"The founding fathers had to refer to the Creator in order to make their revolutionary experiment make sense; it was because 'all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights' that men could dare to be free."
President Dwight Eisenhower
in an article for the Episcopal Churchnews Magazine
Send to friendCHRISTIAN CIVIL DUTY
"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
John Jay, President of the Continental Congress and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
"God commands you to choose for rulers, 'just men who will rule in the fear of God.' . . . if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted."
Noah Webster, author of the first American dictionary
"When we [Christians] withhold our influence and participation, we yield by default to those who promote immoral and destructive policies."
Dr. James Dobson
"If America is to survive, we must elect more God-centered men and women to public office; individuals who seek Divine guidance in the affairs of state."
Rev. Billy Graham
THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM
"The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God."
President John F. Kennedy, 1961 Inaugural Address
"We believe that all men are created equal, because they are created in the image of God."
President Harry S Truman, 1948 Inaugural Address
"The founding fathers had to refer to the Creator in order to make their revolutionary experiment make sense; it was because "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights" that men could dare to be free."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in an article for the Episcopal Churchnews Magazine
RELIGION AND MORALITY
"How could a society fail to perish if, while the political bond is relaxed [for freedom], the moral bond were not tightened? And what makes a people master of itself if it has not submitted to God?"
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
"And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."
President George Washington, 1796 Farewell Address
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
President John Adams, 1798 letter to a Massachusetts militia division
"The principal of equality . . . follows inevitably from belief in the brotherhood of man through the fatherhood of God."
President Calvin Coolidge, 1924 address to the Holy Name Society
"The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think we can emphasize that enough these days.
"If we don't have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State."
President Harry S Truman, 1950 address to the Attorney General's Conference
*Note: many of these quotes are taken from William J. Federer's Three Secular Reasons Why America Should Be Under God