The Worst Supreme Court Decision in History

On September 21, 1996 the US Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act. It was one of the most important and wonderful laws passed by Congress in modern times. Then, on June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court rendered its landmark Obergefell vs. Hodges decision which voided and wiped out the Defense of Marriage Act. It was one of the worst decisions of the Supreme Court in history. Below, I have chronicled these two events for you. And you just must understand them and how they changed US history.

As I mentioned above, this Public Law 104-199 (110 Statute 2419), passed by both Houses of Congress on September 21, 1996 was called The Defense of Marriage Act. Most legal analysts defined it as: “In determining the meaning of this Act of Congress, the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”

It was a good law. It upheld the meaning of marriage as expressed in the Bible and defined marriage as it was understood and acknowledged by most all of the population of America, both liberals and conservatives.

The Defense of marriage Act was not only acknowledge and welcomed by conservatives, but was welcomed by most all liberals in America. On September 21, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and stated: “I have long opposed governmental recognition of same-gender marriages and this legislation is consistent with that position.”

In 2000, Hillary Clinton stated: “Marriage has historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman.”

On February 2, 2004 Barack Obama stated in Chicago: “I am not a supporter of gay marriage. I think that marriage, in the minds of a lot of voters, has a religious connotation. I know that is true in the African-American community.”

So, the population all across America was very much in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, including most all leaders, both private a governmental.

Then on June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court rendered its landmark Obergefell vs. Hodges decision, which stated that all states (1) must recognize marriage between two same-sex individuals within their state; and (2) must recognize marriages of same-sex couples performed in other states.

This amazing decision wiped out the Defense of Marriage Act and rendered it mute and ineffective. In 2015 we thought that the Supreme Court was conservative at that time. However, this decision proved otherwise. Legal analysts across the country could only say that there must have been a schism in the Supreme Court.

President Biden invited a drag queen, Marti Gould Cummings, to the White House to celebrate signing what is being referred to as the “Dis-Respect for Marriage Act,” effectively repealing the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 and making the liberal Obergefell decision into a Federal law. This decision was a flagrant creation of federal law by the Supreme Court, as never intended by the Constitution.

Of the decision, Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee stated: “This irrational, unconstitutional rejection of the expressed will of the people will prove to be one of the court’s most disastrous decisions. The Supreme Court isn’t the supreme branch. Five lawyers on the Supreme Court can no more repeal the laws of nature and nature’s God on marriage than they can the laws of gravity.

 Huckabee further added: “This irrational, unconstitutional decision threatens religious liberty — the heart of the 1st Amendment.  The Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being. The only outcome worse than this flawed, failed decision would be for the President and Congress, two co-equal branches of government, to surrender in the face of this out-of-control act of unconstitutional, judicial tyranny.”

Franklin Graham stated: “The court — since it never defined marriage — doesn’t have the right to redefine it. God gave us marriage. Period. And God doesn’t change his mind.

Graham stated further: “I’m disappointed because the government is recognizing sin. This court is endorsing sin. God gave marriage between a man and a woman and that’s what marriage is. If pastors are going to be forced to provide marriage services for gay couples, I’m not going to do it. Given the choice of obeying God or the government, I believe Christians will obey God, even if there is hell to pay.”

Abraham Lincoln stated in his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861: “I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court.

Lincoln stated further: “The candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of the eminent tribunal.”

So, the Obergefell vs. Hodges decision is still the law of our land. And biological men are playing sports against girls and parading around naked in girl’s locker rooms. But I hope and pray that our Congress will pass a law to overturn and wipe-out the Obergefell vs. Hodges decision.

Jesus taught in Mark 10:6-9: “But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’”

The Obergefell vs. Hodges decision is being taught in many of our public Grade Schools, and is causing all manner of confusion to those young people. So, remember, Jesus added a warning in Matthew 18:6: “If anyone causes one of these little ones, those who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

Ron
 

The Real History of Mother’s Day

(Tomorrow is Mother’s Day in America. So, I thought it would be very appropriate for me to give you the real history of the founding of that day in America. Do read it below so that you will know.)

After the Civil War, abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, writer of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic, led a Mother’s Day for Peace in New York on June 2, 1872, to promote peace, national healing and reconciliation. She composed a proclamation to “appeal to womanhood throughout the world”

Julia Ward Howe personally sponsored a Mothers’ Day celebration in Boston in for the next ten years till interest dwindled.

In the following decades, Protestant churches and schools observed Decision Day for committing to Christ, Roll Call Day for church membership, Missionary Day, Temperance Sunday, and Children’s Day. And numerous efforts arose for observing a Mother’s Day.

A suggestion for honoring motherhood was made by University of Notre Dame’s first athletic director, Frank Hering. In 1904, Hering observed a Notre Dame professor passing out penny postcards to students, with the instructions to write: “Anything. Anything at all as long as it’s to their mothers. We do this every month in this class. One day a month is mother’s day.”

Hering proposed “setting aside one day in the year as a nationwide memorial to the memories of mothers and motherhood,” stating: “Throughout history the great men of the world have given their credit for their achievements to their mothers. The Holy Church recognizes this, as does Notre Dame.”

Taking the day from a suggestion to a reality was Anna Jarvis. She is the person most responsible for making Mother’s Day a nationally observed event.

Anna was from Grafton, West Virginia, the granddaughter of a Baptist minister. She a member of Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, where she taught Sunday school. In 1876, after one of her Bible lessons, Anna Jarvis closed with a prayer: “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mothers day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.”

Similar to Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, Anna Jarvis’ mother worked during the Civil War to organize Mothers’ Day Work Clubs to care for wounded soldiers, both Union and Confederate. Anna’s mother raised money for medicine, inspected bottled milk, and improved sanitation.

Anna’s mother raised money for medicine, inspected bottled milk, and improved sanitation. She arranged in 1868 a “Mother’s Friendship Day” — “to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War.” She hired women to care for families where mothers suffered from tuberculosis, May 9, 1905. Inspired by her mother’s self-sacrifice and generosity, Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her and all mothers.

On May 12, 1907, Anna persuaded her church, Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, to have a small Mother’s Day service. The church then agreed to set aside every year the 2nd Sunday in May, the anniversary of her mother’s death, as a day to show appreciation to all mothers — the makers of the home.

The next year, May 10, 1908, Anna organized a Mother’s Day two places: Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, where she sent a telegram; and in Philadelphia, where she gave a moving speech in the auditorium of the 12-story Wanamaker Department Store.

John Wanamaker was a retail pioneer and founder of one the first department stores.

Wanamaker, who had paintings of Christ throughout his store, stated: “There is a power in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep uppermost the profound conviction that it is the Gospel that is to win the heart and convert the world. The things that were sweet dreams in our childhood are now being worked out. The procession is being made longer and longer; the letters of Christ’s name are becoming larger and larger.”

With the financial backing of John Wanamaker and H.J. Heinz, maker of “57 varieties” of ketchup, Anna Jarvis began a letter-writing campaign to ministers and politicians to establish a “national” Mothers’ Day. Due to the overwhelming support of pastors and churches, by 1909, forty-five states observed Mother’s Day. People wore white and red Carnations on Sunday to pay tribute to their mothers. On May 8, 1914, Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

On MAY 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first National Mothers’ Day as a: “public expression of love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”

President Reagan said in his Mother’s Day Proclamation, 1986: “A Jewish saying sums it up: ‘God could not be everywhere – so He created mothers.'”

Mothers have the role of imparting values into children, as American poet William Ross Wallace wrote: “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.'”

Dr. James Dobson addressed the National Religious Broadcasters, Feb. 16, 2002: “If they can get control of children they can change the whole culture in one generation.”

On February 3, 1983, at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, President Ronald Reagan stated:

“I have a very special old Bible.

And alongside a verse in the Second Book of Chronicles there are some words, handwritten, very faded by now. And believe me, the person who wrote these words was an authority. Her name was Nelle Wilson Reagan. She was my mother.”

Reagan stated: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

On Mother’s Day, May 8, 2020, President Donald J. Trump proclaimed: “We celebrate the exceptional mothers in our lives, whether they became mothers through birth, adoption, foster care, or other means, these women are deserving of our unending gratitude and praise this day and every day. The intuition and wisdom passed from mother to child strengthens the fabric of our Nation and preserves generations of wisdom and familial values. In our earliest days, our mothers provide us with love and nurturing care. They often know our talents before we do, and they selflessly encourage us to use these God-given gifts to pursue our biggest dreams. I encourage all Americans to express their love and respect for their mothers, whether with us in person or in spirit, and to reflect on the importance of motherhood to the prosperity of our families, communities, and Nation.”

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:5): “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

Abraham Lincoln’s father Thomas married Nancy Hanks in 1806. He took her to the humble cabin he had prepared for her, and within the first few years of her married life, she bore him three children. The first was a daughter named Sarah, who died; the third was a son (Thomas) who died in infancy. The second was Abraham, who, born into the humblest abode, under the humblest circumstances under the blessing of a Providence which he always recognized.

Mrs. Lincoln, the mother, was evidently a woman out of place among those primitive surroundings. She was five feet, five inches high, a slender, pale, sad and sensitive woman, with much in her nature that was truly heroic.”

In Holland’s The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866) it says: “Those who knew the tender and reverent spirit of Abraham Lincoln later in life, will not doubt that he returned to his cabin-home deeply impressed by all that he had heard. It was the rounding up for him of the influences of a Christian mother’s life and teachings. It recalled her sweet and patient example, her assiduous efforts to inspire him with pure and noble motives, her simple instructions in divine truth, her devoted love for him, and the motherly offices she had rendered him during all his tender years. His character was planted by this Christian mother’s love.”

The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866) recounted: “Providence began at his mother’s knee, and ran like a thread of gold through all the inner experiences of his life. This great man never drew his infant life from a purer or more womanly bosom than her own; and Mr. Lincoln always looked back to her with an unspeakable affection. Long after her sensitive heart and weary hands had crumbled into dust; he said to a friend, with tears in his eyes: ‘All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother!'”

Lincoln wrote: “I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”

Ron
 

The Amazing Francis Asbury

(This amazing man, who you have probably never even heard of, was so important if not more so, than anyone else in the founding of America.  Do, for sure, learn about him here:)

In 1735, a young Oxford graduate named John Wesley was sent as the Anglican minister to the new American Colony of Georgia. He sailed on a ship called the Simmons.

The Simmonds, was also carrying a group of 25 German Moravian missionaries, as Wesley noted in his journal: “Sunday, January 25, 1736 at seven I went to the Germans (Moravians). I had long before observed their humility by performing those servile offices for the other passengers, which none of the English would undertake saying ‘their loving Savior had done more for them’ If they were pushed, struck, or thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth.”

On the Wesleys’ trip to Georgia, their ship, the Simmonds, was caught in a terrible storm which shredded the main sail and flooded the deck.

John Wesley saw how everyone panicked in fear except for the Moravians, who continued to sing praise songs. He noticed their relationship with the Lord was closer than his, as he wrote in his journal: “There was now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the spirit of fear. In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English.

The Germans (Moravians) calmly sung on. I asked one of them afterwards, ‘Was you not afraid?’ He answered, ‘I thank God, no.’ I asked, ‘But were not your women and children afraid?’ He replied, mildly, ‘No; our women and children are not afraid to die.’ From them I went to their crying, trembling neighbors, and pointed out to them the difference in the hour of trial, between him that feareth God, and him that feareth him not. At twelve the wind fell. This was the most glorious day which I have hitherto seen.”

John Wesley was unsuccessful in his ministry in Georgia, and after a year, the he sailed back to England. Depressed at his failure, he accepted an invitation to attend a Moravian prayer meeting in Aldersgate in May of 1738. John was touched by the Holy Spirit and had a profound conversion experience, writing that his “heart strangely warmed.” He wrote in his journal after the prayer service: “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Later in 1738, John Wesley traveled to Moravia in eastern Germany where he lived and worshiped for several months with Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf and the Moravian believers, experiencing first hand their sincere Christianity, being “the religion of the heart.” Wesley wrote in his journal: “God has given me, at length, the desire of my heart. I am with a church in whom is the mind of Christ, and who so walk as He walked.

John Wesley left Germany and returned to England, where he and his brother, Charles, began a revival movement within the Anglican Church called Methodism.

John preached thousands of sermons and organized a system of itinerate preachers who traveled through shires and towns in England in a circuit, or a circle of towns. John Wesley spoke of the inner witness of the presence of the Holy Spirit in one’s heart, as: “An inward impression on the soul of believers, whereby the Spirit of God directly testifies to their spirit that they are the children of God.”

Someone who was inspired by John Wesley to be an Anglican Methodist lay minister was 18-year-old Francis Asbury, born August 20, 1745.

(So, all the story about John Wesley is really just background; for the one that I really want you to know about is…..Francis Asbury.)

At the age 22, Francis Asbury was appointed by John Wesley to be a traveling preacher across England.

In 1771 most all of the preachers in America had died or were killed by the Indians. There was a great need for someone to go there and preach the gospel to the settlers Francis Asbury, at the age of 26, volunteered.

In 1771, Francis Asbury arrived in America, and for the next 45 years, he rode 300,000 miles on horseback, from the Atlantic to the Appalachians, from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico, spreading the Gospel. He became one of the primary forces and influences on the founding of America, though few today have ever heard of him.

In English colonies, everyone paid taxes to the King’s government, and the government paid the salaries of the Anglican pastors. Pastors lived on church-government owned farms called “glebes.”

On July 9, 1776, patriots in New York pulled down the statue of King George.

Several American colonies made it an act of treason for pastors to continued saying public prayers for the King. As the Revolution progressed, Anglican ministers faced a crisis of conscience. They had to choose between allegiance to the King and state, or allegiance to the patriotic American cause. The problem was, if they joined with those fighting for independence, they would lose their means of livelihood. As a result, most Anglican ministers returned to England, but Francis Asbury was one of the few who chose to stay in America.

Asbury stated: “I can by no means agree to leave such a field for gathering souls to Christ as we have in America.” Francis Asbury preached over 16,000 sermons in churches, town squares and court houses, addressing everyone he met, from travelers to workers in the fields to laborers in tobacco houses. He rode an average of 6,000 miles a year.

Episcopal ministers, Rev. William Smith of Maryland and Rev. William White of Philadelphia, in 1786, proposed a revised Book of Common Prayer where references to the King were replaced with references to Congress. Near that same time, at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, Francis Asbury moved the Methodist revival movement into its own denomination – the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Francis Asbury

Besides the Methodist Episcopal church the colonies had Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Puritans, Separatists, Pilgrims, Quakers, and Baptists.

Why so many churches? Answering that question is Robert D. Woodberry, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas–Austin who stated: “When Luther in 1521 defied an imperial order to recant by insisting that ‘my conscience is captive to the Word of God,’ he stopped being the reformer of an old order and instead became the founder of a new stream of Christianity. He could flout the commands of popes, church councils, and emperors, but not those of his own individual conscience.”

Woodberry continued: “Most Protestants follow his lead. They tend to believe that people can acquire saving faith only as they personally and individually appropriate God’s Word. They tend toward separation and independence from ancient church structures and traditions as well as political authorities. The main reason for this is the important role of individual conscience. Because saving faith must be uncoerced and individual, it requires in practice a diversity of independent churches to satisfy the inevitable diversity of individual consciences.”

So, how did diversity of churches lay the foundation for American independence? Woodberry at U.T. Austin explained: “’The authority of Christ,’ wrote the Scots Calvinist divine William Graham in 1768, ‘removes all civil distinctions. All are upon a level equally, as they shall soon be before the awful tribunal of the great Judge.’ This stirring fusion of theology, eschatology, and politics not only characterizes Scottish Calvinism but also says much about the relationship between Protestantism and democracy.”

Rather than view the many denominations negatively, it was instead viewed positively, that they would be a check on each other to insure no one would be established as the official state denomination.

Charles Carroll, the only Catholic to sign the Declaration, wrote to Rev. John Stanford, October, 9, 1827: “Observing the Christian religion divided into many sects, I founded the hope that no one would be so predominant as to become the religion of the state. That hope was thus early entertained because all of them joined in the same cause.”

So, Rev. Francis Asbury stated: “We should so work as if we were to be saved by our works; and so rely on Jesus Christ, as if we did no works. My soul is more at rest from the tempter when I am busily employed.”

Francis Asbury wrote: “My desire is to live more to God today than yesterday, and to be more holy this day than the last. God is gracious beyond the power of language to describe. O what pride, conforming to the world and following its fashions! Warn them, warn them for me, while you have strength and time and be faithful to your duty. Preach as if you had seen heaven and its celestial inhabitants, and had hovered over the bottomless pit, and beheld the tortures, and heard the groans of the damned.”

Francis Asbury’s leadership resulted in the Methodist Church in America growing from just 1,200 people to 214,000, with 700 ordained minsters, by the time of his death in 1816.

Shortly after being sworn in as the first President, George Washington was visited in New York on May 19, 1789, by Methodist Bishop in America, Francis Asbury. The Bishop greeted Washington with the words: “We express to you our sincere congratulations, on your appointment to the presidentship of these States. We place as full a confidence in your wisdom and integrity, for the preservation of those civil and religious liberties which have been transmitted to us by the Providence of GOD. Dependence on the Great Governor of the Universe which you have repeatedly expressed, acknowledging Him the source of every blessing, and particularly of the most excellent Constitution of these States, which is at present the admiration of the world.”

Asbury continued: “We enjoy a holy expectation that you will always prove a faithful and impartial patron of genuine, vital religion— the grand end of our creation and present probationary existence. We promise you our fervent prayers to the Throne of Grace, that GOD Almighty may endue you with all the graces and gifts of his Holy Spirit, that may enable you to fill up your important station to His glory.”

On May 29, 1789, President Washington wrote a reply: “To the Bishop Asbury of the Methodist-Episcopal Church: I return to you my thanks for the demonstrations of affection and the expressions of joy on my late appointment. It shall still be my endeavor to contribute towards the preservation of the civil and religious liberties of the American people. I hope, by the assistance of Divine Providence, not altogether to disappoint the confidence which you have been pleased to repose in me; in acknowledgments of homage to the Great Governor of the Universe”

Washington continued: “I trust the people of every denomination will have every occasion to be convinced that I shall always strive to prove a faithful and impartial patron of genuine, vital religion. I take in the kindest part the promise you make of presenting your prayers at the Throne of Grace for me, and that I likewise implore the Divine benediction on yourselves and your religious community.”

Francis Asbury’s carriage driver and traveling assistant was “Black Harry” Hosier.

He had been at Asbury’s Christmas Conference of December 24, 1784, which began the Methodist Church. Though illiterate, Hosier listened to Francis Asbury’s sermons and memorized long passages of Scripture. “Black Harry” Hosier became one of the country’s most popular preachers, drawing crowds in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Boston, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Delaware, Baltimore and New York. Hosier rejected slavery, lifted up the common working man, and charged audiences “that they must be holy.” Hosier’s popularity gave birth to the name “Hoosier” being used to refer to persons of humble, low-born background who firmly held to fundamental Bible values, as the settlers who crossed the Ohio River to the Indiana shore.

President Calvin Coolidge unveiled an Equestrian Statue of Francis Asbury in Washington, D.C., 1924, stating: “Francis Asbury, the first American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church made a tremendous contribution.”

Coolidge continued: “Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverence for truth and justice, for equality and liberty, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles they cannot believe in our government. Calling the people to righteousness (was) a direct preparation for self-government. It was for a continuation of this work that Francis Asbury was raised up.”

Coolidge added: “The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country. There is no way by which we can substitute the authority of law for the virtue of man. Real reforms which society in these days is seeking will come as a result of our religious convictions, or they will not come at all. Peace, justice, humanity, charity—these cannot be legislated into being. They are the result of a Divine Grace .”

Coolidge continued about Francis Asbury: “Frontier mothers must have brought their children to him to receive his blessings! It is more than probable that Nancy Hanks, the mother of Lincoln, had heard him in her youth. Adams and Jefferson must have known him, and Jackson must have seen in him a flaming spirit as unconquerable as his own. He is entitled to rank as one of the builders of our nation. On the foundation of a religious civilization which he sought to build, our country has enjoyed greater blessing of liberty and prosperity than was ever before the lot of man. These cannot continue if we neglect the work which he did.”

Coolidge concluded: “We cannot depend on the government to do the work of religion. I do not see how anyone could recount the story of this early Bishop (Asbury) without feeling a renewed faith in our own country.”

Squanto

To aid the founding of America, God himself prepared a special man to make it happen. Without him and God’s preparation of him, the Pilgrims would never have survived at all. Do read about this amazing man and God’s miraculous preparation of him for the founding of America below:

The Amazing Squanto

In November of 1620 the Pilgrims left English persecution in Europe and sailed to America with a government charter to set up a new colony south of what we now call New England. Because of storms they landed much farther north than their charter called for. Without such a charter directed location, they formed their own republican type government with what was called the Pilgrim Compact, since their ship captain would not take them south to their designated location.

They were not experienced for life in the wilderness and did not even have the proper clothing for such. As a result half of them died in that first terrible winter. Then when warm weather finally came this English speaking indain came to them, named Squanto. He had been a member of the tribe who formerly lived at their location of Plymouth. All of his very vicious tribe had died of the plague shortly before their arrival.

Several years before, Squanto had been lured onto an English ship which stopped there. He was taken to Spain and sold into the slave market. An English nobelman wound up with him and taught him Christianity, English ways, and language. However, he was finally able to get bact to his origianal tribal location. With all of his tribe dead, he took-up with a neighboring tribe. The Pilgrims found it amazing when he knocked on their door and said: “What are you doing here brothers and sisters in Christ?”

Squanto stayed with them and taught them how to successfully grow corn by putting a fish under each plant. He taught them how to fish and hunt and live in the wilderness. However, his greatest contribution was making treaties with all the neighboring tribes for their safety. The Pilgrims survived, when most all of the other colonies founded at that time were wiped-out be the indians. The Pilgrims knew for sure that God had arranged for Squanto to go to England, learn English, become a Christian, come back, and teach them how to survive. They knew that it was all a miracle directly from God.

Following is the story of Squanto as told by the Pilgrim leaders, in their own verbatim words. If you would like to read Squanto’s story exactly as they told it, please do below:

Of 102 Pilgrims that landed on the shores of Massachusetts in November of 1620, only half survived till Spring.

In the Spring of 1621, as recorded by Pilgrim Governor William Bradford in his Of Plymouth Plantation: “About the 16th of March, a certain Indian came boldly amongst them and spoke to them in broken English. His name was Samoset. He told them also of another Indian whose name was Squanto, a native of this place, who had been in England and could speak better English than himself.”

Samoset’s initial visit to the Pilgrims was recorded in Mourt’s Relation, written by Edward Winslow and Governor William Bradford in 1622: “Friday the 16th a fair warm day towards; this morning we determined to conclude of the military orders, which we had begun to consider of before but were interrupted by the savages, as we mentioned formerly; and whilst we were busied hereabout, we were interrupted again, for there presented himself a savage, which caused an alarm. He very boldly came all alone and along the houses straight to the rendezvous, where we intercepted him, not suffering him to go in, as undoubtedly he would, out of his boldness.

He saluted us in English, and bade us welcome, for he had learned some broken English among the Englishmen that came to fish at Monchiggon, and knew by name the most of the captains, commanders, and masters that usually come. He was a man free in speech, so far as he could express his mind, and of a seemly carriage. We questioned him of many things; he was the first savage we could meet withal.

We questioned him of many things; he was the first savage we could meet withal. He said he was not of these parts, but of Morattiggon, and one of the sagamores or lords thereof, and had been eight months in these parts, it lying hence a day’s sail with a great wind, and five days by land. He discoursed of the whole country, and of every province, and of their sagamores, and their number of men, and strength. The wind being to rise a little, we cast a horseman’s coat about him, for he was stark naked, only a leather about his waist, with a fringe about a span long, or little more; he had a bow and two arrows, the one headed, and the other unheaded. He was a tall straight man, the hair of his head black, long behind, only short before, none on his face at all; he asked some beer, but we gave him strong water and biscuit, and butter, and cheese, and pudding, and a piece of mallard, all which he liked well, and had been acquainted with such amongst the English.”

Mourt’s Relation continued:

“(Samoset) told us the place where we now live is called Patuxet, and that about four years ago all the inhabitants died of an extraordinary plague, and there is neither man, woman, nor child remaining, as indeed we have found none, so as there is none to hinder our possession, or to lay claim unto it.

All the afternoon we spent in communication with him; we would gladly have been rid of him at night, but he was not willing to go this night. Then we thought to carry him on shipboard, wherewith he was well content, and went into the shallop (small boat), but the wind was high and the water scant, that it could not return back. We lodged him that night at Stephen Hopkins’ house, and watched him.”

“The next day he went away back to the Massasoits, from whence he said he came, who are our next bordering neighbors. They are sixty strong, as he saith. The Nausets are as near southeast of them, and are a hundred strong, and those were they of whom our people were encountered, as before related. They are much incensed and provoked against the English, and about eight months ago slew three Englishmen, and two more hardly escaped by flight to Monchiggon; they were Sir Ferdinando Gorges his men, as this savage told us. These people are ill affected towards the English, by reason of one (Thomas) Hunt, a master of a ship, who deceived the people, and got them under color of trucking (bartering) with them, twenty out of this very place where we inhabit, and seven men from Nauset, and carried them away, and sold them for slaves like a wretched man (for twenty pound a man) that cares not what mischief he doth for his profit. Saturday, in the morning we dismissed the savage, and gave him a knife, a bracelet, and a ring; he promised within a night or two to come again, and to bring with him some of the Massasoits, our neighbors, with such beavers’ skins as they had to truck with us.”

Governor Bradford wrote that a few days later, “Tishsquantum,” or Squanto arrived with the neighboring Wampanoag Chief Massasiot: “Massasoyt, who about four or five days after, came with the chief of his friends and other attendants, and with Squanto. With him, after friendly entertainment and some gifts, they made a peace which has now continued for twenty-four years.”

Governor Bradford described Squanto: “Squanto stayed with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation. He showed them how to plant corn, where to take fish and other commodities, and guided them to unknown places, and never left them till he died.”

Bradford added: “The settlers, as many as were able, then began to plant their corn, in which service Squanto stood them in good stead, showing them how to plant it and cultivate it. He also told them that unless they got fish to manure this exhausted old soil, it would come to nothing, and he showed them that in the middle of April plenty of fish would come up the brook by which they had begun to build, and taught them how to catch it, and where to get other necessary provisions; all of which they found true by experience. Nor was there a man among them who had ever seen a beaver skin till they came out, and were instructed by Squanto.”

Though records are scarce, it appears that Squanto may have been one of the five natives kidnapped around 1605 by Captain George Weymouth’s expedition. Sailing his ship Archangel, Weymouth was employed by the newly formed British East India Company to find a Northwest Passage to India and China. Sea voyages to find a Northwest Passage were first conceived after the Muslim Ottoman Turks had cut off the eastern land routes to India and China a century and a half earlier. Captain George Weymouth brought the natives back to England where they were introduced to William Shakespeare and the Earl of South Hampton, who funded both Shakespeare and the voyages. Three of the natives went to live in Plymouth, England, with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who also funded the expedition and later, the settlement of Maine.

In A Briefe Narration of the Originall Undertakings for the Advancement of Plantations into the Parts of America (London: 1658), Sir Ferdinando Gorges mentioned the name “Tasquantum’: “(Captain George Weymouth, having failed at finding a Northwest Passage) happened into a River on the Coast of America, called Pemmaquid, from whence he brought five of the Natives, three of whose names were Manida, Sellwarroes, and Tasquantum, whom I seized upon, they were all of one Nation, but of several parts, and several Families; This accident must be acknowledged the means under God of putting on foot, and giving life to all our Plantations.”

In 1614, an expedition sailed to map the coast of New England, with Squanto traveling along as interpreter. At this time, Squanto was able to return to his tribe of Patuxet.

(And as these Pilgrim leaders describe again.) In 1614, Squanto was kidnapped along with some other natives, by the wretched Captain Thomas Hunt, who took them to Malaga, Spain, a city notorious for slave trading, begun during its Muslim occupation. Had the Muslim Ottoman Empire not been occupied from the 15th to 17th centuries with conquests in Venice, Wallachia, Moldava, Hungary, Rhodes, Malta, Cyprus, Austria, and Poland-Lithuania, it may have colonized the New World, and native American culture may have been completely erased and replaced with Islamic culture, just as the Byzantine Christian culture was replaced in Turkey.

In Spain, Squanto appears to have been rescued by some Catholic friars, who may have introduced him to some Christian concepts. They proceeded to give him his freedom. Sir Ferdinando Gorges wrote in A briefe relation of the discovery and plantation of New England (1622: London), that Captain Thomas Hunt was able to sell a few natives, but when “friars of those parts” discovered his unscrupulous activity, they took the rest of the natives to be “instructed in the Christian Faith; and so disappointed this unworthy fellow of his hopes of gain.”

The friars gave Squanto his freedom and he made his way to England, where he was hired by John Slaney, treasurer of the Newfoundland Account. He then worked for Newfoundland Colony Governor John Mason, who was later granted the patent for New Hampshire. Squanto then worked for Captain Thomas Dermer, an agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges.

Governor Bradford wrote: “Squanto was a native of these parts, and had been one of the few survivors of the plague hereabouts. He was carried away with others by one Hunt, a captain of a ship, who intended to sell them for slaves in Spain.”

Bradford continued: “(Squanto) got away for England, and was received by a merchant in London, and employed in Newfoundland and other parts, and lastly brought into these parts by a Captain Dermer, a gentleman employed by Sir Ferdinand Gorges.”

(And taking up the story of Squanto again.) In 1619, Squanto was finally able to return to his Patuxet tribe, but sadly found that they had all died in a plague. As tragic as his kidnapping had been, it may have saved Squanto from dying in that plague.

As Governor William Bradford relates: “About three years before, a French ship was wrecked at Cape Cod, but the men got ashore and saved their lives and a large part of their provisions. When the Indians heard of it, they surrounded them and never left watching and dogging them till they got the advantage and killed them, all but three or four, whom they kept, and sent from one Sachem to another, making sport with them and using them worse than slaves.”

Other such accounts were related by French Catholic missionaries. Though they were unarmed and sought to peacefully reach natives, many suffered the fate of martyrs. One was Fr. Isaac Jogues, who taken prisoner by the Iroquois in 1641. Indians gnawed off two of his fingers and roughly sawed off his thumb. He was forced to run the deadly gauntlet, as described in The Jesuit Martyrs of North America, but before they could kill him, he escaped. He wandered till he found some Dutch fur traders who helped him make his way back to Quebec. From there, he was able to sail back to France.

Isaac Jogues later returned to America to continue his missionary work, where he was eventually killed

Bradford concluded more of the story of Squanto: “In Manamiock Bay where Squanto had gone to help Captain Standis as a guide, He fell ill of Indian fever, bleeding much at the nose, which the Indians take for a symptom of death, and within a few days he died. He begged the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen’s God in Heaven, and bequeathed several of his things to some of his English friends, as remembrances. His death was a great loss.”

As half of the Pilgrims died that first winter, there was the real possibility that they would not have survived another, had it not been for Squanto. 

Governor Bradford acknowledged:

“Squanto was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation.“

America – Blessed by God

There has never been a nation like America in all of history. When you go through its history, in all honesty you must come to the conclusion that it has been blessed by God. I really think that I can show you why. If you would like to see if you agree with me, do read the following: Ron

“O Beautiful, For Spacious Skies, For Amber Waves of Grain”

As you probably know, these words are from “America the Beautiful”. In 1926 it was almost chosen as our National Anthem.

It was written by Katherine Lee Bates, born August 12, 1859. Daughter of a Congregational minister, Katherine Lee Bates taught high school, then English literature at Wellesley College. She hosted gatherings at her home for students and literary guests, including Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg and William Butler Yeats.

Of her 1893 Colorado journey, Katherine Lee Bates wrote: “Some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pikes Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.”

“So, I was inspired to write ‘America the Beautiful'”.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy at a service in Washington as president said: “As we gather together to ask the Lord’s blessings and give Him our thanks, let us unite in those familiar and cherished words of America the Beautiful.”

President Ronald Reagan in meeting South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan, November 14, 1983: “At the worship service Sunday morning with our soldiers less than a mile from one of the most tyrannical regimes on Earth, a choir of little girls, all orphans, closing the service, singing “America, the Beautiful” in our language, was a spiritual experience.”

So, here are the complete words of Katharine Lee Bates’ classic poem:

O Beautiful for Spacious Skies, For Amber Waves of Grain, For Purple Mountain Majesties Above the Fruited Plain! America! America! God Shed His Grace on Thee And Crowned Thy Good with Brotherhood From Sea to Shining Sea! O Beautiful for Pilgrims Feet, Whose Stern Impassioned Stress A Thoroughfare for Freedom Beat Across the Wilderness! America! America! God Mend Thy Every Flaw, Confirm Thy Soul in Self-Control Thy Liberty in Law! O Beautiful for Heroes Proved In Liberating Strife, Who More Than Self Their Country Loved, And Mercy More Than Life! America! America! May God Thy Gold Refine Till All Success Be Nobleness And Every Gain Divine! O Beautiful for Patriots Dream That Sees Beyond the Years Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam Undimmed by Human Tears! America! America! God Shed His Grace On Thee And Crown Thy Good With Brotherhood From Sea to Shining Sea!

Deuteronomy 28 states: “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments. All these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee.”

Since all through scripture God promised to bless those nations who acknowledged and honored Him. So, following are those states in our Union who did just that in alphabetical order:

Alabama 1901, Preamble. We the people of the State of Alabama invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution.

Alaska 1956, Preamble. We, the people of Alaska, grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land.

Arizona 1911, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arizona, grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution.

Arkansas 1874, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arkansas, grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government.

California 1879, Preamble. We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom,

Colorado 1876, Preamble. We, the people of Colorado, with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of Universe.

Connecticut 1818, Preamble. The People of Connecticut, acknowledging with gratitude the good Providence of God in permitting them to enjoy.

Delaware 1897, Preamble. Through Divine Goodness all men have, by nature, the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator according to the dictates of their consciences.

Florida 1885, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Florida, grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty establish this Constitution.

Georgia 1777, Preamble. We, the people of Georgia, relying upon protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

Hawaii 1959, Preamble. We, the people of Hawaii, Grateful for Divine Guidance establish this Constitution.

Idaho 1889, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Idaho, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings.

Illinois 1870, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Illinois, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors.

Indiana 1851, Preamble. We, the People of the State of Indiana, grateful to Almighty God for the free exercise of the right to chose our form of government.

Iowa 1857, Preamble. We, the People of the State of Iowa, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of these blessings establish this Constitution.

Kansas 1859, Preamble. We, the people of Kansas, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious privileges establish this Constitution.

Kentucky 1891, Preamble. We, the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties.

Louisiana 1921, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Louisiana, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy.

Maine 1820, Preamble. We the People of Maine acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording us an opportunity and imploring His aid and direction.

Massachusetts 1780, Preamble. We the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe in the course of His Providence, an opportunity and devoutly imploring His direction.

Michigan 1835, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Michigan, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of freedom, and earnestly desiring to secure these blessings.

Minnesota 1857, Preamble. We, the people of the state of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings. 

Mississippi 1890, Preamble. We, the people of Mississippi, in Convention assembled, grateful to Almighty God, and invoking His blessing.

Missouri 1945, Preamble. We, the people of Missouri, with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and grateful for His goodness establish this Constitution.

Montana 1889, Preamble. We, the people of Montana, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty establish this Constitution.

Nebraska 1875, Preamble. We, the people, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom … establish this Constitution.

Nevada 1864, Preamble. We the people of the State of Nevada, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom establish this Constitution.

New Hampshire 1792, Part I. Art. I. Sec. V. Every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.

New Jersey 1844, Preamble. We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors.

New Mexico 1911, Preamble. We, the People of New Mexico, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of liberty.

New York 1846, Preamble. We, the people of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings.

North Carolina 1868, Preamble. We the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for our civil, political, and religious liberties, and acknowledging our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those.

North Dakota 1889, Preamble. We, the people of North Dakota, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, do ordain.

Ohio 1852, Preamble. We the people of the state of Ohio, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and to promote our common good.

Oklahoma 1907, Preamble. Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessings of liberty establish this.

Oregon 1857, Bill of Rights, Article I. Section 2. All men shall be secure in the Natural right, to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their consciences.

Pennsylvania 1776, Preamble. We, the people of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking His guidance.

Rhode Island 1842, Preamble. We the People of the State of Rhode Island … grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing.

South Carolina 1778, Preamble. We, the people of the State of South Carolina … grateful to God for our liberties, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

South Dakota 1889, Preamble. We, the people of South Dakota, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberties establish this Constitution.

Tennessee 1796, Art. XI.III. That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their conscience.

Texas 1845, Preamble. We the People of the Republic of Texas, acknowledging, with gratitude, the grace and beneficence of God.

Utah 1896, Preamble. Grateful to Almighty God for life and liberty, we establish this Constitution.

Vermont 1777, Preamble. Whereas all government ought to enable the individuals who compose it to enjoy their natural rights, and other blessings which the Author of Existence has bestowed on man.

Virginia 1776, Bill of Rights, XVI Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator can be directed only by Reason and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance, Love and Charity towards each other.

Washington 1889, Preamble. We the People of the State of Washington, grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution.

West Virginia 1872, Preamble. Since through Divine Providence we enjoy the blessings of civil, political and religious liberty, we, the people of West Virginia reaffirm our faith in and constant reliance upon God.

Wisconsin 1848, Preamble. We, the people of Wisconsin, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, domestic tranquility.

Wyoming 1890, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Wyoming, grateful to God for our civil, political, and religious liberties establish this Constitution.

All through the Bible, the Holy Scriptures tell us that God promises to bless the nation that acknowledges God and honors Him. And as you see above, every one of the 50 states in our union have put in writing that they absolutely do just that.

Dr. Stanley as pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, under Divine guidance, tells us that God absolutely, absolutely honors every one of His promises. So, that is why America has been blessed by God, and will continue to be as long as they keep his commandments.

The History of Writing

The “Times Complete History of the World” states: “No mention of a date appears before the start of human civilization about 5,000 years ago and the beginning of a written or pictorial history.”

“The part of Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the ‘city’ was invented. It was here that we learned how to write.”

Writing was first on pieces of clay, then on papyrus reeds from the Nile Delta. The reeds, which grew 16 feet tall, had their outer rind removed, leaving the sticky inner cores, which were cut into strips, interwoven together, soaked, pressed, and then dried.

The word “paper” comes from the word “papyrus.” It was the main medium to write upon for nearly 3,000 years.

Writing was invented in China around 2,600 BC during the reign of the legendary Yellow Emperor. Instead of using reeds, the Chinese used bamboo, which was cut into strips and written upon vertically. These strips were tied together creating bamboo annals or books.

Writing was also upon palm leaves, bark, bones, and stone in other parts of the world. Writing was then made on parchment made from the skins of sheep and goats, and on vellum made from calfskin.

Reading and writing was, for the most part, limited to the ruling elite. It was the communication of the deep state class who wanted to control the ignorant and uneducated masses.

Anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss (1908-2008) wrote: “Ancient writing’s main function was to facilitate the enslavement of other human beings.”

Emphasizing how tyrants need the masses of people to be ignorant, George Orwell wrote in Nineteen Eighty-Four: “In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance.”

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece, in its section on Egyptian Artifacts, has a display on “Scribes,” stating: “Only a small percentage of ancient Egypt’s population was literate, namely the pharaoh, members of the royal family, officials, priests and scribes.

Particularly popular and lucrative, the scribe’s profession was mostly hereditary. Scribes had careers in the government, priesthood, and army. They began their rigorous training in their early childhood. Most of their training took place inside a building called the “House of Life,” attached to the temple. Scribes wrote on stone or clay sherds.”

Also in other countries, elite ruling classes always kept common people and slaves uninformed, prohibiting them from being educated or from communicating.

Thomas Aquinas wrote of Mohammed in Summa contra Gentiles, 1258: “It was a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity.”

Ancient Israel was the first nation where the general population was literate. In the 4th century A.D., Church historian Eusebius of Caesarea quoted the Jewish historian Eupolemus, who wrote circa 150 B.C.: “Moses was the first wise man. He taught the alphabet to the Jews who passed it on to the Phoenicians, who passed it to the Greeks. Moses first wrote laws for the Jews.” (Praeparatio Evangelica, 9:26.1)

Levites taught the people the law, and taught them how to read the law. Israel functioned as a Hebrew republic for four hundred years before they sinned by asking for a king.

The democracy of ancient Athens and the republic of ancient Rome also required citizens to be educated and informed. Thomas Sowell wrote in Degeneration of Democracy, 6/2010: “A democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.”

In The Lessons of History (Simon & Schuster, 1968, p. 77), Will and Ariel Durant wrote: “Democracy is the most difficult of all forms of government, since it requires the widest spread of intelligence. Ignorance lends itself to manipulation by the forces that mold public opinion.”

James Madison wrote to W.T. Barry, August 4, 1822: “A people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.”

On controlling education, George Orwell commented in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four: “If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened – that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death?

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future; who controls the present controls the past’. And when memory failed and written records were falsified – when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standards against which it could be tested.”

Orwell added: “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

This is similar to the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi, who conquered many kingdoms to unify China in 221 BC. When he was criticized for not ruling as rulers had in the past, he ordered all of the hand-written records of the past to be burned and the scholars buried.

The ‘Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin‘ reported that Qin’s Chancellor, Li Si, told the Emperor in 213 BC: ” I, your servant, propose that all historians’ records other than those of Qin’s be burned. If anyone under heaven has copies of the Classics of History (Shu Jing)  they shall deliver them to the governor for burning.

Anyone who dares to discuss the Classics of History shall be publicly executed. Anyone who uses history to criticize the present shall have his family executed. Anyone who has failed to burn the books after thirty days of this announcement shall be subjected to tattooing and be sent to build the Great Wall.”

(So, we have discussed the history of paper and writing. Now let’s look at what happened with the invention of printing and the printing press:)

The Qin Dynasty was overthrown, and in 202 BC the Han Dynasty ruled China. In the following centuries, Chinese scribes developed the process of making paper from tree pulp and rags.

Beginning in 175 AD, during the Han Dynasty, scribes placed paper over stone engravings of texts of Confucius and made rubbings with charcoal. This developed into laying paper over raised stone letters covered with ink, a technique which spread to other countries like Japan, where a Nara Empress printed a Buddhist charm in 768 AD. Using a method with carved wooden or baked clay blocks, China, during the Tang Dynasty, created what could be considered the first “printed” book in 868 AD.

In 1234, Korea’s Goryeo Dynasty invented the first “metal” movable type printing press. In 1443, Korean Emperor Sejong the Great introduced a 24-letter han’gul alphabet which made printing practical.

Whereas China used pictogram characters, and Egypt used hieroglyphs, Western Civilization had been using phonetic characters dating back to a Semitic alphabet around 1500 BC. It was not until 1400 AD that Europeans first began using carved wooden blocks applied with ink to print religious messages.

Then in Germany, Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press – the Western world’s first “metal moveable type” printing press.

On August 24, 1455, Gutenberg printed his masterpiece, the Gutenberg Bible, regarded as the first book of significance ever printed. No longer copied tediously by the hands of scribes, Bibles were soon mass produced.

Gutenberg wrote about his 42-line Gutenberg Bible, also called the Mazarin Bible, 1455: “God suffers in the multitude of souls whom His word can not reach. Religious truth is imprisoned in a small number of manuscript books which confine instead of spread the public treasure. Let us break the seal which seals up holy things and give wings to Truth in order that she may win every soul that comes into the world by her word no longer written at great expense by hands easily palsied, but multiplied like the wind by an untiring machine.”

Gutenberg continued: “Yes, it is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall flow in inexhaustible streams the most abundant and most marvelous liquor that has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of men. Through it, God will spread His word; a spring of pure truth shall flow from it; like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light hithertofore unknown to shine among men.”

“Taps”

We have heard the music “Taps” played all our lives.  It is most always played by a bugle at military funerals and at many other occasions.  Its sound is so plaintive that it almost seems emotional.  However, most have never heard of its origin.  I find its origin so interesting, that I wanted you to know about it also.  Do read it:

It all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Elli was with his men near Harrison’s Landing in Virginia . The Confederate Army was on the other side of the strip of land.

During the night, Captain Elli heard the moans of a soldier who lay severely wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate soldier, the Captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention. Crawling on his stomach, the Captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment.

When the Captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead. The Captain lit a lantern and suddenly caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, the boy had enlisted in the Confederate Army.

The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial, despite his enemy status. His request was only partially granted. The Captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral.
The request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate. But, out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one musician.

The Captain went through the young man’s pockets and found a piece of paper.  It had a series of musical notes.  For his one musician the Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play the series of musical notes he had found on the piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth’s uniform.
This wish was granted. The haunting melody, we now know as ‘Taps’ used at military funerals was born. However, there were also words there.  So, as you read those words here, hum along the sound of Taps in your mind with each word.

Day is done.
Gone the sun.
From the lakes
From the hills.
From the sky.
All is well.
Safely rest.
God is nigh.

Fading light.
Dims the sight.
And a star.
Gems the sky.
Gleaming bright.
From afar.
Drawing nigh.
Falls the night.

Thanks and praise.
For our days.
Neath the sun
Neath the stars.
Neath the sky
As we go.
This we know.
God is nigh

Now you know the real history of Taps.

Man First Conquers Space

Elon Musk has reenergized America in the interest of exploring space. Brilliant young engineers are once again volunteering to become astronauts. So, I thought it would be prescient to review the history of when we first conquered space and walked on the moon. In compiling this I was amazed to discover how everyone of the first astronauts, especially those who ventured into outer space, became so much closer to God because of those experiences. James Irwin even came back from walking on the moon and became an evangelical minister to tell people about Jesus the rest of his life. Do read the following to see how their ventures into space brought those highly trained astronauts so much closer to God. Ron

After World War II, Werner von Braun, and 1,600 German scientists, surrendered to the United States in Operation Paperclip, stating: “I myself, and everybody you see here, have decided to go West. We knew that we had created a new means of warfare. We felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.”

On October 4, 1957, Soviets launched Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite.

Werner von Braun and my best friend, Jack Smith developed America’s first space satellite, Explorer 1, launched on January 31, 1958. The Space Race was on. (Everyone was clamoring for the U.S. to put up a satellite like the Russians. The government tried its regular aircraft customers and they failed to get one up. Then Werner von Braun and Jack Smith used one of the rockets from McGregor, Texas and got one up in a few days.)

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space, completing one orbit of the Earth in 108 minutes, reaching an altitude of 91 miles.

Less than a month later, May 5, 1961, American Alan Shepard piloted the Mercury Freedom 7 to become the second person in space. His 15 minute flight reached an altitude of 101.2 nautical miles above the earth.

On February 20, 1962, Astronaut John Glenn piloted the Mercury Friendship 7. “Godspeed, John Glenn,” radioed backup-pilot Scott Carpenter from the blockhouse as the rockets fired up. Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, circling 3 times in just under 5 hours, reaching an altitude of 162 nautical miles.

NASA’s first manned spaceflight program was Mercury, 1958-1963. Mercury Astronauts answered questions at a press conference in Washington, D.C., April 9, 1959: Alan Shepard, Malcolm Carpenter, Leroy Cooper, Gus Grissom, Walter Schirra, Donald Slayton, and John Glenn.

When questioned about his faith, John Glenn stated: “I don’t think any of us could really go on with something like this if we didn’t have pretty good backing at home, really. My wife’s attitude toward this has been the same as it has been all along through all my flying. If it is what I want to do, she is behind it, and the kids are too, a hundred percent.”

Glenn added: “I am a Presbyterian, a Protestant Presbyterian, and I take my religion very seriously, as a matter of fact.” Glenn told of teaching Sunday school classes, being on church boards, and doing church work with his family: “We are placed here with certain talents and capabilities. It is up to each of us to use those talents and capabilities as best you can. If you do that, I think there is a Power greater than any of us that will place the opportunities in our way, and if we use our talents properly, we will be living the kind of life we should live.”

John Glenn, who had flown 147 combat missions in World War II and the Korean War, addressed Congress in 1962: “I still get a lump in my throat when I see the American flag passing by.”

Later that year, President Kennedy stated at Rice University in Houston, September 12, 1962: “Space is there and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and planets are there and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.”

The Mercury Program was followed by the Gemini Program, 1961-1966, which had longer missions and developed techniques of orbital maneuvers, extra-vehicular activity, space rendezvous, docking and reentry. This put America ahead in the Space Race. Werner von Braun, father of modern space flight, developed the powerful Saturn V rocket capable of sending a spacecraft beyond Earth’s orbit in NASA’s Apollo Program.

An “astronaut” is defined as someone who has ascended over 62 miles (100km) above the Earth’s surface. As of 2021, over 570 individuals are in that group. Only 24 individuals have left Earth’s orbit, and only 12 have walked on the Moon.

The first mission to leave Earth’s orbit and fly around the moon was Apollo 8 in 1968.   The tiniest mistake would have sent them crashing into the moon’s surface or plummeting off into endless space. As they successfully went into lunar orbit, astronaut William Anders snapped the famous Earthrise photo that was printed in LIFE Magazine.

Apollo 8’s three man crew looked down on the earth from 250,000 miles away on Christmas Eve, 1968.

Commander Frank Borman radioed back a message, quoting from the Book of Genesis: “We are now approaching lunar sunrise. And for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Commander Borman continued: “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.”

Frank Borman ended by saying: “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you – all of you on the good Earth.”

After returning to earth, a reporter told Borman that a Soviet cosmonaut returned from space and said he did not see God. Borman replied: “I did not see Him either, but I saw His evidence.” Later Frank Borman described his voyage: “I had an enormous feeling that there had to be a power greater than any of us – that there was a God, that there was indeed a beginning.”

The first mission to walk on the moon was Apollo 11, which blasted off JULY 16, 1969, from Cape Kennedy.

President Richard Nixon stated in Proclamation 3919: “Apollo 11 is on its way to the moon. It carries three brave astronauts; it also carries the hopes and prayers of hundreds of millions of people. That moment when man first sets foot on a body other than earth will stand through the centuries as one supreme in human experience. I call upon all of our people to join in prayer for the successful conclusion of Apollo 11’s mission.”

On July 20, 1969, Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed their lunar module, the Eagle on the moon. Buzz Aldrin read John 15:5 and partook of communion before exiting the lunar module. They spent a total of 21 hours and 37 minutes on the moon’s surface before redocking with the command ship Columbia.

President Richard Nixon spoke to the astronauts on the moon, July 20, 1969: “This certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made from the White House. The heavens have become a part of man’s world. For one priceless moment in the whole history of man all the people on this earth are truly one, one in our prayers that you will return safely to earth.”

President Nixon greeted the astronauts on the USS Hornet, July 24, 1969: “The millions who are seeing us on television now feel as I do, that our prayers have been answered. I think it would be very appropriate if Chaplain Piirto, the Chaplain of this ship, were to offer a prayer of thanksgiving.”

Addressing a joint session of Congress, September 16, 1969, Commander Neil Armstrong stated: “To those of you who have advocated looking high we owe our sincere gratitude, for you have granted us the opportunity to see some of the grandest views of the Creator.”

Apollo 12 Astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad and Alan Bean walked on the moon for 31 hours.

Alan Bean later became an artist. One of his painting is of an astronaut kneeling in prayer on the moon, titled “We Came in Peace for All Mankind.”

On the Apollo 14 mission, February 6, 1971, Astronauts Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard left a tiny microfilm copy of the King James Bible aboard the lunar module Antares on the moon’s Fra Mauro highlands.

On Apollo 15’s mission, 1971, Astronaut James Irwin became the 8th person to walk on the moon. He spoke of leaving earth: “As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God.”

Jim Irwin and Dave Scott were mentioned in astronaut Alan Bean’s book: “Jim Irwin was one of my favorite astronauts. Jim was, unexpectedly, more religious than most of us realized. I can remember when he and Dave were riding along on their rover near the end of their third EVA and Dave said, ‘Oh, look at the mountains today, Jim. When they’re all sunlit isn’t that beautiful?’ Jim answered, ‘Really is, Dave. I’m reminded of a favorite Biblical passage from Psalms, ‘I look unto the hills from whence cometh my help.'”

Bean continued: ‘Jim would later say, ‘I was aware on the Moon that thousands of people on Earth were praying for the success of our mission. The hours I spent on the Moon were the most thrilling of my life. Not because I was there but because I could feel the presence of God. There were times I was filled with new challenges and help from God was immediate.'”

Alan Bean concluded: “Dave and Jim journeyed into space as test pilot astronauts and most of us returned the same way. But Jim changed outwardly. As he explained, ‘I returned determined to share with others that profound experience with God on the Moon and lift man into his highest flight of life.’”

Later, Astronaut James Irwin became an evangelical minister. Of his experience of walking on the moon, he stated: “I felt the power of God as I’d never felt it before. Being on the moon had a profound spiritual impact upon my life. Before I entered space with the Apollo 15 mission in July of 1971, I was a silent Christian, but I feel the Lord sent me to the moon so I could return to the earth and share His Son, Jesus Christ.”

He added: “Jesus walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon.”

Apollo 16 Astronaut Charles Duke wrote (Charles Duke: Moonwalker, Rose Petal Press, 2nd edition, 2011, p. 256-261): “I used to say I could live ten thousand years and never have an experience as thrilling as walking on the moon. But the excitement and satisfaction of that walk doesn’t begin to compare with my walk with Jesus, a walk that lasts forever.”

The Amazing Dr. Livingstone

I am sure you have heard of David Livingstone, the famous missionary to Africa. However, not much has been written about him in recent times. In his travels of 29,000 miles back and forth across Africa he introduced Christianity to the people of a plethora of tribes; most of whom had never even hear of Jesus. As the very first white man or any outsider to ever visit so much of Africa, it is interesting to me what to him was the most important thing that he found there. We know from his personal diary and his writings what it was. Please read what I have compiled below, if you would like to know also: Ron

Dr. Livingstone was the internationally renowned missionary who had discovered the Zambezi River, Victoria Falls, and searched for the source of the Nile.

He had not been heard from in years and was rumored to have died. Stanley, a skeptic, was sent from America to find him and write a story about him if he could find him alive.

“Doctor Livingstone, I presume,” stated New York Herald reporter Henry Stanley on NOVEMBER 10, 1871, as he met David Livingstone on the banks of Africa’s Lake Tanganyika after searching all across Arica for him and finally finding him. His statement upon finding him became one of the most famous lines in modern history. I am sure you have heard it.

David Livingstone had been raised in the Church of Scotland, then the Congregational Church, and committed his life to Christ to become a medical missionary to China.

When the medical school required him to learn Latin, David Livingstone met a local Irish Catholic to tutor him, Daniel Gallagher, who later became a priest and founded St. Simon’s Church in Glasgow. David Livingstone’s plans changed when the Opium Wars broke out in China.

Livingstone was convinced by Missionary Robert Moffat to go to South Africa where there was “the smoke of a thousand villages, where no missionary had ever been.”

In his journal, David Livingstone wrote: “I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it, I shall promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time and eternity.”

Traveling 29,000 miles back and forth across Africa, David Livingstone was horrified by the Arab Muslim slave trade. His letters, books, and journals stirred up a public outcry to abolish slavery.

Livingstone often passed caravans of 1,000 slaves tied together with neck yokes or leg irons, marching single file 500 miles down to the sea carrying ivory and heavy loads. Slaves who complained were speared and left to die, resulting in slave caravans being traced by vultures and hyenas feasting on corpses.

David Livingstone recorded in his journal: “To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility. We passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree and dead. We came upon a man dead from starvation. We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body and lying on the path. Onlookers said an Arab who passed early that morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk any longer.”

He added: “The strangest disease I have seen in this country seems really to be broken heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and made slaves.”

Livingstone estimated that each year 80,000 died while being captured or forced to march from the African interior to the Arab Muslim slave markets of Zanzibar.

Describing the Muslim slave trade as “a monster brooding over Africa,” Livingstone once walked 120 miles near Lake Nyasa without seeing a single human being, as Arab slave traders had so depopulated the area.

In 1862, David Livingstone received a steam boat, but attempts to navigate the Ruvuma River failed due to the paddle wheels continually hitting bodies thrown in the river by slave traders.

He had hoped to open up “God’s Highway” to bring “Christianity, Commerce and Civilization” into Africa, and thereby put an end to the Arab Muslim slave trade, as he wrote to the editor of The New York Herald: “And if my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the East Coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together.”

Sadly, slavery of Africans still continues in Islamic dominated areas of Africa, and political groups that demand reparations for past slavery are strangely silent about modern-day slavery.

Fredrick Ngugi wrote May 5, 2017, Face2FaceAfrica.com: “It may be more than two centuries since the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade ended, but slavery is still very much alive in many African countries as well as much of the ancient world. Other varied forms of slavery still exist across the continent, including domestic service, debt bondage, military slavery, slaves for sacrifice, local slave trade, and more. Here are the top five African countries where slavery is still rampant: Mauritania; Sudan; Libya; Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula; South Africa.”

Reaching the headwaters of the Congo at Lualaba River in 1871, which he mistakenly thought to be the Nile, Livingstone recorded that at Nyangwe he saw Arab Muslim slave traders massacre nearly 400 Africans.

Disheartened, he went back to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, where, after years of the world not hearing from him, The New York Herald reporter Henry Stanley found him.

Henry Stanley described the famous old missionary: “Here is a man who is manifestly sustained as well as guided by influences from Heaven. The Holy Spirit dwells in him. God speaks through him. The heroism, the nobility, the pure and stainless enthusiasm as the root of his life come, beyond question, from Christ. There must, therefore, be a Christ; and it is worth while to have such a Helper and Redeemer as this Christ undoubtedly is, and as He here reveals Himself to this wonderful disciple.”

David Livingstone, ever the explorer, stated: ”I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward.”

Once he was attacked by a lion. Livingstone wrote that it: “caught me by the shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to the ground together. Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook me as a terrier does a rat.”

Livingstone was so loved by Africans that when they found him dead in 1873 near Lake Bangweulu, kneeling beside his bed after suffering from malaria, they buried his heart in Africa. His body was sent, packed in salt, back to England to be buried in Westminster Abbey.

Monuments around the world are dedicated to the memory of David Livingstone, as well as movies and documentaries, including the 1939 film Stanley and Livingstone, starring Spencer Tracy.

In his Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, 1857, Dr. David Livingstone revealed what motivated him: “The perfect fullness with which the pardon of all our guilt is offered in God’s Book, drew forth feelings of affectionate love to Him who bought us with His blood. A sense of deep obligation to Him for His mercy has influenced my conduct ever since.”

Dr. Livingstone

Georgia

The history of this great state is just amazing, especially its Christian history which was so integral to its founding. I find it so interesting that I have compiled a synopsis of that history from the time before its founding as a colony to the 20th Century. If you would like to know about this state’s amazing history, do read the following:

Ron

Early in his career, Eugene of Savoy, under the command of Polish King Jan Sobieski, helped repel 200,000 Ottoman Turks on September 11, 1683, thus saving the city of Vienna, Austria. Austrian Prince Eugene of Savoy went on to become one of Europe’s most famous commanders.

Savoy helped drive the Ottomans from Budapest in 1686. In 1687, he gallantly commanded a cavalry brigade defeating the Turkish army at the Second Battle of Mohács in Hungary.

This defeat was so significant that the Ottoman army mutinied against its leadership, resulting in the Grand Vizier, Sarı Süleyman Pasha, being executed, and the Sultan, Mehmed IV, being deposed.

Prince Eugene of Savoy was famous for his victory over 100,000 Islamic warriors at the Battle of Zenta, Serbia, September 11, 1697.

The Ottoman army then invaded Russia. The new Turkish Grand Vizier, Baltacı Mehmet, defeated Peter the Great’s Russian Army in the Russo-Turkish War (1710-1711).

Turks then went on the offensive, invading Greece and Venetian territories, led by Turkish Grand Vizier Damat Ali in the Turkish-Venetian War (1714-1718). Once again, Europe was rescued by Austrian Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Austro-Turkish War, 1716-1718. In 1716, Savoy defeated the Ottoman Turks at Petrovaradin, captured the Banat (areas of Romania, Serbia and Hungary) and the capital city of Timisoara. In 1717, Savoy recaptured Belgrade, Serbia, whose Christian population had been brutally crushed and enslaved by numerous Islamist campaigns dating back to 1521. Savoy’s successful halt of the Ottoman invasion into Europe resulted in the Turkish Empire suing for peace in 1718 with the Treaty of Passarowitz, as the sharia practice was, when you are strong, attack without mercy, but when you are weak, make treaties until you can become strong again.

One of the young soldiers fighting at the Battle of Belgrade, who served as an aide-de-camp to Prince Savoy, was 17-year-old Englishman James Oglethorpe.

Oglethorpe fought with distinction in the Austro-Turkish War, and then returned to England at the age of 21. He unintentionally killed a man in a brawl and spent five months in prison. Upon release, James followed in the footsteps of his father, Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, and became a member of Parliament, where he served for 32 years, 1722-1754.

In Parliament, he became known for opposing slavery. In 1728, one of James Oglethorpe’s friends, Robert Castell, was unable to pay his debts and was thrown into London’s notorious Fleet Debtor’s Prison. At the time, in English prisons, prisoners had to pay the guards to get food and a decent room. As Castell was unable to pay, he was put in a cell with someone dying of smallpox. Castell caught the disease and died. When Oglethorpe heard the news, he was distraught. He began a national campaign for prison reform, and headed a parliamentary committee to investigate them. Steps were made to end the extortion and abuse of prisoners, and improve sanitary conditions.

James Oglethorpe conceived of an idea for a colony in America where poor debtors and religious refugees could get a second chance. He named the colony “Georgia” after Britain’s King George II.

Georgia’s Colonial Charter, 1732, stated regarding religious freedom: “There shall be a liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God, and that all such persons, except papists, shall have a free exercise of their religion.”

Sailing on the ship Ann, the 115 settlers landed on JANUARY 13, 1733.

A year later, Protestant refugees from Salzburg, Austria, called “Salzburgers,” settled the town of Ebenezer, Georgia. In 1735, Moravian Christian settlers from Bohemia arrived and built Fort Argyle. Scottish Presbyterians arrived from New Inverness in 1736. And in the same year, Huguenot Protestant refugees arrived from France.

James Oglethorpe’s secretary was Charles Wesley, who later became a hymn writer, composing among others, the carol “Hark, the Herald Angel Sings.”

Charles Wesley’s brother, John Wesley, served in 1735 as Georgia’s Anglican minister. The Wesleys’ friend, Rev. George Whitefield, preached to enthusiastic crowds in Georgia in 1738, and later started an orphanage there.

On July 11, 1733, 34 Portuguese Sephardic Jews and 8 German Ashkenazic Jews, arrived in Savannah, Georgia. This was the largest group of Jews to land in North America prior to the Revolutionary War. They began the Holy Congregation Hope of Israel-“Kahal Kodesh Mickve Israel,” the third oldest Jewish congregation in the United States.

In 1742, during the War of Jenkin’s Ear, some 3,000 Spanish soldiers landed on Georgia’s St. Simon’s Island. Oglethorpe repelled the Spanish in the Battle of Bloody Marsh, July 7, 1742. The next year, Oglethorpe returned to England where he served in the military.

Beginning in 1755, Britain expelled all French Catholics from Acadia, Canada. Some expelled Catholics traveled to South Carolina, others to St. Dominique Island, and still others to the French Catholic Louisiana Territory, where the pronunciation of “Acadian” evolved to “Cajun.”

Other Protestants arrived in Georgia.

In 1772, Daniel Marshall established Kiokee Baptist Church – the first Baptist Church in Georgia. Georgia is also known for Polish General Casmir Pulaski, father of the American cavalry, who died fighting the British at Savannah In the Revolutionary War.

Georgia had many Revolutionary War patriots, such as Nancy Hart. While her husband was away, six British soldiers converged on their frontier home.

Soldiers shot her prize gobbler and ordered her to cook it. After feeding and serving them lots of wine Nancy grabbed one of their guns, promising to shoot the first one that moved. After shooting two, her husband showed up and they hung the rest.

Colonel Mordecai Sheftall of Georgia became the Continental Army’s highest ranking Jewish officer, serving as Deputy Commissary General for American troops in 1778.

In 1777, Georgia passed its first State Constitution, stating: “We the people of Georgia, relying upon the protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution.” Georgia’s Constitution, 1777, Article 6 stated: “Representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county and they shall be of the Protestant religion.”

In 1788, Georgia was the 4th State to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In 1789, Georgia’s population was over 82,000. It adopted a second Constitution which removed the Protestant requirement, simply stating: “All persons shall have the free exercise of religion.” A third Georgia Constitution was adopted in 1798, establishing religious toleration.

In the first 34 years of Georgia’s statehood, conflicts arose between settlers and Indians, especially when gold was discovered on Cherokee land in 1829, causing the Georgia Gold Rush. An Indian Removal Act was hurriedly rushed through a Democrat controlled Congress in 1830. This resulted in the tragic “Trail of Tears” where over 16,000 men, women, and children of the tribes Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee, were evicted form their homes and rounded up at gun point by Federal troops. They were first put in wooden stockade Federal internment camps, then, in the bitter winter of 1838, marched from Georgia and southeastern regions of the United States to the Oklahoma Territory. Over 4,000 died on the march.

Georgia’s religious history included the Jewish Mickve Israel Congregation, which in 1786 had an attendance of 73. In 1790, Georgia’s Governor granted the Jewish congregation a State Charter. President Washington wrote to the Hebrew Congregation in Savannah, Georgia, May 1790: “May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in the promised land, whose Providential Agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven, and make the inhabitants of every denomination partake in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people, whose God is Jehovah.”

The first Catholic residents moved into Georgia from Maryland around 1793. They initially had no priests, but when the French Revolution sparked a slave revolt on the Island of St. Dominique-Haiti, a few French priests fled to Georgia. In 1810, the State Legislature incorporated the Catholic Church of Augusta. In 1820, Irish Bishop John England was appointed over the State’s one hundred Catholics in Savannah, plus a few more in Augusta.

Bishop England founded America’s first Catholic newspaper, The United States Catholic Miscellany. In 1826, Bishop John England delivered the first Catholic Sermon in the U.S. Capitol, at a Sunday morning Church service held in the House of Representatives.

The overflow audience included President John Quincy Adams, who had previously referred to the Catholic Church in an address, July 4, 1821, as “fetters of ecclesiastical domination” incompatible with republican institutions.

Bishop England reassured the predominately Protestant audience, January 8, 1826: “We do not believe that God gave to the Church any power to interfere with our civil rights, or our civil concerns. I would not allow to the Pope, or to any bishop of our Church the smallest interference with the humblest vote at our most insignificant balloting box.”

In 1836, Methodists founded Emory College, named after Methodist Bishop John Emory, in the city of Oxford, and Wesleyan Female College at Macon — the first institution of learning founded specifically for women in America.

Georgia was devastated as the Civil War progressed, especially in the fall of Atlanta and General Sherman’s march to the sea.

The population of Georgia in 1870 was 1,184,109. In 1877, Georgia’s Constitution stated: “Relying upon the protection and guidance of Almighty God, all men have the natural and inalienable right to worship God, each according to the dictates of his own conscience.”

In 1877, Baptists founded Shorter College at Rome, and in 1881, Methodists founded Morris Brown College.

In 1895, history was made at the International Exposition in Atlanta when the black President of the Tuskegee Institute, Booker T. Washington, was invited to give a keynote address.

In 1900, the population of Georgia was 2,216,331. As of 1910, the State of Georgia gave full liberty of conscience in matters of religious opinion and worship, but did not legalize willful or profane scoffing. It was unlawful to conduct any secular business on Sunday.

As of 1910, the State of Georgia gave full liberty of conscience in matters of religious opinion and worship, but did not legalize willful or profane scoffing.

It was unlawful to conduct any secular business on Sunday. Georgia’s oath of office was administered with one hand upon the Bible and the other uplifted, with the affirmation: “You do solemnly swear in the presence of the ever living God.”  Legislative sessions opened with prayer.

When James Oglethorpe and the first settlers touched Georgia’s shore, JANUARY 13, 1733, they knelt while Rev. Herbert Henry offered prayer. They declared: “Our end in leaving our native country is not to gain riches and honor, but singly this: to live wholly to the glory of God.”

Their object was: “To make Georgia a religious colony.”

James Oglethorpe