A time for the acknowledgement of God

Let me begin by reminding you that I am a practicing attorney and a man of God who has determined to use his legal skills to bring God back into the schools.  As an attorney, I am qualified to navigate the legal maze to accomplish this worthy goal.  Yet I welcome and pray for help in this endeavor.

On January 1, 2001 we entered into the Third Millennium of the Christian Era and on September 11, 2001, we were re-birthed into a new level of consciousness through which we were drawn to pray to God for peace and understanding of what was happening in the world in general and to the United States in specific.

On October 3, 1863, during the Civil War, President Lincoln signed a Thanksgiving Proclamation in which he stated in part, to wit: 

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

In addition, due to the increased religious sentiment that existed during the Civil War, the Congress passed the Act of April 22, 1864 and subsequently "In God We Trust" first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin.

And the last change in the Pledge of Allegiance occurred on June 14 (Flag Day), 1954 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved adding the words "under God".   As he authorized this change he said:

"In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war."

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ..."

There are legal cases which state that children can be required to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag which contains the words "one nation under God".  This has not been found to violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.  Nor has placing "In God We Trust" on our coins been found to establish religion.  The establishment clause prohibits promoting a particular religion but it does not prohibit prayers to God in whom we trust.  All religions profess a belief in God but religions are bureaucracies set up for the promotion of a particular way of worshipping God.  Religion is not God and God is not religion.  God is the all encompassing, all inclusive essence from which all things manifest and back into which all things eventually disintegrate.  God is defined differently by each religious bureaucracy depending on the teachings of the patriarchs of each of those major world religions; as well as on the teachings of the matriarchs of some of the minor religions.

The Establishment Clause of the Constitution speaks only to the issue of promoting one particular religious bureaucracy over another.  It takes for granted that God exists.   The fact that some people can look at the wonders of life and the universe and deny that there is an all pervading essence from which the miracle of existence manifests does not negate that essence which virtually all 6 billion human beings on the planet refer to as God.

The United States Supreme Court wrongly interpreted the Constitution in "Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 US 203 (1963)".  The Supreme Count in trying to support the Establishment Clause threw out God from our schools not understanding that God and the various religious bureaucratic rituals of worshipping God are not the same.  If Congress can mandate that our money unequivocally state "In God We Trust" and the Supreme Court does not consider that an establishment of religion, then there is no way that prayers to God in the schools can be an establishment of religion.  People who object to "In God We Trust" on our money have not been given any right to use another form of currency when cash as opposed to checks or credit cards is mandated.  No one can force a child to pray to God and no one can force anyone to buy something using cash.  The Federal Government has mandated the use of legal tender upon which "In God we Trust" is written and by the same token it can mandate a time to be set aside to acknowledge God in the schools.  If we are to preserve this great nation, then we must be mindful of the fact that all preceding generations of Americans have acknowledged God as the source of all that we have become and consequently we must pass on to future generations that belief in God to which Americans have attributed our democracy, our freedom and our well being.

It is not necessary to belong to a religious organization in order to pray to God.  Religious organization have sprung up to promote a certain path to God but those paths are many.  The Supreme Court did not consider that God can be acknowledged without promoting any particular religion and without establishing a religion.  This question has not been before the Supreme Court and by law a court cannot consider hypothetical questions.  This is why as governor I will find a school and initiate a moment to acknowledge God so that the Supreme Court will then have a real factual event upon which to apply the law of the land.

One does not necessarily create a religion by simply acknowledging God.  This would promote the position that one cannot communicate with God without being religious.  Religion has to do with being affiliated with a particular religious bureaucracy.   Spirituality means a belief in God.  A person can be spiritual and not religious.  Whereas one could not be religious without being spiritual.  Spiritual defines a relationship with God absent a religious association.

The legal question is whether requiring children to spend a moment acknowledging God in fact establishes a secular religion.  The simple acknowledging of God, without reading from or referring to any particular religious text, by itself cannot establish a religion.  Establishing a religion would require something more.  It would require a particular ritual for approaching God.  It would require a prophet or great soul to lead others in the rites and rituals.  Without rites and rituals, doctrine and dogma, edifices and shrines, there can be no religion.  The pure unfettered unburdened acknowlegment of God may be defined as spirituality but it would not be religious.

Further, the sanctioning of particular prayers that were sanitized of any religious references would probably establish religion because those prayers could be rightly considered to be a doctrine or dogma.  Therefore, all that the Legislatures or other governmental bodies can do with regards to schools is to mandate "a moment of silence to acknowledge God".  Anything more than this would violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

The free exercise clause of the First Amendment requires one to show that the effect of the law operates against him in his practice of his religion. There cannot be religion without God.  A godless belief is something other than religion.  By mandating a moment to acknowledge God without defining or distinguishing a particular religion allows everyone to acknowledge God in whatever form is consistent with his or her particular religious belief.

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On September 11, 2001, terrorists struck down the World Trade Center in New York.  Those two towers were the location of one of the primary financials hubs in the world.  One cannot help but consider in the aftermath of that horrific tragedy that Americans are being directed to consider the fact that we have in many ways become a nation whose focus has become more and more directed toward money and less and less focused on God.

In her article today in the San Antonio Express-News (see below), Sherry Sylvester refers to me as the angry Democratic candidate for governor.  She is right.  I am angry but I am about much more than just anger.  A visit to my web pages at www.johnworldpeace.com will show that.  

I am angry in the sense that the prophet Elijah was angry because the people had turned away from God.  When Ahab the King saw Elijah he said, "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" (I Kings 18:17)  John the Baptist was angry for God.  And Jesus was angry when he entered the Temple and turned over the tables of the money changers. (Mark 11: 15-18) 

I am angry that people have forgotten God and begun to worship money and wonder why there is so much corruption and chaos in society.  I am angry that everything in America is measured in dollars.  I am angry that people think nothing of a man buying the office of mayor of New York for $50 million.  I am angry that the Democratic Party of Texas has lined up behind a person associated with the Mafia, a person who has undeniably laundered $25 million in drug money through his Tesoro Saving and Loan and then cost the taxpayer $139 million to pay off bogus loans to his friends after he bankrupted Tesoro.  I am angry that the Democratic Party cadre has ignored these facts and backed this corrupt individual simply because he has $2 billion at his disposal with which to attempt to try to buy the office of Governor in Texas.  I am angry that the leaders of Texas have been so arrogant as to believe that God is going to continue to ignore such base corruption and the promoting of the billionaire Tony Sanchez for governor by certain individuals who turn a blind eye to the fact that his fortune is founded upon victimizing people and corrupting society.

Americans after the end of World War II were a nation focused on God.  They were a nation that had spent four years in fear for the lives of their loved ones who were fighting on distant shores.  Yet later in the 1960's as the children of these veterans entered college a counter religious movement began; the causes of which were many.  During these years secular democracy became so democratic that it degenerated into stupidity. Stupid in the sense that in an effort to preserve religious freedom and the separation of church and state, the Supreme Court threw out God along with Christianity from our schools.  

This has always been a nation under God but to avoid the bloody religious wars that plagued Europe, the founding fathers determined that there should be a prohibition such that religion and politics would not merge in the United States.  In their wisdom, they prohibited the promoting of religion by government by way of the First Amendment and then applied these prohibitions to the states with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment.  But nowhere in the Constitution or within its Amendments is there any prohibition against acknowledging God in our schools or anywhere else.  It is time to return God to our schools so that we can remind our children that we are not at our core a nation of money worshippers.  It is time to return God to the schools to remind our children that money is fleeting but God is eternal.

As a result of 911, we are now involved in a campaign to destroy terrorists worldwide beginning in Afghanistan.  We have determined that innocent blood can be sacrificed in our pursuit of our definition of justice; revenge.  As we cry at home for our lost loved ones, we simultaneously kill, maim and destroy innocent people in Afghanistan.  As a veteran of the US Army, I recognize George Bush as the commander and chief of the military and as an American I would again serve my country if called upon to do so.  And yet as a human being, and as an American, I reserve the right to question the killing of innocent people and the destabilization of governments.  I find it unfortunate that not a single prayer has been publicly uttered for the loved ones of innocent people whom we have murdered in Afghanistan in the name of justice.  Our secular documents state that all men are created equal and for me that applies worldwide.

I am angry because all the nations of the world have determined that global warming is a problem and yet our President has unilaterally determined that all those nations are using fuzzy science.  I am angry because the United States and Israel abandoned the world conversation on racism in South Africa.  I am angry because we have yet to acknowledge the immorality of our legalization of slavery which took a Civil War to end.  I am angry because we have yet to acknowledge that we as Americans and Texans committed genocide on the Indian Nations and through our attorney general, John Cornyn, continue to try to keep the Native Americans in Texas in poverty.  

I am angry because George Bush is destabilizing governments in his pursuit of a few men of terror.  I am angry because our Constitutional rights and freedoms are being infringed upon by George Bush in the pursuit of a few men of terror.  I am angry because George Bush wants to hold these alleged terrorist accountable in a secretive military tribunal.  I am angry because George Bush claims that we are being attacked because of jealously while avoiding the truth that: "It is Palestine, stupid!"

Interestingly, the Reverend David Johnson of Palestine, Texas has through his Palestinian Ministerial Alliance set up a "Restore Prayer in School Rally" in Palestine for December 17, 2001.  The purpose of the Rally is to return God to the schools.  WorldPeace will be coming to Palestine!

It is interesting that Palestine, Texas will become the center of a moment to bring prayer back into the schools when the cause of terrorism in the world centers around the events that are taking place in Palestine in the Middle East.  WorldPeace is coming to Palestine, Texas; hopefully very soon there will be WorldPeace in Israel and Palestine in the Middle East.

Unless and until we return God to our schools as well as to our lives, until we truly pursue peace and WorldPeace while only as a last resort resorting to war, until we quit idolizing men of great wealth when that wealth is built upon drugs and other social evils, until we avoid the great tragedy of knowing the right thing to do and then not doing it, until our leaders take the higher ground and speak the truth as opposed to paid for lies, until we place more emphasis on integrity than on wealth, until we try to make the ideals of our secular laws and the teachings of our religious leaders a reality, until we consider all peoples our neighbors regardless of where in the world they live, we will not only not have peace or WorldPeace, we will continue to suffer for our arrogance by living in a society that is less safe and less free.

In Palestine, Texas next month, there will be a gathering of people who will begin to refocus society on God.  A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  In Palestine, I and others will take that step.  I am presently using my telephones to call into central and east Texas and will call as much of the state as I can before December 17th, the date of the Palestine prayer rally. (see below for the dialer message.) 

The citizens of the United States and the people of the world are presently focused on terrorism and by focusing on that terrorism are also focused on the hope of peace and WorldPeace.  True peace can only come from God.  It is time for all of us to pray for peace and an understanding of what to do in these troubled times.  During the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and during two World Wars, Americans have called upon God.  In 1963 we removed God from our schools.  It is time to reverse our mistake.  

"In God we Trust".

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas

November 25, 2001

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation 

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is
habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect
continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward, Secretary of State

History of the Motto "In God We Trust"

The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the Civil War.

The last change in the Pledge of Allegiance occurred on June 14 (Flag Day), 1954 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved adding the words "under God".   As he authorized this change he said:

"In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war."

http://www.homeofheroes.com/hallofheroes/1st_floor/flag/1bfc_pledge.html

By Sherry Sylvester 
San Antonio Express-News 
Web Posted : 11/25/2001 12:00 AM 

Unanimous on prayer

John WorldPeace, the angry Democrat who is running for governor via the Internet and computer-generated telephone calls, weighed in last week on school prayer.

In an unprecedented show of solidarity, he appears to agree with the other two gubernatorial contenders, Sanchez and Perry.

"It is my opinion, as a practicing attorney, that the Constitution only prohibits the establishment of religion, as well as requiring the separation of church and state," WorldPeace wrote in an e-mail. "It does not deny the existence of God, nor does it prohibit prayers to God." 

WorldPeace says the key to a successful reversal of the Supreme Court prohibition against school prayer is to direct all supplications exclusively to God, thereby avoiding the constitutional problems that result when prayers are directed to religious figures such as Jesus and Buddha.

Perry has said that the prohibition against prayer at football games is "inappropriate." Both he and Sanchez support "a moment of silence" at school events.

Sherry Sylvester covers politics for the Express-News. E-mail her at ssylvester@express-news.net.


11/25/2001

November 25, 2001 Message regarding school prayer

This is John WorldPeace, the next governor of Texas.

We have "In God we trust" on our coins, "one nation under God" in our Pledge of Allegiance, and we sing "God Bless America" It is therefore ridiculous that our children are not allowed to pray to God in our schools.

It is my opinion, as a practicing attorney, that the Constitution only prohibits the promoting of a particular religion in our schools. It does not prohibit prayers to God. The Supreme Court has thrown out the baby with the bath water and its time to make things right and put school prayer back into the schools.

I am calling you to let you know that I will be at the "Restore Prayer in School Rally" at the Southside Baptist Church in Palestine on December 17th. Governor Perry who initially said that he was for prayer in the schools has now reversed himself and will not commit to going to Palestine for the rally. Tony Sanchez, the other candidate for governor will not go to Palestine because his corruption sets him at odds with religious morality.

For more information go to johnworldpeace.com on the internet.

God Bless Texas and God Bless America. See you in Palestine. Vote for WorldPeace.