Over fifty years ago this country, in the persons of eight Supreme Court justices, told God to leave our public schools. Jesus said “bring the children to me” (Mk. 10:14, Luke 16:18) and these men said “No, the government will have them for itself and You can get out.” God, His divine Majesty grievously offended, withdrew and now three generations of young Americans have spent roughly 30 hours a week for twelve years of their lives in a place where there is no truth, because the Truth has left. There are subjects useful to the state, but almost nothing about character or morals. The result of this is evident in our streets and the manifest corruption of virtually every aspect of American popular culture.
In 1960 Madalyn Murray O’Hair, founder of American Atheists, sued the Baltimore Public School System for requiring students to read from the Bible and to recite the Lord’s Prayer at school exercises. In a case titled Murray v. Curlett, she argued that such a requirement violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution in that it had the effect of establishing a religion. Prior to this in 1955, a man named Steven Engel, who was a founding member of the New York Civil Liberties Union, sued the New York Board of Regents for composing (but not requiring) a prayer to be said in its schools. Ultimately the case was referred to the US Supreme Court and in 1962 in Engel v. Vitale, the court ruled 8-1 that recitation of prayer in public schools shall be unlawful, the first time God was ever ordered out of a government institution in the United States.
This obscenity against God’s majesty was repeated when O’Hair’s case was combined with others in Abington v. Schempp and on June 7, 1963 the Supreme Court decided, by the same 8-1 majority, that the corporate reading of the Bible and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer shall be unlawful in public schools as well.
Ruling to order God out in both cases were Chief Justice Earl Warren, John Harlan, William Brennan (all appointed by Pres. Dwight Eisenhower – R), Hugo Black, William Douglas (both appt. Franklin Roosevelt – D), Tom Clark (appt. Harry Truman – D), Byron White and Arthur Goldberg (both appt. John Kennedy – D). The sole dissenting voice was Potter Stewart, appointed by Eisenhower.
Since these two blasphemous decisions, America has experienced one tragedy after another over the succeeding years. Just five months after the second decision, John F. Kennedy was assassinated; in 1964 the Beatles came to America with sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll; in the early 1960’s also Feminism, the institutionalized hatred of men, spread in the United States; in 1968 The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated; in 1969 with the Stonewall Riots the homosexual movement became a nationwide demand for equal rights; on January 22, 1973 in Roe v. Wade the US Supreme Court, by a vote of 7-2, legalized abortion in all 50 states, leading to the murder, so far, of about 60 million unborn children; two months later, on March 29, 1973 the United States withdrew in defeat from South Viet Nam; in 1981 the AIDS epidemic began; in 1987 the world came within ½ hour of total financial collapse; in 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed and on September 11, 2001 it was brought down.
Since then this nation has seen people in authority demanding the end of the rule of law that says a person accused of crime is deemed innocent until proven by due process to be guilty; these same people argue that any speech that is offensive to someone or some group should not be allowed, and the ones making the argument further assert that they should be the ones deciding what is offensive. Powerful forces are calling for the end of the Electoral College enshrined in our US Constitution, and they have begun an end run around it by a movement called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact which allows state legislatures to ignore that state’s voters and appoint electors in accord with the country’s national popular vote. So far 14 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to this proposal, and are pledged to enact it once enough states have signed on to control 270 electoral votes. Once that happens, the Electoral College will for all intents and purposes, be gone in all but name. The existing signatories control 189 electoral votes already, because they include large states like California, New York, Illinois and New Jersey which by themselves have 118 votes. It is hard to argue that this is not a direct attack on our founding law of the land.
Mass killings have become more numerous and with more casualties. Most of the colleges in this country have virtually banned free speech, in that anyone who utters an opinion disliked by what amounts to a social media mob can be readily expelled, lose grade point average or, if an employee, fired for daring to express an opinion or even state a fact that makes the mob feel bad. But it is all one-sided. The mob can say anything it likes about those it despises and will receive no consequences; the Scripture is relevant here: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” (Eccl 8:11)
Crony capitalism has indeed created a vast gulf between the rich and the poor, and the middle class is fast disappearing. The rich have protection, the poor have entitlements and the middle class bears the burden of both. Again Scripture becomes as relevant as today’s news – “For the love of money is the root of all evil…” 1 Tim 6:10) A billionaire who is willing to work his employees to exhaustion, seek to insure a large supply of low-skilled labor so as to keep wages down, and claim that he cares about the poor is a perfect example of this. Such a person loves money, and perhaps only money.
The institution of matrimony has become so perverted that it is a direct slap in God’s face. An activist US Supreme Court has again done its work. Most egregiously, strong forces in this culture say that there are not the two genders that God created, but many, and people can be whatever gender they like and will make them feel good. Moreover, society must accept these aberrations and anyone who objects is un-American.
There are other things as well, too numerous to mention. But it seems clear that since our formal rejection of God, the name of this country is no longer “America the Beautiful” but “Ichabod.” John Adams, our second president, said this: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” In modern America, the man proves himself a prophet a million times a day.
Until there is a massive outpouring of repentance on the part of a sizable portion of the American Christian population over these and other affronts to God’s majesty, it is likely there will be more to come.
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Jim Kohlmann has been a believing Christian for over 40 years and seen the Lord do marvelous things. He has been a licensed minister with a worldwide sending organization for 15 years and was a Bible teacher and worship leader before that. A small businessman in the Orlando, Florida area, he has ministered in various local churches but most recently has been attached to Intercessors For America, a 45 year old organization based near Washington D.C. that is focused on praying for the restoration of this unique country. He worked for them building prayer networks in various states during the 2016 presidential election. He is married to a fabulous Christian artist and has two grown sons.
