Many people in America today do not realize the moral and religious foundations that their country was built upon. They blindly insist that our founding fathers intended for such things to exist as "separation of church and state." My personal favorite is "Oh, well the founding fathers would have meant for same sex marraige to be legal." In Brad Stine's words, "Yup. That was their master plan!" Citizens today have absolutely no concept of what the founding fathers believed in, and the majority of them won't even listen to the historical facts. It does not take much research to break through the swarm of BS that surrounds this situation. That is the purpose of this post: to tell all of our readers out there what it is the founding fathers believed...using their own words. To begin with, however, I would like to refute some pretty popular claims concerning the founders. Most people I talk to on a regular basis believe that the founding fathers were all either deists or masons...but yet no one can conclusively tell me what either one of those is. Classical deism holds that God created the world but takes no active part in its day to day operations -- He essentialy made creation and then stepped back to let it take its course. Freemasonry is, despite some wild claims, not an anti-religious group. It is, in fact, very closely tied to religious belief. They do not force their members to accept a certain set of religious principles, and the organization itself states that freemasonry is not a replacement for religion. Whether one agrees with freemasonry or not, one cannot coherently argue that freemasonry was or is anti-religious. While a certain number of founding fathers were definentaly involved with freemasonry, only a small percentage truly believed in deism. To much of the relief of many reading this, I am now going to shut up and let the founding fathers speak for themselves on the issue. These quotations can all be found here and here. Enjoy...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Adams
“ The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
"Without Religion this World would be Something not fit to be mentioned in polite Company, I mean Hell."
"It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation's humble acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence."
Samuel Adams
“He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all… Our forefathers opened the Bible to all.”
“Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity… and leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.”
Benjamin Franklin (wow this sounds like one hardcore deist)
“God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel”
“In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered… do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?”
In Benjamin Franklin's 1749 plan of education for public schools in Pennsylvania, he insisted that schools teach "the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern."
In 1787 when Franklin helped found Benjamin Franklin University, it was dedicated as "a nursery of religion and learning, built on Christ, the Cornerstone."
Alexander Hamilton
Hamilton began work with the Rev. James Bayard to form the Christian Constitutional Society to help spread over the world the two things which Hamilton said made America great: (1) Christianity (2) a Constitution formed under Christianity. “The Christian Constitutional Society, its object is first: The support of the Christian religion. Second: The support of the United States.”
On July 12, 1804 at his death, Hamilton said, “I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray for me.”
"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the Constitution] a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests."
"I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man."
John Hancock
“In circumstances as dark as these, it becomes us, as Men and Christians, to reflect that whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments, …at the same time all confidence must be withheld from the means we use; and reposed only on that God rules in the armies of Heaven, and without His whole blessing, the best human counsels are but foolishness… Resolved; …Thursday the 11th of May…to humble themselves before God under the heavy judgments felt and feared, to confess the sins that have deserved them, to implore the Forgiveness of all our transgressions, and a spirit of repentance and reformation …and a Blessing on the … Union of the American Colonies in Defense of their Rights [for which hitherto we desire to thank Almighty God]…That the people of Great Britain and their rulers may have their eyes opened to discern the things that shall make for the peace of the nation…for the redress of America’s many grievances, the restoration of all her invaded liberties, and their security to the latest generations."
Patrick Henry (my personal favorite)
"This is all the inheritance I can give my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.”
“It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
“The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed.”
"It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains."
Thomas Jefferson
“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 a gift from 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, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.”
“Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appears to me so pure as that of Jesus.”
“ The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.”
James Madison
“ We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart.”
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
In 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided the Bible Society of Philadelphia in its goal of the mass distribution of the Bible.
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison proposed the plan to divide the central government into three branches. He discovered this model of government from the Perfect Governor, as he read Isaiah 33:22.
Noah Webster
“In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
“The Bible was America’s basic textbook in all fields.”
“Education is useless without the Bible”
George Washington
"...reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle..."
“ It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and Bible.”
“What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.”
During his inauguration, Washington took the oath as prescribed by the Constitution but added several religious components to that official ceremony. Before taking his oath of office, he summoned a Bible on which to take the oath, added the words “So help me God!” to the end of the oath, then leaned over and kissed the Bible.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is just a sample of the fully documented information that can be found here. Please take a look at all of it and stop being stupid about "separation of church and state." It was meant to protect the church from the state's involvement (i.e. Church of England). I may post more about this topic sometime down the road.
~Tribal~
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
update...... :)
On the contrary, Thomas Jefferson was most certainly a deist. Ever heard of Jefferson's Bible? He went through and cut out every miracle in Scripture (including the Resurrection of Jesus Christ), because it did not fit with his idea of who God was and how God acted.
I also know that the Founding Fathers intended for their to be a separation of church and state. Again, I point to Jefferson, who wrote a letter to "Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut" on January 1, 1801. He spoke of a wall of separation between church and state - what is misunderstood is who this wall protected.
Imagine the church as a beautiful garden and the government (secular world) as weeds. There is a hedge that protects this garden from the weeds of the world. Many people came to America to escape religious persecution. They knew first hand the dangers of the government meddling in the affairs of the church. To stop that, they instituted the separation of church and state, that they might protect the church from the state.
America has never been a Christian country, but it has always been a religious country. That is an important distinction, and one that Christians should encourage, that we may practice our Faith freely, just as others may do the same.
This does not mean the Christians hold no place in the Public Square. It simply means that our place of worship is sacred and not to be meddled with by the state - nor is the state to be influenced by our place of worship. However, individual Christians with individual ideas and ideals may go out into the world and try to impact it for the betterment if all people.
The issue of the Christian in the public square is an interesting one. I'd recommend the book Paradoxical Vision by Robert Benne. It discusses this very subject, and provides a way for Christians to engage everyone in the public square without secularizing their Faith or vice versa.
In a world of non-Christians, in a country of diversity, these are important things that we must always keep in mind. Just because we're right in our Faith doesn't give us the right to force it upon others - we're not the Inquisition. It also doesn't give others the right to force us into silence. There is a balance (without sacrifice) that must be kept for the sake of stable government and a peaceful country. It is difficult, but a task that every Christian citizen of the United States should strive for.
If Jefferson were truly an "orthodox" Diest, he would not have spoken anything regarding God's wrath intervening with the world. Diests in the traditional sense of the word do not believe that God is active in the world at all -- "Divine Watchmaker Theory." If you actually research the Jefferson Bible, it is in reality meant to be a primer on the "doctrines and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth." It was written for distribution to Indian tribes in an attempt to introduce them to Christian morality. I have never heard of Jefferson claiming it to be a replacement of the Bible in any way, shape, or form. If you have any evidence to the contrary, however, I would be interested in seeing it.
You are correct about the letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. They feared a rival denomination was going to end up becoming the "national religion" much like the Church of England. Jefferson's letter was meant to quell their worries, like you stated, but it is merely meant to be a one way wall. It was made in referance to the first amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." It was not intended by the founding fathers to completely sever the ties between government and religion. As Washington said, it is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and Bible. The founders recognized the evil that could result from government interferring with religious affairs, but they did not intend to stop religion from interferring with government affairs. Quite to the contrary. People have completely twisted Jefferson's letter and its intent.
It is not an issue of forcing our beliefs on others; as Patrick Henry said, we were founded by "Christians, not religionists," and so people of other faiths could come here. But at the same time, we cannot stand by if wrongs are being committed. Christians must take an active role in the functioning of the government. I'll look up that book you mentioned. Thanks.
Post a Comment