In its April 10th 2006 story “God and the Founders” Newsweek had this stunningly secularist quote from America’s founding fathers:
In a treaty with the Muslim nation of Tripoli initiated by Washington, completed by John Adams, and ratified by the Senate in 1797, we declared “the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion. … “
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In response to the claim that America was not founded on Christian principles, I would tender the following: anyone who cares to read the original founding documents of the American colonies can come to no other conclusion than that they were established on Biblical principles and laws, and that the authors of those charters meant for the world to understand the reasons why they had come to the New World, and that they were establishing this colony on the Word of God.
This pattern is followed in the preamble of every state constitution. Every one. Every one of them calls on God, or Jesus Christ to guide and direct them in their affairs and the future affairs of their state as they embark on the new road of inclusion in the United States of America.
A reading of the writings of the Presidents of the United States will also establish this fact. I have enclosed just a few of quotes from the Presidents.
In tendering this homage to God, the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large, less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. George Washington, 1789-1797, 1st President of the United States
I shall need, too, the favor of that Divine Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to Whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with me.
Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809. 3rd President of the United States
I only look to the gracious protection of the Divine Being whose strengthening support I humbly solicit, and whom I fervently pray to look down upon us all. May it be among the dispensations of His Providence to bless our beloved country with honors and length of days; may her ways be pleasantness, and all her paths peace.
Martin VanBuren 1837-1841, 8th President of the United States
It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the supplications and prayers of an afflicted people. That the Union of these States will be maintained, their Constitution preserved, and their peace and prosperity permanently restored. But these victories have been accorded not without sacrifices by brave, loyal, and patriotic citizens. It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of the Almighty Father and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs and in these sorrows… And whereas it is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to acknowledge and revere the Supreme Government of God; to bow in humble submission to his chastisements; to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and to pray, with all fervency and contrition, for the pardon of their past offences, and for a blessing upon their present and prospective action.
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
We should rejoice with thankfulness that the Lord in His infinite mercy has most signally favored our country and our people. For all these things, it is meet that the voice of the nation should go up to God in devout homage.
Chester A. Arthur, 1881-1885, 21st President of the United States
The men who established this government had faith in God and sublimely trusted in Him. They besought His counsel and advice in every step of their progress. And so it has been ever since; American history abounds in instances of this trait of piety, this sincere reliance on a Higher Power in all great trials in our national affairs.
William McKinley, 1897-1901, 25th President of the United States
America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness, which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scriptures. Part of the destiny of Americans lies in their daily perusal of this great book of revelations. That if they would see America free and pure they will make their own spirits free and pure by, this baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921, 28th President of the United States
They, the Founding Fathers, were intent upon establishing a Christian commonwealth in accordance with the principle of self-government. They were an inspired body of men. It has been said that God sifted the nations that He might send choice grain into the wilderness. Who can fail to see in it the hand of destiny? Who can doubt that it has been guided by a Divine Providence?
Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929, 30th President of the United States
The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. He has given our people stout hearts and strong arms with which to strike mighty blows for freedom and truth. He has given to our country a faith which has become the hope of all peoples in an anguished world. So we pray to Him now for the vision to see our way clearly-to see the way that leads to a better life for ourselves and for all our fellow men-to the achievement of His will to peace on earth.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945, 32nd President of the United States
Without God there could be neither American form of government nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first–the most basic–expression of Americanism. In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-1961, 34th President of the United States
Perhaps it’s not too much to hope that true change will come to all countries that now deny or hinder the freedom to worship God. And perhaps we’ll see that change come through the reemergence of faith, through the irresistible power of a religious renewal.
Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-1989, 40th President of the United States
I send greetings to Christians around the world as they gather to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ life and teachings continue to speak to every generation and Christians believe His miraculous Resurrection provides hope for the future and offers us the promise of new life. As families and friends gather to enjoy this Easter season, we celebrate God’s gift of freedom and His love that conquers death. For those who observe Easter, our faith brings confidence that good will overcome evil and that joy is everlasting.
George W. Bush, 2001-2009, 43rd President of the United States
Each and every President has acknowledged the hand of God in some aspect of guidance and direction for the United States and has invoked His name in prayer to govern.
Almost all public buildings in Washington DC and indeed in every capital of each State of the Union carry an inscription to the God of the Bible, or have a quote of Scripture on them somewhere.
So to look at over 200 years of evidence and say that America was not founded on Christian principles is to deny the very ideal that makes us a great people. It is the Biblical directive of liberty that is the vanguard of our people, and indeed it is inscribed on the Liberty bell. “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and unto all the inhabitants thereof.” Leviticus 25:10
Shall we tear down our public buildings? Shall we melt down the Liberty Bell? Shall we deny our heritage, forsake our history, and profane our honored dead who believed in America’s ideals and followed our founding patriots into the cry “Give me liberty or give me death”, who have delivered to us this nation cemented together in the common belief of the unalienable rights of men granted by the Creator and bought those rights with their blood? I say no. We shall not forget, nor shall we abandon those lofty ideals and that firm reliance on God that has raised us to the wonderful nation that we are.
JKai,
Your last paragraph is eloquent, stiring and impassioned. You are surely correct that every President has honored God publicly at some time or other. However, you have either missed the point of the quotation or evaded it.
The vast majority of American colonists were immigrants from Europe and almost exclusively Christians although from various denominations. It would be impossible to expect three million such colonists to turn their backs on their religious heritage while founding a new nation.
That said, it is well established that the founding fathers took great pains not to set up a theocracy or any government that chose sides between their various denominations or for that matter between different religions. That’s in the First Amendment.
This treaty language written and approved by those very founders is excellent and almost irrefutable evidence that they did not see the United States as a specificially Christian nation. Isn’t that what we would want the people of Iraq to know so that they wouldn’t confuse our intervention with the motivations of the Crusaders?
There is no reason to punish America for reflecting its undeniable Christian heritage by tearing down its public buildings for having God’s name engraved on their walls or smelting the Liberty Bell because it sports a quotation from Leviticus.