Words From Our Founders: Congressional Prayer Proclamation, 1775

Words From Our Founders,

Today we continue our series examining our Founding Fathers in their own words and considering their high esteem for religion, religious liberty, and virtue.

Below is proclamation of prayer and fasting authorized for publication by the Continental Congress on Monday, June 12, 1775–at the outset of the American Revolution.

From the Journals of the Continental Congress (Volume 2, pp. 88-89):

The Congress met according to adjournment.

The committee, appointed for preparing a resolve for a fast, brought in a report, which, being read, was agreed to as follows:

As the great Governor of the World, by his supreme and universal Providence, not only conducts the course of nature with unerring wisdom and rectitude, but frequently influences the minds of men to serve the wise and gracious purposes of his providential government; and it being, at all times, our indispensible duty devoutly to acknowledge his superintending providence, especially in times of impending danger and public calamity, to reverence and adore his immutable justice as well as to implore his merciful interposition for our deliverance:

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Marriage: The Unsung Hero Against Poverty

Marriage, ,

There are four steps you can take in a specific order to reduce the chances your family will ever live in poverty. They are:

  1. Graduate from high school.
  2. Get married.
  3. Have children after you are married.
  4. Stay married.

If you do those four things in that order, the chances you and your children will live in poverty are reduced by 82%. If you go on to graduate from college, the chances drop even more drastically.

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Army Suspends Anti-Christian Briefings

Religious Freedom, ,

Recently we told you about a training session in which U.S. Army personnel were told the American Family Association is a “domestic hate group.”

The AFA, a Christian ministry well known for its American Family Radio, was likened to the Ku Klux Klan, Black Panthers, and other groups. Similar incidents have happened across the country in what has become a very troubling trend.

Yesterday, however, the Pentagon announced it is putting a stop to these briefings. The training seminars in which these incidents have occurred will resume in November, but under a new directive that states in part,

Emphasize that neither [the Department of Defense] nor the Army maintain or publish any centralized list of specific organizations considered to be extremist in nature or in opposition to the Army’s core values….use [the] chain of command to answer questions and resolve issues.

This is a welcomed change for many who have been concerned about statements made against evangelical Christians by trainers at Camp Shelby, Fort Hood, and elsewhere in recent months.

You can download a copy of the new directive here.

You can read the American Family Association’s response to the new directive here.

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