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<!--e. Muslims have been attacking Christianity since the inception of
their religion. They’ve spotted a weakness in our system, the attempt to be
diverse at any cost, even if it costs us the one thing that made this nation
great—its Christian foundation. Muslims understand this; many Christians don’t.
Muslims call for diversity as a wedge to get in the door, open it wide enough
for others follow behind, then once in pool their collective energies and force
Christians out.
There are many people who probably don’t think that including “in the year
of our Lord” on a diploma is such a big deal. Muslims, atheists, and
revolutionaries understand why it’s a big deal. There were two revolutions at
the end of the eighteenth century and two different reactions to the Christian
religion. France
was caught up in revolutionary fever in 1791, not with a foreign power but with
itself. The French revolutionaries were self-conscious about their efforts to
turn France
into a secular state, devoid of any remnant of religion. Throughout the nation
a “campaign to dechristianize France
spread like wildfire.”[1]
The dechristianization of the French
Republic meant the crowning of a
substitute civil religion. The leaders of the Paris Commune demanded that the
former metropolitan church of Notre Dame be reconsecrated as a “Temple
of Reason.” On November 10, 1793, a civic festival was held in
the new temple, its façade bearing the words “To Philosophy.” In Paris, the
goddess Reason “was personified by an actress, Demoiselle Candeille, carried
shoulder‑high into the cathedral by men dressed in Roman costumes.”[2]
The Commune ordered that all churches be closed and converted into poor houses
and schools. “Church bells were melted down and used to cast cannons.”[3]
The French calendar was also changed to reflect the new anti-Christian
spirit of the revolution.
“The Convention voted on 5 October 1793 to abolish the Christian calendar and
introduce a republican calendar.”[4]
The founding of the Republic on September
22, 1792 was the beginning of the new era and a new “Year One.”
Instead of the birth of Jesus Christ being the focal point of history, the
founding day of the new French Republic
would define how time would be kept. While the year still had twelve months,
all were made thirty days long with the remaining days scattered throughout the
year and celebrated as festival days. The seven-day week was replaced with a
week of ten days with the result that Sunday as a day of rest and Christian
worship was eliminated.[5]
The French Republic
went beyond a new calendar by changing place names that had “reference to a
Christian past.” In addition, “children were named after republican heroes such
as Brutus and Cato, and observance of the new Revolutionary calendar, which
abolished Sunday and Christian Feast days, was enforced.”[6]
Blood flowed in the streets.
When compared to what the French did, the United States Constitution
establishes continuity with the nation’s Christian past by linking it with the
Christian calendar. The Constitution sets Sunday aside as a day of
rest for the President (see Art 1, sec. 7). If the framers had wanted to strip
every vestige of religion from the Constitution, why include a reference to an
obvious religious observance? Sunday observance remained under constitutional
protection at the federal and state levels for some time in the United
States. Supreme Court Justice David Brewer
observed notes that the recognition of Sunday as a day of worship and rest is
“a day peculiar to [the Christian] faith, and known to no other,”[7]
and this includes Islam.
The Constitution itself states that the drafting took place “in the year of
our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven.” The Articles of
Confederation included the phrase “it hath pleased the Great Governor of the
World to incline the hearts of the legislatures . . . to approve of, and to
authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union.”
Like the Constitution the Articles closed with “Done at Philadelphia
in the State of Pennsylvania the
ninth day of July in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and
Seventy-Eight, and in the Third Year of the independence of America.”
The several states continued to follow the Christian calendar where Jesus
was placed at the center of history. When John Hancock was Governor of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, he issued “A
Proclamation for a Day of Public Thanksgiving” in 1791:
In consideration of the many undeserved Blessings conferred upon us by GOD,
the Father of all Mercies; it becomes us not only in our private and usual
devotion, to express our obligations to Him, as well as our dependence upon
Him; but also specially to set a part a Day to be employed for this great and
important Purpose. . . . And above all, not only to continue to us the
enjoyment of our civil Rights and Liberties; but the great and most important
Blessing, the Gospel of Jesus Christ: And together with our cordial
acknowledgments, I do earnestly recommend, that we may join the penitent
confession of our Sins, and implore the further continuance of the Divine
Protection, and Blessings of Heaven upon this People; especially that He would
be graciously pleased to direct, and prosper the Administration of the Federal
Government, and of this, and the other States in the Union—to afford Him
further Smiles on our Agriculture and Fisheries, Commerce and Manufactures—To
prosper our University and all Seminaries of Learning—To bless the virtuously
struggling for the Rights of Men—so that universal Happiness may be Allies of
the United States, and to afford his Almighty Aid to all People, who are
established in the World; that all may bow to the Scepter of our LORD JESUS
CHRIST, and the whole Earth be filled with his Glory.[8]
Above Hancock’s signature, the following is found: “Given at the
Council-Chamber, in Boston, the
fifth Day of October, in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven
Hundred and Ninety-One, and in the sixteenth Year of the Independence
of the United States of America.
“In the Year of Our Lord” continued to be used, even through Jefferson’s
administration.
In 1807, Jefferson singed a federal
passport that allowed the ship Hershel to proceed on its Journey to London
and dated the letter September 24,
1807 “in
the year of our Lord Christ.”
The Muslim students at Trinity University,
the general student population, the faculty, and the Board of Trustees need to
educate themselves on the Christian history of America.
Mr. Medina is living under the freedoms offered to him by the Constitution of
the United States,
a Constitution that includes the offending words “in the Year of our Lord.” Medina
claims the reference to God on the diplomas “came as a big surprise” to him. Medina,
who graduated in December, said he felt that he “was a victim of a bait and
switch.” Did he feel the same way when he read the Constitution of the United
States? It’s my guess that he and most of
the students and faculty of Trinity University
didn’t read it either. I suppose the next thing to go will be the name of the
University. And after that, who knows. If history is any teacher, we know what
will happen
