The origin of this post is the hundreds of emails I have received in the last week or so about the election of Barack Obama. Chain mails, forwards, email list ... all with one thing in common. Some of the most recent emails hail the the notion that we are not a "Christian Nation" any more because Obama is either a Muslim or doesn't believe the Bible or (supply the reason). In the process some serious historical claims are made about the Founding Fathers, the role of Christianity in their thought, and related matters, often these claims are simply wrong, sometimes they are imposing meanings upon texts that were not there or intended by those who wrote them. It is true that Christianity has been the dominant religious expression of the European immigrants to this land but it is not true that this has been a "Christian Nation." It is one thing to say that most in the USA claimed to be Christians and another to say that the nation was "Christian" or that it was founded as such. The latter is false. This post does not defend Obama nor does it attack him I am interested in something else altogether. I would recommend a book, seriously, to all interested in what I write about though:
David Holmes, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (Oxford University Press)
This is an outstanding book. It is fair, objective and solid. There are so many myths about the Revolutionary Era perpetuated by those on the right and those on the left. This book is more than worth the time to read and besides it is a good read.
It is fairly easy to find phrases like "principles of Christianity" in the writings of the Founders. The question is what did they mean by such talk. Lets think this through.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson for example was clearly a theist. But a "Christian" Religious and committed to some kind of "morality" yep but historic Christianity ... I have a hard time with in light of his personalized "Jeffersonian Bible! In 1779 Jefferson introduced a "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom" in the Virgina Assembly. This bill makes clear that the state has no authority to compel church attendance or even belief of any kind period. One's religion, or lack thereof, would have no bearing upon one's "civic standing." Here is one memorable paragraph,
"We ... do enact that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened {sic} in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." (A Documentary History of Religion in America to the Civil War, ed Edwin Gaustad) p. 261)
You are free to be religious or irreligious.
John Adams on May 26, 1797 submitted to Congress The Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 below his name makes is clear as a bell what an official government document (ironically with a Muslim country) says.
"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion ... (See the entire text here)
Adams wrote Jefferson many letters that help us understand what he means by "principles of Christianity. " On September 14, 1813 the former President wrote to the other former President
"...No Prophecies, no Miracles are necessary to prove this celestial communication. This revelation has made it certain that two and one make three; and that one is not three; nor can three be one. We can never be so certain of any Prophecy, or the fulfillment of any Prophecy; or of any miracle, or the design of any miracle as We are, from the revelation of nature i.e. natures God that two and two are equal to four.
Had you and I been forty days with Moses on Mount Sinai and admitted to behold the divine Shekinah, and there told that one was three and three was one: We might not have the courage to deny it, but We could not have believed it ...
I believe no such Things. My Adoration of the Author of the Universe too profound and too sincere. The Love of God and his Creation; delight Joy, Tryumph, Exultation in my own existence 'tho but an Atom, a Molecule Organique, in the Universe; are my religion. Howl, Snarl, bite, Ye Calvinistick! Ye Athanasian Divines, if You will. Ye will say, I am no Christian: I say Ye are no Christians: and there the Account is balanced. Yet I believe that all the honest men among you are Christians in my sense of the Word .." (A Documentary History, pp. 297-296)
The whole point of Adams is to deny the reality of Christian revelation in the Bible (i.e. prophecy, miracle, etc). He does not believe it because it does not give the certainty of science. His religion and his god is "nature's God." This is why he exclaims the orthodox Christians would deny his right to the word Christian ... which many did even in the 1790s.
James Madison
In 1785 Patrick Henry and others while rejecting a "Church of America" did want to have a statement about Christianity in general. They wanted Christianity to be recognized as the established religion of the commonwealth. In response to this effort Madison wrote his "Memorial and Remonstrance. " (full text here) This was not a good move in his opinion.
George Washington helps us in many ways by pointing to what he means by "Christian principles" too. In a letter sent to the General Assembly of Presbyterian Churches on May 26, 1789 the President wrote of his "dependence upon Heaven" and says that "piety, philanthropy, honesty, industry, and economy seems, in the ordinary course of human affairs particularly necessary for advancing and confirming the happiness of our country" (ibid, p. 277). These are "virtues" for sure but there is nothing uniquely or distinctly Christian about them. They are simply the necessary ingredients Washington thinks of having a stable society.
Again religious does not make "Christian." There is no doubt that Christianity has been the dominant religious expression of those who have lived in the USA but there can be little doubt, that the country was founded basically on deistic or even secular foundations. The kingdom of God is not identified with any nation state on planet Earth. The kingdom of God critiques all kingdoms ... Russia, Iraq, Germany, Japan and even the USA.
One more good book that goes beyond the Founders is Jon Meacham's American Gospel: God, The Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation (Random House). This book traces the theme of religion and state far beyond the Founders but to the present and does so rather deftly.
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine
.jpg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment