This past week three of my articles were written around the theme “Bringing Back the Bible into the Schoolhouse”. We have had some excellent comments from blogger Jonathan. In this article we will look at more comments from Jonathan, an excerpt from an article I recently read which relevantly quoted John Adams on the subject, as well as a brief citation from a review about a new book on George Washington.
Let’s start with some of Jonathan’s latest comments made regarding my last article on this subject, which he made on Sunday:
“Needless to say, there is no evidence that the majority of signers were "born-again" committed Trinitarian Christians. Only evidence that they were formally affiliated with Christian Churches.
"And we do have evidence that the men who actually wrote the darn thing --Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin -- were theological Unitarians, who fervently denied the Trinity and other key tenets of orthodox Christianity.”
I continue to disagree with you Jonathan. Would a Unitarian make the following statement as referenced in the following excerpt from a superb recent article, which I read in Alain’s Newsletter? If he was a Unitarian, didn’t he at least recognize what the majority of his peers believed?
“Americans must clear their minds of the psychopolitically-induced mind paste which prevents them from seeing the truth, which is that America was founded by God-fearing patriots who chose Christian principles on which to achieve independence. In the words of John Adams, “The…principles on which the fathers achieved independence were…the general principles of Christianity.” (Works, Vol. x, pp. 45-46, to Thomas Jefferson, June 28, 1813) . . .
“If we wish to remain free, we must turn back to and rededicate ourselves to the source of our freedom and personal liberties: God the Creator and the principles of Christianity. Parents must protect their children . . . And as a people united by the principles of freedom and personal liberty, we must commit ourselves to the long and arduous fight to recapture every square inch of our culture, laws, and government. . .”
I just read a review of the new book by Dr. Peter Lillback, who begins his new book about George Washington's faith, titled George Washington’s Sacred Fire . Part of the review reads:
“. . . with a cursory review of a few recent authors describing our first president as a "lukewarm Episcopalian," a "warm Deist," "not a deeply religious man," "not
particularly ardent in his faith," and "one who avoided, as was the Deist custom, the word 'God.'"
“Lillback aims to set the record straight in his comprehensive study. . . . he explores every aspect of the president's faith in order to verify that he was, indeed, a devout man who practiced his Christian faith.
“The purpose of George Washington's Sacred Fire is to prove definitively that George Washington was indeed a devout, practicing Christian, and that quickly puts revisionist historians on the defensive.
"The book builds a compelling case for the Christian faith of Washington by relying on the president's own thoughts, words and deeds. Lillback's evidence stronglya upports his premise that Washington was not a deist, but a strong practitioner of the Christian faith. Further, he aptly illustrates that this fact is critical for understanding the founding of America and for insuring the future strength of America as "One Nation under God."”
I think that the fact that a few of the early fathers were Deists, Unitarians or whatever, does not diminish the fact that I believe that the overwhelming majority were, in fact, true born-again believers in Jesus Christ and in God. The revisionist try to wish away or even attempt to rewrite history to fit into their wished for deam of America, which differs greatly from that of the majority of those who Founded this great nation as well as from those of us who want to keep that truth alive.
We can deal with Washington and Adams separately. Washington is a little harder, given that he was quite mum, both publicly and privately, on the specifics of his exact religious creed. Although he did make it clear he believed in a warm-intervening Providence, not a cold distant watchmaker.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, I have read virtually everything Washington wrote on religion and think that Lillback distorts history and otherwise grasps at straws to try and prove Washington was an orthodox Christian, when in reality, he never affirmed the tenets of orthodox Christianity or really even professed to be a Christian (he almost always talks about "Christians" in the third person, as though he weren't part of that group).
As far as I know, Lillback can marshall one letter where Washington signs it using a phrase "with the honor of a Christian" or something along those lines. I can come forth with ten times as many quotations where Washington speaks in the third person, as though he weren't a Christian.
And, I might add, simply claiming to be a Christian does not one make. Adams and Jefferson both claimed to be Christians far more often than Washington, but given both rejected all of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, neither were Christians, or at least, neither were orthodox Trinitarian Christians.
With Adams, there is no debate; he was a Unitarian. Now, that term doesn't quite mean what we think of today when we hear the term "Unitarian." It simply means someone who doesn't believe Jesus is God; the Jehovah's Witnesses are thus "Unitarians." But Adams also denies eternal damnation, elevates man's reason over Biblical revelation and otherwise takes a cafeteria approach to the Bible.
All of this can be document by looking at his writings in their entirety and in context. It's also documented on my blogs. If you'd like me to point you to the primary sources, I'd be glad to do so.
“The…principles on which the fathers achieved independence were…the general principles of Christianity.”
ReplyDeleteI've dealt with this quotation many times on my blogs. See for instance, this post. Let's look at the entire quotation in context.
"The general principles on which the Fathers achieved independence, were . . . the general principles of Christianity....Now 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 and our terrestrial, mundane System. I could therefore safely say, consistently with all my then and present Information, that I believed they would never make Discoveries in contradiction to these general Principles. In favour of these general Principles in Phylosophy, Religion and Government, I could fill Sheets of quotations from Frederick of Prussia, from Hume, Gibbon, Bolingbroke, Reausseau and Voltaire, as well as Neuton and Locke: not to mention thousands of Divines and Philosophers of inferiour Fame."
See the primary source.
Looking primarily to Enlightenment philosophers, including the works of atheist, Hume, or radical French philosophes, Rousseau and Voltaire, in support of "the general principles of Christianity"? Now, I ask you, is that what you mean when you declare the United States to be a "Christian Nation."