“It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.”

“Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.” ― Ronald Reagan: (1911 – 2004: was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989.)

Gospel Text: (MT 17:22-27)

As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee,

Jesus said to them,

"The Son of Man is to be handed over to men,

and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day."

And they were overwhelmed with grief.

When they came to Capernaum,

the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said,

"Does not your teacher pay the temple tax?"

"Yes," he said.

When he came into the house, before he had time to speak,

Jesus asked him, "What is your opinion, Simon?

From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax?

From their subjects or from foreigners?"

When he said, "From foreigners," Jesus said to him,

"Then the subjects are exempt.

But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook,

and take the first fish that comes up.

Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax.

Give that to them for me and for you."

Our Founding Fathers may have opted for a separation of Church and state but not for a separation of God and state. There is no brotherhood of man without the Fatherhood of God. The division of life into the sacred and the secular is a false dichotomy. There is not now, there never was and there never will be the purely secular, that is, anyone or anything which is not dependent on God.

Atheistic capitalism will suffer the same fate as atheistic communism!

What the Constitution guarantees is not freedom FROM religion but freedom OF religion, freedom to practice religion. The irony, the contradiction, is that those who are pushing for freedom FROM religion are actually pushing THEIR OWN RELIGION, which is secular humanism.

In secular humanism the Supreme Being is man, greedy, lustful, proud man. But which man? There are more than seven billion of them in the world each claiming to be independent. These Supreme Beings are the creators. And they are creating rugged individualism, corruption, addictions, war and terrorism.

There is nothing as inhuman as secular humanism.

On September 11, 2001 the illusion that we were absolutely independent went down in smoke and ashes with the Twin Towers. On that day we fell to our knees and asked God for help. And in so doing realized how far we had wandered from God and from the convictions of our Founding Fathers.