Death of “Lemon Test” Returns Religious Expression to America by Liberty Counsel
Mar 17, 2023
As a result, Lemon has been used by courts to remove religious symbols and displays from the public square since 1971. In fact, Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote in Lamb’s Chapel v. Ctr. Moriches Union Free School District regarding that the High Court’s invocation of the “Lemon Test” was “like some ghoul in a late night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried.”
However, all that changed last year as a result of two major victories at the U.S. Supreme Court.
On May 2, 2022, Liberty Counsel’s 9-0 victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in Shurtleff v. City of Boston involved censorship of Christian viewpoints regarding flag raisings. 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.
In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Liberty Counsel argued in its amicus brief that since the Establishment Clause provides no justification for suppressing Coach Joe Kennedy’s private, religious speech to silently pray on the football field after games, the “Lemon Test” should be overruled. Then on June 27, 2022, the High Court ruled 6-3 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.
The Kennedy ruling stated, “This Court long ago abandoned Lemon and its endorsement test offshoot… In place of Lemon and the endorsement test, this Court has instructed that the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘reference to historical practices and understandings.’”
As a result, the Ten Commandments, for example, can be displayed on government property, including in public school classrooms. That means that the 1980 Stone v. Graham Supreme Court decision is no longer valid. In this case, the High Court ruled that a Kentucky law requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments, purchased with private contributions, on the wall of each public school classroom was unconstitutional and violated the first part of the Lemon and the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
The activist 5-4 per curium opinion in Stone v. Graham was issued without any briefing or oral argument. Incredibly, the Court wrote:
“If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments. However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.”
However, since Lemon has been finally buried, students across the nation can read, memorize and hopefully obey, the Ten Commandments. Now it would be nice to return to the time prior to the removal of the Ten Commandments from schools when the worst infractions were chewing gum and spitballs.
In addition, other religious symbols such as crosses can permanently remain on government property.
On June 20, 2019, even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Bladensburg Peace Cross, a 40-foot cross honoring those who died during World War I, could remain standing, the High Court sidestepped the opportunity to overturn the “Lemon Test.” Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief to the High Court in support of the 93-year-old war memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland that the American Humanist Association challenged as violating the Establishment Clause and “discriminating against patriotic soldiers who are not Christian.”
Since the “Lemon Test” is now dead and the Establishment Clause must be interpreted according to its historical intent, all the cases that relied on Lemon are no longer valid, including cases that struck down Ten Commandment displays, Nativity scenes or other religious symbols. In fact, Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissenting in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, wrote: “The Court overrules Lemon v. Kurtzman and calls into question decades of subsequent precedents that it deems ‘offshoot[s]’ of that decision.”
Liberty Counsel’s 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. The Ten Commandments, Nativity scenes, crosses, religious symbols, displays, expression, meetings, and performances can no longer be brushed aside. No longer can courts divorce America from religious freedom or the First Amendment from its original and historical purpose.”
Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.
(The above was a news release from Liberty Counsel http://www.lc.org
TAKE ACTION
Evacuation Day March 17
Today, March 17, 2023marks the 248th anniversary of the British evacuation from Boston and General George Washington’s 1st victory. After the Battle of Bunker Hill which took place on June 1775, Boston was under siege from the newly formed Continental Army. In early March of 1776, cannons captured at Ford Ticonderoga transported to Boston, under the leadership of General Henry Knox. and used to fortify Dorchester Heights in South Boston. This allowed the Continental Army to be able to fire cannons unopposed by the British. After viewing the efforts of the Colonialists, British General William Howe said “The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have done in a month.” Howe who didn’t want to see a repeat of the Battle of Bunker Hill which was won by the British but at a high cost of lives, decided to vacate Boston.
Every year, the Henry Knox Color Guard of the Massachusetts Sons of the Revolution, https://www.massar.org/ , celebrate this important day in our history with a ceremony on Dorchester Heights. This ceremony took place on March 17, 2021. Camp Constitution was on hand:
PATRICK – Missionary to Ireland
Patrick was only 16 years old when he saw a fleet of 50 longboats heading for the shore. As the Roman Legions had long since departed Britain, Patrick’s hometown was vulnerable to attack. As the Irish raiders leapt from their boats onto the pebbled beach, sounding their war-horns, the population fled in terror. The attackers looted and burned the village and carried away captives, including young Patrick.
Enslaved
The year was AD 405. Patrick’s name in Latin was Patricius, meaning “Noble”. He was the son of a Civil Magistrate, but now he had become a slave in Ireland. Patrick was sold to a cruel warrior chief whose stockade in Northern Ireland was surrounded by sharp poles with the heads of his opponents impaled on them. Patrick was put to work as shepherd to care for his master’s pigs and sheep. He lived a lonely existence in the nearby hills, enduring long bouts of hunger and thirst, isolated from human company for months at a time. Patrick witnessed the superstitions of the druid priests who sacrificed prisoners of war to their war gods and newborns to the harvest gods. Skulls were used as drinking bowls; heads of decapitated enemies were used as footballs.
Conversion
In this strange place at “the ends of the earth” amongst these fierce people, Patrick remembered the faith of his father and grandfather, and the prayers of his mother and turned to Christ. Kneeling on the slopes of the Slemish Mountain, near what is now the town of Ballymena, Patrick prayed, sometimes a hundred times a day.
Escape
After six years of slavery, Patrick was led of the Lord to escape and run nearly 200 miles to a coastal port where he was able to persuade a captain to take him along with a shipment of Irish wolfhounds. A storm blew them off course to land on the coast of Gaul (France). Attacks by vandals had devastated the area and there was no food to be found in the, once fertile, area. Here Patrick was able to repay the kindness of the ship captain by praying for the Lord’s provision and seeing a herd of pigs appear.
Called
Patrick received a Macedonian call. In a vision, an Irishman named Victoricius presented him letters entitled “The Voice of the Irish”: “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us again.” Patrick was “pierced to my very heart” and he returned to the land where he had suffered as a slave many years before.
Opposition
Patrick was over 40 years old when he arrived as a missionary to Ireland in AD 432. He faced fierce opposition from the Druids. Patrick survived numerous attempts on his life and confronted the idolatry, immorality, slavery and human sacrifices of the savage tribes.
“Daily I expect murder, fraud or captivity, but I fear none of these things because of the promises of Heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of God Almighty who rules everywhere.”
Patrick delighted in taking risks for the Gospel. “I must take this decision disregarding risks involved and make known the gifts of God and His everlasting consolation. Neither must I fear any such risk in faithfully preaching God’s Name boldly in every place, so that even after my death, a spiritual legacy may be left for my brethren and my children.”
Confrontation
At Tara, Patrick challenged the Druids to a contest. The Druids invoked demons and brought a dark fog over the land. Patrick prayed and suddenly the fog cleared and the sun shone brightly. The king ordered 27 chariots to go and seize Patrick. He prayed aloud: “May God come up to scatter His enemies and may those who hate Him flee from His face.” The charioteers fell dead.
Patrick rebuked the king: “If you do not believe now, you will die on the spot for the wrath of God descends on your head.” The king fell on his knees before the missionary and pledged his realm to Christ. Many turned to Christ on that day.
One of Patrick’s writings was a letter excommunicating a tyrant Coroticus who had carried off some of Patrick’s converts into slavery. Within his lifetime Patrick ended the slave trade in Ireland. The legend that Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland has to do with his spiritual warfare in driving the demons from the land.
The famous Lorica “Patrick’s Breastplate” prayer of protection expresses Patrick’s confidence in God to protect him from “every fierce, merciless force that may come upon my body and soul, incantations of false prophets, black laws of paganism, deceit of idolatry, spells of druids…”
Mission Strategy
Patrick was one of the first great missionaries who brought the Gospel beyond the boundaries of the old Roman Civilisation. Patrick’s missionary strategy was to concentrate on converting the tribal kings. As the kings converted, they gave their sons to Patrick to be trained to be missionaries. From kingdom to kingdom, Patrick converted pagans, built churches, trained disciples, ordained deacons and ministers and built mission stations. Patrick provided pastors with written doctrinal standards with which to teach their people.
Faithful and Fruitful
For 30 years Patrick evangelised Ireland, converting many chiefs and kings, establishing over 300 congregations and baptising 120,000 people.
Inspiring Example
Patrick became an inspiring example for Celtic Christians. His life of continuous prayer, his love for the Scriptures, his love of God’s Creation and missionary vision inspired many hundreds of Celts to take the Gospel to Scotland, England and throughout the continent of Europe.
Saint
Although Patrick is commonly called Saint, he described himself as a sinner. Although Patrick is the Patron Saint of the Irish, he was not actually born in Ireland, but in England. It may also surprise people to know that Patrick was never canonized by the Roman Catholic church, but has been considered the Patron Saint of Ireland as a result of popular devotion and long-standing tradition.
On the last Sunday of every July, up to 30,000 pilgrims pass Saint Patrick’s statue and climb to the top of Croagh Patrick, commemorating Patrick’s 40 day fast on that 2,710 foot summit.
The greatest legacy of Patrick was the tremendous spiritual movement he launched in Ireland and his followers who sent out missionaries to evangelise not only the rest of the British Isles, but much of the continent of Europe.
This article is adapted from a chapter in Victorious Christians who Changed the World https://www.christianlibertybooks.co.za/item/victorious_christians by Dr. Peter Hammond, a missionary, author and conference speaker. Tel: 021-689-4480; mission@frontline.org.za.
Roger Sherman, and the importance of Gold & Silver – American Minute with Bill Federer
He was the only person to sign all four of these America’s founding documents:
- Articles of Association, 1774;
- Declaration of Independence, 1776;
- Articles of Confederation, 1777;
- U.S. Constitution, 1787.
Who was he?
Roger Sherman.
At age 19, Roger Sherman’s father died and he supported his family as a shoe cobbler, helping his two younger brothers to attend college and become clergymen.
Roger Sherman was a surveyor and merchant, but when a neighbor needed legal advice, he studied to help, only to be inspired to become a lawyer.
Sherman was elected a state senator, a judge and a delegate to the Continental Congress.
He was on the Committee to draft the Declaration of Independence, along with Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and Livingston.
Roger Sherman is pictured second from the left in John Trumbull’s famous painting which hangs in the Capitol Rotunda.
He helped draft the Articles of Confederation and helped draft the instructions given to an embassy headed to Canada, which stated:
“You are further to declare that we hold sacred the rights of conscience, and may promise to the whole people, solemnly in our name, the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion.
And … that all civil rights and the right to hold office were to be extended to persons of any Christian denomination.”
On October 17, 1777, when news that British General Burgoyne had surrendered 6,000 British troops to American General Horatio Gates after the Battle of Saratoga, Roger Sherman exclaimed:
“This is the Lord’s doing, and marvelous in our eyes!”
Sherman made 138 speeches at the Constitutional Convention.
He helped to draft the New Jersey Plan and the Connecticut Compromise, which broke the deadlock between how the large States and small States would be represented in the new government.
Patrick Henry described Roger Sherman as one of the three greatest men at the Constitutional Convention.
Roger Sherman is the author of Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution:
“No State shall … make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.”
He wrote in A Caveat Against Injustice or, An Inquiry into the Evils of a Fluctuating Medium of Exchange, 1752:
“Suppose a man comes to a trader’s shop in this colony to buy goods, and the trader sells him a certain quantity of goods and tells him the price is so many pounds, shillings and pence … to be paid at the expiration of one year … but there is nothing said either by seller or buyer, what currency it is to be paid in …
… Now I ask: What does the creditor have a right to demand for a debt so contracted? …
The debtor says that Bills of Credit on the neighboring governments have for many years passed promiscuously with the Bills of Credit on this colony as money …
And the creditor … says that such Bills of Credit are of no intrinsic value, and their … value is fluctuating and very uncertain, and therefore it would be unjust that any person should be obliged to receive them in payment as money …
for money ought to be something of certain value, it being that whereby other things are to be valued.”
James Madison wrote:
“Paper money is unjust … It is unconstitutional, for it affects the rights of property as much as taking away equal value in land.”
George Washington wrote Thomas Jefferson, August 1, 1786:
“Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.”
Jefferson wrote to Colonel Edward Carrington, May 27, 1788:
“Paper is poverty … it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.”
In 1817, Jefferson predicted paper money will bring:
“… abuses also are inevitable and, by breaking up the measure of value, make a lottery of all private property.”
Jefferson insisted in 1784:
“If we determine that a Dollar shall be our Unit … we must then say with precision what a Dollar is.”
In 1792, the Coinage Act declared a dollar worth 371.25 grains of pure silver or 24.75 grains of pure gold.
In 1862, during the emergency of the Civil War, Lincoln issued unbacked fiat “Greenback” currency.
When his cabinet asked if they should put “In God We Trust” on them, as was engraved on U.S. coins, Lincoln responded, “If you are going to put a legend on the greenbacks, I would suggest that of Peter and Paul, ‘Silver and gold I have none, but such as I have I give to thee.'”
On April 5, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an Executive Order 6102 demanding that everyone in the nation surrender their gold to the Federal Government by May 1, 1933.
On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon ordered the treasury “to suspend temporarily” the dollar being backed by gold, which became permanent.
Congressman Rep. Ron Paul of Texas wrote:
“The Latin term ‘fiat’ roughly translates to ‘there shall be.’ When we refer to fiat money, we are referring to money that exists because the government declares it into existence …
Fiat money is exchanged in the economy as long as there is faith in the government that issues it …
History has shown that fiat money, or ‘faith-based currency’ always fails, because when governments claim this power, they always behave irresponsibly …”
He continued:
“When government has the ability to create and spend all the money it wants … budgeting, as most Americans know it, loses all meaning.
Hand a teenager a credit card, and tell him there is no limit and no accountability for what he spends, and the effect would be the same.
The government becomes the reckless teenager with the credit card, and in the end, the taxpaying citizens get the bill …
This is why our founding fathers considered, but decidedly rejected the creation of a national central bank.
They understood that … even the best of governments, cannot control spending …”
Rep. Paul concluded:
“Every dollar created and spent by government makes the dollars in your pocket worth less and less.
Eventually any currency controlled by government will be debased to worthlessness, and will wipe out the savings of the citizens who put faith in that currency.
Hard currencies, on the other hand, force governments to remain in check, strictly limited to the revenues they can raise from the country’s economic health.”
Rolf Nef of Global Research wrote “Falling Empires and their Currencies,” January 15, 2007:
“When empires fall, their currencies fall first …
The common thing is that the currencies of each and every one of these falling empires lost dramatically in value …
Authorities debased their currency which presaged (warned of) the fall of the Empire.”
Devalued currency and out-of-control debt contributed to the decline of:
- Han Dynasty of China;
- Roman Empire;
- Byzantine Empire;
- Kublai Khan’s Yuan Dynasty;
- Spanish Hapsburg Dynasty;
- Ottoman Empire;
- French Empire;
- British Empire;
- Soviet Union;
- Zimbabwe;
- Venezuela.
Newsweek columnist Niall Ferguson, the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, wrote in “How Economic Weakness Endangers the U.S.” (3/13/10):
“This is how empires decline. It begins with a debt explosion …
Habsburg Spain defaulted on all or part of its debt 14 times between 1557 and 1696 and also succumbed to inflation due to a surfeit of New World silver.
Pre-revolutionary France was spending 62 percent of royal revenue on debt service by 1788.
The Ottoman Empire went the same way: interest payments and amortization rose from 15 percent of the budget in 1860 to 50 percent in 1875.
And … the last great English-speaking empire. By the interwar years, interest payments were consuming 44 percent of the British budget, making it intensely difficult to rearm in the face of a new German threat …
Without radical fiscal reform, it could apply to America next.”
Richard W. Fisher, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told the Commonwealth Club of California, San Francisco, May 28, 2008:
“We know from centuries of evidence in countless economies, from ancient Rome to today’s Zimbabwe, that running the printing press to pay off today’s bills leads to … inflation that results from the flood of money into the economy (which) turns out to be far worse than the fiscal pain those countries hoped to avoid.”
Roger Sherman wrote in Caveat of Injustice, 1752:
“No government has the right to impose on its subjects any … currency to be received in payments as money which is not of intrinsic value …
because in so doing they would oblige men to part with their estates for that which is worth nothing in itself and which they don’t know will ever procure him any thing.”
Support for a stable unit of financial exchange is in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, which stated in verse 19:36:
“Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have.”
The Book of Proverbs stated in verse 11:1:
“A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.”
Because of the irresponsibility of governments inflating their currencies, and manipulation by international currency traders, many have explored using Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, but as this cannot be controlled, central governments view them as a threat.
The globalist alternative is a government trackable CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) which potentially could be turned off by the government if a company or individual’s ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) score is not politically-correct enough.
In 1788, as a member of the White Haven Congregational Church, Roger Sherman was asked to use his expertise in revising the wording of their creed.
In his own handwriting, he wrote:
“I believe … that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are a revelation from God, and a complete rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him …
That He made man at first perfectly holy, that the first man sinned, and … all became sinners in consequence … and on account of sin are liable to all the miseries of this life, to death, and to the pains of hell forever.
I believe that God … did send His own Son to become man, die in the room and stead of sinners and thus to lay a foundation for the offer of pardon and salvation to all mankind, so as all may be saved who are willing to accept the Gospel offer.”
Roger Sherman helped convince the state of Connecticut to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
He was elected from Connecticut as a Representative to the first session of U.S. Congress.
When the First Amendment was introduced, Sherman thought it was unnecessary as religion was under each individual States’ jurisdiction.
Elected as a U.S. Senator at age 70, Roger Sherman died JULY 23, 1793.
The State of Connecticut placed a statue of Sherman in the U.S. Capitol.
Sherman’s statue is also on the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford.
Inscribed on Roger Sherman’s tomb is:
“He ever adorned the profession of Christianity which he made in youth and … died in the prospect of a blessed immortality.”
(The above is reposted by permission of the American Minute https://americanminute.com/blogs/todays-american-minute
HCR 4: A “Bait and Switch? and Out-Of-State Lobbyists
On Thursday March 16, the New Hampshire House of Representatives should be debating and voting on HCR 4-a resolution applying for an Article V Convention for a term limit amendment. There is no reference in Article V which limits a convention to a specific amendment or topic. Legislators who support this amendment have been told by out-of-state lobbyists that an Article V Convention can indeed be limited, but they have no historical precedence to back up their claims since the U. S. has never held an Article V Convention. Just believe them because they trot out well paid spokesmen who say so.
One of the out-of-state lobbyists is Mr. Ken Quinn. He works for Term Limits USA but once worked for Convention of States (COS). He spends a good amount of his time denouncing and smearing all Republicans who dare oppose an Article V Convention. Back in 2016, his organization accused NH State Senator Kevin Avard of bribery-a total lie, but it demonstrates the lengths that some of its leadership are willing go to get their resolutions passed. Senator Avard Accused of bribery by COS
It looks like COS has not learned its lesson:
Attorney Mike Ferris, a co-founder of COS openly advocated for “structural change” of the U.S. Constitution. In the Spring of 2016, Mr. Quinn not only defended “structural change” of the Constitution but claimed that the Constitution was flawed because elected officials could ignore it. In his own words:
Last month, the New Hampshire House rejected COS’s resolution-HCR 1, Let’s hope they do the same to HCR 4.
Term Limit Amendment:
“Throw the bums out” is the emotional call of some term limit amendment supporters but a term-limit amendment will throw all members of Congress out- not just the “bums” If passed and fully implemented, 12 to 15 years from now, will give us a permanent lame duck Congress, and likely do nothing to change the ideological make-up of new members of Congress.
Climate Hustlers Deceiving on Temperature Records Says Professor Willie Soon. one the world’s leading astrophyscists
(Professor Soon asked us to repost this important interview with Alex Newman.)
Government agencies with a vested interest in the man-made global-warming agenda along with the United Nations are deceiving mankind about global temperature records using a number of flagrant errors, explained one of the world’s leading astrophyscists, Dr. Willie Soon, in this interview with The New American magazine’s Alex Newman. Dr. Soon, one of the speakers at the Heartland Institute’s annual climate convention, exposes these tricks, including relying on contaminated temperature data from urban areas that show more heat only due to human development rather than CO2 or global warming, he said. This has been known for over a century, and yet the climate profiteers keep peddling the fraud. Dr. Soon’s published studies on this have been cited even by top UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientists in their own work, so they can’t claim to be ignorant. It is time for truth, Dr. Soon warns.
The Constitutional Minute #18: The 2nd Amendment Explained
Gun control is not an enumerated power delegated to the federal government.
Our federal Constitution doesn’t delegate to the federal government any power over the Country at Large to restrict our arms.
Accordingly, all pretended federal laws, regulations, orders, opinions, or treaties which purport to do so are unconstitutional as outside the scope of powers delegated. They are also unconstitutional as in violation of the Second Amendment.
The States are also prohibited from infringing the right of the People to keep and bear arms by Article I, Sec. 8, clauses 15 and 16, US Constitution. Those two clauses provide for the Militia of the Several States; and implicitly prohibit the States from making any laws which would interfere with the arming and training of the Militiamen in their States.
Pursuant to this clause, Congress passed the Militia Act of 1792 which required every able-bodied male citizen (with a few exceptions) between the ages of 18 and 45 to acquire a rifle, bayonet, ammo, ammo pouch, and report to his local Militia Unit for training. The “Militia of the several States” were creatures of State Statutes – not of the federal government.
What does our Texas State Constitution say about the right to keep and bear arms?
Each State has its own Constitution which addresses its State Militia and the right to be armed.
Now listen: No State may lawfully make any law which contradicts its State Constitution or which interferes with Congress’ power to “organize, arm, and discipline, the Militia”.
Accordingly, any State Statute which purports to require a permit before one may carry a gun is unconstitutional under the federal Constitution because Congress may lawfully require able-bodied male Citizens to acquire firearms and ammo and report to their local Militia Unit for training!
Here is a link for your enjoyment: https://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/from-duty-to-be-armed-to-permission-to-carry/
Bob Hilliard
wethepeoplehandbook@gmail.com
The Weekly Sam: The Great American Math Disaster By Samuel Blumenfeld
One of the reasons why Americans are so confused about the large numbers being tossed
around by our leaders in Washington these days, is because of how poorly they’ve been
taught mathematics in the public schools they attended. Numbers in the millions,
billions, and trillions are almost impossible to visualize as anything more than just strings
of numbers. Most Americans can barely deal with thousands, let alone trillions.
The basic problem is that American children are no longer being taught arithmetic. They
are taught math, which includes more than our simple counting system. Arithmetic deals
with quantity. Math deals with relationships and uses complex symbols. When you
submerge arithmetic in mathematics, without making sure that the children have mastered
their counting skills, you get math failure. And this is nothing new. Back in 1991
Newsweek magazine reported (6/17/91):
How bad are eighth graders’ math skills? So bad that half are scoring just above
the proficiency level expected of fifth-grade students. Even the best students did
miserably; at the top-scoring schools, the average was well below grade level.
Hardly any students have the background to go beyond simple computation, most
of those kids can add but they have serious trouble thinking through simple
problems….
What’s really frightening about these results is that the alarm has been ringing
since the 1983 publication of “A Nation at Risk,” the federally sponsored study
that highlighted vast problems in the public schools. Yet despite years of talk
about reform–and genuine efforts of change in a few places–American students
are still not making the grade and remain behind their counterparts in other
industrialized nations.
All of those kids who did miserably in math in 1983 and 1991 are today’s voting adults in
their thirties and forties. And let us not forget the disaster called the “New Math” which
swept through America’s elementary schools like a hurricane during the 1960s and ’70s,
creating today’s math illiterates among Boomers in their fifties and sixties.
The educators blame the problem on traditional arithmetic, which hasn’t been taught in
years, but is a perfect scapegoat. They complain that too much time is wasted practicing
adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. The solution? More calculators and
computers. The real problem is that our educators really don’t know the difference between
arithmetic and mathematics, and if you don’t know the difference, you will not know how
to teach either.
Our arithmetic system is an ingenious method of counting, keeping track of quantity. It
uses 10 symbols and place value for all of its notations and operations. As such it is one
of the greatest achievements of the human intellect, an invention that permits human
beings to perform any counting feat with mere pencil and paper.
But the key to its proficient use is memorization of the basic arithmetic facts. If you
don’t memorize the facts, then you are stuck with unit counting and you might as well
learn to use an abacus. Memorization requires rote drill, which is forbidden in today’s
schools, even though it is the easiest way for a child to learn anything. When educators
think that children can learn to compute without memorizing the arithmetic facts, they are
deluding themselves and cheating the children.
Why is it important for children to memorize the arithmetic facts? Because
memorization will give them mastery of the system. And once the arithmetic facts are
memorized through drill and practice with pencil and paper, they will later be able to use
calculators and computers with accuracy, spotting errors when they make them, always
able to do the calculations on paper if necessary.
Why did eighth graders do so poorly even in wealthy suburban schools? Because of bad
teaching. Obviously, when even the richest and brightest fail, one cannot blame it on
rote memorization when we are told that memorization is what makes the Japanese
student so much better than the American. If teachers do not even know how to teach
simple arithmetic effectively, how can we assume that they know how to teach algebra,
geometry, trigonometry, or calculus effectively?
Besides, very few of us will need to use algebra, geometry, trigonometry or calculus, but
all of us will need to use arithmetic–in doing tax returns, figuring out mortgages,
balancing our checking accounts, using credit cards, making change, planning our
retirement. So if everyone must use arithmetic in order to survive economically, why
don’t the educators emphasize the need to develop good arithmetic skills?
Back in 1983, John Saxon, the celebrated author of superb mathematics textbooks used
by home-schoolers and private schools, wrote:
“For the last twenty years, these [mathematics] experts have worked unwittingly to bring
matters to a point where only the brilliant can learn mathematics. They have tried to
teach advanced concepts and a general overview before the student has learned the
basics….In an important sense, these authors are experts neither in mathematics nor in
education. They do not know which mathematics topics must be mastered at which level
and have no understanding of the capabilities of the average student. Their books are
visible proof that they do not know how children learn and assimilate abstractions.”
(National Review, 8/19/83)
Until rote learning is restored in our primary schools in the teaching of arithmetic, we can
expect math failure to plague American public education for the foreseeable future.
(Sam Blumenfeld created a basic arithmetic course and it is available on his archive: https://campconstitution.net/blumenfelds-math-tutor/
Repent Congressman Jamaal Bowman Says Camp Constitution’s Chaplain Rev. Steve Craft
Rev. Steve Craft, Chaplain for Camp Constitution, calls Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York to repentance. Bowman is a socialist who promotes the racist and Marxist Critical Race Theory. Rev. Craft pointed out that the “we have a sin problem not a sit problem. Like all of the black Democrat members of Congress, Mr. Bowman supports abortion and Planned Parenthood. Rev. Craft points out that Planned Parenthood is a racist organization whose founder hated blacks. In the video, Rev. Craft recommends several books written by black authors that refute the Marxist narrative including two by Vince Ellison titled 25 Lies: Exposing Democrats’ Most Dangerous, Seductive, Damnable, Destructive Lies and How to Refute Them, and The Iron Triangle Inside the Liberal Democrat Plan to Use Race to Divide Christians and America in their Quest for Power and How We Can Defeat Them
Boston’s Harbor Blockaded, Virginia’s Day of Fasting, & the “shot heard round the world” – American Minute with Bill Federer
Britain was almost bankrupt after the Seven Years War, 1756-1763, which was called in America the French and Indian War.
This led Parliament to tax the colonies.
Resistance to taxes prompted a long list of Acts intended to bring colonists into submission, culminating in the Boston Massacre.
At the same time, the British East India Company, which had taken control of Bengal and large areas of India, was facing bankruptcy.
The Bengal Famine of 1770 killed an estimated 10 million people – a third of Bengal’s population.
It was the first of several major Bengal famines during the era of British rule.
Administrative costs skyrocketed while Bengal’s labor productivity plummeted.
This was all occurring as an economic downturn in Europe caused a depression in trade.
To avoid bankruptcy, the British East India Company directors appealed to Parliament, which passed the Tea Act in 1773.
The Tea Act gave the Company an exemption from paying duties on Tea imported to the American colonies, but kept duties on tea from competitors, thereby undercutting local merchants and putting thousands out of work.
It was viewed as the camel’s nose under the tent, for if colonists acquiesced, they would implicitly be accepting Parliament’s right to directly tax the colonies anytime it wished.
Colonists objected because they had no representation in Parliament — “No taxation without representation.”
The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773.
Samuel Adams led a band of patriots, the Sons of Liberty, disguised as Mohawk Indians, from the South Meeting House toward Griffin’s Wharf.
There they threw 342 chests of British East India Company tea into Boston’s harbor.
Furious at the Boston Tea Party, the King decided to punished Boston.
Britain imposed the Boston Port Act, MARCH 7, 1774, effectively closing Boston’s harbor till the cost of the tea was repaid.
It was the first of five Punitive Acts, also called Coercive Acts or Intolerable Acts, which were designed to punish colonists by stopping all commerce from coming in and out of Boston.
These Acts ruined Boston’s economy, causing stores to close and putting thousands out of work.
This was similar to modern-day Big Tech censorship, Internet deplatforming, shadow-banning, and canceling.
The situation soon became a test of wills between the King and his colonists.
James Otis wrote in “The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved,” 1764:
“The grant of GOD Almighty,
who has given to
all men a natural right to be free … The colonists are by the law of nature freeborn, as indeed all men are, white or black.”
In enforcing the Boston Port Act, the British Commander-in-Chief in America, General Thomas Gage, effectively ruled through martial law.
He prevented citizens of Massachusetts from electing their own leaders.
Gage dissolved Massachusetts’ Provincial Congress.
He forbade town hall meetings without his permission:
“Calling such meetings … the inhabitants … pass many dangerous and unwarrantable resolves: for remedy whereof, be it enacted … no meeting shall be called … without the leave (permission) of the governor.”
Britain’s Prime Minister, Lord North, told Parliament these Acts were necessary “to take the executive power from the hands of the democratic part of government.”
It was the memory of Gage’s actions that later led the writers of the Bill of Rights to insist on “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Massachusetts’ citizens refused to stop their town hall meetings and passed more resolves against the King.
Surrounding colonists rallied by sending food to Boston.
William Prescott, who later commanded at Bunker Hill, wrote:
“If we submit to these regulations, all is gone …
Our forefathers passed the vast Atlantic, spent their blood and treasure, that they might enjoy their liberties, both civil and religious, and transmit them to their posterity …
Now if we should give them up, can our children rise up and call us blessed?”
Upon hearing of the Boston Port Act, Thomas Jefferson drafted a Day of Fasting & Prayer resolution, to be observed in Virginia the same day the blockade was to commence in Boston.
It was introduced in the Virginia House of Burgesses by Robert Carter Nicholas, May 24, 1774.
It passed unanimously, being supported by Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and George Mason:
“This House, being deeply impressed with apprehension … from the hostile invasion of the city of Boston in our Sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose commerce and harbor are, on the first day of June next, to be stopped by an armed force,
deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June be set apart, by the members of this House, as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition, for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights …
… Ordered, therefore that the Members of this House do attend … with the Speaker, and the mace, to the Church in this City, for the purposes aforesaid;
and that the Reverend Mr. Price be appointed to read prayers, and the Reverend Mr. Gwatkin, to preach a sermon.”
On the appointed Day of Fasting, June 1, 1774, George Washington wrote in his diary:
“Went to church, fasted all day.”
Virginia’s Royal Crown-appointed Governor was Lord Dunmore.
He was finishing up fighting Dunmore’s War against the Shawnee and Mingo tribes in the Ohio River Valley of western Virginia, as they had tortured and massacred settlers, including Daniel Boone’s son, James.
Dunmore was so upset by Jefferson’s Day of Fasting and Prayer resolution that he dissolved Virginia’s House of Burgesses.
Virginia’s legislators, instead of going home, went down the street and gathered in Raleigh Tavern.
There, in a back room, they decided to form a Continental Congress, to meet in Philadelphia three months later.
Meanwhile in Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage continued to tighten his grip by removing gunpowder from the storage magazine near the town of Somerville in September of 1774.
Thousands of American militiamen rapidly confronted them in what was referred to as the Powder Alarm.
Shocked by the colonists’ quick and firm response, Gage wrote:
“If force is to be used at length, it must be a considerable one, and foreign troops must be hired, for to begin with small numbers will encourage resistance, and not terrify; and will in the end cost more blood and treasure.”
The next Spring, April of 1775, General Gage sent troops to confiscate the arms and gunpowder at Lexington and Concord.
They were also going to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock, who was President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and President of the Continental Congress.
Gage had received an order from Lord Dartmouth “to arrest the principal actors and abettors in the Provincial Congress whose proceedings appear in every light to be acts of treason and rebellion.”
Hancock was staying in Lexington at the home where he grew up, which was now the home of his cousin, Lucy Bowes Clark, and her husband, Pastor Jonas Clark.
Warned ahead of time by the midnight ride of Paul Revere and William Dawes, American militiamen were armed and waiting for the British at the Lexington Green, led by Pastor Jonas Clark, who stated:
“I have trained them for this very hour; they would fight, and, if need be, die, too, under the shadow of the house of God!”
That day, April 19, 1775, British Major Pitcairn shouted, “Disperse, ye villains! Ye rebels, disperse! Lay down your arms! Why don’t you lay down your arms and disperse?”
Then was fired the “shot heard round the world,” and the war of Independence officially began.
Driven back, colonists regrouped at the Concord Bridge. This time they did not retreat.
The colonists fought back, joined by more militiamen, and chased the British all the way back to Boston.
The British suffered 273 casualties.
Pastor Jonas Clarke declared:
“From this day will be dated the liberty of the world!”
General Gage offered a pardon to anyone who would abandon the patriot cause, with the specific exception of John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
On May 3, 1775, Patrick Henry led the Hanover militia to seize the gunpowder in Williamsburg, Virginia.
British Governor Lord Dunmore, fled Williamsburg and issued a proclamation against “a certain Patrick Henry … and a Number of deluded Followers” who organized “an Independent Company… and put themselves in a Posture of War.”
Dunmore sent raiding parties to plunder plantations along the James River, York River and Potomac River, which only served to make colonists resent him more.
George Washington wrote:
“I do not think that forcing his lordship (Dunmore) on shipboard is sufficient. Nothing less than depriving him of life or liberty will secure peace to Virginia, as motives of resentment actuate his conduct to a degree equal to the total destruction of that colony.”
Lord Dunmore eventually sailed back to Britain and Patrick Henry became Virginia’s first post-colonial governor.
The situation in Boston escalated with the British bringing thousands of additional troops, led by Admiral Samuel Graves and Generals William Howe, John Burgoyne and Henry Clinton.
General Thomas Gage, who had been Commander-in-Chief in America since Pontiac’s War, was recalled to Britain after the Battle of Bunker Hill and replaced with General William Howe.
On May 31, 1775, citizens of Charlotte Town, North Carolina, passed the Mecklenburg Resolves, officially rejecting allegiance to Britain’s King and Parliament:
“Whereas by an Address presented to his Majesty by both Houses of Parliament in February last, the American Colonies are declared to be in a State of actual Rebellion, we conceive that all Laws … derived from the Authority of the King or Parliament, are annulled and vacated …
All Commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the Crown, to be exercised in these Colonies, are null and void,
That whatever Person shall hereafter receive a Commission from the Crown, or attempt to exercise any such Commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an Enemy to his Country …
That these Resolves be in full Force and Virtue, until Instructions from the General Congress of this Province … shall provide otherwise, or the legislative Body of Great-Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary Pretentions with Respect to America …
… That the several Militia Companies in this county do provide themselves with proper Arms and Accoutrements and hold themselves in Readiness to execute the commands and Directions of the Provincial Congress.”
Reposted with permission of American Minute http://www.AmericanMinute.com