There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. There were 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention which produced the Constitution.
Of the Founding Fathers that produced these founding documents, one was a deist, Benjamin Franklin. Two were officially Unitarians, John Adams and Robert Paine (no relation to Thomas). One other, Thomas Jefferson was a unitarian in his beliefs, though an active and observant member of the Anglican/Episcopal church. Both Jefferson and Adams considered themselves devout Christians and said so. There were four current or past ministers. Thomas Paine, deist, had nothing to do with either the Declaration or the Constitution.
These liberal secularists would have a major problem with any of the founding fathers is they were to come back. Regard:
Thomas Jefferson:
"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?"
“The god who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time: the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them. “
“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” (Jefferson writing about the injustice of slavery and revealing he believed in a righteous Old Testament type God who punished nations for their sins.)
"The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart."
"I am a Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."
John Adams:
"The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity, let the Blackguard Paine say what he will."
“I have attended public worship in all countries and with all sects and believe them all much better than no religion, though I have not thought myself obliged to believe all I heard.”
"The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion."
“Howl, Snarl, bite, Ye Calvinistick! Ye Athanasian Divines, if You will. Ye will say, I am no Christian: I say Ye are no Christians: and there the Account is ballanced. Yet I believe all the honest men among you, are Christians in my Sense of the Word." (Adams letter to Jefferson)
en.wikipedia.org
“The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity…I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and the attributes of God.”
[June 28, 1813; Letter to Thomas Jefferson]
“We recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!”
[April 18, 1775, on the eve of the Revolutionary War after a British major ordered John Adams, John Hancock, and those with them to disperse in “the name of George the Sovereign King of England." ]
“[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”
[letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress]
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." --October 11, 1798
"I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen." December 25, 1813 letter to Thomas Jefferson
"Without Religion this World would be Something not fit to be mentioned in polite Company, I mean Hell." [John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, April 19, 1817]
"Jesus is benevolence personified, an example for all men… The Christian religion, in its primitive purity and simplicity, I have entertained for more than sixty years. It is the religion of reason, equity, and love; it is the religion of the head and the heart." (Letter to F.A. Van Der Kemp, December 27, 1816)
George Washington:
"Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion."
"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."
Isaac Potts, who was Washington's temporary landlord at Valley Forge the winter of 1777-78, gave a famous account of Washington's resolution. As Potts was traveling the dark forest, he heard some distance from him a voice that became more intense as he approached its origin. Washington was praying for the new nation, for guidance, and for the men under his command.
As Potts approached, he saw the Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United Colonies on his knees in prayer to the Creator and Ruler of the Universe. Potts, a Quaker, returned to his home and his wife where he declared, "I have seen this day what I shall never forget. Till now I have thought that a Christian and a soldier were incompatible; but if George Washington be not a man of God, I am mistaken, and still more shall I be disappointed if God does not through him perform some great thing for his country."
shalomjerusalem.com
James Madison:
”[A] watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.” (James Madison, encouraging William Bradford to be sure of his own salvation)
“I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way.”(Madison urging William Bradford to make a public witness of his Christiianity)
Now for the one and only real deist among the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin:
"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... If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground unseen by him, is it probable an empire could arise without his aid? I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building not better than the builders of Babel."
Even Franklin was a believer who looked to God for aid in establishing the new nation.
Accordingly, one can see the claim that the Founding Fathers were liberal secularists, agnostics, or even mostly deists is nonsense. But to quote Jefferson again:
“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
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Thomas Jefferson |
