“Hodgepodge of Thoughts about early America”……………………………….A short
reading of the facts
I was listening to a news program the other night and I heard an
alarming statement made by a “Reverend” who said that America
was not founded as a Christian nation. I don’t know much about
the minister’s credentials other than what was flashed across
the screen. It seems he was a former employee of the ACLU and
was opposed to Christian emblems being placed on government
property. He gave the same old song and dance about “separation
of church and state” (gag me) and the need for America to
sterilize her government agencies of Christian symbols. I was
thinking about this absurdity this morning, and thought I would
help set the record straight. America was founded on Biblical
principles and has been declared Christian by its institutions
of law all the way up to the 1950s. Let me present some facts.
Fact: Terry Eastland, publisher of The Weekly Standard, has
confirmed after his in-depth study of the history of America.
“Protestant Christianity has been our established religion in
almost every sense of that phrase…The establishment of
Protestant Christianity was one not only of law but also, and
far more importantly, of culture. Protestant Christianity
supplied the nation with its ‘system of values.’” James
Billington, Liberian of Congress, said in a news conference on
the opening of the exhibit, “Religion and the Founding of the
American Republic,” that “the dominant role religion played in
the earliest days of this country is largely ignored by media,
academics, and others.”
Fact: In 1931 the U.S. Supreme Court noted that the United
States is a Christian nation. In a mid-Atlantic summit with
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the darkest hours of
World War II, President Roosevelt—who had described the United
States as the “the lasting concord between men and nations,
founded on the principles of Christianity”—asked the crew of an
American warship to join him in a rousing chorus of the hymn
“Onward, Christian Soldiers.” President Woodrow Wilson, in his
famous address, “The Bible and Progress,” delivered in Denver,
Colorado, on May 7, 1911, told his audience that, “America was
born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that
devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from
the revelation of Holy Scripture.” I might add that President
Wilson was a devout Presbyterian.
Fact: The claim that America has a distinct Christian heritage
does not mean that every American is now or ever was a
Christian. Moreover, it does not mean that either the Church or
the State should force people to profess belief in Christianity
or attend religious services. Furthermore, a belief in a
Christian heritage for America does not mean that
non-Christians, and for that matter, dissenting Christians,
cannot hold contrary opinions in a climate of a general
Christian consensus. An honest study of America’s past will show
that a majority of Americans shared a common religion and ethic.
America’s earliest founders were self-professing Christians and
their founding documents expressed a belief in a Christian
worldview.
Fact: John Winthrop’s sermon aboard the Arabella in 1630 states
in part: “For the persons, we are a Company professing ourselves
fellow members of Christ…For the work we have in hand, it is by
a mutual consent through a special overruling providence, and a
more than an ordinary approbation of the Churches of Christ to
seek out a place of Cohabitation of Consortship under a due form
of Government both civil and ecclesiastical…”
Fact: In 1892, the Supreme Court declared, in the case of The
Church of the Holy Trinity vs. United States, that America was a
Christian nation from earliest days. After examining a full
range of historical documents, Associate Justice David J. Brewer
concluded that Americans are “a religious people. This is
historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the
present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation.”
In 1931, Supreme
Faith Fellowship Church…PO Box 1586…Broken Arrow,
OK…918-451-0270…Pastor Terry Dashner
Court Justice George Sutherland reviewed the 1892 decision and
reaffirmed that Americans are a “Christian people.” As late as
1952 the Supreme Court was affirming and reaffirming this fact.
I thought you might like some facts to help you reach your own
conclusion about America’s religious heritage. The facts are
there. They’re overwhelmingly in support of the notion that
America was founded on the principles of Holy Scripture. What
say you?
May God bless America !
Terry Dashner
About the author:
Writes articles about America's early history. 918-451-0270
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