Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

Idolatry and the Constitution of the United States

by Stephen McDowell & Fiona Melton
December 5, 2025

The United States Constitution is perhaps the most important document ever written for the benefit of YEHOVAH's people Israel other than the Bible. A prestigious literary journal reveals the reason why, declaring in 1867: “The American government and Constitution is the most precious possession which the world holds, or which the future can inherit. This is true – true because the American system is the political expression of Christian ideas.” [1]

The Constitution went into effect in 1789, thirteen years after the United States separated from Great Britain and became a nation. The ideological foundation of the Constitution rests in the biblical roots of the nation expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which acknowledges Creator-endowed rights, embraces the laws of nature’s God as the highest authority, appeals “to the Supreme Judge of the World,” and expresses “a firm reliance upon the protection of divine Providence.”

The Framers of the Constitution declared that its formation and ratification were a miracle of YEHOVAH God. Shortly after the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the Father of the Constitution James Madison said: “It is impossible to conceive the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed, as less than a miracle.” [2]

The President of the Convention George Washington wrote that the “adoption of the proposed General Government” disposed him to be of the opinion “that miracles have not ceased.” For, he said, one could “trace the finger of Providence through those dark and mysterious events, which first induced the States to appoint a general Convention and then led them one after another…into an adoption of the system recommended by that general Convention.” [3]

Even the non-Christian Benjamin Franklin wrote: “Our General Convention…when it formed the new Federal Constitution, [was] …influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent and beneficent Ruler in whom all…live, and move, and have their being. [4]

The Founders believed that YEHOVAH God was involved in America adopting the Constitution because it contains many biblical principles of good governance. It was the foundation for the advancement of liberty, justice, and prosperity in America and became an example to the world. Washington wrote that the U.S. Constitution and system of government is “in my opinion the fairest prospect of happiness and prosperity that ever was presented to man.” [5] Its purpose, power, premise, and form are Christian.

The Preamble of the Constitution reveals the biblical purpose of government as expressed by the Apostles Paul and Peter: “to establish justice” (1 Peter 2:14); “to insure domestic tranquility (1 Timothy 2:1-2); “to provide for the common defense” and “promote the general welfare” (Romans 13:4); and to “secure the blessings of liberty.”

The power of the Constitution flows from its underlying ideas which include: the reign of law, Creator-endowed rights, just trials, self-government, religious freedom, private property rights, Christian union, and right of defense. Each of these have their origin in biblical truth.

The United States Constitution has been so successful because the Framers had a biblical view of man. They understood original sin, human depravity, and the temptation of power to corrupt. John Adams, quoting Jeremiah 17:9, reflects the premise of American government: “The Word of God…informs us, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” [6] This worldview affected the form of the Constitution. Legislative, executive, and judicial powers were divided among three branches of government with a number of checks and balances.

The Constitution specified the limited powers of each branch, with the national government prohibited from being involved in religion, education, and media. The states retained most power, and everyone was subject to the written law. Frequent elections enabled the governed to hold those who govern accountable. In instituting these provisions, the Founders were following the example of the Israelite Republic established by Moses.

James Madison wrote in the Federalist: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” [7] However, the Bible teaches men are not angels, but fallen and fallible beings who have a sinful nature and, thus, cannot be entrusted with too much power. The U.S. Constitution presupposed this idea, and any nation desiring to live in liberty should seek to incorporate biblical structures of government. More importantly though, they should copy the principles.

The Constitution has been an example to the world. When it went into effect 249 years ago, there was not one like it. Today, about 175 countries have a constitution, most inspired by and some directly copied from America’s. Most of the nations have not experienced the same blessings this document produced in America because, while copying the form, they neglected its power and premise, and the fact that it was intended for YEHOVAH's people Israel.

According to George Washington, the establishment of the U.S. Constitution demonstrated “the finger of Providence in human affairs greater than any event in history.” [8] Yet, the Framers of the Constitution knew it was not a perfect document, and hence, they made provision to amend it. Nonetheless, it is the best form of government mankind has produced because “it is the political expression of Christian ideas.” Since these biblical ideas have brought great blessings to mankind, all effort must be taken to learn, teach, and preserve America’s great political charter of liberty.

Gross Idolatry

On January 16, 2019, 130 acres of rural North Carolina land near Raleigh were purchased by Carolina Murugan Temple (CMT). A month prior, their plans to build the largest Hindu statue in North America were approved by the county. Under construction now, CMT plans to build a 155-foot-tall statue, which will sit on a 35-foot pedestal. It will be taller than the Statue of Liberty, which stands at 151 feet, not including the pedestal. This new development is a continuation of the Hindu acculturation in North Carolina; in October of 2022, the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Cary unveiled its 87-foot Tower of Unity and Prosperity at a ceremony attended by then North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.

Along with new temples and 190-foot idols, tracts of land in rural North Carolina areas are also being bought up by Indian companies with the intention of building Hindu communities. One such company, Sustaino LLC., has purchased nearly 400 acres of land across the state. One of their current projects, Vedic Village, is set to include an on-site yoga studio and Hindu temple. The structure of the community is all self-contained, essentially a commune in nature. While their website claims, for legal reasons, that they do not restrict residency based on race or beliefs, the very nature of the community says otherwise.

Further down south, in Texas, a similar development has faced significant criticism. The Meadow, formerly known as EPIC City, is a 402-acre site on the outskirts of Josephine, Texas. Similar to the Hindu-centric Vedic Village, The Meadow’s community plans include homes, a mosque, a religious school, a senior living center, as well as retail spaces. While the inner workings of The Meadow are not as commune-esque as those of proposed Hindu communities, the objective is the same in both cases: to create an isolated community in which these anti-Christian religions can thrive and grow.

The pushback in Texas has been strong -- from locals who opposed the development at a town meeting all the way up to Governor Greg Abbott launching investigations into Community Capital Partners, the backer of the development. There appears to be little to no backlash at this increasing Hindu colonization in North Carolina, perhaps due to a lack of press coverage on these developments, although some have spoken out about the new idol statue that is in the works.

The locals who are pushing back against a Muslim city in Texas are getting raked over the coals for “Islamophobia.” Some reports denounce North Carolinian pushback to the 190-foot-tall statue of the false god Murugan as “Hinduphobic.” Are the rejection of false religions and the fear of the colonization of rural America irrational, as the suffix “phobia” suggests? No. Rather, it is the rational response to growing demonic influence in American culture. We see the atrocities being committed in the United Kingdom by Muslim majority migrant groups; we do not want that here. Unfortunately, the United Kingdom does not have a Constitution such as ours.

Lesser (?) Forms of Idolatry

What are some modern day idols? While the examples above are obvious, there are other less obvious forms of idolatry that are rampant in our society today. Some examples of common idols in modern society include:

Technology

Technology like smartphones, social media, and entertainment media can become idols when obsession with technology interferes with our relationship with YEHOVAH God and others. Technology promises connection, information, pleasure, and escape, often delivering only isolation. Time spent mindlessly scrolling could be better spent in prayer, worship, YEHOVAH’s Word, and relationships.

Money and possessions

Money and accumulated wealth or possessions can become idols when achieving, hoarding, and trusting in these things start to rule your heart. Loving money and possessions leads to greed, envy, pride, anxiety, and a lack of generosity. YEHOVAH God promises to provide while money only provides false security.

Success and achievement

When your work, career advancement, productivity, reputation, and recognition become more important than anything else, they essentially become false gods. Achievement often requires sacrificing time for rest, worship, family, and godly passions. Success cannot deliver lasting fulfillment, identity, or purpose like YEHOVAH God can.

Relationships

Spouses, romantic partners, children, or friendships can become idols when the relationship supersedes devotion to YEHOVAH God. Relationships easily become codependent, possessive, or abusive when made into an idol. No human can fulfill the role of YEHOVAH God in your life. Healthy human relationships require keeping YEHOVAH first.

Ideologies and virtues

Political, social, or religious ideologies can become idols when adherence to their principles outweighs obedience to YEHOVAH God. Likewise, values like tolerance, diversity, equality, or environmentalism can morph into idolatry when given priority over YEHOVAH’s truth. Idolizing any ideology leads to division and irrational thinking.

Experiences

Experiences like entertainment, travel, food, and adventures can become idols when obsession with fun and thrill-seeking starts ruling your time, energy, and money. Living mainly for the next experience causes you to miss out on everyday life. It reflects desire to fill spiritual emptiness with fleeting pleasure.

Self

Self can become an idol when your main pursuit in life is lifting up and serving yourself through things like self-glorification, comfort, pleasure, or pursing self-defined morality. Believing “I know best” is the height of human arrogance and futility. Living for self leads only to emptiness.

Here are some ways to identify if something has become an idol in your life:

• It consumes a large amount of your thoughts, time, energy, or money
   

• You rely on it to meet your deepest needs for security, satisfaction, or significance
   

• You experience anxiety or despair when you feel it threatened
   

• You pursue it with greater passion than pursuing YEHOVAH God

The Morale Framework

While I have relatives who identify as science-based and do not believe in a Creator, the Founding Father’s belief in a Creator remains significant in understanding our moral foundations. The Founders recognized the dangers of a government that grants rights, and as such, a government can also take them away. This principle holds true regardless of one’s belief in a Creator. We are privileged to live in a country that values liberty under law.

To secure our God-given rights, we must base our laws on morality. Whose morality, you may ask? Our Founding Fathers believed that the fundamental moral values of Christianity were beneficial for society. Our laws against cheating, stealing, and lying, as well as provisions for fair trials and marriage, are rooted in these moral principles. The fact that the Founders did not consult contemporary society for these foundational morals does not diminish the truth of America’s founding.

These moral foundations have served us well for 249 years. Have we adhered to them perfectly? No, but our moral foundations remain crucial for maintaining our prosperity and freedom in the world.

John Adams said in a letter to the Massachusetts militia,

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” [9]

The moral framework upon which America was founded, upon which the Constitution rests, is that of Christianity. Our system of government is incapable of functioning without this framework, as we see so clearly in the current collapse of our country in response to the growth of secular humanism. Muslims will inevitably submit to Sharia, not the Constitution or Bill of Rights. The polytheistic pagan worship of Hinduism is so contrary to a Christian understanding of the human person and the Western philosophical tradition upon which our nation was founded that it can in no way be compatible with our system of law.

To give credit where credit is due, I respect the audacity of these groups and religious organizations for taking the initiative to build communities for their followers. They at least know the truth that to expand and grow as a faith, they must join together; their strength is in their numbers. While Muslims and Hindus continue to build isolated communities, mosques, temples, and more, the leaders of American "Christianity" are preoccupied with climate change, DEI, and attacking the very foundation of our nation.

While our backs are turned in our preoccupation with hand-wringing about the so-called virtues of ecumenism, enemies of true Christianity are rapidly taking over. The internal persecution of traditional Christians is currently weakening the religion this country was founded upon -- and it will only continue to do so. Ecumenism without conversion is an empty gesture; it does as much good as giving cash to a drug addict.

"Probably at the time of the adoption of the constitution, and of the amendment to it, now under consideration, the general, if not the universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state, so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship. An attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation….The real object of the [First] amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity by prostrating Christianity; but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government." [10]

American churches must firmly oppose the ideological takeover of our country, whether from secular humanists, Judaism, Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, or any other false belief system. We need to work together to strengthen our communities and work outward to effect real change in our neighborhoods. The Messiah said the world will know us by our love, not by our passivity. It is time the faithful start pushing back.

-- Edited by John D. Keyser.

Footnotes:

[1] The North American Review, in "The Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America, Christian Self-Government with Union," Verna M. Hall, compiler, San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, p. 34.

[2] Robert A Rutland, ed., The Papers of James Madison, University of Chicago Press, 1962, 10:208.

[3] George Washington, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick, 39 vols., Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931, 29:525.

[4] Albert Henry Smyth, editor, Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Macmillan Co., 1905-07, 9:702.

[5] Washington to Thomas Jefferson, August 23, 1792, Writings, 32:131.

[6] John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1856), Vol. 6, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, “Chapter First. Marchamont Nedham. The Right Constitution of a Commonwealth Examined.”

[7] Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist, A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States, edited by Paul Leicester Ford, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1898, p. 344.

[8] George Bancroft, History of the United States of America, D. Appleton and Co., 1891, 6:414.

[9] John Adams, Letter to the Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798).

[10] Joseph L. Story, Commentaries On the Constitution of the United States (1833), "Amendments to the Constitution", Book 3, Chapter 44).