The U.S. Constitution went into effect JUNE 21, 1788

The U.S. Constitution went into effect JUNE 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify it.

The 55 writers of the U.S. Constitution consisted of:
26 Episcopalians, 11 Presbyterians, 7 Congregationalists, 2 Lutherans, 2 Dutch Reformed, 2 Methodists, 2 Roman Catholics, 2 Quakers and 1 Deist - Dr. Franklin, who called for prayer during the Constitutional Convention, June 28, 1787:

"I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning."

The Journal of the U.S. House of Representatives, March 27, 1854, recorded the unanimous vote of the 33rd Congress to print Congressman James Meacham's report, which stated: "At the adoption of the Constitution, we believe every State - certainly 10 of the 13 - provided as regularly for the support of the Church as for the support of the Government...

Down to the Revolution, every colony did sustain religion in some form.

It was deemed peculiarly proper that the religion of liberty should be upheld by a free people."

Congressman Meacham concluded:
"Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle."

(courtesy of Bill Federer, American Minute: click here for more)

JUNE 5, 1967, the Six-Day War Began

From the American Minute with Bill Federer

Egypt sent 80,000 troops and 900 tanks to attack Israel.

Jordan and Syria, with Soviet weapons, violently shelled Jerusalem and Israeli villages.

Cairo radio announced: "The hour has come in which we shall destroy Israel."

The hot line between Washington and Moscow was used for the first time.

In a surprise move, Israeli Air Force destroyed 400 Egyptian planes, courageously drove Syria from the Golan Heights and captured all of Jerusalem.

In a CBS-TV interview, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion stated:

"In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."

Seven months after the War, on Jan. 7, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson toasted Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, saying:

"Welcome to our family table...All Americans-and all Israelis-know...that none...can ever live by bread alone...

One of your ancestors said it for all men almost 2,000 years ago...for peace it is written, 'pursue it.' That is our intention in
the Middle East...To pursue peace...

If we are wise, if we are fortunate, if we work together - perhaps our Nation and all nations may know the joys of that promise God once made about the children of Israel: 'I will make a covenant of peace with them...it shall be an everlasting covenant.'"

May 15 - Armed Forces Day

ARMED FORCES DAY

from the American Minute with Bill Federer
May 15

Army Day, Navy Day and Air Force Day were combined in 1949 to be Armed Forces Day, celebrated the 3rd Saturday of May.

Army Day formerly was the date the US entered World War I, Navy Day was President Theodore Roosevelt's birthday and Air Force Day was the day the War Department established a division of aeronautics.

On Armed Forces Day, MAY 15, 1995, Secretary of Defense William Perry
said:

"In World War II, the United States Armed Forces helped defeat the forces of aggression and oppression on two sides of the globe...

In the Cold War, we faced down the global Soviet threat. Today, our forces stand guard, at home and abroad, against a range of potential threats."

Secretary Perry continued:

"On Armed Forces Day, the nation says thank you to our men and women in uniform, their families, and the communities that support them...

Daniel Webster said, 'God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.'"

U.S. Army Chaplain Father William Thomas Cummings, who was among those captured by the Japanese at Bataan, Philippines, and died when the prisoner "hell ship" he was on was hit with a torpedo, said in a battlefield sermon:

"There are no atheists in the foxholes."

St. Valentine and the Real Love Doctor

In the 3rd Century A.D., Emperor Claudius II was faced with defending the Roman Empire from invading Goths.  He believed single men made better soldiers so he temporarily forbade marriage. Claudius also forced the Senate to deify the former Emperor Gallienus, including him with the Roman gods to be worshipped.  

Legend has it that Saint Valentine was a bishop in Italy who risked the Emperor's wrath by refusing to worship idols and for secretly marrying young couples.  Saint Valentine was dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and have his head cut off on February 14, 296 A.D.  While awaiting execution, it is said he prayed for the jailer's sick daughter, who miraculously recovered.  He wrote her a note and signed it, "from your Valentine." 

In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius designated February 14th as "Saint Valentine's Day." Signing an X for a kiss began in Medieval times where those who could not write their name marked a criss-cross or "Christ's cross" in the presence of witnesses and kissed it to show sincerity as a form of the oath "so help me God."  In the Greek alphabet, X is called Chi, and it is the first letter of the Greek name of Christ, giving rise to the use of X-mas for Christmas.  

(from Bill Federer's "American Minute" and taken from Movieguide's souvenir program of its 16th Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala, February 12, 2008, thanks to Dr. Ted Baehr, Chairman.)   

Battle Hymn of the Republic (from "American Minute")

Bill Federer in his "American Minute" for February 1st shared that five dollars was all she was paid by the Atlantic Monthly Magazine for Julia Ward Howe's poem, Battle Hymn of the Republic, on Feb. 1st of 1862; Federer continued: The Union's theme song during the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe wrote it while visiting Washington, D.C., and seeing the teeming military, galloping horses and countless campfires. Sleeping unsoundly one night, she penned:

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on. I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel; 'As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal'; Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgement-seat: Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea; With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me: As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on."