What does the 4th of July really mean to most Americans?  Is it the middle of the summer break? ....the time for family get-togethers with barbeques, picnics, watermellons, fun on the water?..... or, is it a time to celebrate our religious freedom! 

The anti-religious groups continually declare that the Founding Fathers wanted separation of church and state. Simply stated, if the Founding Fathers believed that was necessary they would have said so and put it in our Constitution. The following are statements made by some of our Founding Fathers and former Presidents:

Patrick Henry: "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 that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."

Benjamin Franklin:  “I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs by his providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render to Him is doing good to His other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them. . . . ."

George Washington, the Father of our Country: "It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, our religion and morality are the indispensable supporters. Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that our national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

John Adams, our second President: "We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. "

Thomas Jefferson, third President and author of the Declaration of Independence: "I am a Christian, that is to say a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator and, I hope, to the pure doctrine of Jesus also."

James Madison, fourth President of the United States: "We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments. "

John Quincy Adams, our sixth U.S. President: "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth U. S. President:  "The times are dark, the spirits of ruin are abroad in all their powers, and the mercy of God alone can save us."

Woodrow Wilson, our twenty-eighth U. S. President:  "America was born a Christian nation derived from the revelations of the Holy Scriptures."

Dwight Eisenhower, our thirty-fourth U. S. President: "Without God, there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of Life.  Our Founding Fathers saw it, and thus, with God's help, it will continue to be."

In 1947, it all changed! The Supreme Court removed the prayer that had been used for over 100 years at the opening of each session of the Court. "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee. We beg Thy blessings upon us and our parents and our teachers and our country. Amen."