https://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=2089
Founders En Masse Advocated Christianity
| by | Dave Miller, Ph.D. |
Popular
propaganda spouted for half a century or more claims that the Founders
and Framers of America were deists and largely irreligious men who
sought to establish a secular society that celebrates all ideologies,
religions, and philosophies as equally valid. This sinister “diversity”
myth has inflicted untold damage on American society, bringing the
nation literally to the brink of disaster.
The failure of the average citizen to examine the facts and assess the
gravity of the situation is inexcusable. In reality, the religious
orientation of the architects of American civilization, and their view
regarding its importance to the establishment and perpetuation of the
Republic, is easily ascertainable. Rather than wade through the myriad
pages and books that purport to depict American history accurately, all
one need do is simply reread the organic utterances issued by the
Founders as they orchestrated the founding.
Though not including all those who rightly wear the appellation
“Founder,” nevertheless, the Continental Congress comprised a
substantial portion of those men, and they may clearly be designated
quintessential Founders (see Miller, 2009, p. 3). They certainly
constitute a representative cross section of the men who brought the
Republic into existence. Consider one sample among many in which the
Continental Congress en masse issued a proclamation to the entire population of the country on March 19, 1782:
The United States in Congress assembled...think it their indispensable duty to call upon the several states, to set apart the last Thursday in April next, as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer...that He would incline the hearts of all men to peace, and fill them with universal charity and benevolence, and that the religion of our Divine Redeemer, with all its benign influences, may cover the earth as the waters cover the seas (Journals of..., 22:137-138, emp. added).The “Divine Redeemer” is Jesus Christ. Calling for Christ’s religion to “cover the earth as the waters cover the seas” is a direct allusion to two Old Testament passages—Isaiah 11:9 and Habakkuk 2:14.
The Founders insisted that the stability of the Republic depends
on the Christian religion, with its moral principles and spiritual
framework. They felt that though other religions may certainly be
tolerated in America, the peculiar doctrines and practices of those
religions must not be allowed to alter the laws and institutions of the
nation. Nor must those doctrines and practices do any physical harm to
Americans or violate Christian morality (e.g., polygamy, homosexuality,
and abortion). The Founders would be horrified at the notion of
“political correctness” and its corrosive, destructive influence. They
would have difficulty believing that Americans would ever even consider
allowing Sharia law to be included in our courts, schools, or
government. The Founders never asked that Hinduism cover the Earth, nor Islam, Buddhism, or Atheism. Rather, they
begged God to cover the Earth with the religion of Christ as thoroughly
and completely as the waters cover the oceans of the world.
REFERENCES
Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 (1904-1937), ed. Worthington C. Ford, et al. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office), Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwjc.html.Miller, Dave (2009), Christ and the Continental Congress (Montgomery, AL: Apologetics Press).