Celebrate Our American Constitution & Citizenship – Thursday, September 17, 2020

Published On: September 16, 2020|Categories: News, Top News|6 Comments|
Photo of John Compere wearing a white cowboy hat, against an American flag background

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“Constitution and Citizenship Day”  is our national observance on September 17th commemorating the day in 1787 when America’s Constitution was signed by 39 Founders at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It also recognizes the privilege of American citizenship.

Although educational programming is federally mandated, constitutional knowledge is lamentably lacking. Citizens learn best from the original founding documents – 1776 Declaration of Independence, 1782 Mottos, 1787 Preamble & Constitution, 1791 Bill of Rights and 1797 Treaty of Tripoli.

The Declaration of Independence used inclusive universal terms and declared governments derive their powers from “the Consent of the Governed”.

The original Mottos selected by our Founders are secular and on the US Great Seal, one-dollar bill and official documents – “E Pluribus Unum (One From Many), “Novos Ardo Seclorum” (New Order of the Ages) and “Annuit Coeptis” (Undertakings Favored).

The Preamble stated six secular reasons our nation was established for “We the People”. The Constitution lawfully created our secular republican government. The Bill of Rights (first 10 Amendments) provides individual liberties. The 14th Amendment contains citizenship requirements.

The Constitution created three separate and equal government branches for a check and balance on power. The legislative branch enacts law (Article I), executive branch executes law (Article II), and judicial branch interprets law with authority to decide Constitution cases (Article III).

Article V provides two ways to amend the Constitution: (1) constitutional convention requiring 2/3s of state legislatures to convene and enact amendment, then ratification by 3/4s of states (0 amendments); or (2) amendment enactment by 2/3s of US Senate and House of Representatives, then ratification by 3/4s of states (27 amendments).

The majority of Americans do not know what our Constitution says about religion according to a Pew Research Center survey. The Constitution  contains no deity reference and commands “no religious test ” shall ever be required as a qualification to any public office lawfully separating religion from government and protecting government from religion (Article VI).

We were the first government in history formed without acknowledging dependency on a higher authority (emperor, monarch, deity, religion, scripture, etc). There were no public prayers during the 116 day Constitutional Convention. James Madison reminded delegates of its secular purpose – “This is derived from the superior power of the people.”  Over 80% of colonists did not belong to religion establishments in 1776.

The 1st Amendment provides our historic trinity of religious liberties – (1) freedom from religion, (2) freedom of religion or no religion, and (3) freedom for religion speech. It lawfully separates government from religion, protects religion from government and prohibits our government from “respecting”  a religion establishment. Its genesis was the 1785 Virginia Religious Freedom Statute authored by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison mandating “No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.”

It is fact, history and law our Constitution created a secular republic – not one based on a religion. This was publicly proclaimed by our Founders in the Treaty of Tripoli, an international legal document negotiated and written during 1st President George Washington’s administration, unanimously ratified by the US Senate and signed by 2nd President John Adams, notifying the world “…The United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion”.

Native-American contribution and influence has been officially acknowledged “…the contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations to the development of the United States Constitution” and “the confederacy of the original Thirteen Colonies into one republic was influenced by the political system developed by the Iroquois Confederacy as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the Constitution itself.” (100th US Congress Resolution).

World history records the human harm caused when governments and religions combined. Separation of church and state is a fundamental liberty of free people keeping public government out of private religion and private  religion out of public government. It was clearly intended by our Founders as provided by their establishment documents, indisputably documented by historic records, and judicially confirmed as the law of our land. Jesus even separated government and religion (Matthew 22:21; Mark 12:17).

We became the first nation in history to lawfully provide freedom of belief and a genesis for the historic Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 declaring “…everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”
All persons born or naturalized in the US are American citizens and citizens of the state where they reside (14th Amendment, 1868).

Our original founding documents were prepared in English in America by Americans for Americans, require no translation and are available for accurate interpretation. History deniers and revisionists with self-serving sectarian agendas dishonestly disregard our historic secular founding. Their contrived claims are based on irrelevant personal ideology – not on the founding facts, history or law.

We are one nation under our Constitution. It is the Constitution in which we trust. We celebrate with patriotic pride our American Constitution and American Citizenship.

“The Constitution is a guide which I will never abandon.” – 1st President GEORGE WASHINGTON

The very definition of a republic is “…a nation of laws and not of man.” – 2nd President JOHN ADAMS

“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.” – 16th President ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

Brigadier General John Compere, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, US Army (Retired)

Former Chief Judge, US Army Court of Military Review & US Army Legal Services Agency
Disabled American Veteran (Vietnam Era)
Board Member, Military Religious Freedom Foundation

 


 

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6 Comments

  1. Mark Sebree September 17, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    Do you have any reputable, scholarly sources to support your assertions, PP? Christian Broadcast Network is not reputable, scholarly, nor informed. They mostly appeal to the ignorant and the theocratic/dominionist who prefer extreme right wing propaganda over facts. Which is probably by you look to them for your unsubstantiated and uneducated opinions.

  2. Patriot Pastor September 18, 2020 at 4:42 pm

    Mark is a moron. Chris Todd’s is not scholarly either. She is a faux historian.

  3. Me September 19, 2020 at 10:10 am

    Amen Patriot Pastor! We would not have our freedoms and be blessed as a nation without God being the center of it all. Wonderful video!

  4. Mark Sebree September 19, 2020 at 10:02 pm

    PP,

    I am smarter and more knowledgeable than you will ever allow yourself to be. The piece above was written by John Compere, not Chris Todd. It matches the facts very well. He is also a retired Brigadier General, a former Judge Advocate General officer (which means that he is a military lawyer and has a law degree), AND a former military judge. His credentials for knowing the law and the US Constitution are excellent.

    I also see that you do not have anything reputable, scholarly, or informed to support your claims. All you have are ad hominem attacks for anyone who rightly challenges your uninformed opinion.

  5. Mark Sebree September 19, 2020 at 10:04 pm

    “Me”,

    Actually, we would have our freedoms and liberties without your deity because we have always had our freedoms and liberty without your deity. Your imaginary friend cannot be at the center of anything except your mind. And it is people like you and PP who are trying to take away our freedoms and liberty. That is why you need to be opposed and fought.

    Mark Sebree

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