America's Christian Roots Series Continued:

1789: Benjamin Rush
"The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effective means of limiting Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools."

Now what is GOOD is referred to as harmful to our children's well-being.

1963: The Supreme Court
Removal of Bible readings: "No state law or school board may require that passages from the Bible be read or that the Lord's Prayer be recited in public schools or a State at the beginning of each school day." The court went on to say, "If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be and ... had been psychologically harmful to the [student]. Abington v. Schempp, 1963

1962:
The United States Supreme Court is charged with interpreting and defending the most fundamental of our nation's laws, the U. S. Constitution. In 1962, the Supreme Court decided, without sighting any precedence, that the term "church" in "separation of church and state" would now mean the "exercise of any religious activity in public."

This meant that the term "separation of church and state" no longer simply involved a ban on Congress from imposing a national religion but more broadly involved a prohibition against America's citizens practicing religious activities in public, especially those of Christianity.

This new interpretation paved the way for other judicial actions:

1962:
Removal of student prayer: "Prayer in its public school system breaches the constitutional wall of separation between Church and State." Engel v. Vitale, 1962

1980:
Removal of the Ten Commandments from view: "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effects at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments...this...is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause." Stone v. Graham, 1980

In contrast-the actions of the United States Congress in 1782

1782: Congress printed a Bible for America and stated:
“The United States in Congress assembled ... recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States ... a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools.” - United States Congress 1782

“Congress passed this resolution: “The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.”
- United States Congress 1782

Back to Benjamin Rush who was referred to as the“FATHER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION”
1791:
"The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world."

"The Bible, when not read in schools, is seldom read in any subsequent period of life... The Bible... should be read in our schools in preference to all other books because it contains the greatest portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and public happiness."

BENJAMIN RUSH - Signer of the Declaration of Independence; Surgeon General of the Continental Army; Ratifier of the U.S. Constitution; "Father of American Medicine"; Treasure of the U. S. Mint; "Father of Public Schools Under the Constitution"

Side bar: Dr. Benjamin Rush, referred to as the "Father of American Medicine" introduced his "Rush System" to the field of medicine in the late 1700s. The "Rush System" called for bloodletting (removing blood), the purging of the bowels and vomiting as a means of cleaning out the body in the effort to rid a patient of his or her sickness/disease. For 35 years, I shared with 1,000s of visitors on tour of the historic W. W. Mayo House in Le Sueur, Minnesota, information about the "Rush System." The belief was that disease had a common cause, the "excess excitability of the blood vessels." Simply put, when you are becoming sick your blood vessels have become excited. To resolve the problem, blood was removed from the patient. George Washington, our first president, having a throat infection that probably would have easily been treated with penicillin today, endured bloodletting and a very large amount of his blood was removed. Shortly thereafter he died. I would, also, show bloodletting tools and talk about how Dr. William Worrall Mayo probably did not use this procedure as it was on its way out by the 1850s and Dr. Mayo probably used more modern scientific approaches. Dr. W. W. Mayo, with his two sons, were the founders of the world-renowned Mayo Clinic.

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