Were the Founding Fathers Christian? A Detailed Look at the Facts By Les Marsden Les Marsden from the Mariposa Democratic Club wrote this piece in response to an e-mail he received from a friend which tried to promulgate the premise that our founding fathers were Christians. The e-mail ended with this: "Please send it to as many as you think will be touched by the assurance that the USA is and always has been a Christian, Godly nation. May God bless America and have mercy on us all." Les had a little bit to say about that . . . . . . . and we thank Les for sharing it with us. From: Les Marsden Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 I'm replying to the original author's premises and hopefully will provide some elucidation on this missive, which takes (I feel) a very dangerous position. There are two glaring errors in logic and reason: first, that the Founders were believers in God, a God as commonly characterized by the Old and New Testament. And secondly, that a belief in (some form of) God therefore demands that we were intended as, and that we now be a Christian Nation. And also: simply because 50 states take a position, or in fact any majority or plurality support an opinion, that opinion is not necessarily at all correct! Let's not forget that the very Constitution of the USA once forbade alcohol in every single state of the union (and yet it was freely imbibed) and that voting rights for women or African-Americans was forbidden by every single state...until the Constitution was amended to guarantee those rights. So I think we can dismiss the 'majority rules make it correct' theory. Or is the Constitution of the United States of America to be brushed aside simply because (another fact:) that document contains absolutely not a single mention of God?!? I will grant you this: this nation was founded upon a belief in God. SOME kind of God. SOME kind of BELIEF in SOME kind of God. But what is God? Do you have any idea what denomination or belief was adhered to by the founders? Do you know how the very word God was interpreted in the time of our founders, by those who used the very word in so many documents (beyond) the many cited here in the e-mail you forwarded? Do you have an idea what the word God meant to the majority of America's Founders? It is NO secret; rather it has been misrepresented or in plain fact absolutely scuttled by those for whom this information serves no contemporary agenda. I do not deny that some founders were 'traditional' believers, and some were Christians, but those are not two necessarily concomitant policies. The Founders were, for the most part, profoundly influenced by the Age of Enlightenment; they were well-read and profoundly inspired by the philosophy of their time. They were the products of the Age of Enlightment/Reason - or in the words of Kant, "the emergence from man's nonage" or immaturity. They were profoundly influenced by, and/or were hugely influenced believers in the philosophy of Deism. In a nutshell, Deism is well explained by the philosopher/historian Richard Hooker: "Deists believed that if God created a rational universe, a universe that could be understood by human reason alone, that must mean that God was rational as well. If God is rational, then God can be understood through the use of reason without recourse to mysticism, superstition, prayer, or even the divinity of Christ. The Deists set out to replace Christianity with its ceremonies, devices, and supernatural aspects...." The philosophy of their time was NOTHING like that of today; deep thought has been supplanted today for the most part by a sort of fortress of fundamentality -- non-questioning, non logical, blind faith. No questions asked, all others must accept THE AGENDA or be written off. This 'philosophy' is most dangerously promulgated in the 'Left Behind' movement. Here is reality: George Washington was (publicly) an Anglican/Episcopalian/Unitarian but was (in fact) a devout DEIST. That is the whole key to the interpretation of 'a belief in God' by our founders and their very use of the word. Washington's membership in the Anglican Church was common social/political practice in Colonial and especially pre-Revolutionary times; you had to belong to the dominant church if you wanted to have influence in society, as is illustrated by the following taken from Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, by Bishop William Meade, I, p 191: "Even Mr. Jefferson, and George Wythe, who did not conceal their disbelief in Christianity, took their parts in the duties of vestrymen, the one at Williamsburg, the other at Albermarle; for they wished to be men of influence." Furthermore, I've myself been to Mount Vernon, I've seen George Washington's own Freemason apron; he is fully known (and unquestioningly so) to have been a Freemason (one of those horrid, cultish, shadowy, secret organizations!) and so therefore, why is America not today trumpeted as a 'Mason Nation' -- fully intended by the Father of our Nation to be so because he was one? Bottom line reality: Washington in fact wrote about his faith as not being founded in a belief in Christ. Washington was well known to be tolerant of the various religions of others - such was one of the principal tenets of Freemasonry by the way - but there has been a truly deceitful and in fact slanderous attempt to re- or mis- interpret Washington as Christian, which he was not. Christian preachers who ardently wanted Washington to be portrayed as one of them have made up many stories of George Washington's strong Christian beliefs. One of the primary purveyors of these propaganda pieces was Mason Locke Weems, a Christian preacher who came up with the fable of George Washington and the cherry tree. He also feverishly promoted the myth of George Washington and Christianity. Arthur B. Bradford was an associate of Ashbel Green, a Presbyterian minister who had known George Washington personally. Bradford wrote that Green, "often said in my hearing, though very sorrowfully, of course, that while Washington was very deferential to religion and its ceremonies, like nearly all the founders of the Republic, he was not a Christian, but a Deist." Washington is not the one and only example of a non-Christian Founding Father. I hate to burst the bubble, but here are other well-known and well-documented Deists: Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Franklin Thomas Paine And here are excerpts from the writings of Founding Father Deists and Christians alike regarding the nature of Christianity and/or the influence of Christianity on our national government. Ponder particularly below the words of John Adams, who WAS a practicing Christian and especially his (well-known) influence and signature on the Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, which he signed in 1797 while serving as President of the United States and which was ratified by Congress. That very document should put an end to ALL calls that America be considered some sort of 'Christian' Nation: Thomas Jefferson: "I have examined all the known superstitions of the word, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth." SIX HISTORIC AMERICANS, by John E. Remsburg, letter to William Short Jefferson again: "Christianity...(has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. ...Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes"; and More Jefferson: "The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ. Jefferson's word for the Bible? "Dunghill." John Adams: "Where do we find a precept in the Bible for Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines and Oaths, and whole carloads of other trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days?" Also Adams: "The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity." Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 states: "The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." And this is not a direct quote (because I don't have my fingers on it at the moment) but Adams wrote to Jefferson sometime in the 18-teens, about ten years before their shared deathdate of July 4, 1826 that he frequently believed that the world would have been a far better place had there never been any religion. Here's Thomas Paine: "I would not dare to so dishonor my Creator God by attaching His name to that book (the Bible)." "Among the most detestable villains in history, you could not find one worse than Moses. Here is an order, attributed to 'God' to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers and to debauch and rape the daughters. I would not dare so dishonor my Creator's name by (attaching) it to this filthy book (the Bible)." "It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible." "Accustom a people to believe that priests and clergy can forgive sins...and you will have sins in abundance."; and "The Christian church has set up a religion of pomp and revenue in pretended imitation of a person (Jesus) who lived a life of poverty." Finally let's hear from James Madison: "What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy." Madison objected to state-supported chaplains in Congress and to the exemption of churches from taxation. He wrote: "Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together." These founding fathers were a reflection of the American population. Having escaped from the state-established religions of Europe, only 7% of the people in the 13 colonies belonged to a church when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Among those who confuse Christianity with the founding of America, the rise of conservative Baptists is one of the more interesting developments. The Baptists believed God's authority came from the people, not the priesthood, and they had been persecuted for this belief. It was they - the Baptists - who were instrumental in securing the separation of church and state. They knew you can not have a "one-way wall" that lets religion into government but that does not let it out. They knew no religion is capable of handling political power without becoming corrupted by it. And, perhaps, they knew it was Christ himself who first proposed the separation of church and state: "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto the Lord that which is the Lord's." In the last five years the Baptists have been taken over by a fundamentalist faction that insists authority comes from the Bible and that the individual must accept the interpretation of the Bible from a higher authority. These usurpers of the Baptist faith are those who insist they should meddle in the affairs of the government and it is they who insist the government should meddle in the beliefs of individuals. The price of Liberty is constant vigilance. Religious fundamentalism and zealous patriotism have always been the forces which require the greatest attention. Remember: A belief in God or Deism does not make one a Christian! Fundamentalist Christians have tried desperately to reinvent this American Nation as a Christian Nation. Despite their non-stop ignorance and disregard for historic truth, America is not and was never meant to be a Christian state. To try to recreate America as such is as offensive to me as trying to reinvent America as a Muslim, Hindu, Hebraic, Buddhist or other contemporarily religious state. If one even considers the Pilgrims (from who my wife is descended) as 'Founders': they came here in order to secure freedom OF and FROM religion. America is not and must not ever be considered to be the land of a particular form of religion and to do so is a horribly ill-conceived notion. I have no problem with personal happiness, comfort, identity or rock-bound belief in one's own PERSONAL religion. But it is absolutely 100 percent dead wrong when one tries to impose one's personal beliefs upon others. To attempt to regard America as a "Christian Nation" and in fact to try to wholly mis-characterize it as such is simply an attempt to impose one's personal religion on others. Does that make me a 'Liberal' supporter of the ACLU? I hope so! I would never want to impose my own personal religious interpretation of God on another human being. I would never wish to FORCE my own interpretations on another human being. To do so would be scarcely less than the same sort of blindness, intolerance and (bluntly) dangerous ignorance demonstrated by al Qaeda. And other Muslim terrorists. And the Catholic Church of Pope Sixtus IV. And every Christian Crusader intent upon wiping out the 'infidels.' And the Klan of today. And (dare I say it?) the fundamentalist Evangelicals of today. Fact: America was never intended to be a Christian nation. Period. To misrepresent it as such, or to misinterpret or (flatly - as some in history have done) lie about the Founders' intentions is just plain wrong. Best, Les Marsden