Why the phrase "America is a Christian Nation" is false: Religious beliefs of the "Founding Fathers"

[YoungDemCA]

Lambert (2003) has examined the religious affiliations and beliefs of the Founders. Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, 49 were Protestants, and two were Roman Catholics (D. Carroll, and Fitzsimons). Among the Protestant delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 28 were Church of England (or Episcopalian, after the American Revolutionary War was won), eight were Presbyterians, seven were Congregationalists, two were Lutherans, two were Dutch Reformed, and two were Methodists.=

A few prominent Founding Fathers were anti-clerical Christians, such as Thomas Jefferson[19][20][21] (who created the so-called "Jefferson Bible&quot and Benjamin Franklin.[22] Others (most notably Thomas Paine) were deists, or at least held beliefs very similar to those of deists.[23]

Historian Gregg L. Frazer argues that the leading Founders (Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Wilson, Morris, Madison, Hamilton, and Washington) were neither Christians nor Deists, but rather supporters of a hybrid "theistic rationalism".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States#Religion

Now, let's examine some of the most important individual "Founding Fathers."

George Washington:

It is also clear that Washington was a humanitarian. He helped to care for the poor and believed strongly in charity, which he exercised privately. Regarding his own estate he stated, "Let the Hospitality of the House, with respect to the poor, be kept up…I have no objection to your giving my Money to Charity…when you think it is well bestowed. What I mean, by having no objection, is, that it is my desire that it should be done."

Washington was also tolerant of different religious beliefs, having attended services of multiple Christian denominations. He once publically supported an army chaplain who was a Universalist (meaning that he held that Christ died for the sins of all, versus only the elect) despite the objections of other clergy. In fact, while President, Washington wrote a letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island standing in favor of religious freedom, explaining: "For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens…May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants."3

Overall, Washington's religious life is an area of great debate and much in line with his contemporaries. His religious life is complex and should be approached as such, without trite labels and descriptions.

http://www.mountvernon.org/educational-resources/encyclopedia/george-washington-and-religion


John Adams:

Despite his assertion that religion had a role in public life, John Adams was most definitely in favor of separating Church and State. He did not believe that religious views should either hinder or help a politician in matters of law and politics which needed only reason and common sense. He believed that allowing for free conscience would allow men of all religious beliefs to succeed in uniting together for the good of society and the state. Even though he had plenty of contempt for Catholics and even the Jesuit priests who came to America in increasing numbers, he recognized that the nation must accept them on principle of religious freedom. Adams believed that the freedom of religion granted by the state would be the final death blow to all corrupt forms of religious authority. Many of his thoughts on religion can be found in the hundreds of letters he wrote that were saved for posterity.

http://johnadamsinfo.com/was-john-adams-a-christian/92/#sthash.UtNZago6.dpuf

Thomas Jefferson:

Thomas Jefferson was always reluctant to reveal his religious beliefs to the public, but at times he would speak to and reflect upon the public dimension of religion. He was raised as an Anglican, but was influenced by English deists such as Bolingbroke and Shaftesbury. Thus in the spirit of the Enlightenment, he made the following recommendation to his nephew Peter Carr in 1787: "Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."[1] In Query XVII of Notes on the State of Virginia, he clearly outlines the views which led him to play a leading role in the campaign to separate church and state and which culminated in the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom: "The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. ... Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error.[2] Jefferson's religious views became a major public issue during the bitter party conflict between Federalists and Republicans in the late 1790s when Jefferson was often accused of being an atheist.

With the help of Richard Price, a Unitarian minister in London, and Joseph Priestly, an English scientist-clergyman who emigrated to America in 1794, Jefferson eventually arrived at some positive assertions of his private religion. His ideas are nowhere better expressed than in his compilations of extracts from the New Testament "The Philosophy of Jesus" (1804) and "The Life and Morals of Jesus" (1819-20?). The former stems from his concern with the problem of maintaining social harmony in a republican nation. The latter is a multilingual collection of verses that was a product of his private search for religious truth. Jefferson believed in the existence of a Supreme Being who was the creator and sustainer of the universe and the ultimate ground of being, but this was not the triune deity of orthodox Christianity. He also rejected the idea of the divinity of Christ, but as he writes to William Short on October 31, 1819, he was convinced that the fragmentary teachings of Jesus constituted the "outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man." In correspondence, he sometimes expressed confidence that the whole country would be Unitarian[3], but he recognized the novelty of his own religious beliefs. On June 25, 1819, he wrote to Ezra Stiles Ely, "I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know."

http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jeffersons-religious-beliefs

James Madison:

Although educated by Presbyterian clergymen, young Madison was an avid reader of English deist tracts.[15] Madison as an adult paid little attention to religious matters. Hutson says that historians searching through Madison's voluminous writings discover that after he left college, "there is no trace, no clue as to his personal religious convictions."[16] However, some scholars say he leaned toward deism,[17][18] while others categorize him as such.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison#Religion

Alexander Hamilton:

Gordon Wood says that Hamilton dropped his youthful religiosity during the Revolution and became, "a conventional liberal with theistic inclinations who was an irregular churchgoer at best"; however, he returned to religion in his last years.[169] Chernow says that, "Like Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson, Hamilton had probably fallen under the sway of deism, which sought to substitute reason for revelation and dropped the notion of an active God will intervene in human affairs. At the same time, he never doubted God's existence, embracing Christianity as a system of morality and cosmic justice."[170][171] While Hamilton and the other founders could be considered deists in the sense that they embraced "rational religion", they were not deists in the sense of rejecting the idea of divine intervention.[172]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton#Hamilton.27s_religion

Benjamin Franklin

"Here is my Creed," Franklin wrote to Stiles. "I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable Service we render to him, is doing Good to his other Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting its Conduct in this ... As for Jesus of Nazareth ... I think the system of Morals and Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw ... but I have ... some Doubts to his Divinity; though' it is a Question I do not dogmatism upon, having never studied it, and think it is needless to busy myself with it now, where I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble."

The narrative was classic Franklin, witty and to the point. Religion was worthless unless it promoted virtuous behavior. Jesus was the greatest moral teacher who ever lived, but he was not God.


snip:

Yet for all of his talk of God and his providence, Franklin's religious creed falls far short of orthodox Christianity. His beliefs were less about Christian doctrine and more about virtue - moral behavior that serves the public good. He labored to instill character in his life, going so far as to attempt "moral perfection" through the daily cultivation of thirteen different virtues. He had little tolerance for theological squabbles often associated with organized Christianity and thought debates over the meaning of Christian orthodoxy prevented clergy from preaching the true spirit of Christianity, namely, loving one's neighbor.

This kind of morality made for a better, more humane society. Civil life could not function without virtue. Franklin believed it was vital to sustaining a moral republic. Not everyone needed religion to be virtuous. There were some, Franklin wrote, who could "live a virtuous life without the assistance afforded by Religion." Most of the world, he believed, was made up of "weak and ignorant Men and Women" who needed religion to "restrain them from Vice, and to retain them in the practice of it [virtue] till it becomes habitual." He was horrified by the thought of a world without religion. "If Men are so wicked as we now see them with Religion," Franklin wrote, "what would they be if without it."

Franklin's religious beliefs were quintessentially American and, in many ways, quintessentially Pennsylvanian. It did not matter what one believed about God, as long as one's religion contributed to a more benevolent society and made the world, one neighborhood at a time, a more enlightened and civilized place.

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/history/20018/benjamin_franklin_and_his_religious_beliefs/1014592


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Notice how not all of the Founders were Christian, and they came from a variety of different perspectives on faith and spirituality. The thing is...back then, the divide between "Christian" and "non-Christian" or "religious" and "secular" was rather ambiguous for many of these individuals.

At the same time, it is quite clear that in terms of religion, the Founders feared not just the government controlling religion, but religion controlling the government-hence the First Amendment and the separation of church and state.

This is why the "America is a Christian Nation" myth is just that: a myth. We are a nation built on religious freedom and tolerance, but part of that freedom and tolerance means that no one religion can dominate the others through the state-or indeed, control those of us Americans who are of no religious belief.

[longship]

1. Very well documented.

Unfortunately, it won't make much of a difference to the lunatics espousing the "Christian nation" point of view.

That's what's really sad about this.

[rug]

2. Don't forget that the people you cite, save two, were slaveowners.

Whatever they believed - or didn't believe - did not prevent them from doing so.