Sunday 6th October 2024

Home » Frontpage » Currently Reading:

How Did the U.S. Become A Secular Nation?

August 15, 2016 Frontpage No Comments

BY CHARLES  LiMANDRI

Image result for secular nation

A friend recently asked: “How did we get to this point in our nation’s history when so many people have a secular worldview?”  I told him that I thought that there were many factors; however, a few major milestones stood out in the past sixty or so years. For example, in 1954 the U.S. Congress passed the Johnson Amendment which had the effect of silencing many of our nation’s religious leaders on the important political and cultural issues of the day. Then, by 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively outlawed prayer in public schools. What followed was a new era of deleterious impacts on students and society. These included a decline in academic achievement and increases in teen pregnancies, illegal drug use, juvenile crime, etc.

To accomplish its secular social engineering, the Supreme Court had invented a non-constitutional “separation of church and state” which marked a huge departure from our nation’s former rich Christian heritage. This is well illustrated by statements from our first two Presidents. These heroic Founding Fathers stressed the importance of religion and morality to our new American nation.  For example, George Washington stated: “Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

 

Reason and experience also teach us that religion informs our morality, and our morality is the basis of our laws. Thus, our second President, John Adams, also warned his fellow countrymen: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  Thus, by secularizing our schools, we have robbed generations of students and our nation of the best hope for a more virtuous, unified, and stronger nation.

 

It is an interesting fact that in 1963 the Congressional Record also listed the threat posed by the Communists’ 45 goals for the ideological conquest of the United States.  Of particular note for our present purposes, goal number 28 states: “Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of ‘separation of church and state.’ See also goal No. 30: “Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the ‘common man.’'”

 

Moving ahead to 1973, two major events occurred to bring us to our current crucial juncture. First, the American Psychiatric Association bowed to political pressure and, with no scientific basis for doing so, removed homosexuality as a listed “disorder” from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM).  Second, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the decision in Roe v. Wade and, in doing so, invented a constitutional right for mothers to kill their unborn children.

 

This introduced a culture of death into American life that would have been unfathomable to our nation’s enlightened founders. Yet, the current Democratic candidate for President has gone on record to state that, in her view, unborn “persons” should have no rights, even moments before they are born. She has gone so far as to state that it is religious beliefs that have to change on this issue, rather than these inhumane practices.

The culture of death has also led to such a devaluation of human life that we have recently witnessed the barbaric practice of abortion providers selling aborted baby body parts. Further, several states have recently enacted laws to permit the “compassionate” killing of the elderly and infirm. Those who object on religious grounds are increasingly marginalized and silenced.

 

Nothing has had as great an adverse impact on religious liberty as the advancement of the radical homosexual agenda. Therefore, it follows that this too was one of the communist goals listed in the Congressional Record in 1963. Specifically, goal no. 26 for remaking America stated“Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as ‘normal, natural, healthy.'” Many of the successful attacks on religion and morality have been driven by lawsuits brought by the ACLU. What a surprise that its founder, Roger Nash Baldwin, unabashedly stated: “I am for socialism, disarmament, and, ultimately, for abolishing the state itself… I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.”

 

Likewise, Harry Hay, the man known as the “founder of the modern gay movement”, who died only recently, was also a prominent member of the U.S. Communist Party. Interestingly, he greatly influenced Kevin Jennings, President Obama’s former controversial “Safe Schools Czar”.  Jennings is the militant gay activist who founded the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).  He pushed hard to fully implement the gay agenda into the public school system, while lashing out at the religious right.

 

Communist ideology and gender ideology are both incompatible with Christianity but for different reasons. Communism views the state as god–the giver and taker away of all our rights. Christianity views our rights as coming from the one true God, and thus they are inalienable. Gay ideology makes the individual a god onto himself or herself and, in doing so, replaces the Creator with the created person. The defiant created person then destroys the Creator’s plan for the human race. This desecrates the divine model for marriage of husband and wife, which our Lord uses to illustrate His sacred relationship with the Church. Ephesians 5:25-27.

 

The ideologies of both communism and gay activism are mutually exclusive with a Christian worldview.  Hence, our nation is badly divided between secularists and people of faith. And, as our Lord warned, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Mark 3:25. The Obama Administration has misused its executive authority, with Soviet style coercive government policies, to push the secularist ideologies of abortion and gay rights. Examples are the unconstitutional Dept of HHS abortion pill mandate and the recent Dept. of Ed. transgender mandate. In doing so it has bulldozed the First Amendment rights of people of faith. Another example is President Obama’s attempted downgrading of our constitutional right to the “free exercise of religion” by treating it as a much more limited “freedom of worship”. Thus, the modern Democratic Party is the realization of Communist goal No.15:  “Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.”

 

In further examining the issue at hand, “how did we get to this point”, it is worth noting that the gay lobby has been so successful largely because it followed the diabolically ingenious blueprint laid out for it in the book “After the Ball”.  This is a gay manifesto for convincing straight America to embrace the homosexual agenda. It was published by two expert gay activists in 1989.  Step 5 of this gay manifesto states that activists must make the so-called “victimizers” of homosexuals look like bigoted bullies to the average American. “To be blunt they must be vilified.”

 

That is why hardcore liberals who read this article will no doubt answer with their usual knee jerk reaction in their responsive comments by accusing this author of bigotry and homophobia. Yet, this writer has always said that it is not the place of devout Christians, as repentant sinners themselves, to judge the hearts of homosexuals; rather, we should love them, as we do all men and women, as our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet, even the timeless Christian message of “love the sinner…but hate the sin,” is enough to send many a gay activist into attack mode. As far as they are concerned, any consensual sexual act is void of any negative moral implications. Moreover, they conveniently ignore the potential serious consequences of homosexual behavior.

 

Indeed, even setting aside religion and morality for the moment, gay activists refuse to acknowledge the irrefutably heightened, and sometimes deadly, health risks of homosexual sex.

They also fail to ignore the ample and increasing sociological evidence that gay parenting is generally a poor substitute for kids being raised by their own moms and dads.  Not surprisingly, same-sex “marriage” and gay parenting serves to greatly promote communist goal no. 40, which seeks the moral collapse of the United States: “Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.”

 

Undoubtedly, the next to weigh in against this article will be the faux Christians who claim that it is not compassionate to share the Truth with those who are most in need of it. I would remind these wayward Christians that our Lord said: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” John 14:23.

 

Jesus’ teaching on the subject of sexual morality is very clear: “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?‘”  Matthew 19:4-5. In light of the foregoing, it is simply bad theology and a false compassion that would encourage and enable people to continue in self-destructive sinful behavior.

 

I would instead encourage our misguided brethren to keep in mind that our Lord is not the wimpy Savior that the cowardly and complicit would have us believe Him to be. Rather, Jesus reserved His strongest condemnation for those who would corrupt children: “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.”  Matthew 18:6.

 

Nonetheless, what we see happening today is exactly what the destroyers of American culture have successfully sought to accomplish for over six decades. They are now mandating in law that we allow the godless public school system to replace the role of parents and the Church in the moral formation of their children. It is the goal of their anti-Christian social engineering that our children be molded in their own image and likeness.

 

These modern secularists are destroying the innocence of the vulnerable young students that we are duty-bound to protect. At the same time, the present Administration in Washington, D.C. is also destroying the morale and readiness of those in our armed forces who are charged to protect all of us.  If left unchecked, their radical agenda will complete the stated communist goal of bringing America to its knees.

 

Our only hope now is a robust spiritual renewal brought about through the positive influence of our nation’s Churches.  As I started this article, so shall I finish it. The Johnson Amendment, passed in 1954, has thus far largely accomplished its objective of removing the Churches from the battle for the soul of America. The current Republican candidate for President has pledged to seek to repeal that unconstitutional and disastrous law.  Hopefully, he will be successful and our nation’s religious leaders will once more find their voices on the most pressing moral and political issues of our day. If they do rise to the challenge, then there is great hope that America will once again be richly blessed as “one Nation under God.”

 

 

Mr. LiMandri is devout Catholic and currently represents David Daleiden in the legal fight against the abortion industry.

 

 

 

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

This week at the Synod on Synodality — revolution or much ado about nothing?

Perhaps it is in the very nature of the Synod on Synodality to take steps back after having taken several steps forward. But the tone of the opening days of the synod’s final general assembly makes it apparent that, for the moment, there is no talk of revolution within the Church.  That tone was set days before the gathering got underway this week at the Vatican, when in his speech in Belgium on Sept. 27, Pope Francis…Continue Reading

Wyoming doctor fired by GOP governor for opposing child ‘sex changes’ asks to be reinstated

(The Daily Signal) — Wyoming’s governor removed a doctor from the state’s board of medicine because the doctor supported a law banning “gender-affirming care” for minors. The doctor is suing, and his lawyers are filing a motion Tuesday asking the court to reinstate him on the medical board. His legal team also revealed that more than 5,000 Wyoming residents have signed a petition asking the governor to reinstate him

Pro-life leaders express disgust with ‘fully booked’ mobile Planned Parenthood unit at DNC

(LifeSiteNews) — Planned Parenthood was “fully booked” with 25 appointments to dispense abortion pills at a mobile center on Monday and Tuesday during the Democratic National Convention (DNC). “Twenty-five innocent human beings whose lives are being ended at the DNC. And this is done as a political statement,” pro-life activist Lila Rose remarked Tuesday on her podcast.

Pope Francis acknowledges conference for ‘LGBT Catholics’

Pope Francis this week said he is “united in prayer” with those participating in a conference for Catholics who identify as LGBT taking place this weekend in Washington, D.C. Father James Martin, a controversial Jesuit priest who founded the pro-LGBT group Outreach in 2022, reportedly asked Pope Francis if he would like to send a greeting to the group’s 2024 gathering, taking place Aug. 2–4 at Georgetown University. Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington is scheduled to celebrate Mass on Saturday at…Continue Reading

Senators Slam Army After Presentation Calls Pro-Life Americans Terrorists

Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Ted Budd (R-NC), along with Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC) and their colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth demanding answers after an anti-terrorism training conducted at Fort Liberty, North Carolina depicted Pro-Life Americans as terrorists. “We write regarding social media reports that anti-terrorism training conducted at Ft. Liberty, North Carolina depicts Pro-Life Americans as terrorists. Specifically, the slides identify National Right to Life, ‘Choose Life’ license plate holders, and…Continue Reading

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)