Another letter packed with deception gives me an opportunity to set the record straight. Francis Breidenbach’s letter, “Nation not founded on Bible”, states that Annie Bukacek “seems to feel that American civilization is going rapidly downhill and that a philosophy which she calls ‘secular humanism’ and those who promote it are largely to blame. She does not identify the ‘secular humanists’ by name or organization, except to say that they oppose the involvement of religion in government policies and activities. This she says is contrary to the beliefs of the founding fathers who based their foundation laws upon the Bible. She is wrong.”

      Mr. Breidenbach mentions John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock (“president of the Constitutional Convention”), Thomas Jefferson (“one of the chief architects of the Constitution”), James Madison (“father” of the Constitution), and George Washington.

      Judge for yourself if these men believed in involving religion in government:

      John Adams:

1. June 21, 1776: “Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.”
2. In his 10/11/1798 address to the military: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to government of any other.”

      Benjamin Franklin:

1. In a 6/28/1787 speech to the Constitutional Convention: “In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understanding…I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘expect the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel…I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.”

      John Hancock:

1. In “A Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving” to celebrate the conclusion of the Revolutionary War: “The Interposition of Divine Providence in our Favor hath been most abundantly and most graciously manifested, and the Citizens of these United States have every Reason for Praise and Gratitude to the God of their salvation.”

      Thomas Jefferson:

1. Engraved on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C.: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And 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 of 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.”

      James Madison:

1. 1778: “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
2. In a letter to Frederick Beasley 11/20/1825: “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 to be impressed with it.”

      George Washington:

1. In his inaugural address 4/30/1789: “We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.

      Enormous volumes exit with quotes supporting our founding Father’s belief that religion and worship of God are absolutely critical to governing a nation. Those who actively oppose religion’s influence on government (removing prayer from public schools, removing “In God We Trust” from our coinage, removing the Ten Commandments from government buildings, removing “One Nation Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, etc) often call themselves secular humanists. Those that passively accept these lies out of ignorance, I call duped. Either way, it is a poisonous philosophy, and I am in the good company of our Founding Fathers when I say it will bring destruction to a nation.

      If you are an honest truth seeking secular humanist reading this, I challenge you to study original documents, not skewed versions from your own literature that support your agenda and what you want to believe.

Annie Bukacek MD