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Dec. 21, 1998
Dear Fellow Republican:
I realize this is a busy time of year for everyone, however, I have been burdened to share several things with you and truly feel that this is the time to do so. I’d first like to start off by wishing each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and have you take a moment to consider the reason we celebrate this time of year.
GOD’S GIFT TO THE WORLD
“ And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’ ” (Luke 2: 10, 11)
The angels spoke this almost 2000 years ago. What good tidings! The saving good news that Christ was born to die for us. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4). This is especially good news because God’s word states in Romans 3:23 that all men are sinners. “ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The best that we could possibly do in and of ourselves is nothing more than a “filthy rag” (Isaiah 64:6). The Bible also tells us that this sin must be punished. We all deserve to die and be eternally separated from God in hell forever. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6: 23a). However, the verse doesn’t stop there, but goes on to explain that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord” (Romans 6:23b). One verse we should all be familiar with sums up God’s entire message - “ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only be gotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3: 16). What great joy!!!! God opened the door and made the way for us. “Jesus saith unto him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me’ ” (John 14:6). Those who put their faith in Christ and his completed work on Calvary’s cross now may enter heaven as a free gift.. “ And for by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God - not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).
MY GIFT TO YOU OF ARGUMENT AND EVIDENCE
My second purpose in writing this letter is to provide you with evidence and argument to counter-attack those people who belittle this message and who label politically active Christians as being part of the “dangerous Christian Right.”
Don’t fear, but seek Bible believing Christians for leadership in government.
Consider the evidence of America’s heritage.
Today many would have us to believe otherwise, but history proves that America and American government were founded by Bible believing Christians. John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court said:
Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers,
and it is their duty as well as the privilege and interest of our
Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
In the U.S. Supreme Court case Church of the Holy Trinity vs. United States (1892) it stated that:
Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon
and embody the teaching of the Redeemer of mankind. It is
impossible that it should be otherwise, and in this sense and to
this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically
Christian.
In this case, 87 precedents were given for the decision. Patrick Henry once said:
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.
The Constitution of the state of Delaware provided:
Every person appointed to public office shall say, I do
profess faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ his
only Son and in the Holy Ghost, one God blessed forever
more; and I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old
and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.
George Washington stated, “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible”. Noah Webster’s History of the United States (published 1832) states that “ Almost all Civil Liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the Christian religion.”
America-morally bankrupted by educating children without religion and morality.
The politically-correct crowd, Hollywood, the mainstream media, the ACLU, the humanists indoctrinating our children in universities, colleges and in the public schools, have rejected almost every principle in the Bible. In 1962 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the removal of God and all biblical teaching including the Ten Commandments from the public schools of the United States. The fruits of this anti-biblical education are apparent in the rejection of God and the Bible from the lives of many Americans and their replacement with lies, adultery, theft, abortion of the pre-born and murder of the born, much of which many post 1962 public school educated Americans do not find objectionable. Perhaps the only action Americans now agree to prohibit is that which affects them directly – theft and murder. Even among these two activities Americans tolerate punitive taxes and juries do not convict some murderers.
Warnings sound from the past. William Penn stated that, “Those who will not be governed by God, will be ruled by tyrants.” Daniel Webster expressed it this way:
If we abide by the Bible, our country will go on prospering and
to prosper, but if we or our posterity neglect its instructions
and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe
may overwhelm us and bury our glory in profound obscurity!
Harry Truman realizes the importance of the Bible training when he stated, “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the mount.”
Listen to Theodore Roosevelt:
Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings
of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic
and social life that it would be literally-I do not mean figuratively,
but literally-impossible for us to figure what that loss would be
if these teachings were removed. We would lose almost all the
standards by which we now judge both public and private morals;
standards towards which we with more or less of resolution
strive to raise ourselves.
Listen to Calvin Coolidge:
The American Revolution was preceded by the great religious
revival of the middle of the 18th-century, which had its effect
both in England and in the colonies. When the common people
turned to the reading of the Bible....when they were stirred by
a great revival.... The way was prepared.... It was because
religion gave the people a new importance and a new glory
that they demanded a new freedom and a new government.
We cannot in our generation reject the cause and retain the
result if the institutions they adopted are to survive..... There
will be obedience to the law when the individual feels the
government represents a divine authority. It is these beliefs,
these religious convictions, that represent the strength of
America, the strength of all civilized society.... It is
righteousness alone which exalteth the nation...
Give back to America’s children the choice of a Biblical education.
As the United States enters the 21st century, legislating and enforcing biblical morality is not to be expected, not even in South Carolina. The home school movement and Christian schools are teaching many children the truth of America’s Godly heritage and equipping them with Biblical knowledge. Of course, home schools and Christian schools are also providing superior educations to those of the public schools and at less cost. This should come as no surprise, because free enterprise and competition always out-perform government provided services. The collapse of communist economic systems proves that argument. It is possible to compare the South Carolina Association of Christian schools (SCACS) cost and test performance with the South Carolina public school cost and test performance.
1996
Cost
S.C. Public schools cost per student per grade: $4,659.00.
SCACS cost per student kindergarten: $1,400.00
Elementary: $1,625.00
Jr. High: $!,725.00
Sr. High $1,750.00
Test Performance
SC Public schools testing average - well below the national average.
SCACS average percentile rank on annual achievement testing is well above the national percentile average of 50.*
K=96, first grade=93, second grade = 82 ,third-grade =72, fourth-grade= 87,fifth-grade =62 sixth-grade = 87, seventh grade = 78, eighth-grade = 82, ninth grade = 78, tenth grade = 95, eleventh grade = 73 and twelfth 12th grade = 84.
Though many parents may desire a better education for their children, the additional expense of a private or home school education does not seem feasible. Parents should have the right to choose where the government tax dollars should be spent for their children. This can be done by offering parents a check allocated for educational expenses up to the average cost of a public school student. Giving parents this choice would not increase the costs to tax payers and it would provide much better education for our children.
*Harcourt Brace Educational Measurement
Stopping Murder
Stopping murder is the most important task of all law enforcement. Property can be replaced - life cannot. Murder is murder. Allowing murder of babies in the womb (without their consent) is only a step away from murdering the old and sick (without their consent). Youth gang members point to the hypocrisy of abortion as justification for the murder of older children. We should take heed that the elimination of the disabled opened the doors to the mass death camps of Nazi Germany. Stopping abortion must be the priority issue.
Slowing Theft
Abolish the federal income and payroll taxes and replace it with a national
sales tax by Constitutional amendment.
Cutting government spending has been proven to be almost an impossibility. The income tax and payroll tax drive a huge wedge between what it costs an employer to hire a U.S. worker and what a U.S. worker takes home. This huge differential is driving our incomes offshore and has been creating a competitive advantage for producers in offshore low income tax countries. These countries are not burdened by providing health care to their workers, by national debt service on trillion of dollars spent in winning the Cold War and wasted in massive amounts of social welfare spending and useless government programs over the last 50 years.
Replacing the income and payroll tax with a sales tax would shift the burden to all products equally, whether they were produced in the U.S. or offshore. In my opinion such a change would cause wages and real income to rise sharply as employers’ costs would fall and employees’ wages would rise with greater competition for American workers in American based companies. This would also be a direct attack on the roots and foundation of the Socialist agenda that ultimately resulted in the federal income tax just after the turn-of-the-century.
Do you agree?
Please consider these arguments thoughtfully and let me know if you would like to join the efforts of other conservative Republicans as we work together to see these goals come to pass.
I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Very truly yours,
Rolf M. Baghdady.
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