The phrase "Founding Fathers" is a proper noun. It refers to a
specific group of men, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional
Convention. There were other important players not in attendance, like
Jefferson, whose thinking deeply influenced the shaping of our nation.
These 55 Founding Fathers, though, made up the core.
The denominational affiliations of these men were a matter of
public record. Among the delegates were 28 Episcopalians, 8
Presbyterians, 7 Congregationalists, 2 Lutherans, 2 Dutch Reformed, 2
Methodists, 2 Roman Catholics, 1 unknown, and only 3
deists--Williamson, Wilson, and Franklin--this at a time when church
membership entailed a sworn public confession of biblical faith.[1]
This is a revealing tally. It shows that the members of the
Constitutional Convention, the most influential group of men shaping
the political foundations of our nation, were almost all Christians, 51
of 55--a full 93%. Indeed, 70% were Calvinists (the Episcopalians,
Presbyterians, and the Dutch Reformed), considered by some to be the
most extreme and dogmatic form of Christianity.
Benjamin Franklin
Even Franklin the deist is equivocal. He was raised in a Puritan
family and later adopted then abandoned deism. Though not an orthodox
Christian, it was 81-year-old Franklin's emotional call to humble
prayer on June 28, 1787, that was the turning point for a hopelessly
stalled Convention. James Madison recorded the event in his collection
of notes and debates from the Federal Convention. Franklin's appeal
contained no less than four direct references to Scripture.
And have we forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we
imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, sir, a
long time and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of
this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men. 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, sir, in the
sacred writings that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in
vain that build it.' I firmly believe this and I also believe that
without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building
no better than the builders of Babel.[2]
Three of the four cornerstones of the Constitution--Franklin,
Washington, and Madison--were firmly rooted in Christianity. But what
about Thomas Jefferson? His signature cannot be found at the end of the
Constitution, but his voice permeates the entire document.
Thomas Jefferson
Though deeply committed to a belief in natural rights, including
the self-evident truth that all men are created equal, Jefferson was
individualistic when it came to religion; he sifted through the New
Testament to find the facts that pleased him.
Sometimes he sounded like a staunch churchman. The Declaration
of Independence contains at least four references to God. In his Second
Inaugural Address he asked for prayers to Israel's God on his behalf.
Other times Jefferson seemed to go out of his way to be irreverent and
disrespectful of organized Christianity, especially Calvinism.
It's clear that Thomas Jefferson was no evangelical, but
neither was he an Enlightenment deist. He was more Unitarian than
either deist or Christian.[3]
This analysis, though, misses the point. The most important
factor regarding the faith of Thomas Jefferson--or any of our Founding
Fathers--isn't whether or not he had a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ. The debate over the religious heritage of this country is not
about who is ultimately going to heaven, but rather about what the
dominant convictions were that dictated the structure of this nation.
Even today there are legions of born-again Christians who have
absolutely no skill at integrating their beliefs about Christ with the
details of their daily life, especially their views of government. They
may be "saved," but they are completely ineffectual as salt and light.
By contrast, some of the Fathers may not have been believers
in the narrowest sense of the term, yet in the broader sense--the sense
that influences culture--their thinking was thoroughly Christian.
Unlike many evangelicals who live lives of practical atheism, these men
had political ideals that were deeply informed by a robust Christian
world view. They didn't always believe biblically, having a faith leading to salvation, but almost all thought biblically, resulting in a particular type of government.
Thomas Jefferson was this kind of man. In Defending the Declaration,
legal historian Gary Amos observes, "Jefferson is a notable example of
how a man can be influenced by biblical ideas and Christian principles
even though he never confessed Jesus Christ as Lord in the evangelical
sense."[4]
What Did the Founding Fathers Believe and Value?
When you study the documents of the Revolutionary period, a precise picture comes into focus. Here it is:
- Virtually all those involved in the founding enterprise were
God-fearing men in the Christian sense; most were Calvinistic
Protestants.
- The Founders were deeply influenced by a
biblical view of man and government. With a sober understanding of the
fallenness of man, they devised a system of limited authority and
checks and balances.
- The Founders understood that fear of
God, moral leadership, and a righteous citizenry were necessary for
their great experiment to succeed.
- Therefore, they structured
a political climate that was encouraging to Christianity and
accommodating to religion, rather than hostile to it.
- Protestant Christianity was the prevailing religious view for the first 150 years of our history.
However...
- The Fathers sought to set up a just society, not a Christian theocracy.
- They specifically prohibited the establishment of Christianity--or any other faith--as the religion of our nation.
A Two-Sided Coin
We can safely draw two conclusions from these facts, which serve
to inform our understanding of the relationship between religion and
government in the United States.
First, Christianity was the prevailing moral and intellectual
influence shaping the nation from its outset. The Christian influence
pervaded all aspects of life, from education to politics. Therefore,
the present concept of a rigid wall of separation hardly seems
historically justified.
Virtually every one of the Founders saw a vital link between
civil religion and civil government. George Washington's admonitions in
his Farewell Speech, September 19, 1796, were characteristic of the
general sentiment:
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to
political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable
supports....And let us indulge with caution the supposition that
morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both
forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of
religious principles.[5]
Second, the Founders stopped short of giving their Christian
religion a position of legal privilege. In the tradition of the early
church, believers were to be salt and light. The First Amendment
insured the liberty needed for Christianity to be a preserving
influence and a moral beacon, but it also insured Christianity would
never be the law of the land.
This ought to call into serious question a common tactic of
the so-called Religious Right. "We were here first," their apologists
proclaim. "Our country was stolen from us, and we demand it back."
Author John Seel calls this "priority as entitlement."
The sad fact of the matter is that cultural authority was not
stolen from us; we surrendered it through neglect. Os Guinness pointed
out that Christians have not been out-thought. Rather, they have not
been around when the thinking was being done.
Choosing cultural monasticism rather than hard-thinking
advocacy, Christians abandoned the public square to the secularists.
When the disciples of Jesus Christ retreated, the disciples of Dewey,
Marx, Darwin, Freud, Nietzsche, Skinner, and a host of others replaced
them.
Seel warns of the liability of an "appeal to history as a basis of Christian grounds to authority."[6]
Playing the victim will not restore our influence, nor will political
strong-arm tactics. Shouldn't our appeal rather be on the basis of
truth rather than on the patterns of the past?
The faith of our Founding Fathers was Christianity, not deism.
In this regard, many secularists--and even some Christians--have been
wrong in their assessment of our history. On the other hand, many
Christians have also been mistaken in their application of the past to
the present.
Christians have no special privileges simply because
Christianity was America's first faith. "If America ever was or ever
will be a 'Christian nation,'" Seel observes, "it is not by conscious
design or written law, but by free conviction."[7]
Success for the Christian cannot be measured in numbers or
political muscle, but only in faithfulness. Our most important weapon
is not our voting power, but the power of the truth freely spoken and
freely heard.
Recommended Reading:
Let Freedom Ring--A Basic Outline of American History, available through the Family Research Council, 700 Thirteenth St., N.W., Suite 500, Washington D.C. 20005, 1-800-225-4008
The Light and the Glory, Peter Marshall and David Manuel (Grand Rapids: Revell, 1977)
Christianity and the Constitution--The Faith of Our Founding Fathers, John Eidsmoe (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987)
Defending the Declaration--How the Bible and Christianity Influenced the Writing of the Declaration of Independence, Gary T. Amos (Brentwood, TN: Wogelmuth & Hyatt, 1989)
Positive Neutrality: Letting Religious Freedom Ring, Stephen T. Monsma, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993)
[1] John Eidsmoe,
Christianity and the Constitution, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987), p. 43.
[2] Benjamin Franklin, quoted by James Madison in Notes on Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1966, 1985), p. 209.
[3] Eidsmoe has a very thorough and even-handed section on Jefferson.
[4] Gary T. Amos, Defending the Declaration, (Brentwood, TN: Wogelmuth & Hyatt, 1989), p. 9.
[5] The Annals of America, (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1976), vol. 3, p. 612.
[6] John Seel, No God But God--Breaking with the Idols of Our Age, Os Guinness and John Seel, eds., (Chicago: Moody Press, 1992), p. 64.
[7] John Seel, No God But God--Breaking with the Idols of Our Age, Os Guinness and John Seel, eds., (Chicago: Moody Press, 1992), p. 69.
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