Show me anywhere in the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, or the Constitution where it has "Jesus" or "Christ". (anything similar to that)
The Declaration of Independence does speak to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God". That's it. This sounds far more deistic than Christian, Muslim, etc.
The truth is that many came to this "new world" to escape from religious persecution. The last thing the Founding Fathers wanted was another theocracy.
The truth is that many came to this "new world" to escape from religious persecution.
That was certainly true at the founding aka the initial colonizers.
However, the Declaration of Independence AND the Constitution have a historical, cultural, religious and spiritual context. That context, although unstated, is very real.
For example, ask ANY of the Founding Fathers what THEY understand "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" to mean, and I think you would find in 9.5 cases out of 10, it is a Christian understanding. In fact, in their time, such understanding was so pervasively accepted that they even stated "these truths we hold to be self evident". The founders thought that the underlying ethos and value system they held so dear was so profoundly self-evident, that it did not NEED overt clarification.
The God they referred to is invariably what they understood to be the God of Christ, and not any other. To see thing otherwise is to take modern cultural context and attempt to project it back on them. Inappropriately.
No they certainly did NOT wish to create a theocracy, but that is also because they believed that the principles they sought to elevate as the founding principles of the nation (as rooted in the common law) were self-evident, and clear for all. It would, I expect, horrify and stupify them to consider what has happened to US culture in the 20th century, and how a people could fall so far from their roots.
TO THE OFFICERS OF THE FIRST BRIGADE OF THE THIRD DIVISION OF THE MILITIA OF MASSACHUSETTS. 11 October, 1798. GENTLEMEN,
I have received from Major-General Hull and Brigadier. General Walker your unanimous address from Lexington, animated with a martial spirit, and expressed with a military dignity becoming your character and the memorable plains on which it was adopted.
While our country remains untainted with the principles and manners which are now producing desolation in so many parts of the world; while she continues sincere, and incapable of insidious and impious policy, we shall have the strongest reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned us by Providence. But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation while it is practising iniquity and extravagance, and displays in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candor, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world; because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
Wrong. The founders gave us a Christian nation. Period.
Show me anywhere in the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, or the Constitution where it has "Jesus" or "Christ". (anything similar to that)
The Declaration of Independence does speak to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God". That's it. This sounds far more deistic than Christian, Muslim, etc.
The truth is that many came to this "new world" to escape from religious persecution. The last thing the Founding Fathers wanted was another theocracy.
That was certainly true at the founding aka the initial colonizers.
However, the Declaration of Independence AND the Constitution have a historical, cultural, religious and spiritual context. That context, although unstated, is very real.
For example, ask ANY of the Founding Fathers what THEY understand "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" to mean, and I think you would find in 9.5 cases out of 10, it is a Christian understanding. In fact, in their time, such understanding was so pervasively accepted that they even stated "these truths we hold to be self evident". The founders thought that the underlying ethos and value system they held so dear was so profoundly self-evident, that it did not NEED overt clarification.
The God they referred to is invariably what they understood to be the God of Christ, and not any other. To see thing otherwise is to take modern cultural context and attempt to project it back on them. Inappropriately.
No they certainly did NOT wish to create a theocracy, but that is also because they believed that the principles they sought to elevate as the founding principles of the nation (as rooted in the common law) were self-evident, and clear for all. It would, I expect, horrify and stupify them to consider what has happened to US culture in the 20th century, and how a people could fall so far from their roots.
~ John Adams