Essay On Founding Fathers

Important founding fathers were Deist and not Christians as most people believe. According to David L Holmes, author of The Faiths of the Founding Fathers, “Deism is what is left of Christianity after casting off everything that is pecu-liar to it. The Deist is one who denies the Divinity, the Incarnation, and the Atonement of Christ, and the work of the Holy Ghost; who denies the God of Israel, and believes in the God of nature” (Holmes 39,40). Now that we know the definition of Deism, we can affirm that some founding fathers were Deists. Starting with Thomas Pain, the English-American philosopher, and revolutionary, who, although did not signed any important document in the foundation of the United States, historians attribute him to be the
cause of the beginning of the American Revolution. Thomas Pain published The Age of Reason in which he expresses his feeling about religion.
In Pain’s words “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. My own mind is my own church.” And if this was not clear enough, in the same work, The Age of Reason he exclaims “I see throughout the greater part of this book [The Bible] scarcely anything but a history of the grossest vices and a collection of the most paltry and contemptible tales, I cannot dishonor my Creator by calling it by his name.” Another important figure that was an open Deist was Thomas Jefferson. In the book Six Historic Americans by John E. Remsburg, in page 74 there is letter that Jefferson wrote to Dr. Woods which says “I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and dot find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies” (74). This certainly shows what Jefferson though about Christianity and proves his Deism. Not to mention that Thomas Jefferson was the founding father who drafted the Declaration of
Independence. But, Jefferson did not create the Declaration Independence by himself, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin also contributed, which like Jefferson they also had deistic ideas. Although John Adams did not proclaim himself as a Deist, there is evidence that shows Adams’s deistic ideas. In February 1756 Adams wrote in his diary about a conversation that he had with a man named Major Greene in which they were debating about the Divinity and satisfaction of Jesus Christ. As Adam’s wrote “Major Greene this evening fell into some conversation with me about the Divinity and satisfaction of Jesus Christ. All the argument he advanced was, "that a mere creature or finite being could not make satisfaction to infinite justice for any crimes," and that "these things are very mysterious." Thus mystery is made a convenient cover for absurdity.” In addition, John Adams also signed the treaty of Tripoli in which established that the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. In the other hand, Benjamin Franklin was an open Deist. In fact, he converted to Deism through Christian books against Deism. As Franklin emphasizes in his autobiography “Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle’s Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist.” In essence, these important figures in American history were Deist and not Christian as most Americans thick
The claim that the United States is a Christian nation is a mere tactic used by some politicians for their advantage. After the United States divided into the Confederate states and the Union, the Confederate argue that God was by their side due that they included God in their constitution. Besides, they claimed that owning slaves was ok because slavery is approved in the Bible and God do not condemn this practice. Meanwhile, the constitution of Union remained Godless and the first abolitionist of slavery emerged. John Fea, professor of American history and chair of the History Department at Messiah College explains in a video called: John Fea - America: A Christian Nation or a Secular Nation? that Northern abolitionists were questioning slavery based on natural laws. In Fea’s words “most of these abolitionists were actually making arguments against slavery not based upon the teachings of the New Testament as much as based upon either natural law, the conscience rights, moral sense that people are created with” (26:26 CJC Media). However, the economy of the south depended directly on slavery. Because of this, the confederate states shielded themselves behind Christianity by arguing that the New Testament does not condemn the practice of slavery. Thus, the intentions of the south to defend slavery were not religious, if not rather economic. Until these modern times, we see how people, especially politicians use religion at their convenience. Just as Truman did at the beginning of the Cold War. When the Cold War broke out in 1947, Harry Truman involved religion to political, military and economic affairs already expressed in the Truman Doctrine. The aim of this was to combat the atheist Soviet Union. According to Dr Dianne Kirby, a Reader in History at the University of Ulster, “Interjections by Christian leaders in ethical and political controversies were sought by the public and taken seriously by politicians and the media” (Kirby, 167). By having Christian leaders by his side, Truman got the support of mostly all the population of the United States, due that the majority of the people in the 50’s denominated themselves as Christians. But, not only Truman used this tactic. After Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States took power in 1953, the government implemented several tactics to show the moral superiority of the country. One of them was the implementation of “In God We Trust” to the American currency in 1957. Lisa Wade, professor at Occidental College wrote an article about this subject explaining that the government used this “In an effort to claim moral superiority and demonize the communist Soviet Union, the U.S. drew on the association of communism with atheism” (Wade par. 2). However, people will still argue that America is a Christian nation due that these politicians introduced Christianity to government affairs. Besides, presidents swear an oath to God using a Bible before they take office. Even though this is true we cannot ignore that politicians use Christianity in their favor. Moreover, presidents do not want to be target of conservative media just as president Obama was when he said in his speech in Turkey “we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation.” Furthermore, according to the Article 2, section 1 of the Constitution “Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." As we can observe it does not mention God or the requirement for a Bible to say this Oath. It is up to the president if he wants to use these extras. Given these points, we can affirm that politicians use the argument that America is a Christian nation just at their convenience or for government purposes.

Although most people in the United States are affiliated to Christianity, it does not make the country a Christian nation. Christianity is the predominant religion in the United States. According with Pew Research Center, 70 percent of the U.S population belongs to an affiliation of Christianity. But, what most people do not know is that not only Evangelicals are denominated as Christians. There are plenty of other affiliations include Mormons and Jehovah Witness that are denominated as Christian. For this reason, Christianity is the predominant religion, since it is composed of multiple denominations. Nevertheless, all this denominations disagree at some point on the fundamental principles of their own religion. As AU (Americans United), an organization in favor of church-state separation and individual freedom claims “Christian denominations disagree on points of doctrine, church structure and stands on social issues” (par. 22). Since Christianity is the most prominent religion in the country, most people claim that the United States is a Christian nation for this reason. Although Christianity is the principal religion in the country, it is known that Christianity is composed of several denominations who disagree between them. Also, this argument is compared like saying that the United States is a white nation (which is not) because most of the population is white. As demonstrated, the numbers of people who are denominated as Christians do not have anything to do with the question of whether or not we are a Christian nation.