"Students of Faith" Video
Tens of thousands of Christians gathered on the National Mall and at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on September 26, 2020 for a National Day of Prayer and Return, calling all Americans to return to God and to heal the nation. With freedom of religion, freedom of worship, freedom of conscience, and freedom of speech in jeopardy today, these two worship services focused on a theme of repentance and prayer, rejecting sin and returning to God in turbulent times.
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and Rev. Franklin Graham, organizers of the events, explained that America is a nation that started in covenant with God 400 years ago to glorify Him and spread His gospel to the whole world (see Mayflower Compact, 1620). But the country has spiraled down to legislate immorality. Jonathan Cahn said, "We drove God out of our hearts, out of our government, out of our ways, out of our laws, out of the education of our children, out of the public squares."(1)
The enthusiasm of the thousands attending is reminiscent of the First Great Awakening, a spiritual revival led by inspirational preachers prior to the American Revolution. A Second Great Awakening before the Civil War, also led by preachers, exhorted repentance and a return to God and his Ten Commandments.
President Trump took part in the event sending a message from the White House:
"On this inaugural National Day of Prayer and Return, the First Lady and I join millions of Christians here in the United States and around the world in prayer, as we turn our hearts to our Lord and Savior.”
"Our great Nation was founded by men and women of deep and abiding faith - a faith that has stood the test of time. Four Hundred years ago, early American settlers trusted their lives to His providence and braved a voyage to a New world....”
"The trials and tribulations the American people have faced over the past several months have been great. Yet, as we have seen time and again, the resolve of our citizenry - fortified by faith in God - has guided us through these hardships and helped to unite us as one Nation under God."(2)
Such public gatherings, based on faith and morals, are meant to be protected under first amendment freedoms. In recent decades these freedoms have been diminished and denied by cultural norms and government edict. A Third Great Awakening would return God to his rightful place in this nation founded on inalienable rights from our Creator.
(1.cbn.com, 9/26/20(1); whitehouse.gov (2); pjmedia.com, 9/26/20
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Be Silent No More!
Elected officials and their staff listen to, read and tabulate citizens' concerns and opinions when making decisions for their state and for the country. Do not be silent. Please contact one or more Senator or Congressman each week to encourage them to share your values. Call Switchboard at 202-224-3121 to be connected to any Representative or Senator's office. Email: Find Representative's email at www.house.gov Find Senator's email at www.senate.gov
1. The Constitution is the standard for Government. Not the Supreme Court. Not a majority vote in Congress. Not the need or will of the People.
“…the power of the Constitution predominates. Any thing, therefore, that shall be enacted by Congress contrary thereto, will not have the force of law. ~ James Wilson, PA Ratifying Convention, 1787
2. The Constitution is a contract between the States that created the federal government. It is not an agreement between the feds and the people. That is a temporal impossibility. The federal government cannot be a party to a contract when they didn't even exist until the contract was ratified. "...consequently, that the ultimate right of the [States], to judge whether the compact has been dangerously violated, must extend to violations by one delegated authority as well as by another--by the judiciary as well as by the executive, or the legislature." ~James Madison, 1800 Report on the Virginia Resolutions
3. Original Intent is the only legal way to apply the terms of the Constitution. Contract law dictates that the "meeting of the minds" is the controlling standard for any contract. Ask your professor, pundit, or politician if they will allow their employment contract to be applied as a "living breathing document" and quickly see how hypocritical they really are. "There is no position which depends on clearer principles, than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void." ~ Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #78, 1788
4. The Constitution created a Constitutional Republic; a government limited and defined by specific enumeration of authority where laws are made by equal representation of the people. If it is not enumerated, it is not Constitutionally authorized. We are not a democracy and our government and it's laws are not dictated by majority mob rule.
“I sir have always conceived—I believe those who proposed the Constitution conceived—it is still more fully known and more material to observe, that those who ratified the Constitution conceived—that this not an indefinite government…but a limited government tied down to the specific powers.” ~ James Madison, to the House of Representatives, 1792
This is merely a short list of the many truths we neglect to teach and learn about our Constitution. The miseducation perpetrated upon the American people is not by accident. It is a coordinated effort to expand the power of those in office and extinguish the inherent liberties of the people. Our founders warned us of this danger: "No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." ~ Samuel Adams to James Warren, 1775.
America has the greatest history in the world of Liberty and inherent rights for ALL. None other compares. We have the greatest Constitution in the world.
“In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of hateful things; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purpose.” ~ Frederick Douglass, 1852
Our government problems are not because of the failings of the Constitution. The many crises in America are because we are failing to enforce our Constitution and demand those in government operate according to this standard. That will change and our American experience will cease to decline when the people have the knowledge and courage to turn away from the dictated errant narrative and learn to speak and stand for truth.
~ KrisAnne Hall, JD
Four Things You Need To Know
About Our US Constitution
By Krisanne Hall, JD
STUDENTS MAY PRAY IN SCHOOL
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
ARE NOT “GOD-FREE ZONES”
America’s children need not leave their faith outside the school house door.
For students to be silenced or disciplined by a school authority for appropriate religious expression should never happen. Sadly, young students may well conclude…
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Educational resources for parish members who work to support Religious Freedoms.
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AT WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES: DEFENDING FREEDOM OF RELIGION
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY 2018
IN SERVICE TO THE CHURCH
Click here to watch Barbara on TeleCare TV.
NATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY
Click here to view a video about National Religious Freedom Day 2014.
Barbara Samuells, president of Catholics for Freedom of Religion and a parishioner at St. Matthew’s, Dix Hills, shares her experience at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
Pope Francis has observed that “religion [cannot] be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life.” Evangelii Gaudium. . . , no. 183. In insisting that our liberties as Americans be respected, Pope Benedict XVI said that this work belongs to “an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture.” Therefore, catechesis on religious liberty is not the work of priests alone. If religious liberty is not properly understood, all people suffer and are deprived of the essential contribution to the common good, be it in education, health care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that individuals make every day, both here at home and overseas.
CATHOLICS FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION
MISSION STATEMENT
America’s First Amendment guarantees its citizens five freedoms, the first of which is Freedom of Religion. Freedom of Religion includes the freedom to worship according to one’s beliefs as well as the freedom to practice that faith in everyday life according to one’s conscience.
So that this First Amendment freedom may be practiced and preserved for generations yet unborn it is essential that Americans understand this freedom and the circumstances from which it came. A fitting place for the development of this understanding and protection of Religious Freedom is inside all faith communities.
Catholics for Freedom of Religion offers resources to parish members who work to support Religious Freedom by initiating parish laity groups with these suggested goals:
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To educate and inspire for Freedom of Religion
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To remain non-partisan, advocating for no candidate or party
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To invite and include other faith communities
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To become a permanent group within each parish to educate every generation of Catholics about our Freedom of Religion…how rare it is, how dearly it was purchased for us and how certainly it is being lost.
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To recognize and oppose attacks on Freedom of Religion from any source
“We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, that religion, or the duty we owe our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence. The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right.” James Madison
“While Americans presume that the Constitution guarantees their rights, in practice our rights survive or disappear based on how firmly we defend them.” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
