The ramblings of a few deists

Another 4th come and gone. Fireworks. Baseball. Hot dog gorgings (in our case, grilled pizza). I hope that a sizable share of our people took a moment or two to consider what happened 236 years ago when men pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Perhaps they even step-stoned from here to there upon other events that figure so gravely upon our freedoms.


We hear of history being rewritten, and for many, the concern extends to our children. What kind of country will we leave them if they cannot know nor understand the roots of their nation? Most who fear the alteration of our national heritage worry about America's religious underpinnings being erased from our national memory.


Unfortunately, when Party A raises an issue of concern regarding the conduct of Party B, don't be surprised when Party B turns the tables and accuses Party A of being the real point of concern.


Consider the example of rewriting history. The secularists are trying to prune religion from our national tree, right? Oh, no. It's the religionists who are trying to neuter the secular cornerstones that our Founders laid. Or so says a secularist:

"This country wasn't founded on Christian principles, BTW. The founding fathers were, at the very least, agnostic. Archived letters from Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Franklin, etc all espouse a secular state. They all ridiculed what was happening in Europe. It's unfortunate how our history has been distorted to weave religion into its fabric. I'm all for freedom of religion until it encroaches on my own freedom/rights."

Ah, the threat of archived letters. Such an appeal to authority often comes from those who really haven't looked into the authority to which they are appealing. From stem to stern you'll not find a more godly man than John Adams nor a more godless man than Ben Franklin. At the same time, Mr. Franklin appealed often to the powers of Providence and its (his) affects on the affairs of men. Why would he appeal to Thomas Paine to reconsider his ardently secular writings (here)? Why else would he appeal to prayer during the Constitutional Convention (here)?

I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that "except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a bye word down to future age... 

...I therefore beg leave to move -- that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.

Ah, Ben, you old dotard, you can't say stuff like that!

Apart from Ben and Tom Jefferson, no other Founder has been so indicted as being an anti-religionist as George Washington. "At best, he was a deist," you will heard cast about. His farewell address to our nation, after two amazing terms as our first president, paints a far different picture.


As he listed the pillars upon which our nation must stand, Washington declared:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness – these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, "where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?" And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

That's pretty strong language for a guy who presumably--sort of, kind of--thinks that there's an unnameable, unknowable "deity."


Earlier in his address, Washington described the American people, the audience of his farewell address, in this manner:

With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles.

This supports the conviction that when our Founders spoke of religion, they spoke of Christianity, and when Congress was to make no law respecting an establishment of religion, that it was toward giving preference to a specific denomination that the Amendment referred.


How about ol' Thomas Jefferson, the guy who cut his Bible to pieces? Etched in marble within his memorial for all to see (and about which atheists cringe) are these writings of TJ. On the southwest wall:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men. We...solemnly publish and declare, that these colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states...And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour. 

On the northwest wall: 

Almighty God hath created the mind free...All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion...No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively. 

And the northeast wall:

God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than these people are to be free. Establish the law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state to effect and on a general plan.

And to think that Memorial was erected in the middle of the last century. Consider what it would look like if it were built today and the quotes that would be included. 

A Christian nation? We were. As our nation has rejected the authority of Almighty God in its life, our Constitution and our principle documents have become increasingly meaningless. That is not how it began. Yes, quotes can be plucked out of context. You could make Reagan sound like a communist and Obama sound pro-life. Let none say, though, that our Founders were a secular lot. Based upon much of what they wrote, that's just not true.