Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 21, 1993 TAG: 9309050289
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANNE B. KINCAID
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
We spent months in research, public hearings and deliberations to complete our detailed report, and we made 36 recommendations to the 1993 General Assembly for its consideration. Our stated goal was to ``restore public confidence in the integrity of our government and our officeholders.''
While Virginia lawmakers squabbled over whether to accept the recommendations, Kentucky lawmakers, reeling in the wake of scandal and corruption unanimously passed this resolution: Excerpted as follows:
``Whereas, on Sept. 17, 1796, President George Washington stated: `Of all the dispositions and habits, which led to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports ... reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail, in exclusion of religious principle; and ...
``Whereas, on Oct. 11, 1798, President John Adams further explained: `We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other''; and ...
``Whereas, in 1816, President Thomas Jefferson authored the book, `The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,' which was ordered printed (9,000 copies) for the 57th Congress, first Congress to restrain unethical behavior); and
``Whereas on June 20, 1785, President James Madison stated: `Religion [is] the basis and foundation of government;' and
``Whereas on July 4, 1837, President John Quincy Adams pointed out: `Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?' and ...
``Whereas, in his 1823 textbook, Noah Webster, founding father responsible for Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution wrote: ` ... The Scriptures direct that ruler should be men who rule in the fear of God, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness ... and it is to the neglect of this rule of conduct that we must ascribe the multiplied frauds, breaches of trust, speculations and embezzlements of public property which astonish even ourselves; which tarnish the character of our country; which disgrace a republican government; and which will tend to reconcile men to monarchy in other countries and even in our own;' and
``Whereas, on March 9, 1790, founding father and signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin, stated: `As to Jesus of Nazareth ... I think his system of morals ... as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see;' and ...
``Now, therefore,
``Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:
``Section 1. That when the House of Representatives adjourns the 1993 [Special] Session on Ethics, it does so in remembrance and honor of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Ethics.''
It took seven legislators - including the speaker of the House - being convicted on charges of bribery, extortion, obstruction of justice, mail fraud and racketeering before Kentucky's legislature recognized and acknowledged the validity of our founding fathers' words and warnings.
``Politics and religion don't mix'' is the politically correct, conventional wisdom of today. Yet, keeping religion separate from government was never the intent of our founders.
But, what about ``separation of church and state'' in our First Amendment? Upon careful reading of the First Amendment and its precursor, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, one sees that the only separation promoted was that the state could not dictate, endorse or force any one denomination (a sect of Christianity) on its people. Freedom of religion - never did it imply separation from religion!
ACLU, holster your guns! Such rhetoric is not discriminatory, nor is the resolution passed by the Kentucky legislature. Jews, Moslems, atheists, agnostics have the complete freedom in America to practice and believe whatever they wish, precisely because of the Christian ethical basis for this republic.
Patrick Henry wrote, ``It cannot be emphasized too strongly, or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity and the freedom of worship here.''
Our Ethics Commission, even though its research arm was based at Thomas Jefferson's University, regrettably omitted the historical research that Kentucky conducted of the ethical standards recommended for public officials by the founding fathers.
Kudos, or more appropriately, a double amen to Kentucky lawmakers for their wisdom (albeit after the fact)! Will Virginia lawmakers have to fall victim to open scandal and corruption before they, too, will acknowledge that the ``fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom''?
\ Anne B. Kincaid is communications director for The Family Foundation and a member of Gov. Douglas Wilder's Ethics Commission.
by CNB