No Class Guys, but Week 3 HW awaits!!

Here is HW for Week 3 (along with info on the project for the first half of the year...) Our first quiz is scheduled for October 19...I will post a study guide on site on October 12...

1. NO additional reading in "A Christian Manifesto" due. Make sure you have read the first TWO chapters fully and have taken notes and done HW assigned for them...be prepared to discuss in class when we return on Oct 5 (You may read ahead if you'd like to get a jump on future assignments)

2. Read the following article and answer the questions at the end of the article

Expelling God from the University
Mark Alexander, Patriot Post

From Patriot Post Vol. 06 No. 49; Published 8 December 2006 The nation's oldest academic institution, Harvard University, was established in 1636 and named for Puritan minister John Harvard. The university claims that it was "never formally affiliated with a specific religious denomination," though all its presidents were Puritan ministers until 1708. A 1643 college brochure identified Harvard's purpose: "To advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches." The university's Charter of 1650 calls for "the education of the English and Indian youth of this Country in knowledge and godliness." Harvard alumnus, John Adams (class of 1755) wrote in 1776, "It is the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe."
Yale, the nation's third oldest academic institution, was established in 1701 by royal charter as The Collegiate School, in response to the efforts of colonial Congregationalist ministers since the 1640s to establish a college in New Haven. The charter was granted for an institution "wherein Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences [and] through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Public employment both in Church and Civil State."
Yale alumnus Noah Webster (class of 1778), a devout Christian and outspoken Federalist, considered "education useless without the Bible." In the forward of the 1828 Webster's American Dictionary, he wrote, "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed.... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."
Princeton was originally founded in 1746 as the College of New Jersey, established by royal charter for "the Education of Youth in the Learned Languages and in the Liberal Arts and Sciences," and unique in that the charter allowed the attendance of "any Person of any religious Denomination whatsoever." The absence of an official denominational affiliation or criteria for attendance did not, however, connote the absence of strong denominational ties. To the contrary, Princeton was founded by "New Light" Presbyterians of the Great Awakening for the purpose of training Presbyterian ministers. Jonathan Dickinson, a Presbyterian minister and leader of the Great Awakening of the 1730s, was the school's co-founder and first president. (Princeton has a $13-billion endowment.)
Princeton alumnus James Madison (class of 1771) observed, "The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it."
Yet today, these institutions, like the rest of the Ivy League schools -- Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn -- and upper-tier institutions across the nation under the tutelage of wealthy trustees and elite academicians ?- tend to do away with all things Christian.
A recent case in point of Christian heritage eradication in academia occurred at the nation's second oldest university, William and Mary, chartered in 1693 in Williamsburg, Virginia, as an Anglican college.
At the behest of university president Gene Nichol, the removal of the historic Wren Chapel altar cross was ordered "in order to make it less of a faith-specific space, and to make it more welcoming to students, faculty, staff, and visitors of all faiths." The Wren Chapel was constructed in 1732 as "a faith-specific space," and the cross was a gift from nearby Bruton Parish Church, founded in 1674. Bruton is the oldest continually operated Episcopal Church in America. George Washington, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson worshipped there prior to the Revolution.
Nichol wrote, "Our Chapel, like our entire campus, must be welcoming to all. I believe a recognition of the full dignity of each member of our diverse community is vital. Though we haven't meant to do so, the display of a Christian cross ... sends an unmistakable message that the chapel belongs more fully to some of us than to others. ... The Wren is no mere museum or artifact. It touches every student who enrolls at the college. It defines us. And it must define us all."
Of course, removal of the Wren cross does not "define" William and Mary. To the contrary, it redefines William and Mary. A William and Mary graduate once mused, "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever." The name of that esteemed alumnus? Thomas Jefferson.
The most insidious line of activist interpretations concerns our Constitution's First Amendment. Invoking Jefferson's comment in a private letter to a Baptist congregation about a wall of separation between church and state, the Judicial Branch has endeavored to remove any remnant of faith from all quarters of the public square at the federal, state and local level.
Of course, the First Amendment states only that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
The incorrect interpretation of Jefferson’s "wall" metaphor puts liberty in great peril.
Our Declaration of Independence and its subordinate guidance, our Constitution, are based on natural law, and outline the natural rights of man as being from our Creator, not manmade.
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are natural rights "endowed by our Creator," not government. Likewise, our Constitution was written and ratified "in order secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." As such, it established a republic ruled by laws, not men.
Indeed, as Alexander Hamilton wrote, "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."
However, if the expression of faith is banished from all government forums, not the least of which being schools, then how long will "the people" continue to understand that these "inalienable rights" are, in Jefferson's words, "the gift of God"?
The late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist concluded, "The wall of separation between church and state is a metaphor based upon bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned. ... The greatest injury of the 'wall' notion is its diversion of judges from the actual intention of the drafters of the Bill of Rights."
George Washington proclaimed, "Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths...?" (is deserted)
That is a question we should all be asking today.


Answer the following questions about the article:

Q1. If our rights of freedom, equality, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness do not come from God, where or what can we place them in so that we can be guaranteed that we have them?

Q2. Does the decision at William and Mary to remove the cross violate the first amendment to the Constitution? If yes, explain how so? If no, explain why not?

Q3. Do you think the idea of having a wall of separation between church and state is a good idea? Why or why not?


3. Look up the following words, names or phrases and write a BRIEF (one or two sentence) definition for each:

Jonathan Mayhew
Ezra Stiles
George Whitefield
Noah Webster
John Witherspoon
William Blackstone

John Dewey
Paul Kurtz
Horace Mann
Julian Huxley
Bertrand Russell
Charles Potter

Scopes Trial

Rex Lex
Lex Rex
worldview
natural law
positive law
divine law
civil liberties
civil rights
establishment clause
free exercise clause
separation of church and state
materialism
federalism
socialism
communism
social Darwinism
totalitarianism
anarchy
democracy
republic
checks and balances
separation of powers


FIRST HALF PROJECT (due on last class before Christmas break)

From newspapers, magazines, websites, or other sources, choose 10 articles that relate to worldview, religion, freedom, government, social issues, rights, etc...The articles can be about current issues (abortion, religious freedom, gun control, capital punishment, right to bear arms, same-sex marriage, victim's rights, national security, law enforcement, etc) or about historical issues/events (founding of the nation, civil rights issues in the civil war or WW II, slavery, segregation and discrimination, Scopes Trial, public education, etc) After reading ten articles, write a 3+ page paper explaining the article's content, how it relates to the issues of government/law and worldview, and what your personal opinions are on the topic. Be SURE to back up your personal opinions with facts that support your belief. In addition to the ten articles, you must have at least five other sources. Include a cover page and bibliography (not included in the 3+ pages)