OUR founders’ vision
The inconvenient origins of a Christian nation By Dr. Rick Chromey
My country ‘tis of Thee Sweet land of liberty Of Thee we sing! According to modern historians who’ve radically reimagined our American story, this patriot hymn is sentimental myth. The Founding Fathers were Deists, agnostics and liberal Christians. The Constitution is “wholly secular.” We were never a “Christian” nation. But are these revisionist assessments correct? Is America’s legacy a secular tale? To learn the truth, we need to consult original and early source works.
Dr. Rick Chromey
Our Founders Were Deists, Agnostics And Liberal Theologians Secularists routinely cite the irreligiosity of Paine or the Deism of Franklin and Jefferson. Indeed, these Founders advocated unorthodox views. However, there were approximately 200 influential “Founding Fathers” – including Benjamin Rush, Samuel Adams, Gouverneur Morris, John Dickinson, Frances Hopkinson, John Witherspoon, Elias Boudinot, Charles Carroll and Charles Thomson – who affirmed biblical Christianity. We mustn’t overlook devout Christian men who led our Revolution, signed the Declaration of Independence and authored the U.S. Constitution – including clergy educated in seminaries (still uncorrupted by mid-19th century liberalism). Our Founding Fathers preached sermons (Witherspoon), launched Sunday Schools (Rush), translated Scriptures (Thomson), and wrote church hymns (Hopkinson). John Hancock affirmed
“the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state.”(1) Patrick Henry confessed his Christianity was a “prize far above all this world has or can boast.”(2) When we review Founders’ diaries, wills and writings, it’s obvious they advocated Christian faith. Even America’s foremost Deists professed affinity toward Christianity. Benjamin Franklin stated of Jesus that his “system of morals” and “His religion” were “the best the world ever saw or is likely to see.”(3) Thomas Jefferson proclaimed, “I am a Christian in the only sense in which [Jesus] wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.”(4) The inconvenient truth is our Founders were mostly devout Christians.
America Was Never A “Christian Nation” Since the 1940s, this idea has been propagated to implant a “wall of separation” between religion and government. But is that separation what our Founders intended? Not according to John Adams. He argued, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”(5) In 1813 Adams was clearer: “The general principles on which the [founding] fathers achieved independence [was]...Christianity.”(6) He further testified that Christianity is “above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.”(7) Are these the thoughts of a secularist? Hardly. And neither are the words of these influential Founding Fathers: John Quincy Adams: “The Declaration of Independence
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32 March / April 2021 | Christian Living
www.christianlivingmag.com
