Atheists and agnostics think it is possible to live adequately without any influence from religion. Christ-followers, however, understand that having a correct Christian worldview means allowing God's principles to inform every aspect of life—for believers, there can be no actual distinction between the secular and the sacred. (1 Timothy 2:2)

    Many people today assume the "wall of separation" means freedom from religion rather than freedom of religion. They would have us believe that our Founding Fathers intended the realms of government and religion to be totally distinct. But are they right?

    See what influential Americans have to say on the subject. Can you identify the authors of the following quotations? (See answers below.)

Quotes printed with permission from America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations by Willian J. Federer.

Do you know who said these words?

1 "We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God . . . and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."

2 "God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one, may in the issue tend to support the establishment of both."

3 "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."

4 "The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all of our civil constitutions and laws . . . ."

5 "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

6 "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."

7 "The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves . . . The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die."

8 "My heart is filled with gratitude to Almighty God for his unspeakable mercies with which He has blessed us in this day. For those He granted us from the beginning of life, and particularly for those He has vouchsafed us during the past year. What should have become of us without His crowning help and protection? Oh, if our people would only recognize it and cease from self-boasting and adulation, how strong would be my belief in the final success and happiness to our country!"

9 "Oh God, let this horrible war quickly come to an end that we may all return home and engage in the only work that is worthwhile—and that is the salvation of men."

10 "If the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end."

Answers: (1) Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, March 30, 1863 (2) John Witherspoon, statesman (3) John Quincy Adams, as recorded by John Wingate Thorton in The Pulpit of the American Revolution, 1860 (4) Noah Webster, History of the Unites States, 1832 (5) Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention, June 28, 1787 (6) Thomas Jefferson, Query XVIII, Notes in the State of Virginia, 1781 (7) George Washington, July 2, 1776 (8) Robert E. Lee, a letter to his wife, December 25, 1862 (9) Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, prayer on the battlefield of Manassas (10) Daniel Webster