By Craig Andresen – The National Patriot and Right Side Patriots on cprworldwidemedia.net
After writing earlier in the week regarding the fact that our Founders and Framers deliberately left religion…ANY religion OUT of our founding documents to create a new nation NOT founded IN any religious pretexts…I had no intention of penning a follow-up piece. However, after being roundly and vehemently criticized by those who INSIST that our nation was founded in Christianity…
Here we go.
One of the things most often thrown in among the ever-so-Christian name calling aimed at me was this, which I was told in no uncertain terms, was PROOF that we are a nation founded in Christianity.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator (God) with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
First of all…”that all men are created equal” to our founders and framers meant that ALL men…of the WORLD and not just of the United States are created equal and second…”endowed by their creator,” does not denote any specific religion whatsoever and, for that matter, “Creator” was a deliberately chosen word derived NOT from Christianity but from DEISM…a widely held system of belief in the middle 18th century and one that MANY of our Founders and Framers followed.
Next up on the “proof” parade was the SECOND part of that passage from our Declaration of Independence…
”Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
THAT, I was told, was straight from the Bible and therefore PROOF that our nation was founded in Christianity.
Well…the Bible DID teach of the sacredness of Life…DID teach of emancipatory themes which were later TRANSLATED as Liberty and DID teach of finding JOY which can be construed as the pursuit of happiness however, Jefferson in fact BORROWED the phrase from John Locke who wrote in his Two Treatises of Government in 1689 that…the magistrate’s power was limited to preserving a person’s “civil interest”, which he described as “life, liberty, health, and indolency of body; and the possession of outward things,” and later, in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding that “the highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness.”
It is a stretch beyond reason to claim Jefferson’s words came from the Bible and offers no “proof” at all that we were founded in Christianity because of that phrase from the Declaration of Independence.
I was also told, quite nastily by several Christians, that I should familiarize myself with the Constitution and its wording concerning divine providence as “proof” that our nation was founded in Christianity.
“Providence” is yet another Deist term widely used by its followers to denote a power greater than ourselves but not connected to any particular religion or religious precepts.
I was regaled with various quotes from the Founders and Framers in which they spoke of their individual beliefs and their individual faith as further “proof” that our nation was founded in Christianity and among them was George Washington’s first inaugural address where HE stated…”[I]t would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves . . . . In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and . . . can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage.”
I have underlined, in those remarks, the nods to Deism and WOULD have underlined AND highlighted the nods to Christianity had there actually been any but there IS a certain phrase there that is quite telling…” that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves,” note…not by Christianity rather…by THEMSELVES.
I never said in my earlier article that our founders were not men of faith but I was accused of it nonetheless and I wholly agree that some were indeed Christians but… I was told by MANY that ALL of our Founders and Framers were devout Christians and therefore, our nation WAS founded in Christianity and that simply isn’t true.
MANY of our Founders and Framers, despite their upbringings and the fact that they had been baptized…as children…BECAME…later in life…DEISTS…believers in a supreme being who set the universe in motion and then, let nature take its course and I should also point out that “nature’s law” and “natural law” wording found in our founding documents are also DEIST in origin and do not show an attachment to any particular religion nor brand of religion at all.
Washington, I was told, was a devout Christian but what they left out was the fact that he refused to take Communion and that, on his deathbed, Washington declined the offer to have a member of the clergy present.
Jefferson, I was told, was SUCH a devout Christian that he complied his own translation of the Bible…which…he did but…what was so conveniently omitted from THAT pronouncement of “proof” that we were founded as a Christian nation is the fact that…in Jefferson’s Bible…he REMOVED ALL references to ANY of the MIRACLES performed by 
Jesus and focused ONLY on the TEACHINGS of Jesus because Jefferson simply didn’t believe in what HE called the “mystical” aspects of religion.
Jefferson created his bible in 1819 and 1820 literally by cutting the passages regarding the life of Jesus HE found important, sans the miracles AND the story of the resurrection, from 6 different Bibles and PASTING them into a separate book. You can read more about it by clicking here.
FRANKLIN, I was told was a devout Christian and as PROOF of his devout beliefs in Christianity…I was informed that Ben wanted to “ban Jews from entering the USA because ‘the menace, gentlemen, is the Jews.. they have lowered its moral tone, depreciated its commercial integrity …have sneered at and tried to undermine the CHRISTIAN RELIGION UPON WHICH THAT NATION WAS FOUNDED..’”
As Franklin IS my favorite Founding Father, I am well aware of that qu
ote just as I am also well aware that Franklin donated large sums of money to the building of many churches in Philadelphia…including a SYNAGOGUE. I am also well aware of the fact that Franklin was a protégé of the day’s most prominent Deist…Thomas Paine.
Just because our Founders and Framers were MEMBERS of various churches, it does not mean they ATTENDED them on any regular basis and, in fact, while some DID…many others did NOT as they had come to hold more with DEIST beliefs which were prevalent in institutions of higher learning and considered more intellectual by men of knowledge in their time.
Yet another example of “absolute proof” that our nation was founded in Christianity came at me in several rather terse comments regarding the fact that the new nation’s POPULUS was decidedly Christian in form and while I whole-heartedly agree with that as a matter of inarguable fact…I also know this little tidbit concerning our original 13 colonies…a fact that most certainly was not lost on the Founders and Framers…
9 of the 13 colonies were, in and of themselves…individual THEOCRACIES.
The New England colonies were Puritan theocracies, Virginia was an Anglican theocracy, Maryland was a Catholic theocracy and so on and so forth…our Founders and Framers were about to set up a government and IF that new governmental structure was going to be based in Christianity…which BRAND of Christianity would it be based in? If they chose 
the Catholic…it wouldn’t be any different than the theocracy from which they were declaring their independence. If they chose Anglican…that would be a slap in the face of the others. Same result had they gone with the Puritan brand and so on and so forth.
As many of the Christian denominations of the day back then believed that THEIR brand was the only TRUE brand of Christianity…the Founders and Framers knew that to base the foundation of our new nation in Christianity would require the choosing of a particular brand of it, thus alienating the others to the point that they would never agree to sign onto the notion OF a new nation…those very wise Founders and Framers based the foundation OF our new nation…not on any religious doctrine but…on what was to become…our Constitution…the true foundation upon which our nation has rested ever since and a foundation…a document with not a single mention of the Bible, Christianity or any other religion whatsoever.
“Government shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion” was a clear signal to all the various factions of Christianity that existed in the original states that they, and their people were free to worship as they so chose and that our new government would not…was barred from…basing itself in ANY religion or brand thereof.
Did our Founders and Framers intend that prayers were never to be uttered in the public square when they made this deliberate decision? Did they intend that crosses never be erected on public monuments or mangers not be placed in public parks? Was it their 
intention to ban references to God in public schools or to render any depictions of the 10 Commandments from court houses?
I believe our Founders and Framers are spinning like lathes in their graves over the notion that today’s liberals have taken their good intentions so far as to decree any and all mention of God from the public square. After all…the REST of the 1st Amendment found in the foundation of our nation states…”Nor prohibit the free exercise thereof,” and all of the things liberals want removed as stated above ARE the free exercise thereof.
The Founders and Framers intentions were clear, their actions deliberate, that this nation NOT be founded in ANY religion or specific brand OF any religion and the tenor of many of the comments I received earlier this week, by those who insist otherwise, are the very reason why. Moving this nation closer to a theocracy as some would have it by insisting that the Bible’s laws supersede the law of the land…the nation’s Constitutional foundation, would be as damaging to the nation in the eyes of those Founders and Framers as is the notion of removing all vestiges of religion from the public line of sight and sound.
Our Founders and Framers held their personal beliefs close, varied as they were and 
practiced them in their own lives, in their own way as they saw fit but separated those beliefs from their political ideologies and expected us to do likewise…they relied on the guidance of faith to steer their moral beings and relied on rational compromise in forming the nation.
An attack on Christianity?
No…something very different.
I have been told that I preach to the choir to which I say…sometimes you have to wake the choir up which I did earlier this week. THIS has been the lesson and Monday…the moral of the lesson.
REMINDER!!!
TODAY, Saturday, June 6th, on CPR Worldwide Media from 11am to 1pm EST, a 
RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS special rebroadcast as Craig and Diane present their views on ‘Political Correctness’ or as they like to call it ‘Political Directness.’
Hope you can tune in:
http://cprworldwidemedia.net/radio
And chat with us live at:
https://www.facebook.com/
I have seen football players drop to a knee and make a gesture to God after scoring a touchdown. Obviously, the NFL is based on Christianity.
Was all reference to religion deliberately avoided in the authoring of the Constitution? The answer is: No. It is a mistake to claim otherwise: Article 7: final sentence of the Constitution: “… in the Year of Our Lord”…
So who exactly is “our Lord”? Buddha? Mohammed, Krishna? Or the Lord Jesus Christ?
They would not have used that reference if there was no consensus view that Jesus was what he was called in Revelations: Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, -the Judge of the World.
Seriously Adrien?
The system of DATING “in the year of our lord” was brought here…inherited…from our EUROPEAN roots but it has no legal bearing on our government then or now. To try and convince anyone that, by including a date prefaced by “In the year of our Lord” is tantamount to basing our nation or our government in Christianity is not only a stretch of reality but outright desperation. Clearly, the Founders knew that dating things, in the western world, started at a point in time and as was subscribed to…the calendar began at a historical point in time denoted by one man’s life…the life of Jesus. “In the year of our Lord” was the most proper of formal way to express the date.
Good points well put. While the religious views of various founders are subjects of some uncertainty and controversy, it is safe to say that many founders were Christian of one sort or another. In assessing the nature of our government, though, care should be taken to distinguish between society and government and not to make too much of various founders’ individual religious beliefs. Whatever their religions, they drafted a Constitution that establishes a secular government and separates it from religion by (1) establishing a secular government on the power of “We the people” (not a deity), (2) according that government limited, enumerated powers, (3) saying nothing to connect that government to god(s) or religion, (4) saying nothing to give that government power over matters of god(s) or religion, and (5), indeed, saying nothing substantive about god(s) or religion at all except in a provision precluding any religious test for public office. Given the norms of the day (by which governments generally were grounded in some appeal to god(s)), the founders’ avoidance of any expression in the Constitution suggesting that the government is somehow based on any religious belief was quite a remarkable and plainly intentional choice. They later buttressed this separation of government and religion with the First Amendment, which affirmatively constrains the government from undertaking to establish religion or prohibit individuals from freely exercising their religions.
This is entirely consistent with the fact that some founders professed their religiosity and even their desire that Christianity remain the dominant religious influence in American society. Why? Because religious people who would like to see their religion flourish in society may well believe that separating religion and government will serve that end and, thus, in founding a government they may well intend to keep it separate from religion. It is entirely possible for thoroughly religious folk to found a secular government and keep it separate from religion. That, indeed, is just what the founders did.
Lest there be any doubt on this score, note that shortly after the founding, President John Adams (a founder) signed, with the unanimous consent of the Senate (comprised in large measure of founders), the Treaty of Tripoli declaring, in pertinent part, “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” This is not an informal comment by an individual founder, but rather an official declaration of the most solemn sort by the United States government itself.
It is instructive to recall that the Constitution’s separation of church and state reflected, at the federal level, a “disestablishment” political movement then sweeping the country. That political movement succeeded in disestablishing all state religions by the 1830s. (Side note: A political reaction to that movement gave us the term “antidisestablishmentarianism,” which amused some of us as kids.) It is worth noting, as well, that this disestablishment movement was linked to another movement, the Great Awakening. The people of the time saw separation of church and state as a boon, not a burden, to religion.
This sentiment was recorded by a famous observer of the American experiment: “On my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention. . . . I questioned the members of all the different sects. . . . I found that they differed upon matters of detail alone, and that they all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America, I did not meet a single individual, of the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835).
Pretty clear that Craig has no relationship with the God of our Fathers(Jesus Christ) therefore he would be unable to make a sensible comment on our founding Fathers. Since I’ve been on both sides, I understand, but once saved by the Blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit teaches you the full Truth through His Word. It will leap off the page and fill you with a very different understanding. Godbless!
It can easily be concluded that the framers and founders accepted and expected Christianity to be the defacto faith that animated the spirituality of their countrymen and their view of the human condition. Their religion was quite a different matter and the reason it was excluded. It is truly unfortunate the founders were unfamiliar with Islam at the time of their deliberations. Had they been aware, as Jefferson came to be during the Barbary wars, it is reasonable to conclude they would have prohibited Islam from our nation from the beginning.
51 of the 56 signers of the US Constitution were Christians..
49 of those wereProtestant. 2 were Ronan Catholic.
And yet Leftists insist they all were Deists ???
In their dreams !!!
First of all, Wodrwaryor…their listed religions are those they held publicly and those they were born into however, history tells a different story and many, later in their lives, by the time they took on the roles of politicians, began to follow Deism…not all and note that I never said all in the article…but the influence was most clearly present as Deism was being taught at universities in the mid 18th century and one should not discount Thomas Paine’s influence on the Founders either.
The “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” views inserted in the Declaration was from the “Law of Nations”, a reference on Natural Law or Law of Nature as espoused by Emrich de Vattel, Swiss philospher whose book “The Law of Nations” was “constantly in the hands of Congress” according to Benjamin Franklin of the Constitutional Convention during the formation of government as the Founders were deliberating, debating and writing the Constitution. Both Vattel and Blackstone’s Common Laws were based on NATURAL LAW or Law of Nature in their philosophy. What the Founders were CLEAR on was NO national religion dictated by the federal government but they clearly recognized the value of religion in everyday life as well as a guide for political direction in performing their duties as our nation’s leaders.
Correct Shavager…faith WAS important to our founders and framers in the PERSONAL lives but, in a deliberate act, they omitted ANY mention of ANY religion or brand of religion from the foundational document of our nation…the Constitution and while Vatte;’s book was in their hands…know too that Jefferson also was a follower and reader of Locke. By the way…Vattel’s book was a guide on how to preserve a European style monarchy…not a how-to on leaving one.