use them.”
The Roman orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero, wrote (Cicero, Selected Political Speeches, trans. M. Grant, 1969, p. 222):
“There exists a law … inborn in our hearts … that if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.”
Montesquieu wrote in The Spirit of the Laws (trans. T. Nugent, 1899, p. 64):
“It is unreasonable … to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.”
Machiavelli wrote in The Prince (trans. L. Ricci, 1952, p. 73, 81):
“It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willing one who is unarmed.”
Cesare Beccaria wrote in On Crimes and Punishment (trans. H. Paolucci, 1963, p. 87-88):
“False is the idea … that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it …
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature.
They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.
Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most scared laws of humanity, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity …
Such laws … serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
Thomas Paine wrote (Writings of Thomas Paine, Conway, ed., 1894, p. 56):
“The peaceable part of mankind will be continually overrun by the vile and abandoned while they neglect the means of self defense.
The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order.”
Aristotle wrote in Parts of Animals (trans. A. Peck, 1961, p. 373):
“Animals have just one method of defense and cannot change it for another …
For man, on the other hand, many means of defense are available, and he can change them at any time …
Take the hand: this is as good as a talon, or a claw, or a horn, or again, a spear, or a sword, or any other weapon or tool it can be all of these.”
Aristotle wrote in Politics (trans. T. Sinclair, 1962, p. 274):
“Those who possess and can wield arms are in a position to decide whether the constitution is to continue or not.”
Sir Thomas More wrote in Utopia (trans. R.M. Adams, 1975, p. 71):
“Men and women alike … assiduously exercise themselves in military training … to protect their own territory or to drive an invading enemy out of their friends’ land or, in pity for a people oppressed by tyranny, to deliver them by force of arms from the yoke and slavery of the tyrant.”
Roman historian Livy wrote (trans. B. Foster, 1919, p. 148):
“Formerly — in the reign of Rome’s 6th king, Servius Tullius, 578-535 B.C. — the right to bear arms had belonged solely to the patricians — ruling class.
Now plebeians — common citizens — were given a place in the army …
All the citizens capable of bearing arms were required to provide their own swords, spears, and other armor.”
Machiavelli wrote in On the Art of War (trans. E. Farnsworth, 1965, p. 30):
“Citizens, when legally armed … did the least mischief to any state …
Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time, but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberty in less than forty years.”
Machiavelli wrote in Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius (trans. L. Walker, 1965, p. 492):
“If any city be armed … as Rome was … all its citizens, alike in their private and official capacity … it will be found they will be of the same mind …
But, when they are not familiar with arms and merely trust to the whim of fortune … they will change with the changes of fortune.”
Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations (ed., Cannan, p. 309):
“Men of republican principles have been jealous of a standing army as dangerous of liberty …
The standing army of Caesar destroyed the Roman Republic.
The standing army of Cromwell turned the Long Parliament out of doors.”
Earl Warren wrote in The Bill of Rights and the Military (37N.Y.U. L. Rev. 181, 1962):
“Our War of the Revolution was, in good measure, fought as a protest against standing armies …
Thus we find in the Bill of Rights, Second Amendment … specifically authorizing a decentralized militia, guaranteeing the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”
Jeffrey R. Snyder, esq., wrote in “A Nation of Cowards” (The Public Interest, 1993, no. 113):
“Political theorists as dissimilar as Niccolo Machiavelli, Sir Thomas More, James Harrington, Algernon Sidney, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau all shared the view that the possession of arms is vital for resisting tyranny, and that to be disarmed by one’s government is tantamount to being enslaved by it.”
Anti-socialist John Basil Barnhill stated in a debate with Henry M. Tichenor, 1914 (National Rip Saw Publishing Co., St. Louis, MO):
“Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.”
The Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836, stated:
“The late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez Santa Anna, who having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers, as the cruel alternative, either abandon our homes acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny …
It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defense – the rightful property of freemen — and formidable only to tyrannical governments.”
Theodore Brantner Wilson described in The Black Codes of the South (Univ,ersity of Alabama Press, 1965, p. 56) laws passed by Democrat Legislators:
“Mississippi quickly passed one law … outlawing possession of weapons by Negroes. The militia proceeded to disarm the Negroes in such a brutal fashion as to cause much criticism.
Alabama Negroes were disarmed by similar methods with like results.”
Frederick Douglass, the African-American advisor to President Lincoln, stated:
“A man’s rights rest in three boxes: The ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box.”
Mahatma Gandhi wrote in An Autobiography of the Story of My Experiments with the Truth (trans. M. Desai, 1927):
“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.”
Islamic sharia law forbids non-Muslims from possessing arms, swords or weapons of any kind.
Adolph Hitler acted similarly with his Edict of March 18, 1938:
“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms;
history shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms have prepared their own fall.”
German Firearm Act of 1937 stated:
“Firearm licenses will not be granted to Jews.”
Richard Munday reported in “The Monopoly of Power,” presented to the American Society of Criminology, 1991, the Nazi order regarding arms, S.A. Ober Führer of Bad Tolz:
“S.A.–Storm Troopers, S.S.–para-military Gestapo, and Stahlhelm … Anyone who does not belong to one of the above-named organizations and who unjustifiably keeps his weapon … must be regarded as an enemy of the national government and will be brought to account without compunction and with the utmost severity.”
Democrat Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was quoted by David T. Hardy in The Second Amendment as a Restraint on State and Federal Firearms Restrictions (Kates, ed., Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, 1979):
“The right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.”
Jefferson wrote to George Washington, 1796 (The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, John P. Foley, ed., New York & London, Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1900, No. 2138, iv, 143; Paul Leicester Ford, ed., vii. 84):
“One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.”
Similar to the midnight ride of Paul Revere, when Jefferson was Governor of Virginia, British Colonel Tarleton led his cavalry to Charlottesville to capture him.
Jefferson barely escaped, June 3, 1781, thanks to 27-year-old Jack Jouett, Junior, the “Paul Revere of the South,” who rode all night to warn to warn him.
Jefferson wrote in the Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, July 1775:
“We … most solemnly, before God and the world declare that … the arms we have been compelled to assume we will use with perseverance, exerting to their utmost energies all those powers which our Creator hath given us, to preserve that liberty which He committed to us in sacred deposit.”
–(Re3posted with permission from the American Minute https://americanminute.com/blogs/todays-american-minute
Camp Constitution Hosts Patriots Day Overnight
Camp Constitution hosted a Patriot’s Day overnight for several homeschool families at the Lane Learning Center in Lexington, MA-a few blocks from the Lexington Battle Green Sunday April 16 -Monday April 17.
The event began Sunday evening with a viewing the movie “Johnny Tremain, and then a walk to the Hancock- Clark House to watch the reenactment of the “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” where we met up with Camp Constitution instructor and historical reenactor Rich Howell
Then back to the Lane House for a few hours’ sleep. At 4:30 AM, we took a walk to the Lexington Green to get a good spot for viewing the reenactment and the wreath laying ceremony at the gravesite of Lexington Militia leader Captain John Parker, and then back to the Lane House to warm up and enjoy a hearty breakfast cooked by Camp Constitution Director Hal Shurtleff
Camp Constitution offers tours of Lexington, Concord, Boston and Plymouth to homeschool and church groups.
The Weekly Sam: Going to School Back in the Great Depression by Sam Blumenfeld
One of the great advantages to being 83 years old is that I have lived through a great deal
of history and have a perspective on life that you, my younger readers, do not have. I
remember the days when I would look around and find myself perhaps the youngest
person in the crowd. I took great delight in that. Today I look around and I am usually
the oldest. But I know that God has kept me around for a purpose, and I suspect that He
wants me to keep doing what I have been doing for the last forty years: writing about
education and promoting homeschooling.
How different is education today from what it was when I first attended a public school
back in New York City in the early 1930s! That was during the Great Depression, but I
don’t remember anyone I knew being depressed. My father was in the produce business
and thus we always had plenty of food to eat. My mother actually made her own noodles
for chicken soup. I was able to walk to school and come home for lunch. I remember
admiring the smiling policeman who stopped traffic so that we could cross the avenue on
our way to school.
On Saturdays my friends and I went to the movies. Price of admission? Ten cents. In
those days a penny could get you a Tootsie Roll, a package of gum, a bun. Five cents
could get you a hotdog.
At school we all sat in desks bolted to the floor. The desks were arranged in rows so that
you only saw the back of the head of the pupil in front of you. If you coughed, you
didn’t cough in anyone’s face. Today, with kids seated around tables, they are coughing
into each others faces and spreading disease.
Back then, the teacher had her desk at the front of the class and she taught us all the same
thing. There was no such thing as an “individual learning plan.” We learned to read
with phonics because it was the Depression and the schools could not afford the new
Dick and Jane look-say books.
We were taught penmanship, cursive writing, which
helped us learn to read because it taught us directionality and manual discipline. By
connecting the letters in a word, we learned the word’s spelling and how different
combinations of letters made different sounds.
Back then in elementary school we were taught arithmetic, not math. Arithmetic is a
counting system. In addition you count forward. In subtraction you count backwards. In
Multiplication you count forward in multiples, and in division you count backwards in
multiples. The teachers knew then that only by memorizing the arithmetic facts could
you become efficient at using this ingenious place-value counting system. And so we
memorized the arithmetic tables. Mathematics, which dealt with relationships, came
later.
Of course, some of us learned the 3Rs better than others. Some of our teachers were not
terribly good at teaching. Others were great, and we loved them. I remember being
humiliated in front of a class because, for some reason, I could not remember some
simple arithmetic function, and that angered the teacher.
From that experience, I have always advised tutors and homeschooling parents to never
get angry when a child is having difficulty learning something. Be patient, and explain
what it is that you want the student to learn. The brain is a very remarkable instrument
and can do both amazing and silly things–often at the same time!
So we all learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. And because we could read, we then
learned history and geography.
We learned all about the history of New York and its
five boroughs. It was a happy time for us kids. No one had dyslexia, or ADD, or
ADHD. No one was on Ritalin. There was no sex ed or death ed, no multiculturalism,
no values clarification, no secular humanism. The schools did not try to undermine our
religious beliefs or morals. They were teaching us to become good patriotic Americans.
Since most of us came from immigrant families, becoming good Americans was very
important. The only decoration in our classroom was a portrait of George Washington.
Moreover, Biblical religion was respected, and the Principal recited the 23rd Psalm at
each assembly.
In Third Grade, we had Music Appreciation. The teacher brought out her hand driven
Victrola from the closet and played classical music for us. I still remember some of the
pieces she played: The Swan by Saint-Saens. March Slav by Tchaikovsky. And I know
that that’s where I acquired my taste for classical music.
So I had a very decent primary and elementary education. And the public school was an
institution which instilled great patriotic values and love of country. They did not dumb
us down; they lifted us up. But those days are long gone, and today I tell parents: do not
put your child in a public school. If you want to preserve their mental sanity, teach them
at home.
Today’s public schools have become criminal enterprises where children’s brains are
deliberately crippled by whole-language and look-say, where drugs are pushed on
millions of children who must ingest Ritalin, where a child’s religious beliefs are
undermined by the practices of behavioral psychology, where pornography is foisted on
the students in the name of sex education, where money is extorted from taxpayers to pay
for the dumbing down of the future generation. Children in such a system will suffer
lifelong deficits, and that is why home schooling is so important, and why homeschoolers
should bless their parents for keeping out of such a harmful system.
(This was written in 2009. For more gems like this, please visit Sam’s archives:
https://campconstitution.net/sam-blumenfeld-archive/
Constitutional Minute #21 The very idea of amendments – Part 2 of 3
Be very careful what you wish for regarding amendments. They can appear ideal and appeal to our desperation, but in reality, mean exactly the opposite. I will illustrate some of those in a later “Minute”. You might be shocked. As we previously said, statecraft is serious business.
Are amendments effective? Let’s take just a few examples.
- We have federal laws on prayer in public. The First Amendment did not prevent that.
- We have federal laws on guns, ammo, and firearm manufacturers. The Second Amendment did not prevent that.
- Our God-given privacy rights have been tossed aside by the federal government. The Fourth Amendment did not prevent that.
- We have federal laws on minimum wage, where to drill – or not drill for oil, air bags in cars, and hundreds of other objects. The Tenth Amendment did not prevent that.
Still think amendments are a good idea?
When amendments correct defects in the Constitution, (per George Mason as he said on June 11, 1787), they are clearly a good thing. The 12th and 13th Amendments, like the 11th Amendment, corrected defects in the Constitution. Section 1 of the 14th Amendment extended Citizenship to the freed slaves and provided constitutional authority for the much needed federal Civil Rights Act of 1866.
In Federalist No. 84 (10th para), Alexander Hamilton warned against adding a Bill of Rights to our Constitution. Under a Constitution of enumerated powers, the government may lawfully do only what the Constitution permits it to do. So
“…why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed? … it is evident that it would furnish, to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretense for claiming that power…”
And he was right!! Why say Congress “shall not infringe” (2nd Amendment) when there was no power in the Constitution for the federal government to infringe to begin with? Same holds true for the 1st, 4th, 9th, and 10th Amendments. Can you find others? (Hint: Take a look at the 19th just for one example.)
Bob Hilliard
wethepeoplehandbook@gmail.com
Camp Constitution’s First Quarter Report for 2023
Camp Constitution in the News:
Our “Shurtleff v Boston” decision has been mentioned numerous times around the United States over the past three months including “USA Today” and this article: https://pjmedia.com/culture/marktapscott/2023/03/16/heres-why-the-unanimous-shurtleff-decision-is-even-more-important-than-6-3-dobbs-n1678939 Our case has motivated people around the county to petition their towns and cities to fly the Christian flag including Mr. Alex Destino of Gloucester: https://www.bostonbroadside.com/cross/12851/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=12851
Our news release announcing a Constitution Study Course in Alton, NH got front page coverage and generated plenty of interest in our course:
Special Projects:
In January, Camp Constitution donated 1,100 pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution to the Laconia, NH Junior High, and High Schools. This has opened up the doors to other donations to schools in the region.
Laconia, NH School Committee member Dawn Johnson presents our donated Constitutions to the Laconia School Committee.
YouTube, Rumble Channels and Bitchute Channels
We received over 25 thousand views on our YouTube Channel this quarter, 261 new subscribers giving us 7,40 subscribers overall. As mentioned in early reports, we expect to have our channel deleted anytime e even though we successfully and surprisingly challenged two YouTube strikes. So, we are downloading man of the videos from the YouTube channel and uploading them along with some new videos to our Rumble and Bitchute channels. Our Rumble channel had 1,700 views this quarter and our Bitchute channel has 2,000.
The Sam Blumenfeld Archive:
212,000 views., 1,800 downloads of “Alpha-Phonics, and 1,076 “Alpha-Phonics” manual, and over 3,000 downloads of Sam’s other books. If you haven’t already, please visit and subscribe to the archives: https://campconstitution.net/sam-blumenfeld-archive/
Camp Constitution Radio on Podomatic:
We remain in the top five for the conservative category with 2,530 downloads, 312 plays and we uploaded 58 audios including some by Gary Allen, Larry McDonald, George Schuyler, and Alan Stang speeches from the 1970s and 1980s. https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/shurtleffhal
Facebook Page:
We continue to average fifty likes per month. We also admin about eight groups including Friend of the Constitution in ME, NH, MA, CT, RI. PA, VT, and Stop the Constitutional Convention.
Speaker’s Bureau:
Inclement weather led to a cancelation of several of our planned events, but we still held eight events including two speaking engagements for Pastor William Levi of Operation Nehemiah.
Camp Constitution’s Website:
We had 10,000 views for this period, and posted 59 blogs: https://www.campconstitution.net
Camp Constitution Book Sales:
We have raised close to $1,500 from donated books from our Amazon, Facebook page, and on-line bookstore. https://campconstitution.net/shop/
Camp Constitution Press
We published Being Revolutionary Women: A Message from the Women of the “Ladies Gallery by Maria Perez. Copies may be ordered here: https://campconstitution.net/product/being-revolutionary-women-a-message-from-the-women-of-the-ladies-gallery/
Article V Convention:
We helped defeat two Article V resolutions in New Hampshire, wrote several articles on the subject in on-line and print media, and participated in a national conference call hosted by Tamara Scott who hosts a show on Frank Speech.
Radio and Cable TV:
We were guests on “Chattin with Janine: a popular Cable TV Show hosted by NH State Rep and long-tine friend Janine Notter. We appeared as a guest on Tamara Scott’s show on Frank Speech, https://frankspeech.com/video/tamara-scott-show-joined-hal-shurtleff-camp-constitution and an appearance on the Ed Martin Radio Show which is nationally syndicated: https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/constitution/wynk-back-to-basics-with-hal-shurtleff/
Looking into the Second Quarter of 2023:
We have a busy schedule which includes a home school overnight at the Lane House to take in the Battle of Lexington Reenactment, two homeschool shows, keynote speaker at the Homeschoolers of Maine’s Annual State House event, and four speaking engagements for Julie Wilkerson, former abortion nurse turned Pro-Life activist.
Camp Constitution Ladies Group:
The Third Annual Spring Fling takes place May 5-7 at the Singing Hills Christian Camp. Speakers include Valery McDonnell, the youngest elected official in the United States and former abortion nurse turned Pro-Life activist Julie Wilkinson. Julie played a role in the movie “Unplanned.”
Camp Constitution’s 15th Annual Family Camp
We are looking forward to another full house at our annual family camp with new guest speakers author and documentary producer Vince Ellison, and Valery McDonnell mentioned above.
Second Annual Family Retreat:
We return to Camp Sentinel in Tuftonboro, NH for our 2nd Annual Weekend Family Retreat Friday September 29 to Sunday October 1.
How you can help Camp Constitution grow:
* Keep Camp Constitution and our nation in your prayers.
* Become a donor. Monthly and/or one-time donations can be made via our PayPal account accessed from our website https://www.campconstitution.net
* Host one of our speakers
- Host a Constitutional Study Course
* Introduce Camp Constitution to family and friends.
*Author an article for our camp blog.
Thank you for all you do in the freedom movement. May God bless you.
Hal Shurtleff, Director
Camp Constitution
CHRIST is RISEN INDEED! – Evidence for the Resurrection
CHRIST is RISEN INDEED! – Evidence for the Resurrection
To view this message as a PowerPoint, with pictures, click here.
To view this presentation as a video, click here, or here.
To listen to the audio lecture from sermonaudio.com, click here.
“And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the Resurrection from the dead.” Romans 1:4
The dramatic film, RISEN provides an excellent Evangelistic opportunity to engage friends, family, neighbors and strangers with the overwhelming evidences for the bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We have produced a tract specifically designed for you to print out and distribute. RISEN is a springboard to discuss the Person and Event that changed everything.
Decisive
The bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is tremendously important. Death is man’s greatest enemy and it has conquered all men – but Christ. Cities and nations, like people, are born and grow for a season and then fade away. Homes, clothes, even vehicles, wear out and eventually go back to dust, just as do their owners. The Bible describes this universal reign of decay and death as “the bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21). In science it is recognized as the Second Law of Thermodynamics – the Law of Increasing Entropy. Left to themselves, every system tends to become disordered, to run down and eventually die. All the founders of great religions and movements have died and you can visit their graves. Zoroaster, Confucius, Buddha, Muhammad, Marx and Lenin. They are all dead and decayed in the grave. But Jesus Christ is alive!
So, what difference does that make? You may ask. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is vitally important because it demonstrates Christ’s victory over death, it gives hope to all mankind, it shows that eternal life is available to believers, it points to the ultimate triumph of God over all evil and it provides an indisputable proof that the message about Jesus Christ, as both Judge and Savior, is true. “Because He has appointed a Day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man Whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Acts 17:31
The Research of Skeptics
The Resurrection is so important and foundational to Christianity that it has been targeted for the most relentless attacks. Frank Morison, a lawyer, determined to disprove the Resurrection and thereby undermine Christianity. The result of his exhaustive investigations was his conversion to Christ and the publication of his book: “Who Moved the Stone?” which decisively demonstrates the overwhelming evidence for the Resurrection.
A skeptical university lecturer, Josh McDowell, determined to disprove Christianity by investigating evidence against the Resurrection. The result was his conversion to Christ and publication of the monumental: “Evidence That Demands a Verdict” which exhaustively and conclusively presents documentation and evidence upon evidence substantiating the historical truth, factual accuracy, archaeological evidence, manuscript evidence, fulfilled prophecies, transformed lives and other indisputable evidences which support the fact of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and the truth claims of Christianity.
Thomas Arnold, Professor of History at Oxford University, one of the greatest historians of the 19th Century wrote: “I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better, fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair enquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose from the dead.”
Simon Greenleaf, an unbelieving Jew, recognized as one of the most skilled legal minds ever produced, developed the Harvard Law School. He is recognized as the top authority on what constitutes sound evidence. After being challenged by a student if he had examined the evidence for the Resurrection, Simon Greenleaf made a thorough and exhaustive examination of the objective evidence and the testimony of the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In his book: “The Testimony of the Evangelists” (Baker, 1874) he concluded: “It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.”
Simon Greenleaf declared that any court of law, if presented with the evidence of the Resurrection, would have to give a verdict in favor of the integrity and accuracy of the Gospel writers and the fact of the Resurrection.
One of the most popular books ever written and most successful films ever produced, Ben Hur, was a result of a skeptical challenge to General Lew Wallace to the authenticity of Christ’s Resurrection and a careful examination of the evidence. As General Wallace was US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at that time, he explored archaeological sites and manuscripts in the Holy Land.
What are the facts? The religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had campaigned and conspired to have Christ arrested and executed on trumped-up charges, had a compelling interest in disproving any claims of the Resurrection. They had presumed that the execution of Jesus would eliminate this threat to their religious power base and silence His supporters. These Jewish religious leaders had great concerns about the corpse of Jesus and they approached the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, for a military detachment to secure the tomb (Matthew 28:62-64).
The Roman governor’s priority in the volatile province of Palestine was to preserve peace and stability. He recognized the political problems that would ensue if anything happened to this religious Teacher whom he had three times declared innocent and ultimately washed his hands in front of the crowd declaring, “I am innocent of this Man’s Blood” (Matthew 27:24). His wife had warned him: “Do not have anything to do with that innocent Man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of Him.” (Matthew 27:19)
Pilate was only too aware that a travesty of justice had taken place and the last thing he needed was a review of his shameful conduct and dereliction of duty in this case. Ensuring that the victim’s corpse remained buried was definitely in Pilate’s political interests as well. “‘Take a guard’, Pilate answered. ‘Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how’. So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.” Matthew 27:65
The Roman Guard
As the chief priests had approached the Roman governor and as the Greek word Koustodia is used to describe the detachment of soldiers, it was evidently a Roman guard. If only a Temple guard had been used, there would have been no need to approach Pilate to issue the order. Additionally, the concern of the guards after the Resurrection to be protected from consequences from the governor (Matthew 28:14) confirms that those guarding the tomb were Roman soldiers. The detachment would have consisted of at least sixteen soldiers with four men placed directly in front of the entrance of the tomb, on duty, at any time. Under Roman military law any guard who deserted his post, or who fell asleep on duty, would face crucifixion. Typically, if Roman soldiers allowed a prisoner to escape they would face the same sentence as the prisoner – in this case crucifixion.
The seal placed on the stone at the entrance to the tomb signified the administrative authority of Rome and only an authorized officer of Rome would be permitted to break the seal. Anyone breaking a Roman seal without permission would be tracked down and executed.
Although the intention of the religious and political leaders had been to ensure that the phenomenon of Jesus ended at the tomb, their extraordinary security measures have only served to confirm the truth that they had murdered an innocent Man and that Jesus Christ was truly the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, “the Firstborn from the dead and the Ruler of the kings of the earth… the One Who lives and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore.” Revelation 1:5,18.
Christ’s Victory Over Death
“Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, Who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold I have told you’. So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring His disciple’s word. And as they went to tell His disciples, behold Jesus met them, saying ‘Rejoice!’, so they came and held Him by the feet and worshipped Him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see Me.'” Matthew 28:1-10
Attempts to Avoid the Truth of the Resurrection
To explain away the empty tomb, the enemies of the Gospel have had to resort to some desperate deceptions. The first was to suggest that the disciples had stolen the body. This incredible theory suggests that those same disciples who had slept in the garden, fled at His arrest, denied Him before a young woman, were hiding in fear behind locked doors, could have unitedly overcome sixteen professional Roman soldiers, dared to break a Roman seal, moved a two-ton tombstone, just to steal a corpse! A dead Messiah would have served absolutely no purpose for the disciples. What possible motivation could they have had, even had they possessed the ability to overcome the military, political and logistical obstacles? They had nothing to gain and everything to lose. Every one of the disciples suffered severe persecution, most dying as martyrs for the Faith. Would you die for a lie?
Did Jesus Really Die?
Others have questioned whether Christ had really died on the Cross. Perhaps He only fainted? This swoon theory would have us believe that the Roman soldiers, who were professional killers, (the centurion in charge, would most probably have already supervised dozens if not hundreds of executions), had failed to ensure that this high-profile political prisoner was not actually dead. Considering the vicious flogging which the Lord had already endured, the excruciating torture of crucifixion and the spear thrust into His side, with blood and water flowing out, all provide convincing evidence of death.
Yet, those advocating the swoon theory would have us believe that One Who had endured such savage flogging, crucifixion and a spear thrust to the heart, could not only have survived the legendary Roman military efficiency, but that He was revived on a cold slab in a cold tomb. Further that He somehow disengaged from the grave clothes and one hundred pounds of spices, ointments and wrappings which had effectively mummified Him, rolled away the two ton stone, overpowered, or eluded, the Roman soldiers and somehow found and impressed the disciples with His Deity? These suggestions have only to be mentioned in order to be dismissed as unbelievable.
The Empty Tomb
Another desperate attempt to explain away the Resurrection of Christ has been that they went to the wrong tomb. All of them, Mary Magdalene, Peter, John, the other women, all went to the wrong tomb. Somehow neither the Pharisees, nor the Sadducees, nor the Roman soldiers, nor Joseph of Arimathea, whose tomb it was, thought to point out that the tomb was in fact still occupied! However, this theory is also impossible, as the tomb was not in a cemetery, but in a garden privately owned by Joseph of Arimathea. There was no other tomb in that garden.
The Absence of the Body
All that the Roman and Jewish leaders had to do in order to end Christianity forever was produce the corpse of Jesus. But they couldn’t do it. Even when the Apostle Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and proclaimed: “Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Acts 2:36. “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” Acts 4:33. Many thousands in Jerusalem, including many Pharisees, came to faith in Jesus Christ.
The Crisis of Credibility
To the Jewish religious leaders, this was their worst nightmare, a disaster. The proclamation of the Resurrection of Christ undermined their power and credibility. Thousands of their followers now believed that they had condemned an innocent Man, the Messiah Himself. The new religion of Christianity was undermining the power base and credibility of the Pharisees and Sadducees. If the body of Jesus could have been found, Christianity could be stopped dead in its tracks and the threat to the religious status quo would have ended. Since they desperately needed Jesus’ corpse, the Jewish leaders would have used every means at their disposal to hunt it down and find it – if that was possible.
The Testimony of Eyewitnesses
However, we are not only dealing with the empty tomb and the absence of the body, but the testimony of eyewitnesses. On at least twelve separate occasions Jesus Christ was seen after rising from the tomb. Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9); the other women (Matthew 28:8-10); Peter (Luke 24:34); the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35); ten of the disciples (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-24); all eleven disciples, eight days later (John 20:24-29); seven disciples by the Sea of Tiberius (John 21:1-23); to five hundred at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6); to James (1 Corinthians 15:7); to all eleven apostles and others, at the Ascension (Acts 1:3-12); Paul (Acts 9:3-8); and John (Revelation 1:12-18), all saw the Lord bodily raised from the dead.
To explain away the testimony of all these eyewitnesses, enemies of Christianity suggest that these were merely hallucinations, perhaps as a result of hypnosis or hysteria. However, while hallucinations tend to be unique psychological experiences of an individual, we are here dealing with a large number of individuals, who at different times, in different groups, in different places, both indoors and outdoors, on a hilltop, along a roadside, by a lakeshore, all saw the Lord. They saw Him, they ate with Him, they saw the wounds in His hands and in His side.
Far from being gullible, it would appear that His disciples were very skeptical and slow to believe. Thomas declared that he would not believe that Christ had risen unless he personally placed his fingers in the nail prints in His hands and feet and his hand in the wound in His side.
The Transformation of the Disciples
Not only do we have the testimony of the eyewitnesses, but the dramatic transformation of the disciples. The Resurrection of Christ from the dead transformed the disciples’ grief to joy, their cowardice to boldness, their skepticism to faith and their doubt to determination. It turned Saul, the persecutor of the Church into Paul the Apostle of the Church.
The Transformation of History
It also transformed society and history. It changed the Jewish Sabbath into the Christian Lord’s Day. What else could explain the replacement of Saturday as the Jewish day of rest into Sunday as the Christian Lord’s Day? The Resurrection transformed a Jewish remnant into the worldwide Christian Church. Over 2-Billion people worldwide describe themselves as Christians who believe in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. The very existence of the largest religious movement in the history of the world is another powerful evidence of the truth of the Resurrection.
Prophetic Fulfilment
Jesus Himself had prophesied His Resurrection from the dead. Because of His fulfilment of this, we can be absolutely certain that Jesus Christ is God with us, as He claimed. By His Resurrection we can know that our sins are forgiven through His Blood sacrificed on the Cross of Calvary: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that Whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:14-16
Full Salvation
Because of Christ’s death on the Cross, we can rejoice that our sins are paid for – we are forgiven, justified by faith.
Because of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, we can rejoice in the prospect of eternal life.
Because of Christ’s Ascension, we can know that He has all authority and that His Great Commission will be accomplished on earth.
Because of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost we do not need to trust in our own abilities, but in His power alone. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord.”
Proclaim It to the Nations
William Sangster – the church leader and hymn writer – suffered from increasing paralysis which finally prevented him from even being able to talk. On his last Easter before he died, he wrote: “How terrible to wake up on Easter and have no voice to shout, ‘HE IS RISEN’, far worse, to have a voice and not to want to shout!”
We serve a risen Savior! Death is defeated. Christ has risen – victorious over death, hell, satan and the grave.
Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Christ, though he may die, yet shall he live, (John 11:25).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3
Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
mission@frontline.org.za
www.FrontlineMissionSA.org
The above message has been adapted from a chapter in Answering Skeptics book (144 pages), which answers 14 such questions. The book, E-Book and an Audio MP3 Boxset Answering Skeptics with 32 sermons, lectures and radio programmes is available from Christian Liberty Books, PO Box 358, Howard Place 7450, Cape Town, South Africa, Tel: 021-689-7478, Fax: 086-551-7490, email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za and website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za.
To download the RISEN tract for distribution, click here.
See also:
The Illegal Trial of Jesus and the Verdict of History (for a PowerPoint, click here; for the audio, click here; for the video, click here.)
The Blood of Christ (for the audio, click here.)
The Cross of Christ (for the audio, click here.)
To hear the From the Frontline radio discussion on The Centrality of the Cross, click here.
Who Killed Jesus? (for a PowerPoint, click here; for the audio, click here; for the tract, click here.)
How Can I Know that Jesus is the Messiah? (for the audio, click here; for the tract, click here.)
VA School District Discriminates Against Christian Viewpoint
ASHBURN, VA – Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter to the superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia on behalf of a high school teacher who was directed to remove her non-school-sponsored, private expression of a Bible verse from her email signature block, while the school district allows other employees to use other quotes or statements. Liberty Counsel is requesting that the school district permit the teacher to restore the Bible verse to her email signature block.
The directive from the school district to the teacher to remove an expression of her personal faith from her email signature block, based solely on its perceived religious nature, constitutes religious discrimination in violation of the First Amendment and school district policy, which prohibits religious discrimination based on religious viewpoint.
This teacher seeks to inspire her students to excellence and the foundation for teaching is her personal faith in Jesus Christ. Because her faith is such a part of who she is, and inspires her life and work, she has included the Bible verse John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”), as part of her email signature block since she was hired at the school. After the teacher was directed to remove that verse, she proposed an alternative verse, Proverbs 22:6 (“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”). This was also rejected by the school district for the same reason: it was a Bible verse.
On the other hand, the school district permits teachers to personalize their signature blocks with quotations, pictures, phrases, or pronouns that are intended to express the teachers’ personal views on a variety of subjects, and that are attributable to the teachers, and not to the school district. For example, one teacher uses a quote by Cesar Chavez (“Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our students”) and another has a quote by Frederick Douglass (“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men”). Other teachers also include simple motivational quotes such as “Have courage and be kind,” and others include small pictures under their signatures with an encouraging or inspiring message.
Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) does not have a written policy governing email signature blocks and incorrectly claimed that including the Bible verse is prohibited by the Establishment Clause. In addition, Acting Superintendent Dr. Daniel Smith, Ed.D. claims that LCPS School Board Policy 7566 prohibits the teacher from using the Bible verse in her email signature. However, in reality, the policy only forbids obscene or vulgar language and conduct prohibited by law.
Dr. Smith responded to Liberty Counsel’s letter by stating, “Simply put, the general inclusion of religious quotes in communications LCPS employees send while in their public capacities is not private expression and runs afoul of the Establishment Clause, and as such, bars LCPS, as a local governmental entity, from taking sides in religious disputes or favoring or disfavoring anyone based on religion or belief, or lack thereof. To be clear, LCPS’s determination is not based on any particular religious viewpoint, and LCPS would take a consistent approach as it has here with respect to any religious expression incorporated in an LCPS employee’s email signature block of which it becomes aware.”
However, the First Amendment requires that the school district may not discriminate against the teacher’s private religious expression. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court and various federal courts have confirmed that organizations and individuals holding a religious viewpoint may not be subject to discrimination or censorship on the basis of that viewpoint. For example, in Liberty Counsel’s case, Shurtleff v. City of Boston, the High Court unanimously ruled that the city of Boston violated the Constitution by censoring a private flag in a public forum open to “all applicants” merely because the application referred to it as a “Christian flag.” The High Court unanimously rejected Boston’s use of the “Lemon Test” to censor Christian viewpoints. Then in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the High Court ruled in favor of the high school football coach and also finally buried the court-made “Lemon Test” citing Liberty Counsel’s 9-0 decision handed down in Shurtleff v. City of Boston involving the Christian flag.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The decisions from the Supreme Court involving the Christian flag and Coach Kennedy send a clear message that the ‘Lemon Test’ has finally been buried and government must not discriminate based on religious viewpoint. Loudoun County Public Schools cannot discriminate against a teacher who wants to use a Bible verse in her signature when other teachers are including nonreligious quotes.”
Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.
Camp Constitution Donates 1,500 Pocket Copies of the U.S. Constitution to the Alton-Barnstead, NH Schools
Last night, Tuesday April 4, Rev. Steve Craft and I presented 1,500 pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution to Mr. Tim Broadrick, Superintendent of Alton and Barnstead, NH Schools and the School Committee. Prior to the meeting, Mr. Broadrick handed copies to the members of the board. I made some comments pointing out the sad state of an understanding of the Constitution in the nation, and thanked the committee for accepting the donation and ensuring that their students will have a knowledge and appreciation of our Constitution. I referred to the U.S. Constitution as an “owner’s manual for a free people.” We also offered Alton High School’s history club a visit to our learning center in Lexington, MA, and a tour of Lexington and Concord. MA
This donation came about after Mr. Broadrick read our article about our donation of pocket Constitutions to the Laconia, NH’s junior high and high school back in January which was posted on the “Alton Uncensored” Facebook page https://campconstitution.net/camp-constitution-donates-pocket-u-s-constitutions-to-high-school-and-junior-high-students-in-laconia-nh/ We have plans to make donations of these Constitutions to other school in the region.
Since Camp Constitution’s inception in 2009, we have donated and distributed over 30,000 pocket Constitutions. And we are just getting started. We purchase our Constitutions from the National Center for Constitutional Studies https://nccs.net/
Readers who would like to help our efforts may donate via our PayPal account accessed from our website’s homepage https://www.campconstitution.net or by check payable to Camp Constitution and sent to my address at 146 Powder Mill Rd. Alton, NH 03809
The Weekly Sam: How to Dumb Down a Nation By Samuel L. Blumenfeld
It’s easy. Destroy its literacy, and you’ve dumbed it down. And once dumbed down, it
becomes the potential victim of any power that wants to dominate it.
If you look at the most illiterate nations on the planet, you find that they are ruled by
despots, their people live in abject poverty and have no hope for a better future. That
doesn’t mean that literate nations, like Germany, can’t produce monsters. But when they
do, we know that satanic influences are behind it.
America, from its beginning, was the most literate nation on earth, and the result was
positive in every respect. Why was it so literate? Because the people and their leaders
were governed by the precepts of the Bible, and biblical literacy was paramount in the
education of the country’s children.
But once we got a government schooling system, which was taken over by atheist
progressive educators, the God of the Bible was removed from the schools. It then
became possible to introduce a new socialist curriculum with teaching methods
calculated to reduce American literacy. The Bible was now relegated to an hour of study
in church on Sundays. And because it was no longer part of the curriculum, children no
longer considered it important to life.
A blatant, anti-biblical morality was introduced in the schools through such programs as
values clarification, sensitivity training, transcendental meditation, sex education, death
education, drug education, multiculturalism, psychotherapy, evolution, secular
humanism, and other such programs. Moral degeneration has been the inevitable result.
The result is that America has been greatly dumbed down.
Editor: The above was written over 25 years ago long before teachers would openly promote sodomy and so-called gender reassignment surgery. The solution is simple: Remove your children from the clutches of these atheists who hate you and your children. Please feel free to contact us if you are looking for recommended homeschooling resources: campconstitution1@gmail.com
Christophobia Rearing Its Ugly Head in Gloucester, MA
Christians from Communist China to Ukraine to Iraq and dozens of nations in-between have been viciously persecuting for their faith. Sady, it is also happening in the United States -a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles.
Like Boston, the city officials in Gloucester denied a permit to fly the Christian flag to life-long Gloucester resident Alex Destino. Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter and the city did not respond. The following is a letter to the editor of the Gloucester Daily Times by Alex Destino who was denied a permit to fly the Christian flag in Gloucester.
Letter to the Editor GD Times:
PETITION TO RAISE CHRISTIAN FLAG DURING HOLY WEEK: “DENIED” BY MAYOR OF GLOUCESTER
It’s impossible to tell the story of Gloucester’s 400 years without including the enormous impact of the Christian Church and community here. In every corner of Gloucester, from Annisquam to Magnolia, East Gloucester to West Gloucester, as well as Downtown, we have Christian Churches of all denominations that have been serving our community for hundreds of years. In Downtown, all you must do is look up to see the beautiful church buildings built by our Christian ancestors.
Our city was built by the fishing community, many of whom gave their lives to the sea. During those tragic days, Gloucester people filled the churches and homes of our lost fishermen. In 1978 alone, we lost 14 men at sea. I will never forget the packed churches and prayer services in the homes of those fishermen. The women, in particular the Fishermen’s wives, rallied around those families with prayer and support. The following year, in 1979, Saint Peter’s Fiesta took on a new meaning for me personally, and for many in our community.
Over four days, tens of thousands of people flocked to St. Peter Square in Gloucester to pray and support the families of those lost at sea in 1978. The outdoor Mass on St. Peter’s Square that year was incredible. The emotion, the prayer, and the outpouring of love for those families moved me. I was only 13 years old at the time, but I realized how blessed we were to live in this community, surrounded by amazing, loving, people of faith.
Of course, there are countless other examples of the Christian community here in Gloucester selflessly pouring themselves into the needs of our community. Those who have been on the receiving end of those prayers and love can never forget. My family and I are among those who have been recipients of those prayers and support since I was a child. One cannot separate the influence of the Christian community here in Gloucester from who we are as a city.
To honor the impact and contributions of the Christian community in Gloucester over the last 400 years, I petitioned the Mayor of Gloucester last October to raise a Christian Flag at City Hall during Holy Week, 2023. My request was denied by the mayor. A month ago, I made a second request to the mayor. This time, I requested to fly the flag for one day only, Good Friday, April 7, 2023. I have not received a response from the mayor or anyone else from our city government.
This denial and lack of response from Mayor Verga necessitate a legal response. This situation is much more significant than a flag. The city of Gloucester is openly discriminating against viewpoints it disfavors. So, I have engaged Liberty Counsel, to assist me in preserving our cherished liberties and First Amendment rights here in Gloucester.
The city has opened the flagpoles at city hall to numerous groups and viewpoints over the years—but has rejected the Christian flag. This is not only wrong but unconstitutional. My attorneys at Liberty Counsel sent a Demand Letter to Mayor Verga and City Counsel leadership, demanding that we be allowed to raise the Christian Flag on Good Friday, with a deadline to respond by March 25th to prevent any further action by Liberty Counsel. Mayor Verga and City Council leadership ignored the Demand Letter.
The Mayor and City Council are aware of last year’s unanimous (9-0) Supreme Court decision, that ruled the city of Boston violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by censoring a private flag in a public forum merely because the application referred to it as a “Christian flag.” The High Court stated the censorship was viewpoint discrimination, and there is no Establishment Clause defense. As Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mathew Staver said recently: “This 9-0 decision from the Supreme Court involving the Christian flag continues to have an impact across the nation. The clear message from the Supreme Court is that government must not discriminate based on viewpoint. The government cannot favor one viewpoint and censor another and cannot censor religious viewpoints under the guise of government speech. Any governments that are ignoring this ruling are setting themselves up for potential lawsuits.”
The city of Boston has since been forced to pay $2.1 Million to Liberty Council for legal fees and other associated costs during the five-year legal battle. Let’s hope and pray that the Mayor of Gloucester doesn’t make that same mistake.
Sincerely,
Alex Destino
Gloucester