3. Our Founding Fathers

Introduction
1. The First Amendment
2.1 Beginning of a Nation
2.2 Beginning of a Nation

One argument that frequently comes up during debates about the separation of church and state is that the Founding Fathers of the United States were not Christians.  I cannot say that I agree.  There is plenty of evidence to indicate many of the Founders were in fact Christians.  When considering the Constitution, is it necessary to know what the Founding Fathers believed? I think so.  But at the very least, knowing the backgrounds of the men responsible for bringing forth our nation can’t hurt.

In a letter to his father, John Quincy Adams wrote, “My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ.”  See the eighth quote.  Robert Treat Paine, signer of the Declaration of Independence, stated (shown here), “I desire to bless and praise the name of God most high for appointing me my birth in a land of Gospel Light where the glorious tidings of a Savior and of pardon and salvation through Him have been continually sounding in mine ears.”  Benjamin Rush, also a signer of the Declaration, relied upon the blood of Jesus to cleanse him from his sins.  Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration and the Constitution, believed in God and believed God to be Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  John Witherspoon, yet another signer, declared, “If you are not reconciled to God through Jesus Christ…you must forever perish.  See page 286, last paragraph.  These are just a few select examples.

Furthermore, Abraham Baldwin and Joel Barlow both served as Chaplains in the American Revolution.  And interestingly, at least forty Founders were involved in a Bible society. (Barton, David, Original Intent, pg. 145-149)

For more evidence regarding the Founding Fathers and their belief in God, you can also review these statements and the last will and testaments of several Founders.

I would encourage everyone to seek out original statements and writings that were made by our Founding Fathers in order to determine their beliefs.  Don’t take my word for it.  Based on the information we have available to us, which is much more than I can list in a blog post, I believe the Founders never intended for people to be prohibited from practicing Christianity outside of their homes.  And yet, people have been prohibited on numerous occasions.  Even worse, based on today’s idea of the separation of church and state, it appears the United States has gone from a country that freely embraced Christianity to a country that supports Christianity’s regulation.  If you do not believe Christianity is or has been regulated, stay tuned.

Next week, we’ll look at:

4. The Supreme Court

2.2 Beginning of a Nation

Introduction
1. The First Amendment

2.1 Beginning of a Nation

Continuing from last week:

The people’s belief in God was evident in their principles of education. A law in Connecticut ordered parents to teach their children to read English so that the children would be able to read the Bible.  Additionally, a requirement for studying at Harvard included that students were to study their Bibles and seek God through prayer. In 1790, it was added that students were to attend worship services also.  Yale, too, required students to read their Bibles and pray.  And Princeton, Dartmouth, and Columbia each had similar requirements.  You can see here for evidence.  Those rules indicate the importance of religion in early American education.  Check this site for more interesting facts regarding religion in early America.  Religion was not something the people were indifferent to.

As previously mentioned, the people wanted assurance that their religious rights could not be infringed.  Therefore, of the first thirteen states, all had state Constitutions that declared the people had a right to the free exercise of religion.  Delaware and Pennsylvania even required a religious oath be taken by government officials.  Also, Delaware, New Jersey, and North Carolina’s constitutions stated no religious sect could be established in preference to any other.  South Carolina went even further by declaring that there is one God and that the Christian religion is the true religion.  And Rhode Island's preamble states, “We, the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and to transmit the same, unimpaired, to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this Constitution of government.”  This state also recognized the people's right to freely worship God according to the dictates of their conscience.  Links to each individual state constitution can be found at the end of this post.

 

When people debate the idea of separation of church and state, an argument is typically made that America was never a Christian nation.   That argument has been enough to convince others that religious practices should be prohibited in public settings.  However, that argument is misleading.  Perhaps the government was not designed to be a “Christian government,” but the people were initially a Christian people who wanted protection to practice their religion without interference.  Founding Father John Jay wrote a letter to John Murray reflecting on the morality of war.  In the letter (see page 376), John Jay referred to our nation as a “Christian nation.” 

Additionally, some people have used the Treaty of Tripoli to indicate our nation was not intended to be Christian.  So let's review.  President George Washington sent delegates to negotiate a treaty of peace with the Muslim Barbary Powers.  At the time, American merchant ships were being destroyed and American seamen were being captured because the Barbary Powers were warring against what they believed to be a Christian government.  The Powers were all too familiar with the Christian government of England, which had a hatred of Muslims.  The Powers viewed America as being the same of England.  However, America was nothing like England.  The people were a Christian people, but the government was not a “Christian government.”  Going back to the First Amendment, we have to remember the whole purpose of the Establishment Clause was to prevent a government mandated religion.  There should be no surprise, then, that the Treaty of Tripoli stated, “…the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion…” (Italics mine).  Religious rights were intentionally left to the individual states.  Therefore, the Treaty could not allege that the federal government was a Christian government. 

Advocates of the separation of church and state further argue that John Adams believed the world to be a better place without religion.  Where does this thought come from? A letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson contains the following: “This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!” However, this phrase has been taken out of context.  By reading the entire letter, one would find the following paragraph: “Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it! But in this exclamation I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly.  Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean hell.”  In the letter, Adams was venting his frustration about the religious bickering that went on between Lemuel Bryant (a parish Priest) and Joseph Cleverly (a Latin schoolmaster).  The last line clearly states John Adams’s belief that religion is important to society.  See here for the full correspondence between Jefferson and Adams. 

I have seen nothing to indicate the Founding Fathers intended to keep religion out of the public, so how has the Supreme Court so often come to the conclusion that religion should be removed from public settings? It comes down to the idea of the separation of church and state.  Before I turn to the Supreme Court and the decisions they have made against religious practices, I will offer evidence to the Founding Fathers’s religious views next week.

And don’t forget, you can click on the following links to review the first thirteen state constitutions.

South Carolina

Delaware 

Pennsylvania

New Jersey

Georgia

Connecticut

Massachusetts

Maryland

New Hampshire  

Virginia

North Carolina

New York

Rhode Island

Coming up next week:

3. Our Founding Fathers

2.1 Beginning of a Nation

Introduction
1. The First Amendment

In last week's post, I stated that the early settler's believed in God.  So let's take a moment to go back a bit further in time in order to review evidence for that statement.  In Christian Life and Character of Civil Institutions of the United States, Benjamin Franklin Morris declared, "We have a noble nation, full of the evidences of the moulding presence of Christian truth, and of the power and goodness of Divine wisdom is rearing up a Christian republic for all time." (See preface).  In that same book, Morris offers the following:

~In New Jersey, the people were determined to carry on Godly government. (pg. 90)
~In Delaware, the Christian colonization began in 1638 after a royal member of a Sweden family decided to "aid in the Christian settlement of the New World." (pg. 91, 92)
~Virginia began in 1607 after King James granted territories and acknowledged that the work performed there would be aided by the propagation of the Christian religion. (pg. 92)
~Maryland was settled in 1632 by Lord Baltimore who hoped to further the Catholic religion.  Lord Baltimore was granted a charter because of his "...laudable zeal for extending the Christian religion...."  Additionally, when Lord Baltimore's brother, Leonard Calvert, arrived in Maryland, he erected a cross and took possession for "our Lord Jesus Christ...." (pg. 94, 95)
~South Carolina's beginnings were due to the Christian religion. (pg. 96)
~In North Carolina, the settlers were of various Christian sects who were seeking refuge from Virginia's strict Catholic laws. (pg. 98)
~Georgia received its beginning in 1732 when James Ogelthorpe landed with several emigrants to further his Christian motives. (pg. 101)

Morris goes on to say that in Massachusetts and Connecticut, all free people and civil rulers had to be in communion with the church so they could promote the Christian church. (pg. 106)

Several state charters confirmed the settler's desire to uphold the Christian religion.  For example, the Virginia charter stated that the people came to America to bring the “Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God.” 

And:

Connecticut's charter states, "...whereby Our said People Inhabitants there, may be so religiously, peaceably and civilly governed, as their good Life and orderly Conversation may win and invite the Natives of the Country to the Knowledge and Obedience of the only true GOD, and He Saviour of Mankind, and the Christian Faith, which in Our Royal Intentions, and the adventurers free Possession, is the only and principal End of this Plantation;"

Delaware's charter states, "BECAUSE no People can be truly happy, though under the greatest Enjoyment of Civil Liberties, if abridged of the Freedom of their Consciences, as to their Religious Profession and Worship: And Almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience, Father of Lights and Spirits; and the Author as well as Object of all divine Knowledge, Faith and Worship, who only doth enlighten the Minds, and persuade and convince the Understandings of People, I do hereby grant and declare..."

Georgia's charter states, "...we do by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, grant, establish and ordain, that forever hereafter, there shall be a liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God, to all persons inhabiting, or which shall inhabit or be resident within our said provinces..."

Maryland's charter states, "Whereas our well beloved and right trusty Subject Caecilius Calvert...being animated with a laudable, and pious Zeal for extending the Christian Religion..."

Copies of the original thirteen charters can be found here at the Yale Law School website. 

Interestingly enough, the majority of charters that mention religion declare that Christian people will not be prejudiced against.  This suggests that the people were concerned that the government would treat them in a negative manner based on their religion.  By the time America later declared independence from Great Britain, religious views hadn't changed.  The Declaration of Independence was signed by fifty-six men on July 4^th, 1776.  When those men placed their signatures on this document, they agreed “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”  Although Patrick Henry was not one of the signers of the Declaration, he is considered a Founding Father.  He announced, “There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations…” See here for that quote along with several others he made regarding religion.  Also, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration, queried, “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have lost the only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?” 

Considering all this information, is it any surprise that the citizens of the new nation wanted assurance that the government would not interfere with their religious beliefs and that their rights would not be violated? This is the reason the Founding Fathers included religion in the First Amendment.  The Establishment Clause and the Exercise Clause were only meant to prohibit any laws from being made that would violate the religious rights of the people.  Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has used the First Amendment to do the opposite of what the Founding Fathers intended.

Next week, I will continue with the:

Beginning of a Nation

1. The First Amendment

Introduction

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” 

It seems the common belief today is that the First Amendment requires the separation of church and state.  This is inaccurate.  As the United States was being formed, the people believed in God, and they believed people had the right to worship God however they saw fit.  They certainly did not want any entity, whether king or a national government, demanding they practice a particular religion.  By the time the Constitution was written, several Christian sects had already sprung up throughout the states.  That being the case, it would make sense that the people wanted assurance that the newly formed government could not enforce a national religion. Thus, what today is referred to as the Establishment Clause was introduced into the First Amendment.  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”  Our government was set up so that only Congress could make laws.  And the wording of the Establishment Clause was meant to assure the people that Congress could not establish a national religion.  In other words, Congress cannot make a law requiring the people of the United States to participate in a particular religion.  Furthermore, the Exercise Clause which states “…or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” was meant to assure that Congress could not forbid United States citizens from practicing their religion.  Yet the Supreme Court has on numerous occasions declared certain religious practices as being unconstitutional.  On what grounds? The absurd idea of separation of church and state, which the Court believes is implied by the First Amendment.

Where did that idea come from?

When the Constitution was written, Thomas Jefferson was in France.  And when the Bill of Rights was introduced, he had not yet returned to the United States.  Later, in 1802, he wrote a letter to members of the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut as a response to a letter he had received from them.  In their letter, they had expressed concern that the wording in the First Amendment was not enough to keep Congress from making a law adverse to their religious doctrine.  Jefferson’s response was meant to assure the association that their fears were unfounded.  “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God…I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”  A copy of the letter can be found here.  Because of this letter, the Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment to mean that the State, whether that be a state or its government buildings or its court or its funded schools, cannot and should not allow any religious practices within its structure.  So according to the Supreme Court, even though Jefferson was not part of the Constitutional Convention and did not take part in the Bill of Rights, his letter defined the First Amendment.   Interestingly, Jefferson believed that the national government had no power to make laws regarding religion.  However, he did believe that the states had the authority to do so.  In a letter written by Jefferson to Rev. Samuel Miller, Jefferson stated, "Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general government. It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be in any human authority."

The First Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights only to prevent the government from forming a national religion. Go here to review the statements made during the Congressional debates.  Elbridge Gerry said the First Amendment would read better if it was stated as, “No religious doctrine shall be established by law.”  James Madison suggested the First Amendment should be worded to read, “The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established.”  Indeed, after the First Amendment was written, Madison interpreted it to mean that Congress could not establish a national religion.  George Mason also believed that no sect of Christianity should be established in preference (pg. 244) of any other.  Furthermore, while speaking at the ratifying convention in North Carolina, Samuel Johnston expressed his belief that the Constitution would not allow the establishment of any one religion, and that there was no reason to fear such an event.**  However,  Peter Sylvester was afraid the First Amendment could be used to do away with religion altogether.  Considering the many decisions by the Supreme Court, it seems Sylvester’s fears were not unmerited.

**Can be verified by accessing ELLIOT'S DEBATES from the Library of Congress, Volume 4, pg. 198, 199. (Link won't work by copying and pasting)


Next Friday: 2. Beginning of a Nation

What does freedom mean to you?

With Independence Day quickly approaching, I have found myself wondering what the Founding Fathers would say to us if they were alive today.  What would they think of America? How would they view today's interpretation of the Constitution? Would they clap their hands or shake their heads? I don't have the answers to those questions.  I have always enjoyed American History; it was my favorite subject in school.  Last year I read a book called America's Providential History by Mark Beliles & Stephen McDowell.  I really enjoyed it.  I also started reading Original Intent by David Barton.  What I have read so far in that book is just as interesting, but my own writing has occupied so much of my time that I haven't finished that book yet.  They're worth reading if you are interested.

All that being said, the purpose of today's post is not to get into a political debate.  We can save that for another time.  I would like to ask you, though, what does freedom mean to you? Maybe freedom to you is the right to speak freely or the right to bear arms.  Or maybe you think of your right to worship however you see fit or to not worship if that's the case.  And those are all important.  But what about freedom from poverty? From abuse? From being bullied? What about the right to a good education in a safe environment? I could go on and on.  Think about it.

As we prepare to celebrate with barbecues and fireworks displays, let's remember those who have fought and those who are still fighting for freedom today.  Please note, soldiers are not the only people fighting this fight.  There are people all over fighting for the rights of others.  Don't get me wrong, though.  I do believe soldiers deserve special recognition for their service.  Many of my family members and friends have served in the military and I certainly don't want to detract from any soldier's bravery or sacrifice.

So let's remember everyone who has fought or is fighting.  Thank them.  Say a prayer for them.  Appreciate them.  They deserve it.