Interesting items from history…
I have been reading Richard Hughes’ book, Myths America Lives by. The author makes the point that America, born in 1776, was a child of the Enlightenment.
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/hum_303/enlightenment.html
And, most of the founders, the leaders of this new nation, were Deists. That is not to say that they didn’t think that they were Christians, for they most certainly thought so. But, being Deists, there was no room in their theology for a triune God. Jesus was part of God’s plan…but he wasn’t part of God.
Jefferson wrote this in 1822, in a letter to Benjamin Waterhouse.
“The doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend all to the happiness of man.
1. That there is one only God and he all perfect.
2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishment.
3. That to love God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself is the sum of religion…
But compare with these the demoralizing dogmas of Calvin.
1. That there are three Gods.
2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, are nothing.
3. That faith is everything, and the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit in its faith.
4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the former can damn them; no virtues of the former save."
The fact that Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Payne and even Washington were Deists, helped to shape the country. They all knew what was happening in Europe, where the state mandated the religion. The Thirty Year war was fresh in their memories. And in 1776, there existed in the colonies, Puritans, Presbyterians, Quakers, Anglicans, Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, Methodists, Dutch Reformed and various others. And each of these groups wanted to be the “state religion”. So Deism was the safest route and the founders took it.
It’s a challenging book but well worth your time.
Good morning Steve. If your author has footnotes covering the source of the statements credited to Calvin, I would love to have them. How are things going? Check out the new blog. Have you seen the image archive I mention in the blog? I'm off to work, God bless.
ReplyDeleteDennis
They weren't credited to Calvin...those were Jefferson's comments and I see that I didn't place quotation marks after ...no virtues of the former save. I will repair that now. Sorry about that. I see that it does look like a different comment when you don't see the ending quotation marks.
ReplyDelete"demoralizing dogmas of Calvin"
ReplyDeleteAnd what might they be?
You would have to ask Jefferson...he wrote it.
ReplyDeleteAre the politicians really any different today? Religon is often a tool for these people. George Bush doesn't press the teaching of John Wesley but instead talks in plauristic terms. So what if every single founding father was a deist that is at the least 150 times better than the nominal Christian politician that uses his are her "religion" when it can get them traction in the polls. That goes for both sides of the isle. I am very suspect of the need bash liberal Chrisitians and the expense of giving conservative christians a free ride.
ReplyDeleteThere certianly is a debate over whether many of our founding fathers were Christians, deist, or atheist. There wasn't this same debate 180 years ago, the people that knew these men, who worshipped with these men in church did not doubt at all that they were Christians. There was no doubt a variety of belief amonst these men, not unlike today. How ever even in absence of writings on theology you can look at the writings of their families discussing church activities some of these men (most notably George Washington) were involved in. From what I can tell Washington was a reformed flavored Anglican and held to a belief in the 39 Articles of Religion which many Anglicans in his day and place in the world did not. Maybe that played part in why he wasn't viewed as the typical Anglican. A friend of mine (A Priest in the Anglican Province of Christ the King) argues based on Washingtons words and the writings of his family, that he was really a Calvanist. We are kinda in between a rock and a hard place because truth doesn't matterany more, what matters is what people can make us believe. Zealous Christian forces would have us beleive every one that ever played the role of bad guy in history had a death bead conversion(Darwin, LeVey, etc) or that every person that contributed positivley in this country was a Christian. On the other hand you have the anti-religion zealots who are trying to remove God from every aspect of our government and history. They have to revise history, distort history and out right lie to accomplish their goals.
I thank God we live in Washingtons America rather than Calvins Geneva.
Of course the truth matters...and that was the point of my original posting on this matter. To seek out the truth. That is why I am reading the book and why you should as well. Not because it is necessarily "true", but because it presents some other view. And the truth can usually be found when you examine all sides of an argument.
ReplyDelete