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Faith of Our Founding Fathers

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As a Christian who studies the Bible on a daily basis, I'm disgusted by how people will listen naively to whatever Tim Lahaye and others say because it sounds pleasing, without thinking critically. (The Bible has many warnings about that too.)

If you really want to learn about the "Faith of Our Founding Fathers" from a scholarly source by somebody who actually has researched facts, then I recommend an accurate and fair (and enjoyable) book instead called, "The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America" by Frank Lambert instead. (ISBN 0691088292)

Yes, the U.S. colonies were established primarily as Christian colonies. However, there were so many disagreements in beliefs, that the states ended up persecuting people who preached different doctrines. People were being hung in Massachusetts because of their beliefs, and that was why Roger Williams left to found Rhode Island, a state that tolerated different religions.

In Virginia, Baptists preachers were thrown in prison because they disagreed with the established Anglican church. One of the people impacted by this was James Madison, who himself had attended a presbyterian seminary. His first action as a freshman lawmaker in Virginia was to fight for the rights of religious minorities. He became a decisive force for the separation of church and state.

Because of the persecution of religious minorities and the efforts by the established churches to silence dissent, the popular attitude was to hate the established churches, because they were seen as power-hungry and corrupt (like some today). That is why people like Madison and Jefferson fought for the creation of a secular government that "deregulated" churches and created a free-market of religious ideas.

Yes, there were other people (like Patrick Henry) who wanted to establish a Christian church, but guess who won in the end? Madison and Jefferson sold the founders on the idea that keeping the church and state in their own separate spheres was best for everyone, and the conventions agreed!

The framers were afraid that if they mentioned God in the Constitution, then that might lead to entanglement between the church and state. Instead of deriving their governmental authority from God, as had been done by other states before them, they wrote a Preamble that said, "We the people...do ordain and establish this Constitution," rather than saying "God ordains this Constitution" (which was proposed). Their preamble was completely different from the "City on a Hill" ideology of the past.

Madison was friends with Thomas Jefferson, a Deistic Unitarian who penned the words "separation of Church and State" in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. This letter was important because Jefferson was expressing what he believed was the "original intent" of the first amendment.

Has God cursed our nation as a result of this separation of church and state? Quite the contrary! Just look around and see how God has blessed us. Churches have grown, AND we probably have a higher percentage of Christian believers than before the Constitution was drafted.

God never needed civil power to grow his church. Look at what the apostles faced--the early church grew despite persecution. As soon as the church gained political acceptance and power, it becamed corrupted by greed, idolatry and syncretistic pagan practices.

What is the agenda behind the push by some zealous Christians to take control of the government, and why do they feel they need civil power? Is it because their theology is weak and devoid of spiritual power? (Those who rely on the law are legalistic.)

As a pastor I suggest that Tim Lahaye vision of the Founding Fathers is a less than honest interpretation and revisionism of the lives of these men.

He regularly removes quotes for their historical context and readily leaves false impressions of the spirituality of what was a broadly diverse group of men. Deists, Unitarians, athiests, orthodox and more were the roots of American constitutional government.

Some like Patrick Henry are discussed as beacons of Christian orthodoxy without acknowledging that many of the most orthodox worked against the ratifying of the constitution by the states.

Individual quotations never tell the whole story of the man. The language of God was part of the general public discourse and was used often by many founders for its effect. While at the same time they, also, spoke boldly of the destructive nature of religion, the absence of God from this world in any intimate mannet, the evil of the institutions of faith, etc.

Jefferson's work on his missal called "The Jefferson Bible" displayed a rationalistic distaste for all things supernatural in the Gospels. He and many recognized the destruction the faith wars of europe had caused and believed the philosophies of Hume held more hope than irrational faith.

All in all LaHaye's work borders more more on fiction than fact and serves neither the church nor the public discourse of these men and the events they forged.

I wish that I had read the previous reviews of this book prior to spending my money. Instead I believed the cover that read, "Dr. Tim LaHaye moves past all the rhetoric, argumentation, and historical revisionism and simply examines the plain evidence". That is why I bought the book and why I was so terribly disappointed. This book is nothing but a thinly veiled attack on 'secular humanism'. And LaHaye couches that attack in useless, un-cited anecdote and terms like 'Secular Humanist Animals'. LaHaye laments that 'Creation Science' is not taught in school. (Dr. LaHaye, there is no such things as 'Creation Science', because there is no way to hold creationism up to the rigors of scientific inquiry).

If you are looking for a book that pours gasoline on the flames of your fear of the ACLU and the NEA, by all means, buy this book. If you are looking for a book that really does examine the facts of the role faith played in the founding of our nation, keep looking and don't waste your money on this rag.

This book, like his Left Behind series, demonstrates that Lahaye is one of the most prolific writers of fiction today.

Fortunately, I didn't buy this book; it was a gift and not a very welcome one.

Friends and relatives are always trying to convince me, an atheist, to adopt some religion or at least acknowledge god.

From the beginning, this book was obviously biased on the subject of our nation's "religious" foundation and vehemently opposed to any secular involvement.

If you have any reservations about our nation's "foundation," this book won't help!

Norm

Bro. LaHaye has again brought a book that touches the heart and blesses the soul! I used this book as a tool to use in a youth service at our church, and the effects were amazing. You'll understand and see how this country was founded, and the great men of God who followed Him and founded this country. I wish every President would read this book before taking office!

This book is wrong about our founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson hoped that our country would be one of religious diversity. Today he'd be considered a Unitarian. He had friends who were Buddhist and Hindu. Jefferson was a Deist. So were Washington, Adams, Franklin, Paine, Hamilton, Madison. They admired the teachings of Jesus but they did not consider Jesus to be a divine being, and they did not accept the Old Testament version of God (a cruel, vengeful, authoritarian, anthropomorphic being). Read some of the letters our founding fathers wrote. They believed in science and reason. They denounced the narrow-minded intolerant Christian bigots of their day.

James Madison said in a speech in 1778: "Freedom arises from the multiplicity of sects, which pervades America and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest."

Read "Why the Religious Right is Wrong about the Separation of Church and State" and "The Christ Conspiracy".

Mr. Lehaye's clear intent was to bolster our confidence in the Christian roots of our country. Unfortunately, his depiction while factual leaves out ideas that would give his reader's a better perspective on the Faith of our ForeFathers.

Let me start by saying honestly that I have not read this book and therefore am not qualified to judge its content or accuracy. ON THE OTHER HAND, The vast majority of our Founding Fathers were not only religious, but Christian. In fact, if you take the time to review the actual documents of our Founding Fathers (as opposed to Progressive scholarly articles ABOUT the Founders) you will discover that George Washington, John Dickenson, Patrick Henry, and most other Founders were Chriistian rather than Deists. Your ignorance is not worth more of my time here, but if you wish to learn the truth about our Founding Fathers beliefs, rather than relying on second hand accounts with a political agenda, maybe some of you should read Original Intent by David Barton. In that book hundreds of original documents are revealed which prove the Christian faith of our origins. Oh, and one last fact: NONE of the Founders intended a "wall of separation between Church and State"... not even Thomas Jefferson whose words to that effect were taken out of context in a letter to the Danbury Baptists. Funny how analysts, and even the Supreme Court (but only since 1947) have referred ONLY to those few words by Jefferson on the subject and not the hundreds of volumes of his other writng touching on this subject. NExt you will be telling me that all the Founders were rich, white slave owners who favored slavery as a profitable business. If so, you might check out the last section of the Northwest Ordinance... it would seem to discredit that theory. Of course, so would many other indisputable facts!Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, & Religion

An important book for anyone involved in the educational, political, legal or spiritual activity of this nation.