Posted on 09/18/2017 8:53:14 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
What role should religion play in a free society? More and more people today would answer: none. That would not have been the answer of the Founders of the United States – the men who fought the American Revolution and wrote the country’s Constitution.
To them the issue of religion and freedom were inextricably linked. You couldn’t have freedom without religion. In fact, the political philosophy of the Founders necessitated a divine foundation.
Thomas Jefferson makes this clear in the Declaration of Independence when he writes that “all men…are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” The purpose of government, Jefferson and his compatriots believed, was not to bestow rights; rather, it was to protect those rights already endowed upon human beings by God.
But government alone cannot maintain a free society. A moral people is also required; that is, a people moral enough to police itself. “Virtue or morality,” George Washington observed, “is a necessary spring of popular government.” Thus, for the Founders, liberty was not merely the ability to do what one wanted; it came with moral demands and boundaries.
They all accepted the rule of life expressed by Benjamin Franklin: “Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.”
The Founders knew that the absolute enemy of freedom was – ironically – a freedom that was absolute and unrestrained. And where was this restraint going to come from? Their answer was religion, which for them – because of when and where they lived – was some variety of Christianity.
“Let Divines, and Philosophers, Statesmen and Patriots unite,” Samuel Adams wrote, “[in] instructing [citizens] in the Art of self-government…in short, of leading them in the Study, and Practice of the exalted Virtues...
(Excerpt) Read more at thecoachsteam.com ...
Read all through our history as a country and our important documents and I think you can see that this country was not founded as Secular, Statist nation. Of course the left has been trying to move it that way since November 1932.
“But this institution was republican, and even democratic. And here not to be misunderstood, I mean by democratic, a government, the administration of which must always be rendered comfortable to that predominating public opinion . . . and by republican I mean a government reposing, not upon the virtues or the powers of any one man - not upon that honor, which Montesquieu lays down as the fundamental principle of monarchy - far less upon that fear which he pronounces the basis of despotism; but upon that virtue which he, a noble of aristocratic peerage, and the subject of an absolute monarch, boldly proclaims as a fundamental principle of republican government. The Constitution of the United States was republican and democratic - but the experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived; and it was obvious that if virtue - the virtue of the people, was the foundation of republican government, the stability and duration of the government must depend upon the stability and duration of the virtue by which it is sustained.” - John Quincy Adams - "Jubilee" Address, April, 1839Perhaps Jefferson's brilliant mind and ability to understand that ideas have consequences enabled him to foresee a time when a departure from principle and what Washington called the "Spirit of Party" would produce a power couple like the Clintons, as he observed:"I am among those who think well of the human character generally. I consider man as formed for society and endowed by nature with those dispositions which fit him for society." --Thomas Jefferson to William Green Munford, 1799.
"Everyone, by his property or by his satisfactory situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public affairs and a degree of freedom which, in the hands of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and destruction of everything public and private." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:401
"Every man being at his ease feels an interest in the preservation of order and comes forth to preserve it at the first call of the magistrate." --Thomas Jefferson to M. Pictet, 1803. ME 10:356
"The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIX, 1782. ME 2:230
"To the sincere spirit of republicanism are naturally associated the love of country, devotion to its liberty, its right and its honor." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Virginia Legislature, 1809. ME 16:333
"[It is the people's] conviction that a solid Union is the best rock of their safety." --Thomas Jefferson to C. W. F. Dumas, 1791. ME 8:197
"The cement of this Union is in the heart-blood of every American. I do not believe there is on earth a government established on so immovable a basis." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1815. ME 14:252
"Possessed of the blessing of self-government and of such a portion of civil liberty as no other civilized nation enjoys, it now behooves us to guard and preserve them by a continuance of the sacrifices and exertions by which they were acquired, and especially to nourish that Union which is their sole guarantee." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to New London Plymouth Society, 1809. ME 16:360
"Unless the mass retains sufficient control over those entrusted with the powers of their government, these will be perverted to their own oppression, and to the perpetuation of wealth and power in the individuals and their families selected for the trust." --Thomas Jefferson to M. van der Kemp, 1812. ME 13:136
"No other depositories of power [but the people themselves] have ever yet been found, which did not end in converting to their own profit the earnings of those committed to their charge." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:71
No it was not founded to be secular, it was founded not to have an official State Church that would force citizens to belong and believe as the State Church dictated. The assumption was a Godly people, with Godly governance. The States could have and did have their respective State Church for decades afterwards. But, the Federal government was to make no law concerning an establishment of religions or to prohibit the free exercise thereof.
That does not make them anti-religion or trying to keep religion or religious people out of government.
In fact they specifically made laws to prevent that happening.
Not that anyone seems to be paying attention to those laws any more.
It was founded on the presumption that Christian culture would continue.
Good men are doing nothing.
The problem is that the meaning of “secular” has changed. In the past it was closer in meaning to “non-denominational” as opposed to today’s meaning of “anti-religion”.
There would be no state church - but all men were expected to honor and represent their beliefs as part of their representation - but no religious law was to be enacted.
There’s lots of “religion” and orthodoxy being rammed down our throats right now.
To me ? It’s very simple.
The root of our law, common law was founded in the Magna Carta.
The Magna Carta was the philosophical brain fart by members of the Judo-Christian Faith right at the height of the Christian Crusades.
Christianity WAS Great Britain at that time. IT was not a fringe group.
Once we learned we could buy and sell our property, intellectual property came on shortly thereafter, and we saw the birth of the first patent /copyright laws about 150 years later. Thusly the two cornerstones to the Industrial revolution.
That Magna Carta thingie became the Charter of Maryland , the root of the American Constitution.
Thus the references to God and Our Creator.
All of this is unlike the rest of the world and generally speaking, specific to the “children” of Great Britain.
For later
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions52.html
...It is apprehended that Jews, Mahometans, pagans, &c., may be elected to high offices under the government of the United States. Those who are Mahometans, or any others who are not professors of the Christian religion, can never be elected to the office of President, or other high office, but in one of two cases.
First, if the people of America lay aside the Christian religion altogether, it may happen. Should this unfortunately take place, the people will choose such men as think as they do themselves.
Another case is, if any persons of such descriptions should, notwithstanding their religion, acquire the confidence and esteem of the people of America by their good conduct and practice of virtue, they may be chosen...
One has only to look at the troubled history of England and France due to religion in the years previous (late 17th and early 18th century) to the American Revolution to see the problems wrought by having a state religion. The founders did not want to ban religion. They just didn’t want an official state religion.
John Adams in a speech to the military in 1798 warned his fellow countrymen stating, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Noah Webster, author of the first American Speller and the first Dictionary said, “[T]he Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis, or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government. . . . and I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence.”
Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence said, “[T]he only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be aid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.”
Was America Founded To Be Secular?
No.
Next question.
no it wasnt, but at the same time, every single lefty, atheist, et al, continually point out that our constitution mentions nothing of a creator, and that the Declaration of Independence, despite metioning a creator, is a whole different animal, and isnt what our government is based on....
how do you counter that?
Too late now. We used to be a nation of Christians. Now we are a pagan nation (32%) with some Christians (68%). We would have to accommodate them all in power if we gave Christians power or change the constitution.
JOHN JAY (America’s First Supreme Court Justice)
“Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers,
and it is the duty, as well as privilege and interest,
of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
Quote of the day
https://www.redbubble.com/people/cometman/writing/2153433-john-jay-quote-of-the-day
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