Overruling Stone Is Only a First Step: America's National Identity Is Rooted in the Biblical God and Must Be Acknowledged as Such
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "Justice Gorsuch, the Ten Commandments, and Our National Identity | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." October 9, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author argues that striking down Ten Commandments displays in schools in 1980 showed America turning away from God, and that letting them return is a good first step. But he says real healing requires admitting that America's founding ideas came from the God of the Bible, something even Justice Gorsuch's recent comments fail to acknowledge.
Conclusion
Overruling Stone v. Graham and returning the Ten Commandments to classrooms would begin to repair America's relationship with God, but full restoration requires recognizing that America's national identity is found in the God of the Bible.
Premises
- The Supreme Court's 1980 decision in Stone v. Graham, which struck down Ten Commandments displays in public classrooms, signaled that America had stopped acknowledging God's authority.
- Before Stone, American courts and founders habitually acknowledged God's authority and America's Christian character (e.g., Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, Justice Story, Chief Justice John Jay).
- The Fifth Circuit's recent decisions upholding Louisiana and Texas Ten Commandments laws are correct, because Kennedy v. Bremerton abandoned the legal standard on which Stone relied; the Supreme Court will therefore likely overrule Stone if it takes review.
- Justice Gorsuch's statements that the nation is 'not founded on a religion' and is based only on universal ideas from the Declaration reflect a modern disconnect from America's relationship with God.
- The founding ideas (equality, God-given rights, self-government) did not arise in a vacuum and cannot be separated from the culture that produced them; they came from the God of the Bible referenced in the Declaration.
- A nation's flourishing depends on its connection to God, which requires acknowledging His authority (the vine-and-branches analogy from John 15:5).
Assumptions
- The God referenced in the Declaration of Independence ('Creator', 'Nature's God') is specifically the God of the Bible.
- A nation can stand in a covenantal or dependent relationship with God, and God observes and responds to national judicial decisions.
- Court statements from 1892 and 1829 and the views of individual founders accurately represent the founding era's national identity and carry normative weight today.
- Acknowledging the Christian origin of founding principles is compatible with, or should override, Establishment Clause concerns.
- Removing religious displays from schools caused or reflects national decline, and restoring them signals renewed acknowledgment of God.
- The Biblical analogy of vine and branches is authoritative and applicable to the nation as a whole.