Religion and the Founding Generation by Brion McClanahan
The role Christianity played in the founding period is often a subject of considerable debate, particularly for those on the Left who would want Americans to forget the founding generation. Leftists will often cherry-pick quotations that “show” the founding generation was anti-Christian or at the very least suspicious of religion in public life.
Most often Thomas Jefferson’s “Bible” or James Madison’s views on the “separation of church and state” are held as concrete evidence that all of the members of the founding generation thought the same way. That’s funny, because these same people will often scream things like, “The Founding Fathers never agreed on anything, so you right wingers can’t claim them as your own!” Yet, the question of religion in the founding generation is a nice case study of how that generation generally did agree on fundamental principles.
The question should not be if the founding generation were Christians, because most were, it should be which members of the founding generation are being used as examples.
Fifty of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 were practicing Christians. Benjamin Franklin—often used as a great non-Christian “example” by the Left—praised his Christian sister in letters for her devotion to the faith and during the Constitutional Convention called for daily prayer to help move the business of the group. Jefferson had his “Bible,” but he never published it in his lifetime for fear of reprisal from the Virginia community and he never let it be known publically that he was a “non-Christian.”
Madison consistently argued for the separation of church and state, but considered a career in the ministry as a young man. And for every Jefferson or Madison or Franklin, there were at least a handful of members of the founding generation who were pious Christians. Many of them are not household names because they didn’t leave the same written legacy as their more famous counterparts, but they had as much of a role in shaping the state and federal governments as Jefferson, Madison, or Franklin.
Additionally, the Left is correct that the United States government is a secular government, but the key to understanding the role of religion in the founding period is not the United States Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, but the state constitutions that were written between 1776 and 1781. Jefferson emphasized in the Declaration of Independence that the “united States,” as “FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES,” were declaring their independence from Great Britain. An 18th Century definition of a state is a sovereign political entity. Thus, the state constitutions in the late 18th Century were more important than the Articles of Confederation or the United States Constitution and are a nice window into how the founding generation viewed religion.
The founding generation believed the states were better equipped to handle the status of religion. No one wanted Puritan Northerners telling Orthodox Anglican Southerners how to worship or Catholic Marylanders infringing on the rights of Pennsylvania Quakers. All four groups are Christians, but all worshiped in different churches with different rituals and ceremonies. To form a union, all had to get along, and all could as long as religious issues, among others, were removed from the general business of the union.
This is why the Articles of Confederation was mute on the question of religion and why the 1st Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the establishment of religion, meaning a Church of the United States. But at the state level, things were much different.
The 1776 Pennsylvania constitution, Delaware constitution of 1776, and 1777 Vermont constitution contained a religious-test oath that required each member of the assembly to swear that he believed in God and acknowledged “the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration.” Both the Vermont and North Carolina constitution of 1776 required members of the state legislatures to uphold “the Protestant religion.”
The 1778 South Carolina constitution was more direct: “The Christian Protestant religion shall be deemed, and is hereby constituted and declared to be, the established religion of this State. That all denominations of Christian Protestants in this State, demeaning themselves peaceably and faithfully, shall enjoy equal religious and civil privileges.”
The 1776 New Jersey constitution was slightly more tolerant. It declared that all Protestants were guaranteed freedom of worship, but it left the door open to abridge religious freedom for other denominations or sects. The 1776 constitution of Maryland and 1780 constitution of Massachusetts allowed for religious freedom for all “Christians” and the Maryland constitution imposed a tax for supporting Christianity in the State.
Georgia, in its 1777 constitution, granted religious freedom, provided the religion was not “repugnant to the peace and safety” of the state. The Virginia constitution of 1776 included a right to freedom of worship, but insisted that all men had a duty to practice “Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.” New York had perhaps the strictest statements against an established religion and it prohibited clergyman from holding office.
From the evidence above one can only conclude that the founding generation was at least generally supportive of Christianity in public life. These were not godless men, selective quotations to the contrary. The members of the founding generation as a rule were Christians who thought religion in public life was not only a blessing but a necessity for a free government. Don’t let the Left fool you. Even if the United States government was secular and mute on organized religion, the “united States” and the people of those states were not.
Dr. McClanahan holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from the University of South Carolina. Born in Virginia, he attended high school in Delaware and received a B.A. in history from Salisbury University in Maryland. He is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to The Founding Fathers (Regnery Publishing, 2009).
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39340
Check out Dr. McClanahan’s website: http://brionmcclanahan.com/
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While you correctly note that most of the original thirteen states had established religions, at the time of the drafting of the First Amendment and for several decades thereafter, a political “disestablishment” movement swept the country, with the result that not only was the First Amendment adopted to constrain the federal government but also by the 1830s all states ended the practice of supporting a favored church and adopted various constitutional provisions against establishing religion. An early observer of our republic noted the result: “On my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention. . . . I questioned the members of all the different sects. . . . I found that they differed upon matters of detail alone, and that they all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America, I did not meet a single individual, of the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835).
While there may be reason to quibble about this or that bit of evidence about the religiosity of various founders, I agree with you that many of them were religious and Christian. Care should be taken, though, not to make too much of the founders’ individual religious beliefs. In assessing the nature of our government, the religiosity of the various founders, while informative, is largely beside the point. Whatever their religions, they drafted a Constitution that plainly establishes a secular government on the power of the people (not a deity) and says nothing substantive of god(s) or religion except in the First Amendment where the point is to confirm that each person enjoys religious liberty and that the government is not to take steps to establish religion and another provision precluding any religious test for public office. This is entirely consistent with the fact that some founders professed their religiosity and even their desire that Christianity remain the dominant religious influence in American society. Why? Because religious people who would like to see their religion flourish in society may well believe that separating religion and government will serve that end and, thus, in founding a government they may well intend to keep it separate from religion. It is entirely possible for thoroughly religious folk to found a secular government and keep it separate from religion. That, indeed, is just what the founders did.
OBAMA FULFILLING THE BIBLE
Pres. Lincoln stated: “I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man.” But several Bible verses are embarrassing to Pres. Obama:
Proverbs 19:10 (NIV): “It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury – how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!”
Also Proverbs 30:22 (NIV) which says that the earth cannot bear up under “a servant who becomes king.”
And Ecclesiastes 5:2-3 (KJV) advises: “let thy words be few…a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.”
Although Obama is not descended from slaves, he may feel that he’s destined to become a black-slavery avenger.
Or maybe an enslaver of all free citizens!
For some stunning info on Pres. Obama and his fellow subversives, Google “Michelle Obama’s Allah-day,” “Obama Supports Public Depravity,” “David Letterman’s Hate Etc.,” “Un-Americans Fight Franklin Graham” and also “Sandra Bernhard, Larry David, Kathy Griffin, Bill Maher, Sarah Silverman.”
PS – Since Christians are commanded to ask God to send severe judgment on persons who commit and support the worst forms of evil (see I Cor. 5 and note “taken away”), Christians everywhere should constantly pray that the Lord will soon “take away” or at least overthrow all US leaders, including Obama, who continue to sear their conscience and arrogantly trample the God-given rights of the majority including the rights of the unborn. Do we need a second American Revolution?
PPS – For a rare look at a 180-year-old, imported-from-British-crazies endtime escapist belief which has long neutralized millions by promising them an “imminent rapture” off earth – which has diverted them away from being prepared to stand against all enemies, domestic as well as foreign – Google “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty” and “Pretrib Rapture – Hidden Facts.”