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In recent years there is a movement to deny that the United States of America is a Christian Nation and that it was founded on Christian principles by Christians. The reasons for this movement vary depending on the motivations of the group.
The Religious Left - The Atheists, the Darwinists, and the ACLU would like to do away with any reference to Christianity within our country. They say that they want to protect religious freedom and they use the so called Constitutional Separation of Church and State argument to try and accomplish this. Their motivation is, of course, to promote their religion of Evolution as fact and convince everyone that there is no God.
The Political Left - There are many on the left, including the ACLU, that want to deny that this nation was founded on Christian principles because it is those principles that keep them from acquiring more power by taking away individual liberties. There are even those who say they are Christians but still deny this country was founded as a Christian nation because of political party and ideological loyalty. If the moral standards of Christianity are used by the lawmakers it will not let them accomplish their agenda of controlling the population as they’d like to. This group wants to minimize the Christian influence for the same reasons all communist nations have tried to limit the Christian influence in their population.
Although the Political-Left also likes to use the so-called Seperation of Church and State argument they don't seem to have a problem with religions such as Islam being promoted. Islam actually promotes their agenda because it promotes tyranny over individual freedom. Therefore Islam can be used as a tool to accomplish that agenda.
Christianity is the only religion that is based on individual freedom and liberty. But with that comes individual responsibility guided by a strong moral compass. That moral compass is based in the Word of God. Starting with Adam and Eve God has given us the freedom to make our own choices. He has also chastised and passed judgment on man whenever men have turned their back on God, ignored the Word and therefore lost that moral compass. Religions such as Islam are based on tyranny and control of others. There are no moral or ethical standards when the religion teaches the destruction of any who have a different belief.
These are the primary reasons for this movement to deny that our country was founded as a Christian nation and that the founders of the nation where Christians. Let’s look at how they try to convince others of this.
Both of these groups argue that nowhere in the Constitution is Christianity mentioned, and that religion is only used once in the 1st Amendment. Although this is true, if you look at the documents around and leading up to the Constitution as well as the writings of the founders there is no denying that the constitution itself is based on Christian principles.
A few examples :
Our constitution was modeled after the colonial constitution of the Commonwealth of Connecticut. That’s why Connecticut has the nickname of the Constitution State.
Here is how the Connecticut colonial constitution begins:
For as much as it has pleased the Almighty God by the wise disposition of his Divine Providence so to order and dispose of Kings, that we the Inhabitants of Windsor, Hartford, and Weathersfield, now cohabiting and dwelling in and upon the River of Connecticut and the Lands thereunto adjoining, and well knowing when a people gathered together, the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people, there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion shall require; do therefore associate and conjoine ourselves to be as one publick Estate or Commonwealth, and do for ourselves and successors and such as shall be adjoining to us at any time hereafter, enter into combination and confederation together to maintain and preserve the Liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we now profess; as also the Discipline of the Church of Christ, according to the truth of said Gospel as now preached amongst us, as also in civil affaires to be guided and governed according to such Laws, Rules, Orders and Decrces as shall be made Ordered and Decreed as followeth
To deny that this was written by Christians would simply be dishonest.
The Declaration of Independence :
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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. …………………………………………..
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
While Christianity and Jesus are not included in this text there is no doubt that the God referred to here is the Judeo/Christian God. To argue that these rights are endowed by Allah or any other God makes your argument lose all credibility.
At the Continental Congress Benjamin Franklin submitted a motion to start each session with prayer.
".................. In the beginning of the Contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection.- Our prayers, Sir, were heard, & they were graciously answered.................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 labour in vain that build it." I firmly believe this................I therefore beg leave to move-that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that Service."
We also see arguments attempting to deny that the founders were Christians. The deniers will try to tell us that rhe founders were Deists who only believed in a Supreme being as it related to the universe being created. But since then everything was done by the laws of nature and there was no Devine intervention. We also have the Political-Left say that there is no way you could know the original intent of the founders to use in interpreting the constitution. All we have to do is look at the writings of these men outside of the founding documents to understand what their beliefs and intentions were.
A few examples:
George Washington
1st U.S. President
"While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian."
--The Writings of Washington, pp. 342-343.
John Adams
2nd U.S. President and Signer of the Declaration of Independence
"Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God ... What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be."
--Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9.
"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."
--Adams wrote this on June 28, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson
3rd U.S. President, Drafter and Signer of the Declaration of Independence
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event."
--Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237.
"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."
--The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 385.
John Hancock
1st Signer of the Declaration of Independence
"Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. ... Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us."
--History of the United States of America, Vol. II, p. 229.
Benjamin Franklin
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Unites States Constitution
"Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped.
That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see;
--Benjamin Franklin wrote this in a letter to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale University on March 9, 1790.
These are the words of the founding fathers. How can anyone deny these men are Christians? To do so would be to call them liars. To do so you would have to be a liar. They were obviously Christians and I see nothing they have written that leads me to believe they wanted to keep Christianity out of the government. What I see is just the opposite.
The Deniers like to quote Amendment XI in the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, in which we find the words, "…the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion…".
To understand this agreement between the U.S. and the Muslims of the Barbary nations you first have to understand the context. At the time thousands of our citizens were in the custody of Barbary pirates. The U.S. was viewed by the Muslims as a Christian Nation in the same context of the European Christian nations of the Crusades. Any Christian nation was viewed as a militant enemy. Not unlike the muslim extremists of the current day.
With that Islamic misunderstanding of Christianity, how should the U.S. negotiating delegation respond to the question, "Are you a Christian nation?" If you answer "yes," you are quickly categorized into a Crusade-form of Christianity and an enemy. If you answer "no," then you appear to be denying the basis upon which you were founded.
Remember, the first goal was to get the seamen, the cargo, and the ships released from extremist Muslim captivity. We were currently in a war with the Barbary nations. This was shortly after the Revolutionary war so our naval resources were limited.
So that is the context around this amendment being written and agreed to by the US delegation.
What is so ironic about the effort to deny the Christian foundation of our country is that if this country was not founded on the Christian ideals of liberty and freedom, including religious freedom, then these groups would not be allowed their dissenting opinion. The Muslims force everyone to practice the same religion. The Atheists are only tolerant of Christians because they are in the extreme minority. We have seen the actions of Atheistic regimes in the past. They make sure Christianity is not practiced by anyone. In fact today we see the minority of Atheists trying to deny the majority of Christians the right to express their faith. They do this under the pretense of protecting religious freedom.
So these people want to deny the very foundation that allows them the religious freedom they enjoy.
Chuck Walker - Walker associates, llc (C) 2009
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