The Religious Perspectives
of a Natural Born Citizen
By
Julie
***RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES***
“Come now and let us reason together, saith the
Lord….” Isaiah 1:18
We were made in His image…given a heart to love and an intellect
to reason. Contrary to what the
naysayers may have you believe, He does not expect us to “check our
brains” at the door. He delights
in all the holy capacities with which He has endowed us. Let us try to use discernment in our attempt
to be honest about our history.
Some here who are “Birthers” may not share these views or interests in this article. Some may agree in general but not in particular. For those that do no believe at all, there is still a wealth of reasons to preserve the form of government that our forefathers bequeathed to us, and it is quite alright also, as there was much diversity of belief in our early history. This is for those who are interested in exploring the basis of historical fact concerning the founding principles of our Constitution.
FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES
Were there any basic, religious foundational principles, which guided the founding fathers in the creation of our Republic? Most assuredly! Whether they were right or wrong, whether the system they created is now antiquated or is, and always has been, the only form of government in our mortal world which can succeed, and is in the best interests of mankind is another subject. But if you are questioning, on those grounds, I would direct you first to this video:
http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/
After viewing this you must consider the clear implication of Benjamin Franklin’s statement at the beginning of the video: that “keeping” our Republic would not be easy.
Consider this quote from John Adams: “our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
It is not that Birthers would say those who want to radically reform our current government have no morals, but the morals are not of the same kind, not of the same standards, as has been handed down and practiced in this country from its inception.
THE BEGINNINGS
Many of the British North American colonies that eventually
formed the
The great majority left
In 1634, upon landing in
By 1658 small numbers of Jews had come to the British North American colonies, settling mainly in the seaport towns, also in search of freedom to practice their religion.
The first group of Germans to settle in
The majority of settlers were deeply religious and originally shared the concept of “one true religion”. It is true that in some areas Catholics persecuted Protestants, in others Protestants persecuted Catholics, and in still others Catholics and Protestants persecuted wayward coreligionists. These were the tentative beginnings. The founding fathers fought against this religious intolerance, believing all should be free to practice their own faith.
THE 18TH CENTURY
New waves of eighteenth century immigrants brought their own
religious fervor across the
The Great Awakening swept the English-speaking world,
as religious energy vibrated between
Jonathan Edwards was the most important American preacher
during the Great Awakening. A revival in his church in
From
the Great Awakening onward, evangelical Christians have founded colleges to
train a ministry to deliver their message.
Although Baptists
had existed in the American colonies since the seventeenth century, it was the
Great Awakening that galvanized them into a powerful, proselytizing force.
Along with the Methodists, the Baptists became by the early years of the
nineteenth century the principal Protestant denomination in the southern and
western
Deism, which emphasized morality and rejected the orthodox Christian view of the divinity of Christ, found advocates among upper-class Americans. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are usually considered the leading American deists. Other founders of the American republic, including George Washington, are frequently identified as deists, although the evidence supporting such judgments is often thin.
Deists in the
Scholars now identify a high level of religious energy in colonies after 1700. Many parts of the colonies were in a state of "feverish growth." Figures on church attendance and church formation support these opinions. Between 1700 and 1740, an estimated 75 to 80 percent of the population attended churches. Many churches of all architectural styles were being built.
The Geneva Bible was
used by the Pilgrims and Puritans in
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Religious practice suffered in certain places because of the
absence of ministers and the destruction of churches, but in other areas,
religion flourished. At the beginning of
the war some ministers were persuaded that, with God's help,
Many battleflags carried religious inscriptions of various faiths.
John Witherspoon
(1723-1794) was the most important "political parson" of the
Revolutionary period. He represented
The American Revolution inflicted deeper wounds on the
Church of England in
Different religious sects reorganized after the American Revolution to become a distinctly American entity.
GOVERNMENT BEGINS TO FORM
The result was that a religious people rose in rebellion against Great Britain in 1776, and that most American statesmen, when they began to form new governments at the state and national levels, shared the convictions of most of their constituents that religion was, to quote Alexis de Tocqueville's observation,” indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions”.
The New England colonies have often been called "Bible Commonwealths" because they sought the guidance of the scriptures in regulating all aspects of the lives of their citizens. Scripture was cited as authority for many criminal statutes.
CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATION
The Continental-Confederation Congress, a legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, contained an extraordinary number of deeply religious men. The amount of energy that Congress invested in encouraging the practice of religion in the new nation exceeded that expended by any subsequent American national government. Although the Articles of Confederation did not officially authorize Congress to concern itself with religion, the citizenry did not object to such activities.
Congress appointed chaplains for itself and the armed forces, sponsored the publication of a Bible, imposed Christian morality on the armed forces, and granted public lands to promote Christianity among the Indians. National days of thanksgiving and of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer" were proclaimed by Congress at least twice a year throughout the war. Congress was guided by "covenant theology," a Reformation doctrine especially dear to New England Puritans, which held that God bound himself in an agreement with a nation and its people. This agreement stipulated that they "should be prosperous or afflicted, according to their general obedience or disobedience.
The first national government of the United States, was convinced that the "public prosperity" of a society depended on the vitality of its religion. Nothing less than a "spirit of universal reformation among all ranks and degrees of our citizens," Congress declared to the American people, would "make us holy, so that we may be a happy people."
By appointing
chaplains of different denominations, Congress expressed a revolutionary
egalitarianism in religion and its desire to prevent any single denomination
from monopolizing government patronage. This policy was followed by the first
Congress under the Constitution which on April 15, 1789, adopted a joint
resolution requiring that the practice be continued.
On July 4, 1776,
Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams "to
bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America." Franklin's
proposal adapted the biblical story of the parting of the Red Sea. Jefferson first recommended the "Children
of Israel in the Wilderness, led by a Cloud by Day, and a Pillar of Fire by
night. Although not accepted these
drafts reveal the religious temper of the Revolutionary period.
The war with Britain
cut off the supply of Bibles to the United States with the result that on Sept.
11, 1777, Congress instructed its Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles
from "Scotland, Holland or elsewhere.” Robert Aitken, a Philadelphia printer,
prepared a publication, at his own expense, which edition Congress recommended
to the inhabitants of the United States. This was the first English language
Bible published on the North American continent.
THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT
In response
to widespread sentiment that to survive the United States needed a stronger
federal government, a convention met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 and
on September 17 adopted the Constitution of the United States.
Congress adopted the First Amendment to the Constitution, which, when ratified by the required number of states in December 1791, forbade Congress to make any law "respecting an establishment of religion." It states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof", signed and agreed to by our founding fathers.
The first two Presidents of the United States were patrons of religion--George Washington was an Episcopal vestryman, and John Adams described himself as "a church going animal." Adams claimed that statesmen "may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand."
At the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin said "the longer I live, the more convincing
proofs I see of this Truth--that God governs in the Affairs of Men."
The Constitution dealt with the church precisely as the Articles had, thereby maintaining, at the national level, the religious status quo.
As a prerequisite for signing on to the Constitution, the
people made it expressly clear that a Bill of Rights was to shortly
follow. Religion was addressed in the
First Amendment in the following familiar words: "Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof." In notes for his June 8,
1789, speech introducing the Bill of Rights, James Madison, who took the lead
in steering the bill through the First Federal Congress, indicated his
opposition to a "national" religion. Most Americans agreed that the
federal government must not pick out one religion and give it exclusive
financial and legal support. In further notes of James Madison, according to
the Congressional register, Madison moved that "the civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of
religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established,
nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any
pretext infringed."
George
Washington’s last paragraph of a circular letter signed by him is often
called “Washington’s Prayer”. In it, he asked God to:
"dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves
with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the
Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an
humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy
Nation."
George Washington's Farewell Address is one of the most important documents in American history. Recommendations made in it by the first president, particularly in the field of foreign affairs, have exerted a strong and continuing influence on American statesmen and politicians. The first president advised his fellow citizens that "Religion and morality" were the "great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and citizens." "National morality," he added, could not exist "in exclusion of religious principle." "Virtue or morality," he concluded, as the products of religion, were "a necessary spring of popular government." The "religion section" of the address was for many years as familiar to Americans as was Washington's warning that the United States should avoid entangling alliances with foreign nations.
In a letter from John Adams (2nd President of the
United States) to Jefferson he tells
Jefferson that "Without Religion this World would be Something not fit to
be mentioned in polite Company, I mean Hell." In a proclamation, issued at a time when the
nation appeared to be on the brink of a war with France, Adams urged the
citizens to "acknowledge before God the manifold sins and transgressions
with which we are justly chargeable as individuals and as a nation; beseeching
him at the same time, of His infinite grace, through the Redeemer of the World,
freely to remit all our offences, and to incline us, by His Holy Spirit, to
that sincere repentance and reformation which may afford us reason to hope for
his inestimable favor and heavenly benediction."
STATE GOVERNMENTS
After independence the American states were obliged to write constitutions establishing how each would be governed. States were considered to possess "general" powers as opposed to the limited, specifically enumerated powers of Congress, therefore states were in a stronger position and had more leeway in their constitutions than the federal government. One of the most contentious issues was whether the states would support religion financially. George Washington was in support of tax-supported religion within the states, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were not. Jefferson’s Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, the title of which Jefferson directed to be inscribed on his tombstone, is as comparable in importance to the Declaration of Independence and does not exist in a handwritten copy.
THE NEW REPUBLIC
The religion of the new American republic was evangelicalism, which, between 1800 and the Civil War, was the "grand absorbing theme" of American religious life. During the years between the inaugurations of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, historians see "evangelicalism emerging as a kind of national church or national religion."
In 1800 major revivals that started on opposite ends of the country reached almost every corner of the land. Participants would pack up their family into wagons and pitch tents for days at a time to attend the camp meetings. Many religious groups were attending their own “revivals”.
Another distinctive religious group, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Mormons, arose in the 1820s. The new church conceived itself to be a restoration of primitive Christianity, which other existing churches were considered to have deserted.
The American Tract
Society, founded in 1825, was one of the most influential of the scores of
benevolent societies that flourished in the United States in the first decades
of the nineteenth century.
During some years in the first half of the nineteenth century, revivals (through which evangelicalism found expression) occurred so often that religious publications that specialized in tracking them lost count.
The disappearance of efforts by government to create morality
in the body politic in the mid 1830s through tax support for churches, caused
evangelical and benevolent societies to assume that role, bringing about what
today might be called the privatization of the responsibility for forming a
virtuous citizenry.
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If these illustrious forefathers meant what they said, it is up to each of us to educate ourselves, become resolute, and be ready to do whatever we must to preserve that which countless Americans have spilled their blood and died for. Contrary to what our detractors would have you believe, our nation was founded on the Judeo/Christian faith and ethics, and we owe it to our forefathers, ourselves and our posterity to accept that truth, educate ourselves independently, and be brave enough to never let anyone take those hard-fought for precepts from us. The founding fathers did not have much regard for those who were unwilling to die for what was right. A quote from Thomas Jefferson illustrates their expectations: "Occasionally the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants."
The Declaration of Independence in part says:
“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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government”….
These
rights are not delegated to us by the government; they are given to us by our
Creator and it is therefore up to us, individually and collectively, to insure
we keep our form of government in alignment with those rights as we have most
wisely received them. If we are not
vigilant, we will deservedly have our rights taken away. If we do not honor the God who has made this
nation great, His blessings will be withheld and we will most probably face His
wrath, as have the Israelites throughout history. Many believe that this nation was allowed to
flourish and be blessed, only because we were dedicated to living up to these
Judeo/Christians principles and because God had a purpose for us to fulfill as
a nation.
We
therefore must be concerned with precepts God has given in the construction and
management of a country’s laws and all its functions, and be ever
watchful of those in positions of authority that they do no misuse their power
to usurp the framers intentions.
God has
told us:“you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God
chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may
not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother”.
Deuteronomy
17:15
Coincidentally
(maybe not), Article II of our Constitution says the same. In the days of the ancient nation of Israel,
God chose by decreeing the bloodline of the kings for the purity of the Redeemer who was to come. Since the Redeemer has come, in America we
choose by voting. Therefore, how much
more will we be held accountable since it is our vote which chooses our
leader?
In concert
with this same idea is the following verse, again in perfect harmony with the
framers of our Constitution who specifically excluded dual citizenship in a
president of our nation, knowing that dual citizenship would mean divided
loyalties:
“No
one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Matthew
6:24
Mammon refers not simply to money but to the pleasures money can
buy. Mammon is a god in that sense. On a broader scale it would also be the god
of self (serving ourselves).
Let us keep in mind then, knowing our origins, what the pitfalls may be:
This is the work of a man named Alexander Tytler, a Scottish historian
who lived at the same time as the American Founding Fathers, who described a
repeating cycle in world history. He had found that societies ran through this
same cycle again and again, and that the cycle lasted roughly 200 years each
time.
Tytler said the cycle starts out with a society in bondage. Then it goes in
this sequence:
Bondage
Spiritual Faith
Courage
Liberty
Abundance
Selfishness
Complacency
Apathy
Dependence
Then starting over with Bondage
Obviously our founding fathers came out of bondage from England to spirituality
and then great courage.
It now appears, we, in the US, are running at full speed from the Apathy stage
and clutching madly for Dependence. Once
we succeed in insisting our government take care of our needs, the next stage
will be Bondage (a dictatorship), because apparently the Dependence stage
doesn't last too long. It devours itself
and makes fertile ground for the takeover of dictatorship.
NOTABLE QUOTES
"This is all the inheritance I give to my dear family. The religion of Christ
will give them one which will make them rich indeed." Patrick Henry in
Last Will and Testament, November 20, 1798 Moses C. Tyler, Patrick Henry,
p. 395 (1898, reprinted 1972)
"I have tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty; through the merits
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray for
me." Alexander Hamilton's last dying words, July 12, 1804
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation
was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have
been afforded freedom of worship here.” Patrick Henry 1776
“I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of
Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the
unity of our Creator and, I hope, to the pure doctrine of Jesus
also.” Thomas Jefferson
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim
the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of
human happiness - these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The
mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish
them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public
felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for
reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths
which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us
with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on
minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect
that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
– George Washington speech Sept. 17, 1796
“Oh, eternal and everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words and work.
Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb and purge my heart by thy
Holy Spirit. Daily, frame me more and more in the likeness of thy son, Jesus
Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed
time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal life. Bless, O Lord,
the whole race of mankind and let the world be filled with the knowledge of
thee and thy son, Jesus Christ.” George Washington, Farewell speech.
“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in
one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of
Christianity.” John Quincy Adams 6th US President and son of John Adams
"The Congress of the United States recommends and approves
the Holy Bible for use in all schools.” The US Congress 1782
“We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon
the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our
political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern
ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.” -
James Madison (original source not verified Supplemental Source:
"America's God And Country Encyclopedia Of Quotations." William J.
Federer. Fame Publishing, Inc. 820 South MacArthur Blvd., Coppell, Texas
75019-4214. 1994)
"The right of the
colonist as Christians...may be best understood by reading and carefully
studying the institutes of the great Lawgiver and Head of the Christian Church,
which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament."
Samuel Adams "The Rights of the Colonists"
"I think the
Christian religion is a Divine institution; and I pray to God that I may never
forget the precepts of His religion or suffer the appearance of an
inconsistency in my principle and practice." James Iredell Supreme Court
Justice
"My only hope of salvation is in the infinite, transcendent
love of God manifested to the world by the death of His Son upon the Cross.
Nothing but His blood will wash away my sins. I rely exclusively upon it. Come,
Lord Jesus! Come quickly!" Benjamin Rush
"I believe that there is one only living and true God,
existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, an the Holy Ghost, the same in
substance, equal in power and glary. That the Scriptures of the old and new
testaments are a revelation from God and a complete rule to direct us how we
may glorify and enjoy Him." Roger Sherman
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political
prosperity religion and morality are indispensable supports." George
Washington - Speech Sept. 17, 1796
"Without a humble imitation of the characteristics of the
Divine Author of our blessed religion, we can never hope to be a happy
nation." George Washington
"Providence has given to our people the choice of their
rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our
Christian Nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." John
Jay the first Supreme Court Justice
"Because experience
witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the
purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost
fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial.
What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in
the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition,
bigotry and persecution." - James Madison, 1785
(He is not criticizing
Christianity as a religion. He is criticizing the "church" and
the problems in an organized religion that subtract from its purity.
There are other quotes from the founding fathers who are also quoted here,
along these same lines. Know that there
are many detractors who will misquote these in order to mislead. Always check the context.)
"If men were
angels, no government would be necessary; if angels were to govern men, neither
external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." - James
Madison
"I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is
more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we
shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did." --- Benjamin
Franklin, letter to his father, 1738
"Let...statesmen
and patriots unite their endeavors to renovate the age by...educating their
little boys and girls...and leading them in the study and practice of the
exalted virtues of the Christian system." - Samuel Adams
"Only one adequate plan has ever appeared in the world, and that is the
Christian dispensation." - John Jay, First Cheif Justice of the Supreme
Court
"The United States of America were no longer Colonies. They were an
independent nation of Christians." - John Qunicy Adams
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation
be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction in the
minds of men that these liberties are 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." - Thomas
Jefferson
"He is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active
in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who set himself with the greatest
firmness to bear down on profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an
avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country." -
John Witherspoon, member of the Continental Congress and clergyman
"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?" - Benjamin Franklin
"Our ancestors established their system of government on morality and
religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be entrusted on
any other foundation than religious principle, not any government secure which
is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever makes men good Christians, makes
them good citizens." - Daniel Webster
"The moral
principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to form the basis of
all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evil men suffer from
vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from
their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." - Noah
Webster
"You have been instructed from your childhood in the knowledge of your
lost state by nature; the absolute necessity of a change of heart, and an
entire renovation of soul to the image of Jesus Christ; of salvation thro' His
meritorious righteousness only; and the indispensable necessity of personal
holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." - Elias Boudinot,
President of the Continental Congress
"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to
moral decay have not passed in to political and economic decline." -
Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific during
WWII
"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a
Nation gone under." - Ronald Reagan
"I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration,
but I am perfectly satisfied that the Union of the States in its form and
adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles
recorded in the Old and New Testaments." - Benjamin Rush
"There is not a truth to be gathered from history more certain, or more
momentous, than this: that civil liberty cannot long be separated from
religious liberty without danger, and ultimately without destruction to both.
Wherever religious liberty exists, it will, first or last, bring in and
establish political liberty." - Joseph Story, Congressman and Supreme
Court Justice
"Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority for that
law which is divine...far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are
twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run
into each other." - James Wilson (signatory of the Constitution)
"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that
disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has
ordained" - George Washington, First Inaugural, April 30 1789
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If “truth” will set you free, let’s remember:
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
Matthew 7:15
“For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither
hid, that shall not be known”.
Luke 12:2
Be still, and know that I AM
God”. Psalm 46:10
Written by: Juliana Davis
Notes:
Much of this article excerpted
from The Library of Congress, Religion and the Founding of the