Praying to Protect the First Amendment

When it comes to freedom, God is the creator, originator, and master of all thoughts on this matter. In the beginning He gave the first couple the freedom to choose. Though He was fully aware that they could turn away from Him to worship other aspects of His creation, He was willing to run the risk of this possibility.  

Why? Simply, because He so desired His ultimate creation to freely choose to return His love that He gave them the opportunity to make that choice. He absolutely refused to coerce, manipulate, or intimidate mankind into returning His love. Rather than that He used time and history to build His case for verifying His love for us. The ultimate demonstration of God’s love unfolded when His Son, Jesus Christ, was ruthlessly crucified on the cross for our sins.

Never has God instructed His people to bring others to Christ through the use of force, threats, or other manipulative or intrusive techniques. It was by the pure preaching and teaching of His word and demonstrations of His great love that potential believers were to be brought into the kingdom. 

In the parable of the wheat and tares Jesus instructed His disciples to not uproot the evil seed planted by His enemies (Matt. 13:26-30, 36-43). Today, those tares would be represented by world religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Mormonism, and other alternate belief systems, including occult practitioners, and even secret societies.  

Rather than uproot the tares Jesus said at the end of the age His angels would go to gather out of His kingdom the tares, bundle them up, and throw them into the fire (Matt. 13:30, 40-42). Nowhere in His New Covenant instruction manual does God say to go and intimidate, abuse, or beat someone into submission to the gospel.

As we look at current threats to our First Amendment rights we must acknowledge that freedom of speech and freedom of religion are rooted in our freedom to choose, which makes them God-given rights. In the case of freedom of religion, believers must realize that God allows people to pursue false religions, occult practices, or other forms of satanically inspired beliefs. He has given them the freedom to do this if they so desire.  

As believers our responsibility is to speak the truth and warn of the consequences of following false religious systems or occult practices. In the final day each person will have to give account for their own religious beliefs or spiritual pursuits.  

As we initiate and invest in prayer and intercession for God to protect and redeem our First Amendment rights we must consider several things before we begin to bombard heaven with our requests.

In past articles we have presented scriptural evidence to help us see that God will only answer the prayers of a humble, contrite church, who comes to Him as a corporate body in authentic repentance for the sins of our spiritual fathers and the current sins of the church.  

We also discussed how the sins of the church give Satan spiritual leverage to empower – within the secular world – the very same sins the church participates in and then covers up. When the Church chooses to cover-up and deny its sins, this gives Satan the legal authority to empower, uphold and keep in place the secret activities and cover-ups of those committed to perpetuating evil initiatives within the cultural and social structures of fallen humanity.

Whatever sin the church participates in gives Satan the legal leverage to promote and advance that same particular evil among the sons of men. Whether it be sexual immorality, homosexuality, or whatever the vice, the church’s active involvement in such paves the way for Satan to boldly advance the same sin in the earthly realm. He is empowered not only to advance it, but to shield and protect it from God’s judgment and justice. 

Therefore, to achieve spiritual breakthrough, to have God hear and thus answer our prayers, the church must identify and repent of the sins of our church fathers. This applies to all Christian groups, whether they be Charismatic, Pentecostal, denominational, or traditional.  

The fact of the matter is we’ve all come out of the same root, which is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church evolved out of the original twelve apostles Jesus set in place to oversee the stewardship of the gospel of His kingdom.

In this article we will focus on the sins of the church of North America as it relates to praying to protect our first amendment rights. We will look at sins perpetrated against Native Americans, the First Nations that God appointed as the ancient people to steward and guard the gates of what has become the United States and Canada.

Again this takes us back to the Indian Boarding Schools and the government’s policies to forcefully assimilate Native children into the melting pot of America. We have documented in past postings about the church’s collaboration with the federal government and Freemasonry to use religious education as a key tool to culturalize and Christianize Native youth.

The church groups that collaborated with Freemasonry and the U.S. and Canadian governments in the Indian Boarding School agenda included; the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopalian Church, the Congregational Church, and the Mennonite Church. (1) 

Although it was an experiment that went terribly wrong, the main idea of the policy initiative was to “kill the Indian and save the man.” To do this, Boarding School staff was instructed to strip the Native child of his traditional cultural ways and religious beliefs and to interrupt and stop him from speaking the tribal languages handed down from his ancestors.  

In fact, Capt. Henry Pratt’s philosophy was to “elevate” American Indians to white standards through a process of forced acculturation that stripped them of their language, culture, and customs. (2) He and other reformers of his day believed that if Indians were given a proper education and religious training they could be civilized out of their "savagery" and assimilated into society. (3)

Using predatory, demeaning, and abusive methods and approaches the priests, nuns, preachers, and ministry staff and personnel regularly punished the children if they dared speak their language or even mention the traditional religious ways of their people.  

Students tell of how mouths were scrubbed with lye and chlorine solutions for uttering Native words. One Navajo youth said; “I was forced to eat an entire bar of soap for speaking my language.” (4) Other former students tell of watching schoolmates getting strapped for speaking their native language. (5)

"I got to know that strap," a female student said. "Everybody knew what that strap was for, hanging inside the door." (6)

For such infractions as wetting the bed or speaking their native language, children were locked in closets for hours, made to kneel on boards or forced to eat lye soap. One Lakota student caught speaking his tribal language was spanked on his bare buttocks with an inch-thick paddle. (7)

One former student testified that "three of us were spanked at a time." He said. "It happened on a regular basis, and "if you showed emotion, he [the priest] would hit you some more. I learned real fast not to show emotion." (8) A relative personally told me that when he attended school, he was ruthlessly spanked for speaking His Oneida language. 

In the worst case scenario, if caught speaking their native language, some children had needles stuck through their tongues, with the perpetrators often leaving them in place for extended periods of time. (8) The extremes of punishment rendered to the Native children seemed to have no bounds.

So here we have the church entwined with the government to forcefully achieve one of its goals, which was to “Transfer the savage-born infant to the surroundings of civilization, which would, according to Capt. Henry Pratt, cause him to grow to possess a civilized language and habit,” (9) 

Besides forcefully silencing the voice of the children, there was an all-out religious assault on the tribal belief systems the children brought with them to Boarding School.   

Reports tell us that the physical and sexual abuse and other daily hardships were merely a backdrop to a systematic assault on Native culture. (10) In the Boarding Schools all things Indian – dress, language and beliefs – were forbidden. (11) The educational mandate and the agency's efforts were to "destroy all things Indian." (12) 

School staff sheared children's hair, banned traditional clothing and customs, and forced children to worship as Christians. The idea was to strip the children of their culture in an attempt to assimilate them into mainstream society. The children’s traditional clothing was exchanged for uniforms, and they were strictly regimented and forced to divest themselves of all vestiges of Indian identity. (13)

According to the Royal Commission's report, the purpose of the Boarding Schools was to release [the children] from the shackles that tied them to their parents, communities and cultures. (14)

The educational experts in the churches and the government understood this and were fully aware it could not be achieved simply by placing the children into Boarding Schools. They realized that it required a concerted attack on the basic cultural patterning of the children and on their world view. (15)

The Native children had to be taught to see and understand the world as a European place within which only European values and beliefs had meaning. As a consequence the wisdom of their tribal cultures would seem to them only savage superstition. (16)  

Sad to say, almost all documentation of the Boarding School era identifies the church and its leadership as active participants in violating the God-given rights of Native children to freely speak their language and to practice their religion. The conclusion here is that Native children’s First Amendment rights were not only violated but were vigorously suppressed and withheld from them. 

From 1879 until at least the 1960’s, the church’s involvement in violating and suppressing the First Amendment rights of native children is a documented fact. For over eighty years the church has been part of a concentrated effort to silence the Native voice and forcefully suppress the religious beliefs of tribal peoples.  

Paul says “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows that will he also reap” (Gal. 6:7). Paraphrasing this verse I believe God is saying; Do not deceive yourself, no one makes a fool of God – no one gets away with sinful practices, for whatever you do will be done unto you. God guarantees this principle. 

The major spiritual principle of sowing and reaping is sprinkled throughout the message of Jesus. For example He said, forgive and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37), blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy (Matt. 5:7), judge not, that you be not judged (Matt. 7:1), and give and it will be given to you (Luke 6:38).

The writer of Proverbs tells us; “He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow” (Prov. 22:8). Another version of the same verse says, “Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity” (NIV). This verse when translated literally says “whoever sows evil reaps trouble and wickedness.” (17)   

Looking at the church’s involvement in the evils perpetrated upon thousands of Native children during the Boarding School era – and considering what the Scriptures say about such actions, the future things coming upon the church are not very pleasant at all.  

When the church participated in violating the God-given rights of Native people, which we could call First Amendment rights, it positioned itself for the judgment of God, which could mean having its own First Amendment rights violated, suppressed, and taken away.

Again, the church could lose yet another battle. Why? Simply, because it refuses to confess the sins of our fathers, repent from its past wicked behavior, and carry out God’s justice toward those whose rights they’ve violated, trampled upon, and suppressed.

God has put the challenge before us. As the body of Christ we must rise up and stand in the gap for the church of North America and for the future of our nation. We must push back the demonic onslaught against Christ’s church and our future generations. This can only be done through prayer and intercession.

However, all prayer needs to be strategic. By strategic I mean prayers that hit the mark according to Gods principles for healing people, the church, the land, and our nation. Those principles are outlined in II Chronicles 7:13-15.  

When the church sins, violating the word of God, it becomes an unprofitable servant, an unjust steward, and begins to be stripped of its spiritual power and authority to govern. In this state its spiritual and social influence is lost and no matter how it tries it cannot push back the hordes of hell nor can it stop the demonic invasion of our social environment, legislative decision making, and financial trends.   

Binding and pushing back the evil advances of our spiritual enemies can only be accomplished through humility, confession of our sins, repentance, forgiveness, and by carrying out God’s justice toward those violated. Remember God is a God of justice, scripture says He loves justice (Ps.33:5).  

We can only experience breakthrough in prayer by doing the above. When God’s ear is once again open to hear our cry, then we can begin to ask for His mercy to rest upon His church, our nation and our future generations.

Once we complete our repentance work, we need to ask the Lord what He requires of us and His church to carry out His justice in regard to the violations perpetrated against the injured. Then, obediently do as God directs.  

Now, we can cry out to God for His mercy for His church and our nation.  

We can ask Him to heal the injured parties, His church, the land, and our nation.