If our Founding Fathers were all Christians, why did they say this?

[elleng]

(food for thought, on this July 5!)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/18/1285607/-If-Our-Founding-Fathers-Were-All-Christians-Why-Did-They-Say-This?detail=emailclassic

[pipoman]

1. Most of the founding fathers were practicing Christians

They were also students of history, which is more than can be said for most of modern society..

[Mojorabbit]

5. I thought most of them were Deists? nt

[Warpy]

6. They were, at least the literate founders who contributed to the documents

They were products of the Enlightenment, not the churches. The more obscure ones who participated in the discussions and whose votes were required were the Christians.

[elleng]

10. Yes indeed,

so when I studied them I decided I too was Deist!!!

[immoderate]

8. The term 'practicing Christian' requires more clarity...

A good plurality of founders were Deists, not Christians. The Adams line were Unitarians. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison were Deists.

You could be saying that they were in accord with "Christian" moral principles. But then you are saying that Christian is synonymous with moral, and IMO, that would be a perversion of language.

--imm

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. Most of them opposed the stae being involved in their christian

Religion, because srate religions were forms of tyranny.

[Mass]

3. The title is idiotic and has nothing to do with the text.

Yes, the GOP is disingenuous because they know perfectly well that the Founders were mostly people from the Enlightenment who were suspicious of a religious state. But what does that has to do with the title. You can be Christian (or Muslim, Jewish, ...)and disagree with a religious state that imposes your belief on others.

[thucythucy]

4. They were all students of English and European history.

They were cognizant of how Henry VIII persecuted Catholics after establishing Anglicanism as the official, state sponsored religion, how Queen Mary turned this on its head to re-establish Catholicism as the state religion, which was then reversed by Eliisabeth (who attempted to exclude religion from her political agenda). They were aware of how Anglicans persecuted Puritans, how Louis XIV persecuted French Protestants, how the Thirty Years War devastated Germany.

They didn't necessarily blame religion, per se, but rather the use of religion for political purposes. Best to keep religion out of government, and government out of religion, even if most all of them were practicing Christians.

Seems pretty logical to me.

[PADemD]

12. Many of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons.

Freemasonry evolved from the Knights Templar who were charged with heresy and persecuted by French King Philip IV and Pope Clement V.

An excellent book on this subject is Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry, by John J. Robinson.

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Blood-Lost-Secrets-Freemasonry/dp/0871316021/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

[thucythucy]

13. This is interesting.

Thank you for the link.

[PADemD]

14. If you read this book

I highly recommend reading the appendix, the English version of the encyclical Humanum Genus, by Pope Leo XIII.

Humanum Genus is an extensive condemnation of the principles of Freemasonry, which I believe, after reading this book, is on what our nation is founded. Two are the separation of church and state and the education of children by laypersons, not the church.

[arcane1]

7. They left out the Treaty of Tripoli:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Emphasis mine

[elleng]

9. YES, Thanks for that important bit of history, arcane1!

[truebluegreen]

11. At this point in our history, I would make a point to "bold" another line:

"...as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen...."