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Sometime back, there was a letter to the editor of one of our newspapers in this region, which sadly expressed the lack of understanding of some people in our land. This man began by saying, “Our state is under the spell of a myth, the myth of a Christian nation.” He goes on to assert that most of our leading Founding Fathers were deists. In particular he names Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington. He then goes on to define deism: “Deism is a way of looking at the world and believing there’s a god who created it, but then left things alone (i.e., no miracles, no son of god, no divine intervention).”
I fear this man represents some in America who simply misrepresent the facts about our Founders, either by ignorance or design. Why don’t we do a novel thing? Let’s let the Founders speak for themselves! Wouldn’t that be a different approach to education?
As to Kentucky being under the “myth” that we are a Christian nation: The Patriot, Patrick Henry, let it be known what Christ was to him when, as he neared death, he said:
“Oh, how wretched should I be at this moment, if I had not made my peace with God!”
(Henry, Patrick. 1799, in a letter to President John Adams. Norine Dickson Campbell, Patrick Henry – Patriot and Statesman (Old Greenwich, CT: Devin Adair, 1969, 1975), p. 417 | John Eidsmoe, Christianity and The Constitution – The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1987), p. 314.)
And then, to the Doctor attending him:
“Doctor, I wish you to observe how real and beneficial the religion of Christ is to a man about to die…”
(Henry, Patrick. Prof. Tyler, biography. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 227.)
Founder, John Quincy Adams stated:
“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: It united in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”
(Adams, John Quincy. July 4, 1821. John Wingate Thornton, The Pulpit of the American Revolution 1860 (reprinted NY: Burt Franklin, 1860; 1970), p. XXIX | Verna M. Hall, comp., Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1976), p. 372.)
The United States Supreme Court stated in the 1892 case: Church of the Holy Trinity v. the United States:
“…our institutions are emphatically Christian…this is a Christian nation.”
Wouldn’t you say that it is ignorance personified to state that it’s a myth to believe that America is a Christian nation?
The letter to the editor boldly states that “George Washington never wrote on the subject of Jesus or Christianity.” I beg to differ! From Washington’s own journal comes this prayer:
“…wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb. Daily frame me more and more into the likeness of your Son, Jesus Christ.”
(D. Manuel & P. Marshall, Jr., The Light and the Glory (Fleming: 1976), p. 285)
Does that sound like one who has a religion that has “no son of god”? I think not!
As to Ben Franklin’s supposed lack of faith in God entering man’s affairs, later, at age eighty-one, at the Constitutional Convention, he made the following statement: At a moment when it looked like the Convention would break apart, he stood and said:
“In the contest with Britain, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine Protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were graciously answered…and have we now forgotten this powerful friend? 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 man…I therefore move that prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven…be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business.”
(Franklin, Benjamin. June 28, 1787. James Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 (NY: W.W. Morton & Co., Original 1787, reprinted 1987), Vol. I, p. 504, 451-21 | John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution – The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987, 6th printing 1993), pp. 12-13, 208.)
James Madison then made the motion for prayer to be led by Christian ministers before they started their daily proceedings.
Most of these men were not deists! They were Christians!
But the real issue is: Did you know that; and are you teaching it to your children?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.