A Crash Course in (Real) U.S. History BY KEVIN OSBORNE · JANUARY 14TH, 2009 · 7 Comments Tags: religion, Constitution, First Amendment, Religious Right, Howard Ahmanson, Ken Blackwell If we’re to believe most social conservatives today, America’s Founding Fathers were Bible-thumping, fire and brimstone spewing evangelicals who didn’t make any decision without first seeking guidance from prayer. Yet this view of U.S. history has little basis in fact. Instead, all available evidence suggests that George Washington, Ben Franklin and company held a diversity of views about God and religion, which might be why they insisted on including the legal doctrine of separation between church and state in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits the establishment of a national religion by Congress or the preference of one religion over another, or — and this is the part most often overlooked today — religion over non-religion. In other words, U.S. citizens are free to believe whatever they want, including nothing at all, when it comes to supernatural explanations for reality. Washington used to attend Sunday church services with his wife, Martha, but refused to take communion; historians say George likely was a deist who believed in God but rejected the concept of divine revelation and thought God’s will could be gleaned from reason and observing nature. Franklin, though raised a Presbyterian, also was a deist who wrote a letter about a month before he died that praised Jesus’ teachings but added that they had “received various corrupt changes” over the years. Moreover, Franklin wrote, “I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity.” Thomas Jefferson, meanwhile, believed in divine Providence, not a personal God, and warned of clergy interfering in matters of government. In 1787 he famously wrote, “Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make half the world fools and half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the world.” Sorry, Rick Warren and Pat Robertson. That’s gotta hurt. And the Founding Fathers reflected the newly born nation surrounding them. Historian Robert T. Handy has written, “No more than 10 percent — probably less — of Americans in 1800 were members of congregations.” If those examples don’t make it clear enough for today’s Religious Right about the founders’ intent, there’s always the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, signed by President John Adams.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 11:12:59 +0000