There seems to a lot of discussion these days about whether the United States was founded as a Christian Nation. Sometimes that discussions broadens to discuss whether our nation was founded on Biblical principles. Everything you see below has been posted elsewhere on this blog (the title is linked to the original post), but I thought it might be worthwhile to gather many of these samples together in this post. What you see here represents some of the stronger arguments for our Christian and/or Biblical background, but these are by no means the only posts on this blog that support that idea. Watch tomorrow for a list of our Founders' religious roots.
Note that when the Bible is discussed, it would be the standard Holy Bible, consisting of the Old Testament and New Testament. That would be a Christian reference
The Bible in Early America
From Newsweek, 12/27/82: [In America’s early history] Bible study was the core of public education…” … “Scripture had profoundly shaped the new world to which [the immigrants] had come.”
No King but King Jesus
The Committees of Correspondence in Boston, 1774, penned a rallying cry for independence that was later used during the Revolutionary War:
"No King but King Jesus!"
George Washington as General of the Continental Army
While serving as General of the Continental Army, George Washington issued the following general order the day after he took command on July 4, 1775:
"The General most earnestly requires and expects a due observance of those articles ... which forbid profane cursing, swearing, and drunkenness. And in like manner, he requires and expects of all officers and soldiers not engaged in actual duty, a punctual attendance of Divine services to implore the blessing of heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense."
And later, on July 9, 1776, General Washington issued this general order to troops directing that:
"...every officer and man... to live and act as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country..."
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville was a noted French political commentator in the 1800's. After a trip to learn more about the United States he wrote:
"The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other."
From:
de Tocqueville, Alexis, The Republic of the United States and Its Political Institutions Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves translator, (Garden City, NY, A.S. Barnes & Co.) 1851, Vol. I p.335.
Jedediah Morse on Christianity and Government
Jedediah Morse is known as the "father of American geography." He authored several geography texts that were used in the early days of our country and was a contributor to Dobson's Encyclopedia. He said this about our government:"To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys... Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."
Samuel Adams on Education
According to Wikipedia:
"Samuel Adams ... was an American statesman, politician, writer and political philosopher, brewer, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Adams was instrumental in garnering the support of the colonies for rebellion against Great Britain, eventually resulting in the American Revolution, and was also one of the key architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped American political culture."
On October 4, 1790, Samuel Adams said:
"Let divines and philosophers, statesmen, and patriots unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, of inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity and universal philanthropy... In short, of leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system." *
* From Marshall Foster & Mary E. Swanson, The American Covenant (Santa Barbara, CA: The Mayflower Institute) p. XIV
Religion Prescribed for Army and Navy
According the the Library of Congress website:
Army
Congress was apprehensive about the moral condition of the American army and navy and took steps to see that Christian morality prevailed in both organizations. In the Articles of War, seen below, governing the conduct of the Continental Army (seen above) (adopted, June 30, 1775; revised, September 20, 1776), Congress devoted three of the four articles in the first section to the religious nurture of the troops. Article 2 "earnestly recommended to all officers and soldiers to attend divine services." Punishment was prescribed for those who behaved "indecently or irreverently" in churches, including courts-martial, fines and imprisonments. Chaplains who deserted their troops were to be court-martialed.
Navy
Congress particularly feared the navy as a source of moral corruption and demanded that skippers of American ships make their men behave. The first article in Rules and Regulations of the Navy (below), adopted on November 28, 1775, ordered all commanders "to be very vigilant . . . to discountenance and suppress all dissolute, immoral and disorderly practices." The second article required those same commanders "to take care, that divine services be performed twice a day on board, and a sermon preached on Sundays." Article 3 prescribed punishments for swearers and blasphemers: officers were to be fined and common sailors were to be forced "to wear a wooden collar or some other shameful badge of distinction."
Supreme Court 1799 - Christianity is Our Established Religion
In the case of Runkel v. Winemiller, 1799, Justice Samuel Chase said:
"Religion is of general and public concern, and on its support depend, in great measure, the peace and good order of government, the safety and happiness of the people. By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty."
It is important to note that he is not saying the government established Christianity as our religion. He is simply recognizing a fact of life in the U.S. at that time.
New York Supreme Court, 1811 - Ties Christianity with Civil Government
The NY case of People vs. Ruggles was about a man tried and convicted for publicly saying:
"Jesus Christ was a bas- - - -"
and also that his mother must be a w----" He was sentenced to 3 months in jail and fined $500. Think what that amount was worth in 1811 dollars. This case affirmed the original judgment after the case was appealed.
James Kent, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, rendered this opinion in the case:
"...Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government... (such offenses are) punishable at common law... The people of this state, in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity, as the rule of their faith and practice, and to scandalize the author of these doctrines is not only ... impious, but ... is a gross violation of decency and good order....We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of those [other religions]...
Though the Constitution has discarded religious establishments, it does not forbid judicial cognizance of those offenses against religion and morality which have no reference to any such establishment.
The [Constitutional] declaration... never meant to withdraw religion... from all consideration and notice of the law. To construe it as breaking down the common law barriers against licentious, wanton, and impious attacks upon Christianity itself would be an enormous perversion of its meaning... Christianity in its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught in the Bible, is part and parcel of the law of the land.... judgment affirmed"
Our Flag Bows to Christianity??
In 1923 our current U.S. Flag Code was developed by representatives of the Army, Navy and other groups. Most adults familiar with such things know that the U.S. flag is to flown above any other flag on the same mast or pole... EXCEPT for this provision in the Flag Code, where the church pennant may fly above the Stars and Stripes:
TITLE 4--FLAG AND SEAL, SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE STATES
CHAPTER 1--THE FLAG
Sec. 7. Position and manner of display
"(c) No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the
same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America,
except during church services conducted by naval chaplains at sea, when
the church pennant may be flown above the flag during church services
for the personnel of the Navy. ..."
Source: United States Government Printing Office
Religion in Our Early National Government, part 1
According to the Library of Congress there was considerable friendliness between religion and our early national government:
"The Continental-Confederation Congress, a legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, contained an extraordinary number of deeply religious men. The amount of energy that Congress invested in encouraging the practice of religion in the new nation exceeded that expended by any subsequent American national government. Although the Articles of Confederation did not officially authorize Congress to concern itself with religion, the citizenry did not object to such activities. This lack of objection suggests that both the legislators and the public considered it appropriate for the national government to promote a nondenominational, nonpolemical Christianity."
See Religion and the Congress of the Confederation, 1774-89
Religion in Our Early National Government, part 2
From the Library of Congress:
"Congress appointed chaplains for itself and the armed forces, sponsored the publication of a Bible, imposed Christian morality on the armed forces, and granted public lands to promote Christianity among the Indians. National days of thanksgiving and of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer" were proclaimed by Congress at least twice a year throughout the war. Congress was guided by "covenant theology," a Reformation doctrine especially dear to New England Puritans, which held that God bound himself in an agreement with a nation and its people. This agreement stipulated that they "should be prosperous or afflicted, according as their general Obedience or Disobedience thereto appears." Wars and revolutions were, accordingly, considered afflictions, as divine punishments for sin, from which a nation could rescue itself by repentance and reformation."
See: IV. Religion and the Congress of the Confederation, 1774-89
New Messages Religion in Our Early National Government, part 3
The Library of Congress has some interesting articles about our history. The following quote if from Religion and the Founding of the American Republic and comes right before several reproductions showing how our early faith and government were intertwined.
The first national government of the United States, was convinced that the "public prosperity" of a society depended on the vitality of its religion. Nothing less than a "spirit of universal reformation among all ranks and degrees of our citizens," Congress declared to the American people, would "make us a holy, that so we may be a happy people."
Early America - Morality in the Army
The Library of Congress has some excellent exhibits on early America, including images of the original hand-written documents. One can learn there many of the connections between our Founders' religious background and the early foundations of our government. Consider this quote:
Congress was apprehensive about the moral condition of the American army and navy and took steps to see that Christian morality prevailed in both organizations. In the Articles of War, seen below, governing the conduct of the Continental Army (seen above) (adopted, June 30, 1775; revised, September 20, 1776), Congress devoted three of the four articles in the first section to the religious nurture of the troops. Article 2 "earnestly recommended to all officers and soldiers to attend divine services." Punishment was prescribed for those who behaved "indecently or irreverently" in churches, including courts-martial, fines and imprisonments. Chaplains who deserted their troops were to be court-martialed.
See the L.O.C. article Religion and the Congress of the Confederation 1774-89
Early America - Morality in the Navy
In my previous post I mentioned the Library of Congress, which has some excellent exhibits on early America. The first dealt with the Army; this one is about the Navy:
Congress particularly feared the navy as a source of moral corruption and demanded that skippers of American ships make their men behave. The first article in Rules and Regulations of the Navy (below), adopted on November 28, 1775, ordered all commanders "to be very vigilant . . . to discountenance and suppress all dissolute, immoral and disorderly practices." The second article required those same commanders "to take care, that divine services be performed twice a day on board, and a sermon preached on Sundays." Article 3 prescribed punishments for swearers and blasphemers: officers were to be fined and common sailors were to be forced "to wear a wooden collar or some other shameful badge of distinction."
See the L.O.C. article Religion and the Congress of the Confederation 1774-89
John Quincy Adams - Christian Foundations of U.S. Government
John Quincy Adams gave his perspective on the influence of Christianity on our government.
"The Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth and laid the corner stone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity."
(John Quincy Adams, 1837. An Oration Delivered Before the Inhabitants of the Town of Newburyport at their Request on the 61st Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence)
Christianizing the Delawares (1787)
According to the U.S. Library of Congress website, here is one of many ways the early government supported religion:
Christianizing the Delawares
In this resolution, Congress makes public lands available to a group for religious purposes. Responding to a plea from Bishop John Ettwein (1721-1802), Congress voted that 10,000 acres on the Muskingum River in the present state of Ohio "be set apart and the property thereof be vested in the Moravian Brethren . . . or a society of the said Brethren for civilizing the Indians and promoting Christianity." The Delaware Indians were the intended beneficiaries of this Congressional resolution.
Library of Congress - Religion and the Congress of the Confederation
Records of the Continental Congress in the Constitutional Convention, July 27, 1787
National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. (119)
King James Bible in American History
The Library of Congress presented a lecture by Mark Noll on April 24, 2006 called "The King James Version of the Bible in American History." It was presented at the Library of Congress in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Their summary of the talk said:
"According to Noll, the King James version of the Bible has been ubiquitous in American history as the prime source of language for literature, politics and popular culture, as well as for religion. His lecture will sketch the dimensions of that broad presence, while also examining how this version of the Bible has functioned as a force for cohesion and a force for strife."
More at the Library of Congress website.
Journals of the Continental Congress (January 2, 1776)
In many places on this blog I have shown examples of how Christian principles and thought are found throughout our history and official actions. Here is another example from the earliest days of our nation (boldface added):
...Resolved, That it be recommended to them, to continue mindful that humanity ought to distinguish the brave, that cruelty should find no admission among a free people, and to take care that no page in the annals of America be stained by a recital of any action which justice or Christianity may condemn, and to rest assured that whenever retaliation may be necessary or tend to their security, this Congress will undertake the disagreeable task...
See: Library of Congress
Taxes for the Benefit of the Church? Sure, No Problem!
Well, at least that's what George Washington and John Adams thought about the issue, although this opinion was only for State taxes, not Federal. This is not going to happen today, but it points out to what extent the Founding Fathers did NOT think we had to keep religion and government separate.
According to the Library of Congress:
"The country's first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, were firm believers in the importance of religion for republican government. As citizens of Virginia and Massachusetts, both were sympathetic to general religious taxes being paid by the citizens of their respective states to the churches of their choice. However both statesmen would have discouraged such a measure at the national level because of its divisiveness. They confined themselves to promoting religion rhetorically, offering frequent testimonials to its importance in building the moral character of American citizens, that, they believed, undergirded public order and successful popular government."
Learn more at the Library of Congress.
The U.S. Marine Band Used for Worship Service Music
There is an interesting little article on the Library of Congress web site that documents one of the few times The U.S. Marine Band ("The President's Own") did not do a superior job! This is from around 1798.Hymns Played at Congressional Church Service
According to Margaret Bayard Smith, a regular at church services in the Capitol, the Marine Band "made quite a dazzling appearance in the gallery . . . but in their attempts to accompany the psalm-singing of the congregation, they completely failed and after a while, the practice was discontinued."
Principles of Christianity Embedded in Our Founding
On June 28, 1813, John Adams wrote this to Thomas Jefferson:The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were. . . . the general principles of Christianity. . . . I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature.
From: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Washington D. C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), Vol. XIII, p. 292-294.
Charles Carroll: Christianity and a Free Government
Charles Carroll was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was the longest lived signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Continental Congress. Consider his words:
"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."
From a letter to James McHenry on November 4, 1800. See Google Books for Quotes of the Founders
Justice Richard Storey on Christianity and Society
Richard Storey was appointed to the Supreme Court by James Madison. Storey wrote the first major commentary of our Constitution. In it he said,
"I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. . . There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying its foundations."
See extract from Google Books
Benjamin Rush on Bibles in School
Benjamin Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Rush was a leader in calling for free public education, and is also known as a leading proponent of opportunities for women in education.
Consider his definition of what education should contain:
"The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty..."
Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral, and Philosophical, Philadelphia: Thomas & William Bradford, 1806, Ch. 'Of the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic' pp. 57-73
Read more here:
Benjamin Rush
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