2-18-13<\/p>\n
It seems like sometimes half of America wants to prove that the Founding Fathers were Deists, agnostics, skeptics, and dismissive of churches and organized religion. It is not the case. However, it might be closer to the truth than what many Christians, well-meaning as they must be, believe \u2013 that, virtually to a man, the Founders were fervent Christians of today\u2019s evangelical stripe.<\/p>\n
In their zeal these Christians do an injustice to history, and to the integrity of Christian scholarship. I am specifically referring to those people, some famously, who tattoo contemporary styles of worship and expressions of faith onto their profiles and descriptions of America\u2019s Founding Fathers. Now, this is a blog post \u2013 at its most ambitious, an essay \u2013 not a PhD thesis. But my training, and most of the 70+ books I have written, is as a historian. As a Christian as well, I am quite comfortable to concede that many of the Founding Fathers, and more than a few presidents, have not been Christians in today\u2019s born-again, evangelical, missions-minded, revivalist mode.<\/p>\n
Does this mean we have been lied to\u2026 that America is NOT a Christian nation? The Supreme Court declared us so in 1892, specifically recognizing foundations, social contracts, and traditions. Of course, the Court\u2019s opinion did not exclude other religions or deny their freedom to worship. No: Let us be honest on this Presidents Day, in all ways.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of the Founders were Bible believers. And the New Testament was part of their Bibles. In an age when religious profession was rather private, public figures did not speak so often of their personal faiths. Jesus frequently was quoted, and honest readings of the Founders\u2019 words leave the impression that it was taken for granted that Jesus was the Son of God, and that His words were those of the One True God. <\/p>\n
It is a fact that the virgin birth, and miracles, were among the spiritual topics little talked about; but that largely was the case with clergy as well. Christianity was practiced somewhat differently then. Mysteries were regarded as mysteries, rather than take-offs for parsing and exegesis. <\/p>\n
The Bible was not a mystery, in its sum, however. Children were named for biblical figures; biblical allusions were frequently framed; and \u2013 most important as we think of the Founders, and honor presidents at this time \u2013 the Bible was universally acknowledged as the best roadmap and blueprint for men building and governing a society.<\/p>\n
Secularists among us cite that, say, Washington seldom attended church, or that Jefferson invented the phrase \u201cseparation of church and state,\u201d and then build a doctrine on such things. This is worse than nit-picking. At best it is a foolish means of discussing history (worse than schismatics who build theological doctrine on one out-of-context Bible verse). But at worst \u2013 and this is what goes on these days \u2013 it distorts history in order to further the evil, destructive goals of self-loathing Americans. There dwell among us people who loathe our heritage also, and would be quite happy to see the American temple brought down to rubble.<\/p>\n
\u201cFoes of our own household,\u201d the Bible calls such people. Na\u00efve Christians and patriots are too quick to give these cancerous domestic enemies the benefit of every doubt.<\/p>\n
The Lord knows, we don\u2019t, why Washington seldom went to a church. But he prayed, and he invoked God\u2019s blessing, and he publicly sought God\u2019s guidance. Jefferson (after he was president and in a private letter) described the Constitutional safeguard against a state-funded denomination as \u201cthe wall of separation.\u201d Among frank references to God through the years, Jefferson bestowed the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, not from hostility to God, but in respect to His worshipers and their consciences. So few Founders were hostile to Christianity, or even neutral, that Theodore Roosevelt (also a professional historian) singled out Thomas Paine as a \u201cfilthy little atheist.\u201d That is, no signer of the Declaration or the Constitution could be similarly characterized, even politely. Yet John Quincy Adams was an early Unitarian, as was William Howard Taft almost a century later. Not everyone in America\u2019s pantheon regarded Christ as God.<\/p>\n
One of the few shortcomings of the movie \u201cLincoln,\u201d to me, was that the portrayal of the final months of the president\u2019s life did not fully reflect his increasing, almost daily, references to God, speeches about God\u2019s will, conversational mentions of God\u2019s role in life; and his growing reliance on God. But this spiritual evolution is a fact, in his hand and in the memoirs of his intimates. This supposed church-rejecting agnostic could have been our most devout believer among presidents.<\/p>\n
But let us not forget that the Founders, whether they went to church often or seldom, or how they expressed their creeds, were, almost to a man, zealous about following the spirit of Holy scripture, and honoring biblical injunctions about governments and societies. About this they were clear and firm. <\/p>\n
And let the presidents of our time not forget that the vast majority of pilgrims, pioneers, settlers, preachers, revolutionaries, civic leaders, and, yes, their predecessors, no matter the details of their religious exercise, looked to the Bible and to the words of Jesus Christ as they built a nation. <\/p>\n
+ + + <\/p>\n
I just experienced \u2013 there is no better word \u2013 a concert by Phil Keaggy. Many people consider him the greatest guitarist in the world; and if he is not\u2026 no, he is. His career has been one sharing his talent, performing and writing songs of tender love, of confronting life\u2019s challenges, and of the overcoming power of God\u2019s love. A song of collateral relation to today\u2019s topic, although not a direct reference to presidents per se, is \u201cTrue Believers.\u201d We need True Believers, we should savor them, we should be them. (And we should elect them!)<\/p>\n