***
Anyway, I think I ought to put you in remembrance that this Republic was founded largely by Calvinists. The overwhelming majority of the Framers of the U.S. Constitution were Calvinists.
This is historically inarguable. You musn't buy the revisionist histories which say that the U.S. was founded primarily by Deists. Gosh, it wasn't founded primarily by Deists, but primarily by Christians.
Furthermore, you mustn't buy the revisionist nonsense which implies that our nation was founded primarily by Arminians or even Wesley-style Protestants. It wasn't founded primarily by people like you, but primarily by people like me.
This is a historical fact. The fifty-some-odd Framers included three Deists, one Jew, two Roman Catholics, two or three Quakers, a couple of Methodists, one Lutheran, and FORTY-THREE CALVINISTS.
Notice that we Calvinists work okay with religious pluralism. But don't kid yourself into thinking that the Calvinists did not make their marks on American government in the Constitutional provisions they shaped. The U.S. Constitution is a Calvinist's document through and through.
Of course, some of the Deists we sometimes hear about in American history were not signers of the Constitution. Certainly they were influential with the signers. But then again, some of the most important Calvinists--like Patrick Henry--weren't among the signers, either.
***
In any case, by consigning me to hell, calling for the fire of an angry God to fall upon me for daring to present the Calvinistic position of America's Protestant/Reformed forefathers, it would appear that you have committed a kind of religio-political blasphemy against the U.S.Constitution itself.
Think, man. For starters, you need to notice that you have gotten over your head in this one.
(Of course, no one is going to lynch you for your blunder. Ah, but you have the Calvinists to thank for that.)
Ethan: Harvard University professor of history, Dr. Perry Miller, observed:
"Actually, European deism is an exotic plant in America, which never struck roots in the soil. 'Rationalism' was never so widespread as liberal historians, or those fascinated by Jefferson, have imagined. The basic fact is that the Revolution had been preached to the masses as a religious revival, and had the astounding fortune to succeed" (Perry Miller, Nature's Nation. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard-Belknap, 1967), p. 110.
Indeed, one of the more prominent mottos of the War for Independence was "Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God!"
the_doc: "Furthermore, you mustn't buy the revisionist nonsense which implies that our nation was founded primarily by Arminians or even Wesley-style Protestants. It wasn't founded primarily by people like you, but primarily by people like me."
Ethan: That is a categorical fact. Modern, Leftist anti-christian invective, or historical ignorance (including willful ignorance), notwithstanding.
"In terms of population alone, a high percentage of the pre-revolutionary American colonies were of Puritan-Calvinist background. There were around three million persons in the thirteen original colonies by 1776, and perhaps as many as two-thirds of these came from some kind of Calvinist or Puritan connection" (Douglas F. Kelly, The Emergence of Libertly in the Modern World — The Influence of Calvin on Five Governments from the 16th Through 18th Centuries. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1992), p. 120.
the_doc: "Notice that we Calvinists work okay with religious pluralism. But don't kid yourself into thinking that the Calvinists did not make their marks on American government in the Constitutional provisions they shaped. The U.S. Constitution is a Calvinist's document through and through."
Ethan: Dr. George Bancroft, arguably the most prominent American historian of the 19th century — and not a Calvinist — stated:
"He who will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty" (George Bancroft; cited in Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. Philadephia: P&R Publishing, 1972), pp. 389-390.
the_doc: "In any case, by consigning me to hell, calling for the fire of an angry God to fall upon me for daring to present the Calvinistic position of America's Protestant/Reformed forefathers, it would appear that you have committed a kind of religio-political blasphemy against the U.S.Constitution itself."
Ethan: Specifically, the 55 Framers (from North to South):
Even some "four score"-odd years later, the supposedly "non-christian" Abraham Lincoln offered the positively Biblical and very Reformed covenantal view of the Sovereign of the Nations and Ruler of history:
"It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon. And to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord." (Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863. bold emphasis mine).