LETTER: So said the Founding Fathers
To the editor:
I am writing in response to a letter of Wednesday January 22nd. The writer quoted several founding fathers to convince readers that the founding fathers were “deists and radical visionaries,” and not practicing Christians. It is true that many were not members of organized religions. Many, however, were. In response to the anti-organized religion and anti-Christianity quotes that he gave, I found a few that support the argument that many were at least believing and devoted Christians, if not practicing members of an organized religion, and that our country and constitution are very Christian.
Let’s start with Patrick Henry: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Two quotes from George Washington: “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible,” and “Let us indulge with caution the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion… Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle.”
From President James Madison: “We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us…to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God. The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.”
Two from President Thomas Jefferson: “The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.” And “Of all systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to be so pure as that of Jesus.”
And lastly, President John Adams: “The highest story of the American Revolution is this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”
Don’t let anyone tell you that our nation was not founded on Christian principles!
Ben Nilson