Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving marks the commencement of that season of the year when government snoops, village atheists and the Jewish ACLU gumshoe dogs launch their nationwide quest for Nativity scenes and other signs that religious faith has not been entirely banished from the land of the Pilgrim � s pride.

Before the search begins, let us pose a question that bears fundamentally on the search: On this day of thanksgiving to whom are we supposed to be grateful? God, � from whom all blessings flow, � in the words of the Doxology? Or Squanto, who is said (erroneously) to have taught the English to plant fish heads with their seed corn, thus assuring a bountiful harvest?

If it � s Squanto we memorialize the problem is merely one of historical accuracy. But if it � s God to whom our gratitude is directed, what are the children doing out of school?

Hasn � t the Supreme Court outlawed any entanglement of church and state, going so far as to declare, in Wallace v. Jaffree, that public schools may not observe a moment of silence at the beginning of the day so that those who wish to do so may pray?

If the state can � t make the little angels keep still for 30 seconds lest they lapse into prayer, surely it can � t dismiss school out of gratitude for the blessings a bountiful Creator has bestowed on this land.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is on the cutting edge of denying religion any part in our national life, recently distributed to schools across the country a packet of materials having to do with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

� The founders of our nation, � one of the ACLU tracts flatly asserts, through that government, � whether on the national or local level, should not become involved; in any way, in religious activities. � Nonsense. They thought nothing of the kind.

Jefferson � s bill establishing elementary schools in Virginia provided that � no religious reading, instruction or exercise shall be prescribed or practiced inconsistent with the tenets of any religious sect or denomination � a far cry from leaving religion entirely alone.

The Northwest Ordinance, which was adopted the same year the Constitutional convention met in Philadelphia, identified � religion, morality, and knowledge � as the three principal concerns of education.

� Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, � echoed Washington in his farewell address, � religion and morality are indispensable supports. �

The ACLU also alleges that � well into the 1780s you had established churches in most of the states � and that � the Anglicans were the established church all through the Southern counties from Maryland to Georgia. � In fact, of the five Southern States only Maryland and South Carolina had established churches.

Which shows just how big a liars the Jews in the ACLU are and if they can � t get history straight, should we trust it on the Constitution? After all the their word is not good because of their praying the Kol Nidre every year.

Kol Nidre : It is the prologue of the Day of Atonement services in the synagogues. It is recited three times by the standing congregation in concert with chanting rabbis at the alter. After the recital of the "Kol Nidre" (All Vows) prayer the Day of Atonement religious ceremonies follow immediately. The Day of Atonement religious observances are the highest holy days of the "Jews" and are celebrated as such throughout the world. The official translation into English of the "Kol Nidre" (All Vows) prayer is as follows: "All vows, obligations, oaths, anathemas, whether called 'konam,' 'konas,' or by any other name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement unto the next, (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. May they be deemed absolved, forgiven, annulled, and void and made of no effect; they shall not bind us nor have power over us. The vows shall not be reckoned vows; the obligations shall not be obligatory; nor the oaths be oaths."

The implications, inferences and innuendoes of the "Kol Nidre" (All Vows) prayer are referred to in the Talmud in the Book of Nedarim, 23a‑23b as follows: "And he who desires that none of his vows made during the year shall be valid, let him stand at the beginning of the year and declare, every vow which I make in the future shall be null (1). (HIS VOWS ARE THEN INVALID) providing that he remembers this at the time of the vow." (Emphasis in original) A footnote (1) relates: "(1)...The Law of Revocation in advance was not made public." (Emphasis in original text)

The greatest study of the "Kol Nidre" (All Vows) prayer was made by Theodor Reik, a pupil of the [I]nfamous Jewish Dr. Sigmund Freud. The analysis of the historic, religious and psychological background of the "Kol Nidre" (All Vows) prayer by Professor Reik presents the Talmud in its true perspective. This study is contained in "The Ritual, Psycho‑Analytical Studies." In the chapter on the Talmud, page 163, he states: "The text was to the effect that all oaths which believers take between one Day of Atonement and the next Day of Atonement are declared invalid."

The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia confirms that the "Kol Nidre" (All Vows) prayer has no spiritual value as might be believed because it is recited in synagogues on the Day of Atonement as the prologue of the religious ceremonies which follow it. The secular significance of the "Kol Nidre" (All Vows) prayer is forcefully indicated by the analysis in Vol. VI, page 441: "The Kol Nidre has nothing whatever to do with the actual idea of the Day of Atonement...it attained to extraordinary solemnity and popularity by reason of the fact that it was The first Prayer recited on this holiest of days."

In 1947 Justice Hugo Black, speaking for a majority of the Supreme Court, declared that � neither a state nor the federal government can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions or prefer one religion over another. �

Many who cite this opinion omit the inconvenient fact that Black was speaking in support of a Louisiana law requiring school districts to provide free transportation to students attending both public and church-supported schools. The court, which still begins each session with an appeal for God � s protection, held that the Louisiana law did not violate the Establishment Clause.

Since then Black � s straightforward neutrality principle has been misconstrued to support the assertion, philosophically unsupportable, that when the government says you can � t erect a menorah or a creche on public property, it is being � neutral � toward religion.

This is like the man who said he wasn � t prejudiced because he hated everybody. Neutrality toward religion would entail allowing menorahs and creches, as well as all other kinds of religious symbolism. Tolerance of religion, not hostility toward it, is what the Framers meant to foster.

Though we have wrenched from its foundations the nation that sprang to life so many years ago in Philadelphia, the Author of Liberty, for unfathomable reasons of His own, still smiles on this land. Fo0r this forbearance, on this day especially, let us give thanks.