Posted by
CKHustler on Sunday, July 13, 2008 8:13:41 PM
"Our constitution was made only
for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the
government of any other." - John Quincy Adams, 6th President of USA.
I had a debate on another site (password protected site, so I can't really link it or I would) about the quote above. He seemed to think the above quote shouted of theocracy. I disagreed, and that gave me thought to write a short column on the reasoning of quote. John Q Adams was not a founding father, but he was closely connected with one as his father. I believe this quote to be 100% true and that truth is coming to light as America moves away from religion and into a secular country.
Our constitution gives unbridled freedom, seen only by few civilizations in the history of the world. With that freedom the people have the authority to do many things unseen in the rest of the world. For example, a person can stand in the street and speak out against America, without fear of being arrested. A man has the right to bear many types of weapons that would not be allowed of him in other countries. With freedom comes responsibility to act in such a way as to contribute to society. If everyone fully exercised their freedom, causing harm to this country, we would fall from power at a feet of a citizenry that wished harm on this country.
What a religion does is give people a moral code to live by. People of Christianity do their best to live by the life of Jesus. If our population had 300 million people striving to live their life as Jesus led his, would there be as many problems as we have today? With religion comes an example of how we should live our lives. Humans are by nature not perfect and we will never be close, but if everyone was trying to leave a positive footprint, well you see where I am going with this.
Now we must connect the dots here and show how our constitution is made for religious people and would fail under all others. With the freedom our constitution gives, people will all live their lives according to how they would like to live them. Government forces the hand of no person concerning personal decisions. If people do not live by a moral code of a religion, then what code will they live their lives by? Surely some people will live their lives with the same positive morals of religion, even if they do not believe in a higher being, but how many would? The effects of America moving towards secularism is already beginning to show. Abortion is legal, same-sex marriages is now moving from state to state, in Colorado if a person feels they are a woman that day, they can go into the womans locker room even if they are a man. In the schools, ever since the removal of God from schools, our violence rates in the schools has reached higher levels than seen before. School shootings have been happening at an increasing rate. Our country is moving away from having a moral code and moving towards an "anything goes" country. With that comes a more selfish and individualistic society, where people have no common set of values to live by. This weakens a country by breaking apart the population from common beliefs and views of where this country should go. If a populous does not have a common goal for the country, then how is the country to move forward? If there is no foundation upon which the population can together stand, where is the groundwork we can all stand on? What binds us together as a people?
Thank you for your time, please respond if you have anything to add, your opinion is most welcome.