Like Button

Tuesday, July 02, 2019

On the Approach of July 4th

"America is not a Christian nation." While technically this is true (no nation can confess its sins and come to Christ in faith), it is also undeniably true that the United States of America has her roots firmly planted in Christianity. From the beginning, eight of the thirteen original states had state-sponsored Christian churches. In the five which did not, they had Christian charters. The Constitutional Convention had 55 members, 50 of whom were actual Christians. When the Bill of Rights was passed with its noticeable First Amendment in front, the House passed a resolution for both houses of Congress to call for a day of public prayer and thanksgiving. The Charter of Delaware, 1701, declared, "All Persons who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World, shall be capable (notwithstanding their other Persuasions and Practices in Point of Conscience and Religion) to serve this Government in any Capacity, both legislatively and executively..." Of the original 13, Delaware was the first to terminate its state-supported religion in 1792 and New Hampshire the last in 1877. Without a doubt, the original intent of the Founders was not the separation of Church and State -- not a religion-free government -- but a federal government that wouldn't decide for the States which religion to practice. No, it's more than that. They didn't want the federal government to determine which denomination of Christianity they would use. At that time, they referred to Christianity as "religion" and most references to "religion" in the writings and quotes from those days were a direct reference to Christianity.

Today, of course, this is unheard of. This is foul. This is unholy. We understand that the divine (lowercase) decree is the separation of Church and State. Few realize that this was never included in any actual documents from our founding. The actual phrase comes from a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Baptist Association in Danbury, Connecticut. In 1962, the Supreme Court (tasked with determining constitutionality) used the phrase to declare school prayers unconstitutional, but the notion that school prayers would be unconstitutional wasn't even a remote possibility to the deeply religious new country of the United States. The Connecticut Baptists were concerned that the State might meddle in their business, and Jefferson was assuring them that the state was blocked from doing so and not that the church had no part in the state. The establishment clause was there to prevent the federal government from making the Congretationalists (for instance) become Puritans (for example), not to prevent individual states from declaring a State religion. Originally the country was assumed to be Christian; it was merely what flavor of "Christian" was in view.

Most of the original folks that arrived on America's shores to establish a new home came for religious reasons. They wished to practice Christianity in the way that they believed they were supposed to. Some even came to bring Christianity to the Native Americans. It makes no sense, then, to argue that America has never been Christian in its roots. The opposite is true.

I've written about this topic on more than one occasion. We've been lied to. I wouldn't point first at any political or even philosophical groups for this. I would point first to the father of lies. Still, given the volume of voices touting this false notion, I'd say there are far more vocal followers of that father than we've heard before. But you, dear readers, can see the truth of the matter. As it turns out, modern America is on the wrong side of history.

No comments: