A common myth of our contemporary times has permeated our national conscience, hence impeding upon our stance as a secular government: the idea that this great nation was founded upon the religion of Christianity. In order to contribute to the debunking of this ignorant claim, I shall first lay out the personal religious beliefs of our founding fathers, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen, John Adams and James Madison; following that I will examine the words of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Treaty of Tripoli; finally, I will counter the Christian arguments of the supposedly Christian common law which influenced the Constitution, and outline the rise of religious words within our pledge of allegiance and upon our currency.
George Washington’s mythical re-creation as a Christian is quite an insulting affront to his person. This came to be because of a perpetuating fable originating in Christian minister Mason Locke Weems’s book, Life of Washington; this is where the story of George Washington and the cherry tree arose.
If Washington was not a Christian, why was he a vestryman of the Episcopalian Church? Well, in order to be an influential person in early American society, you had to belong to the dominant church of your area; but what of the position of vestryman? “Even Mr. Jefferson, and George Wythe, who did not conceal their disbelief in Christianity, took their parts in the duties of vestryman, the one at Williamsburg, the other at Albermarle; for they wished to be men of influence,” page 191 of Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, by Bishop William Meade I. If Washington had been a Christian, he would have spoken of Jesus, but despite having written thousands of letters, Jesus Christ’s name never appears.
What were the chances that Washington was ashamed of his Christianity? Would he not have been a regular at church if he were merely ashamed of his beliefs? However, Washington’s 14 years of diaries, 13 of which written while at home with two Episcopal churches within 10 miles of his residence, place his average church attendance at approximately six times a year, with 1774 being the most regularly attended year, with 14 times. When Washington did attend church with his wife, a Christian, it was among those that Bishop White, the father of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, officiated. According to pages 196, 197 of the Memoir of Bishop White, on August 13, 1835, Colonel Mercer sent Bishop White a letter regarding whether Washington ever accepted the communion, Bishop White, on the 15th of August, responded, “In regard to the subject of your inquiry, truth requires me to say that Gen. Washington never received the communion in the churches of which I am the parochial minister. Mrs. Washington was a habitual communicant.”
If he was not a Christian, what did Washington believe? On page 82 of Paul F. Boller, Jr.’s book, Washington and Religion, it says that Presbyterian minister, Arthur B. Bradword, an acquaintance of another Presbyterian minister, Ashbel Green, who has known George Washington personally, wrote that Green, “often said in my hearing, though very sorrowfully, of course, that while Washington was deferential to religion and its ceremonies, like nearly all of the founders of the Republic, he was not a Christian, but a Deist.” Finally, after Washington’s death, Dr. Wilson interrogated Dr. Abercrombie, Washington’s friend, regarding Washington’s religion’ the reply came back as, “Sir, Washington was a deist.” With that, and all of the aforementioned evidences, I am sure we can conclude that Washington was in fact a deist, and not a Christian.
Benjamin Franklin was another influential founding father of ours whom was not a Christian. In Toleration, an essay of his, Franklin wrote, “If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. These found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here [England] and in New England.” An intimate friend of Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Priestley wrote in his autobiography, “It is much to be lamented that a man of Franklin’s general good character and great influence should have been an unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done as much as he did to make others unbelievers.”
In fact, Benjamin Franklin wrote openly about his own beliefs. In his autobiography he wrote, “…I received from my infancy a pious education in the principles of Calvinism. But scarcely was I arrived at fifteen years of age, when, after having doubted in turn of different tenets, according as I found them combated in the different books that I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself…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.”
Thomas Jefferson wrote many letters and within them, we can establish that he considered himself a Christian Deist, that is, one who believes the original Christianity was deistic, but was perverted in later times. “To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing himself every human excellence; and believing he never claimed any other,” in a letter to Benjamin Rush on April 21, 1803. Jefferson continued, “Jews. Their system was Deism; that is, the belief in one only God. But their ideas of him and of his attributes were degrading and injurious. He,” speaking of Jesus Christ, “corrected the Deism of the Jews, confirming them in their belief of one only God, and giving them juster notions of his attributes and government.”
Jefferson thought the Bible so degrading of God, that he literally cut and pasted the gospels, removing the supernatural revelations, and created The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, now known as The Jefferson Bible. Jefferson recommended to his nephew Peter Carr, “In the first place divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty and singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject rather than that of religion. It is too important, and the consequences of error may be too serious. On the other hand shake off all the fears and servile prejudices under which weak minds are crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal, every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.” Jefferson believed in questioning everything through a test of reason, and as a result came to be a Christian Deist.
Thomas Paine and Ethan Allen were the most open about their beliefs, for they both wrote books explaining their beliefs. Thomas Paine wrote Age of Reason; Ethan Allen wrote Reason: The Only Oracle of Man. Both were vilified, ostracized by America for writing such evil books.
John Adams was not a Deist, but a Unitarian, a liberal version of Christianity. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, Adams wrote, “I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abused of grief which the history of mankind has preserved – the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!” He often asserted he was a true Christian, but he definitely did not agree with orthodox Christian dogma.
The father of the constitution, James Madison, was an Episcopalian, but often argued for separation of church and state. In his Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, “During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not.” While religiously a Christian himself, Madison did realize the shortcomings of having government based upon a religion.
Now, while we see most of the influential founding fathers were not Christians, there still might be the slim possibility they created a Christian nation, so we now move on to the words of three documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Treaty of Tripoli.
The Declaration of Independence is often mentioned as supported a Christian nation because of its references to God. However, it does not explicitly describe Christianity’s God, the references to God are those used by Deists, with such terms as “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”. Furthermore, the Declaration of Independence is not a legal document; it may be oft quoted, but it has no legal power, it is merely a document announcing the rebellious intentions of thirteen colonies.
The Constitution would be the one place you would find mention of the nation being founded upon Christianity, if it was in all actuality founded upon Christianity. Yet nowhere in this document do we find any mention of any supreme being; there are only two references, but both are exclusionary in their words, not establishing any religion.
The Treaty of Tripoli was one of our first few legal documents, and within it is an interesting article. Now, before I begin, I will admit that the Treaty of Tripoli only had legal status for eight years, but what it does show is the attitude of our founding fathers regarding religion and government. In Article 11, the treaty states, “ As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselman; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared b the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.” This treaty began with a preliminary signing during Washington’s last term as president; then John Adams, now President, and Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State, endorsed it and sent it on to the U.S. Senate, where it was ratified. Never once did Article 11 raise any concern, showing that neither the Senate, nor two different administrations find issue with the government not being founded on Christianity.
Finally, we move on to counter any claims by Christianity that the Constitution derived from supposedly Christian common law is based upon Christianity because of its relation to the common law of England. Then, we shall outline the rise of religious words within our pledge of allegiance and upon our currency.
The Constitution is derived from the common law of England, but there are claims that the common law is Christian, making the Constitution Christian. So let us investigate these claims. In a letter to Thomas Cooper on February 10, 1814, Thomas Jefferson expounded upon the history of common law, “For we know that the common law is that system of law which was introduced by the Saxons on their settlement in England, and altered from time to time by proper legislative authority from that time to the date of Magna Carta, which terminates the period of the common law…This settlement took place about the middle of the fifth century. But Christianity was not introduced till the seventh century; the conversion of the first Christian king of the Heptarchy having taken place about the year 598, and that of the last about 686. Here then, was a space of two hundred years, during which the common law was in existence, and Christianity no part of it.” Furthermore, in Encyclopedia Britannica, “The nature of the new common law was at first much influenced by the principles of Roman law, but later it developed more and more along independent lines.”
It is often said that the words within the Pledge of Allegiance and upon our currency have always been there and as such should stay there now as part of our country’s history as a Christian nation. However, if you look in-depth at the history of the rise of religious words, it is not true. Authored by Francis Bellamy in 1892, the original Pledge of Allegiance did not contain the words “under god”; the words did not appear until June 1954 as part of the McCarthyism changes, which were the result of fear of communism, not reason. For almost a hundred years our currency, lacked the words, “In God We Trust” until they were first proposed by Reverend Watkinson in 1861. Even then, it was slowly adopted until it was made mandatory, again, by a McCarthyism-induced act of congress, in 1955.
As we have documented through the personal beliefs of our founding fathers, our founding documents, and the real history behind the rise of religious words, we were not founded as a Christian nation. Our government was founded distinctively secular, and as such, it should remain that way, instead of trying to reform it to a historically revisionist past.
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