To that end, we continuously work to identify, educate and mobilize Christians for effective political action! Such action will preserve, protect and defend the Judeo-Christian values that made this the greatest country in history.
I wonder if these people realize how many of America’s founding fathers were not practicing Christians. Here are some quotes from the men themselves:
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.- Thomas Paine
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise. 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
The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from its indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines, which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself, are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that nonsense can never be explained.- Thomas Jefferson
Twenty times in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!- John Adams
The American value system, as heralded by the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, arose directly from the Age of Reason, which was presided over by those seeking to distance themselves from organized religion. To their minds, these great and emancipated thinkers saw formalized religion as nothing more than a superstition-based attack on their freedom to question and objectify the world around them.
The Enlightenment, for the most part, took place before America had adopted its constitution. This means that scripture-based legislation is not conservatism, but instead, fear-inspired regressionism. It used to be that one need only follow Jesus’ teachings in order to be called a Christian; now, unless a Christian is in lockstep with a certain political agenda, their Christianity has apparently lost all validity.
3 comments:
John Adams:
“ The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
• “[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”
"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." --October 11, 1798
"I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen." December 25, 1813 letter to Thomas Jefferson
"Without Religion this World would be Something not fit to be mentioned in polite Company, I mean Hell." [John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, April 19, 1817]
Thomas Paine
“ It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.”
“ The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal.” “The Existence of God--1810”
Ben Franklin
“ God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel” –Constitutional Convention of 1787
Also, the Enlightment poster child John Locke, believed that christian religious bodies should not rule as dictators, doing the work that properly belongs to a magistrate. However, this was in enforcement issues. As far as policymaking is concerned Locke was all for the Judeo-Christian influence molding law. He also hated atheists, seeing them as unable to make a social contract. In 1669, John Locke assisted in the drafting of the Carolina constitution under which no man could be a citizen unless he acknowledged God, was a member of a church, and used no “reproachful, reviling, or abusive language” against any religion.
Some quotes:
“The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men.- It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter.- It is all pure.”
"T]he Law of Nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others. The rules that they make for other men's actions must . . . be conformable to the Law of Nature, i.e., to the will of God."
"[L]aws human must be made according to the general laws of Nature, and without contradiction to any positive law of Scripture, otherwise they are ill made."
Ergo,
Though John Locke was not a founding father, his views were, however, in line with the general feeling of the time, as you have expressed, that the Church had become far too powerful. Keep also in mind that Locke lived in a far different time - he was dead 85 yrs before the U.S. Constitution came into existence - Deism didn't come into vogue until the mid-18th century, Locke was dead by 1704.
Further, I would recommend you're reading Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason" where he explicitly advocates deism as a more thoughful substitute to Christianity.
Thomas Jefferson, if you read "American Sphinx," was also an avowed deist.
I never said that these people rejected God as such, just that they, in a great many cases, rejected the Bible as fact, and as your Jefferson quote says, saw it more as a wonderful collection of philosophies than a literal moral imperative.
Lastly,
In the future, leave the insulting titles out of your responses - this is not the place for it - identify yourself or I'll delete subsequent comments.
Nice to see you Ergo and thanks for your interest in my blog.
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