by: Thomas Lee Abshier, ND
Secular Humanism is a religion, but not in the formal sense of the Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, or Christian faiths. Nevertheless, it has a belief structure with its own set of assumptions and unprovable articles of faiths concerning the existence of a supreme being, the origins of life, the unseen forces which create coincidence, prosperity, and disaster, and the moral distinctions dividing right and wrong. The Secularists argue that the Founders intended government to be free from the influence of religion, and they have made a point of seeking to remove the Christian influence from any institutions that touch government. The Secularists believe their philosophy embodies the Founders’ intended ideal moral framework upon which to base the nation’s cultural, legal, and judicial system.
Such a plan to replace our Christian heritage and history with Secularism may have been conceived by secret societies or in backroom political deals, but we can be sure of the participation of the spiritual forces that oppose God as contributors to driving men to establish a totally secular government. Thus, spiritual and secular forces have allied to enroll the Legal, Legislative, and Executive branches of government to use public funds to propagate and indoctrinate the culture in the Secular creed. In current years, the courts have attained preeminent influence in the culture war because of the autocratic nature of their rule. They have almost no public accountability and create legal precedent for all future legislation and adjudication by a simple majority of Supreme Court Justices. Their judgments have taken on the force of law, and new Constitutional principles may be inserted into the body of case law without precedent or Constitutional Amendment.
Thus, because of this preeminent authority given to the Courts, the branch of government the Founders intended to be the weakest has become the strongest. Its strength owes to the fact that both Congress and the Executive branch have established the dispositional preference of refusing to veto or use the impeachment process to reverse the fiat law produced by judicial activism. But, some argue that the Supreme Court take a powerful place among the three branches and judge errors of the law and make rulings that protect human rights.
The Court should act to protect rights and judge errors of law, but the practice of judicial activism is unConstitutional. The Founders intended the Constitution change only by amendment, and that law change only by legislation. But, the Supreme Court now commonly legislates new law and Constitutional principles by judicial fiat, and the Executive and Legislative branches accept their rulings as valid and superior to their own intent.
Sadly, reversal of these flawed laws and principles now depends upon the voice and vote of the people. The unGodly philosophy of the worldly judge, legislator, and executive must be identified and opposed. The laws and principles now embedded in the foundation of our legal system will persist until the average citizen in society changes his social-moral paradigm to match a Christian worldview. Christian America must recognize the threat, and find the moral justification to oppose the encroachment and imposition of Secularism on America.
The Secularist seeks to institute a new values-hierarchy at the base of American culture. They wish to use principles such as diversity, choice, equality, tolerance, privacy, and freedom of expression as the set of primary values. And while each of these principles of social conduct has its place and time of prominence in judging social interaction, the court has taken these common courtesies as the defining and highest considerations in matters of life, death, property, and sexuality and ignored the traditional values-system pronounced in God’s Law and Christian culture.
The Secularists view themselves as enlightened ambassadors of the new thought movement. Thus, we see the Christian value system, which has implicitly given moral guidance to government and individual behavior for over 200 years, being replaced by the philosophy of man, the religion of Secularism.
The Secularist has lifted abortion to the level of the most sacred right of a woman’s personhood, to exercise “choice” with regards to allowing (or not allowing) a child growing inside her body to continue to term. Therefore, the spirits using the Secularist movement include murder, ritual death, blood sacrifice, profligate and/or irresponsible sexuality. Men seek to exalt their own righteousness before God and man; therefore they rationalize their acts according the group value system and choose to ignore the violation of God’s law, while magnifying their right to “choose”.
The right of choice is given as a privilege to spiritual adults who can be trusted to make Godly choices. Children are not given the privilege of making choices until they have shown themselves of good established character by habitual right judgment following long periods of supervision.
Couples engaging in uncommitted or irresponsible sexuality have not met the criteria for maturity required of adulthood, and as such have not met the basic criteria for creating new life, much less its termination. The life begun in the womb of a mother was not created by the parents; they only made the choices which allowed God to begin His miraculous sequence of life-development. Thus, the termination of a life, however young and devoid of independent personhood, cannot be justified based upon such tertiary principles as a “right to choose.”
The Secularist has likewise justified homosexual sodomy under the rubric of a man’s freedom of expression and right to privacy. Pornography is validated on the basis of free speech. Smoking, drug use, and various forms of mutilation are likewise rationalized on the basis of a man’s right to control his own body.
The Secularists have taken control of the educational agenda and promoted concepts which oppose the Christian worldview. They have elevated the principles of safer sex, evolution, abortion, homosexuality, tolerance, and honoring diversity to the level of moral dogma which should be given Constitutional status as inalienable rights. Each of these “rights” reflects a moral system, and in turn has implications regarding patterns of human relations and moral behavior and in turn the organization of larger social behavior and systems.
The Secularists have already implemented an Orwellian-type Ministry of Truth which has purged our history of any reference to the Christian influence and foundation of our nation. In the Everson v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court of 1947 installed the faux Constitutional principle of the “Separation of Church and State” as though it were an intended value of the founders. The drumbeat mantra of “Separation” has been sounded so loudly that many, if not most, Americans believe they must avoid any activity that would bring political considerations into the religious setting, or the religious perspective into the political arena.
The Secularists have succeeded in reducing Christianity to a “voice” rather than the dominant cultural moral standard. They seek to complete their agenda of minimizing Christianity’s influence on government from every possible direction. One of the most pernicious laws prevents Christian people from organizing political action from the house of worship. Such laws assume that spiritual life has no secular effect; a theory which clearly contradicts the fact that every activity interrelates and influences the web of life.
Man needs to organize his world in a way that gives him a predictive understanding of the forces operating in his life. As such, man must understand God to explain the random and unexpected forces that crash down and disrupt his quasi-secure existence. Eliminating God from the list of forces which truly exist in life allows men to proceed in developing moral theories which satisfy their senses and desires. Without the existence of an Absolute Law which dictates the optimum Way of Life, man’s judgment stands without opposition. Men construct moral systems and creation stories to put life into perspective, give it meaning, and justify the restrictions and requirements of social interaction. Without an eternal standard with which to compare, man is free to declare any law as right, good, and true.
The Secularist wishes to purge God from the public debate, and has offered the man-centered religion of Secularism as the alternative to fill the gap left by the “Separation” requirement they invented. The Secular humanist religion has no other God but man, and no absolute moral code other than a societal agreement about fair play and the limits of satisfaction of personal desire.
As Christians, we must applaud much of the Secularist’s moral judgment because to a large extent it follows the pattern of Jesus’ command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But, the failure of the Secularist’s moral system lies in its omission of the first and superior part of that great commandment, “To love the Lord your God with all you Heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.”
In other words, without first following God’ commandments, man’s selfish desires could overshadow, or ignore, God’s directives. Christians believe that God really did design the world, create man, establish the Law, give prophesy about His plans, bring Jesus into the world to offer a way to restore relationship, and allow Him to die as a substitution for our punishment, and thereby allowed the universal scales of crime and punishment to balance without experiencing the pain of separation from God. The best system to follow is the one that reflects life, creation, Truth, and reality most accurately.
We were a nation founded on Christian principles, and as a nation “of the people” we have every right to incorporate that belief structure into the center of our culture and mold our governmental institutions around those seminal concepts. As Christians, we are opposed by the Secularists who are using the Constitution as the basis for their argument that we should remove Christianity from the center of our national moral structure. They believe that the First Amendment should be interpreted as a high “Wall of Separation between Church and State” which allows no penetration of religious expression of any type in government.
The Secularists further interpret this principle of “Separation” as requiring proactive implementation of a Secular government, and a parallel cleansing of Christianity from all expressions of government in the public sector. This may explain the near rabid obsession of the Secularists to bring governmental influence, support, and regulation into as many areas of life as possible. But, their primary incursion has been bringing the near complete domination of the educational establishment under the purview of Government. As such, the Secularists have authorized themselves to require a fully secular education.
The Secularist argues that he is the true messenger of a “religion-free” government, and as such his moral system should prevail in all governmental realms. And if the Founders intended an absolutely God and religion-free government, the argument for their appropriate social dominance is plausible. Secularism acknowledges no God, has no formal ceremony, no membership ritual, and no creed, thus all governmental functions including education, defense, and healthcare, and all levels of government, local, county, and State, must be free of any religious expression other than the secular expression of man. But, the assumption of the Founders’ rigid insistence on a God-free government must be challenged.
Man’s internal compass can be overruled by the strong soul influences exerted by money, sex, and power, and the more subtle virtues of chastity, fidelity, and charity can be obscured if man’s heart is not submitted to an internal transcendental Absolute ruler. And, since maintenance of order in a nation with a government, “of the people” depends largely upon the self-imposed morality of the people, it seems unlikely that the Founders would have entrusted their new Republic to the desires and whims of man.
Regardless of the intent of the framers, we currently face a situation where two large opposing groups have claimed Constitutional authority in their judgment of Constitutional intent. Thus, given that neither side will yield, the debate cannot be won by one side capitulating and agreeing that the other side has prevailed in its accurate historicity. As long as liberty and the franchise persists, the final arbiters of the debate will be the people. As long as the majority still have the right to vote, the people can choose the meaning of our Constitution and reestablish its spirit and fashion law to reflect its intended Godliness.
Currently, the Secularists are attempting to win the popular vote by creating a new history with which they indoctrinate the youth and naive general culture. Given enough generations, the Secularist may be able to sufficiently obscure the truth of our history to create a majority who believe its revisionist message that the Founders intended to Constitutionally mandate the creation of a Secular nation.
But, as a Christian, as a man who believes the Founders intended that this nation was and should continue to be a Christian nation, I have a right to elect representatives and judges who will allow me to use the tools of government to propagate and perpetuate our foundation as a Christian nation that our forefathers intended. If the Biblical account of creation is true, and as a nation we have adopted the True God as the center of our moral universe, we would be foolish to abandon the implementation and perpetuation of such a God-centered nation with a true miraculous historical foundation. It would be foolish to instead adopt a Godless moral basis for the nation system comprised of man’s philosophical theories. No strong and enduring national economy can be built on such a moral basis.
The legal structure of a nation reflects its moral system, and in turn that legal system colors, shades, and biases the economy and national prosperity. As a Christian Nation, we should perpetuate our Christian majority by passing on an education in the proper care and execution of a Godly social system through our public educational system. We should avoid, as did the Founders, establishing a State Religion, with its associated orthodoxy and potential for Theocratic tyranny. We should allow the majority of voters in a city, county, or state to direct public funds toward projects which have overt Christian and denominational affiliations. The Federal government should have no jurisdictional authority to countermand the states’ actions which reflect the will of the people and does not violate the various inalienable rights.
We should legislate against immorality in personal and public life according to the Christian standard. We are God’s proxies here on earth, and it is our duty to bring the violators of His Law to a place of willing and heart-felt confession, repentance, and restoration right thought, speech, and action. As Christians, we should discriminate between good and evil, and remain intolerant of unrepentant sin in our society. Every person, even the rebel and sinner is a soul that God is calling to Himself, and no one need separate Himself from God’s love and relationship, regardless of his past sin against God and man.
God has already planned a perfect place for each person to fit and work in His Kingdom; such is the principle of predestination. We should legislate and adjudicate against sin according to the standard of God’s Law, and rule the nation with humility and love. When we speak the truth in love, and act consistent with our speech, we can truly comply with the greatest commandment, “to love the Lord our God with all our heart mind and strength, and our neighbor as our selves.”
All people of all religions are welcome in our land,. They will not be required to adopt Christianity as their faith, but they are required to obey the laws of behavior required by our Christian system of morality. The non-believer does not have to attend public education, which trains the youth in the Christian history and heritage of our nation. He can employ a private teacher to instruct him in the traditions of his choice.
The non-believer has no right to demand that public expression of Christianity be removed so as to diminish his sense of alienation from the culture. The Secularist may argue that a primary purpose and premise of our new republic was the creation of a melting pot. But, such arguments refer again to man’s ideas of egalitarianism, and the inherent worth of multiculturalism. Such minor principles are likewise flawed and subservient to the more major principles of a Christian Nation.
In short, the non-Christian does not have the standing in society to demand removal of any and all symbols, words, or laws which cause him to confront his religious convictions. Citizenship confers equality before the law, it does not imply righteousness before God.
All people are fundamentally of equal worth in the eyes of the Lord, regardless of religion. But the soul which rebels against His commandments and Ways voluntarily separates himself from fellowship with the Almighty. The man who chooses another religion is likewise separated from fellowship with Christian citizen-believers. Our national ideal is an embrace of the poor, the homeless, the huddled masses. But, no one will execute these lofty maxims unless the people of God give hands and legs to these concepts. And, along with a meal and shelter for the body, the Christian should give food for the soul and spirit.
People of dissimilar spirit do not have equal fellowship as people of kindred spirits. The family of Christian believers is a haven of Godly relationship for those who wish to join in the fellowship. Those who choose not to join will be invited, and are always welcome to join. In a Christian Nation, all men are created equal, and have equal rights to pursue happiness, but not all will realize the same level of happiness. The manifestation of life depends on the individual. If a man feels alienated because he is not a Christian in a Christian Nation, that is his choice. Equality of outcome was never promised nor intended by the Founders. Every man may choose his path, and each path will offer different outcomes. Thus, men have an equality of opportunity to choose, but cannot expect all choices to produce the same result.
The same separation comes between nations and God when they exalt the religion of man and install unGodly rulers. Divorced from His blessing, we cannot long create a nation where prosperity thrives and justice rules. To restore America we must legislate and adjudicate upon Absolute Truth, and as a nation “of the people” we must each take charge of our soul, and train it in the ways of the Lord. Only when the majority of citizens righteously regulate their lives, vote for Godly men, and use Godly discrimination to judge the laws and actions of me, can we reasonably hope to create a Godly Republic.