I've been researching this myself lately, as a family member had brought up the issue. I'm still digging, but my overall impression from what I've read so far is that it's complicated and nuanced, as anything related to human beliefs, relationships, and actions will tend to be. It seems there is some degree of truth to the claims, but overall, revisionist historians who have been trying to "make America lose again" for the past century or more are putting a more negative spin on our heroes than is really justified. It's important to consider the source of any books, documentaries, etc, that are trash-talking the Founders. The ones I've looked at have raised red flags for me.
It's true that several of the Founders were Masons, but even Fall of the Cabal (in one of the sequels) discusses the fact that the Masons of that time were not involved in the things they were later. It was originally a tradesman's guild, and even today (with hundreds of years of deepening/worsening cabal influence), many members of "secret societies" at the lower levels have no idea what the upper levels are involved in--they are good people with good intentions. George Washington warned about the dangers of the illuminati (which was a new entity in his day--the CABAL wasn't new, but the illuminati was a new manifestation of it), how it was infiltrating the Masons and other groups, and he predicted that it would have devastating effects on the world. Among the tings I ran across in my research were pro-Masonic sites who were themselves pointing out that while several of the Founders were significantly involved in Masonry, they were not as involved as many people have claimed they were (and the writers of the site were sorry to have to say that).
The majority of the Founding Fathers were very solid Christians and fully believed in the divinity of Christ--a large number of them were pastors, seminary professors, etc, and they advocated strongly for Scripture to be taught throughout the new United States--including the "deists", who still considered the moral teachings of Christ to be the most superior foundation for society and government, even if they had doubts concerning Christ's divinity. There were 56 signers of the Declaration, but modern schools typically focus on only Jefferson, Franklin, and a couple others who were the LEAST religious of the founders, and then even their actions and communications are often taken out of context to make them appear much more "anti-God" than they actually were. There is also good evidence that Franklin did eventually accept Christ as his divine savior, and many people close to Washington attested to the genuineness of his Christian faith as well as his patriotism. One book you might consider (there are many good ones) is For You They Signed by Marilyn Boyer.
I think our modern Patriot movement probably gives us a little glimpse of the complexities of making blanket descriptions of the original Patriot movement. Out of the millions of us who are fighting against tyranny now, many, many of us claim Jesus as savior (though not all do). Among those who do, we come from a very wide range of doctrinal backgrounds and specific beliefs. We would agree about many things and disagree about many things. Some of us are probably involved in (or in the past have been part of) various groups or organizations that may be revealed in the future to have been something different than we thought they were when we were part of them. Or, those organizations could change dramatically at some future point into something completely different than they were when we were involved. That would not be our fault and would not invalidate our personal faith in Christ. As we are currently working through, every single day, how to unite OUR movement in the cause of liberty despite our individual differences (WWG1WGA!), the original Founders had to do the same. We are smeared and blatantly lied about every day by those who hate us and everything we stand for. WE are even being called "satanic" by some other Christians--some know they're lying and some are just uninformed, but it's an untrue statement in either case, and it's being made by those who should be on our side. As our movement is based on, and is a revival of, what our Founders started, it seems only logical (and is supported by much research and documentary evidence) that by and large they are being lied about and their statements taken out of context just as ours are today. Based on the study I have done, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt wherever possible.
I've been researching this myself lately, as a family member had brought up the issue. I'm still digging, but my overall impression from what I've read so far is that it's complicated and nuanced, as anything related to human beliefs, relationships, and actions will tend to be. It seems there is some degree of truth to the claims, but overall, revisionist historians who have been trying to "make America lose again" for the past century or more are putting a more negative spin on our heroes than is really justified. It's important to consider the source of any books, documentaries, etc, that are trash-talking the Founders. The ones I've looked at have raised red flags for me.
It's true that several of the Founders were Masons, but even Fall of the Cabal (in one of the sequels) discusses the fact that the Masons of that time were not involved in the things they were later. It was originally a tradesman's guild, and even today (with hundreds of years of deepening/worsening cabal influence), many members of "secret societies" at the lower levels have no idea what the upper levels are involved in--they are good people with good intentions. George Washington warned about the dangers of the illuminati (which was a new entity in his day--the CABAL wasn't new, but the illuminati was a new manifestation of it), how it was infiltrating the Masons and other groups, and he predicted that it would have devastating effects on the world. Among the tings I ran across in my research were pro-Masonic sites who were themselves pointing out that while several of the Founders were significantly involved in Masonry, they were not as involved as many people have claimed they were (and the writers of the site were sorry to have to say that).
The majority of the Founding Fathers were very solid Christians and fully believed in the divinity of Christ--a large number of them were pastors, seminary professors, etc, and they advocated strongly for Scripture to be taught throughout the new United States--including the "deists", who still considered the moral teachings of Christ to be the most superior foundation for society and government, even if they had doubts concerning Christ's divinity. There were 56 signers of the Declaration, but modern schools typically focus on only Jefferson, Franklin, and a couple others who were the LEAST religious of the founders, and then even their actions and communications are often taken out of context to make them appear much more "anti-God" than they actually were. There is also good evidence that Franklin did eventually accept Christ as his divine savior, and many people close to Washington attested to the genuineness of his Christian faith as well as his patriotism. One book you might consider (there are many good ones) is For You They Signed by Marilyn Boyer.
I think our modern Patriot movement probably gives us a little glimpse of the complexities of making blanket descriptions of the original Patriot movement. Out of the millions of us who are fighting against tyranny now, many, many of us claim Jesus as savior (though not all do). Among those who do, we come from a very wide range of doctrinal backgrounds and specific beliefs. We would agree about many things and disagree about many things. Some of us are probably involved in (or in the past have been part of) various groups or organizations that may be revealed in the future to have been something different than we thought they were when we were part of them. Or, those organizations could change dramatically at some future point into something completely different than they were when we were involved. That would not be our fault and would not invalidate our personal faith in Christ. As we are currently working through, every single day, how to unite OUR movement in the cause of liberty despite our individual differences (WWG1WGA!), the original Founders had to do the same. We are smeared and blatantly lied about every day by those who hate us and everything we stand for. WE are even being called "satanic" by some other Christians--some know they're lying and some are just uninformed, but it's an untrue statement in either case, and it's being made by those who should be on our side. As our movement is based on, and is a revival of, what our Founders started, it seems only logical (and is supported by much research and documentary evidence) that by and large they are being lied about and their statements taken out of context just as ours are today. Based on the study I have done, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt wherever possible.