Condensed notes taken from the Video
AMERICA'S GODLY HERITAGE by DAVID BARTON
Except for specific quotes, the comments may be paraphrased
from David Barton, or in some cases, an interpretation
or additional comment by Dale Costner.

This video is meant to inform you about the truth of the principles that America was founded on, but are intentionally not being taught in public schools.

     As a point of clarification, throughout the writings of the 
Founders of the Constitution, they sometimes refer to Christianity, 
sometimes religion, sometimes Godly principles, etc. Also "Providence" 
was a term used commonly to refer to God. The religion they are 
referring to is always Christianity and the God is the God of the 
Bible. It was so well known at the time and referred to in so many 
writings, that it was assumed in other writings that everyone knew the 
religion they were talking about. 

                  PATRICK HENRY - AN AMERICAN PATRIOT
     He is known for his saying "Give me liberty or give me death." He 
also said "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often, that 
this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians, 
not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ." 

                           JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
     "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: that it 
tied together in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil 
government with the principles of Christianity." 
                               JOHN JAY
     Jay was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and one of 
the three men most responsible for the writing of the Constitution of 
the U.S. He said "Providence has given to our people the choice of 
their Rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and 
interest of our Christian nation, to select & prefer Christians for 
their Rulers." 

           GEORGE WASHINGTON - PRESIDENTIAL FAREWELL SPEECH
     Washington gave a farewell speech which was heralded as the most 
significant political speech ever given to the nation. It has since 
been removed from American history books. He said: "Of all the habits 
and dispositions which lead to political prosperity, religion and 
morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the 
tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great 
pillars." 

          MEN MOST QUOTED BY THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF THE U.S.
     Political Science professors at the University of Houston 
wondered if there was something unique about the government of the 
U.S. They gathered 15,000 quotes from the Founders, located where they 
came from, then boiled that down to 3,154 quotes that had significant 
impact on the founding of America. 
     They found that the three men most quoted by the Founding fathers 
were Blackstone, Montesquieu, and John Locke. They also found that the 
Bible was quoted: 
                       4 times more often than Montesquieu,
                       12 times more often than Blackstone, and
                       16 times more often than Locke.
     Additionally, 34% of all quotes were from the Bible, and another 
60% of the quotes were from men who were using the Bible to arrive at 
their conclusions. Added together, 94% of all the quotes of the 
Founders had their origin in the Bible, which shows the importance of 
God's word in their lives and of this Nation's founding. 

                        BLACKSTONE'S COMMENTARY
     Blackstone's Commentary on the Law, introduced in 1758, became 
the law textbook for lawyers for 160 years, and the Supreme Court 
quoted from it to settle cases. It gave Bible verse references to the 
law. For instance the three branches of government are based on Isaiah 
33:22, the separation of powers is based on Jeremiah 17, and the tax 
exemption for Churches on Ezra 7:24. Countries even next to the U.S., 
such as Canada and Mexico, don't have tax exemption for churches. 

                SUPREME COURT - 1844 - VIDAL VS GIRARD
     A Philadelphia school wanted to teach morals without using the 
Bible. The Court said "Why may not the Bible, and especially the New 
Testament, be read and taught as a divine revelation in the schools? 
Where can the purest principals of morality be learned so clearly or 
perfectly as from the N.T." 
     Any book teaching good morality would certainly be teaching what 
the N.T. teaches, so why not use the original source which doesn't 
change. 

       SUPREME COURT - 1892 - CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY VS U.S.
     In another challenge the court ruled "Our laws and our 
institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings 
of the Redeemer of mankind, and it's impossible that it should be 
otherwise: and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and 
our institutions are emphatically Christian." The court also quoted 87 
different historical precedents to back up its decision, from the 
Founding Fathers, Acts of the Founding Fathers, Acts of Congress, etc, 
etc. 

               SUPREME COURT - 1811 - PEOPLE VS RUGGLES
     There was a man who made attacks on Jesus in such a blasphemous 
way that it made it to the Supreme Court and the court ruled: 
"Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the 
dissolution of civil government." They reasoned that if you attack 
Jesus, you have attacked Christianity, & if you have attacked 
Christianity, you have attacked the foundation of the U.S., therefore 
an attack on Jesus or Christianity was equivalent to an attack on the 
foundation of the U.S. 

  "SEPARATION", "CHURCH", & "STATE" do NOT appear in the CONSTITUTION
     Many people think it is part of the 1st Amendment, but it is not. 
The 1st Amendment reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an 
establishing of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." 
     What the Founders DID NOT want was any ONE DENOMINATION of the 
Christian religion to run the nation. They wanted to stay away from 
what they had left in England, where the King was the head of the 
Church. However the Founding Fathers and the Supreme Court were quite 
clear that Christianity was the established religion, and WAS to be 
involved in the government. 

              SUPREME COURT - 1796 - RUNKEL VS WINEMILLER
     "By our form of government the Christian religion is the 
established religion, and all sects and denominations of Christians 
are placed on the same equal footing." 

        January 1, 1802 LETTER from PRESIDENT THOMAS JEFFERSON
                To the DANBARY BAPTIST, of CONNECTICUT
     In 1801 the Danbary Baptist Church heard a rumor that the 
Congregationalist Denomination was going to be made the National 
Denomination. This disturbed them as it well should. Jefferson 
answered in his letter: "The 1st Amendment has erected a wall of 
separation between church and state, but that wall is a one 
directional wall, it keeps the government from running the church, but 
it makes sure that Christian principles will always stay in 
government." 
     Please read that very carefully, it is supposed to protect the 
church from the government, not the government from the church. And it 
is supposed to guarantee that Christian principles will always stay in 
government. This is where the "wall of separation" originated, but it 
was another 146 years before a non-Christian, liberal, Supreme Court 
distorted and reversed what the Founders meant the Constitution to do. 

               RESPONSE FROM THE HOUSE AND SENATE - 1853
     In 1853 there was a group that petitioned Congress for the 
separation of Christian principles from government. There was a one 
year investigation. 
     The House Judiciary Committee on March 27, 1854 reported: "Had 
the people during the revolution, had any suspicion of any attempt to 
war against Christianity, that revolution would have been strangled in 
its cradle." The Senate also made a similar statement. 
     The report continued: "At the time of the adoption of the 
Constitution and the Amendments, the universal sentiment was that 
Christianity should be encouraged, but not any one sect. In this age 
there can be no substitute for Christianity . That was the religion of 
the Founders of the Republic and they expected it remain the religion 
of their descendants." 
     "The great, vital and conservative element in our system is the 
belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truth of the 
gospel of Jesus Christ." 

                SUPREME COURT - 1878 - REYNOLDS VS U.S.
     After 1853 for the next 50 years or so there were some other 
cases that worked their way through the courts and challenged 
Christian principles in government. Each time precedents were cited 
such as Jefferson's letter and they were defeated. One of the cases 
was in 1878. Thomas Jefferson's letter was referred to in its 
entirety. It was repeated that the 1st Amendment is to protect the 
Church from the government, and Christian principles are never to be 
separated from the government. 

         SUPREME COURT - 1947 - EVERSON VS BOARD OF EDUCATION
     For the very first time in Court history, only eight words were 
used from Jefferson's letter. They were taken out of context and a 
brand new meaning applied, which reversed their original intent. The 
Court stated: "The 1st Amendment erected a wall between Church and 
State. That wall must be kept high and impregnable." It didn't 
recognize that the wall was intended to be a one way wall to keep 
government out of religion. 

            DR. WILLIAM JAMES - FATHER OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
     In the 1940's the Supreme Court and many other courts were being 
influenced by the philosophy of James who was a strong opponent of 
religion in government. He had said: "There is nothing so absurd that 
if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it." 
     The phrase "Separation of Church & State" began being repeated 
over and over and this is born out in a court case in Bear vs 
Colmorgan(sp?) in 1958. The Judge said: "If this court doesn't stop 
talking about the Separation of Church and State, everyone's going to 
think that's what the Constitution says." 

            SUPREME COURT - JUNE 25,1962 - ENGLE VS VITALE
     This is the landmark case that removed prayer from the public 
schools. It was the first time that we had separation of religious 
principles from public education. 
     The amazing thing is that it was done without citing any 
precedent from other cases as is the normal procedure. Instead it was 
an entirely new statement not based on any historical or legal base. 
There were no quotes from previous legal cases! Instead, it was a 
brand new doctrine which according to all the previous legal decisions 
WAS IN VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION! Nevertheless it took precedent 
over all the previous interpretations of the Constitution which had 
cited many precedents that disagreed with this new ruling. 

          SUPREME COURT - JUNE 17,1963 - ABINGTON VS SCHEMPP
     Previous Courts had said that you couldn't have a school that 
didn't teach Christian principles based on the Bible. Early textbooks 
quoted the Bible and used it for teaching the alphabet. This case 
reversed previous decisions and made a brand new statement! It removed 
Bible reading and instruction from public schools and stated: "If 
portions of the N.T. were read without explanation, they could be, and 
had been, psychologically harmful to the child." How could such a 
statement be made by anyone who knows that the Founders of this 
successful government of America was due to their belief in the N.T. 
as essential to the well being of the nation and its' people? 
     At the time of the 1963 Court cases, they took a survey to 
determine how many people believed in God or religion. They found that 
only 3% didn't believe in God or religion. Although the prayer was 
consistent with 97% of the people, the Court ruled with the 3%. This 
is the first time that 3% became a majority under which the 97% now 
had to live by. 
     What happened in 1962-63 in a 12 month period was a RADICAL 
REVERSAL of everything that had happened up to that point. Removal of 
prayer, Bible reading and religious classes in instruction was totally 
against the Constitution, but these NEW RULINGS were simply ANNOUNCED 
by the Supreme Court as if a dictator had taken over. 
           CENSORSHIP & LOSS OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH & RELIGION
     As late as 1946 there was a Bible Study Course that was a 
requirement for graduation. After 1963, what had been standard for so 
many years, was not even an option to be taught anymore. The freedom 
of speech and religion had been censored in the public schools! 

1965 The Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional for a student to 
     pray aloud. 
     
1967 The Supreme Court declared a four line Nursery rhyme used by a K-
     5 Kindergarten class was unconstitutional, even though it didn't 
     contain the word "God." The Court said: "If someone heard it, it 
     might cause someone to think of God." (Now we have censorship of 
     our thoughts we might think!) 

     These kinds of court cases continued and in 1980 there was one 
concerning what is called a "Passive Display." 
                SUPREME COURT - 1980 - STONE VS GRAHAM
     A "passive display" would be like something hanging on a wall 
like a picture, which doesn't require that you pay any attention to it 
unless you want to. There was a passive display of the Ten 
Commandments hanging in a school hallway with no requirement to read 
it. 
     The Court ruled it was unconstitutional to display it in a 
school. They said: "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are 
to have any affect at all, it will be to induce the school children to 
read, meditate upon, perhaps.. to venerate and obey the commandments; 
this is not a permissible objective." Just think, if it caused 
children to respect their parents or to decide not to steal or kill... 
that would be unconstitutional? 

     JAMES MADISON - THE MAN MOST RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION
     "We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on 
the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all 
of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us 
to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." 

JOHN ADAMS said: "We have no government armed with power which is 
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." 

                Since saying NO to Biblical principles
                 AMERICA HAS BECOME A WORLD LEADER IN:
                                DIVORCE
                          TEENAGE PREGNANCIES
                          VOLUNTARY ABORTIONS
                             ILLEGAL DRUGS
                 ILLITERACY (in the Industrial World)

     Each state passed a State Constitution which had requirements 
they considered most important for those who would represent them. 
Generally they were along the line of Delaware Constitution in 1776 
which stated: 
     "Everyone appointed to public office must say: 'I do profess 
faith in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ his only son, and 
in the Holy Ghost, one God & blessed forevermore: and I do acknowledge 
the Holy Scriptures of the Old & New Testaments to be given by divine 
inspiration.'"      This was consistent with the constitution because 
it did not recognize one denomination over another or require you to 
belong to any particular denomination. But it did require that you 
understand God's principles and God as authority. Ungodly people will 
not use Godly principles to run a Nation. That's why the Founders were 
so emphatic about keeping Christian men in office. 

                   BENJAMIN FRANKLIN - JUNE 17,1787
     He called for regular daily prayer to be sure we kept God 
alongside what we were doing in the Nation. 

            CHARLES FINNEY - The Billy Graham of the 1800's 
     "The Church must take right ground in regard to politics. 
Politics are a part of a religion in a country and Christians must do 
their duty to the country as part of their duty to God. He will bless 
or curse this nation according to the course Christians take in 
politics." 

                     If God's people don't make it into office, 
                     God's principles won't make it into office.

     Apparently there are people that do not want us to know what the 
Constitution and its' Founders really said, or that our freedom and 
liberty is based on God's principles put in place by Christians. 
Instead they use these freedoms to fight against Christians and God's 
principles, to take away freedoms the Founders sought to guarantee. 
     When Christians started moving out and not running for government 
office, they turned it over to people who didn't believe in many of 
the Godly principles that had been so important in it's founding. 

            THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS
               but it may be HUMANISM or ATHEISM or ???
1963 & 1986 SUPREME COURT rulings defined Secular Humanism as a 
legitimate religion, lawfully equivalent to Christianity. The religion 
of Secular Humanism rejects the supernatural in their philosophy and 
places man as supreme, and able to control his own destiny. 

1977 SUPREME COURT ruled that Atheism is a legitimate religion, 
lawfully equivalent to Christianity. Atheism says there is no God and 
therefor should be no practice of religion. 

     The Court said that whatever you believe with all your heart that 
affects the way you act, that's your religion. Satanic activity and 
Witchcraft are other religions that are recognized and receive tax-
exempt status as well. However the only time you hear the cry of 
"separation of Church and State" is to get Christian materials, etc. 
out of schools. If all form of religion needs to be removed from 
schools, why is not the cry used against representation of witches on 
Halloween? Or when there is no prayer and practice of believing in God 
going on in the school, why not cry out against the religion of 
Atheism or Humanism, which is the religion of exclusion of God. 

     Non-recognition of God is being practiced every day in schools 
and it is being forced on all, including those who desire to pray and 
read the Bible. Christians are attacked for believing in the religion 
upon which America was founded while other religions are being allowed 
with no comment. An American should be able to speak of his roots in 
Christianity proudly and it should be taught in the schools. 
     To refer to God's principles in the Bible is to stand for what 
made America a free country, with liberty for all. To reject the 
Scriptures is to reject our heritage and the foundation principles 
which men fought and died for to obtain. What is called right-wing 
extremism today by intolerant liberals is really a mis-label. It is 
really what this country was founded upon and was the normal middle of 
the road conservatism for a long time afterward. It is the extremists 
that have put the label on to divert attention from their own far out 
position (with respect to the Founders) of Secular Humanism & Atheism. 

     Separation of Church & State is not a part of our history and not 
a part of our law until relatively recently. It is certainly not 
Biblical, and most people don't know that it was lifted from 
Jefferson's letter out of context to say the opposite of what the rest 
of his letter says. 

     The religion of Christianity and the Biblical principles were the 
very basis for the Constitution & held in the highest regard by the 
writers of the Constitution. They so wanted it to remain a part of the 
government and the schooling that it is outrageous that we are having 
censorship today of their writings which are in support of 
Christianity and the Bible. It is intolerable that the Supreme Court 
could get away with a decision that is in total disagreement with the 
Constitution. It can't be emphasized too much that the Constitution 
and the Founder's intentions were to protect the exercise of 
Christianity in the government. Any ruling otherwise is inconsistent 
with the Constitution, and is a deliberate distortion without any 
basis. 

     The 1963 decision that was based on no precedent and is now used 
as a precedent for everything since, needs to be shown for what it is. 
It was a total reversal from what was right, and another reversal is 
necessary to put it back right. We have a Godly heritage which has 
been robbed from us by the 3% who made a lot of noise about 
"separation of Church & State". The only way to reverse this trend is 
to get informed about the truth of our heritage and start fighting to 
gain it back.