-Caveat Lector-
from - http://www.ffrf.org/fttoday/march96/morris.html
The Founding Fathers Were Not Christians
By Steven Morris, Ph.D.
The Christian Right is trying to rewrite the history of the United States, as
part of their campaign to force their religion on others who ask merely to be
left alone. According to this Orwellian revision, the Founding Fathers of this
country were pious Christians who wanted the United States to be a Christian
nation, with laws that favored Christians and Christianity.
Not true! The early presidents and patriots were generally Deists or Unitarians,
believing in some form of impersonal Providence but rejecting the divinity of
Jesus and the absurdities of the Old and New Testaments.
Thomas Paine, pamphleteer whose manifestoes encouraged the faltering spirits of
the country and aided materially in winning the War of Independence: "I do not
believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the
Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church
that I know of . . . Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and
for my own part, I disbelieve them all." [1]
George Washington, first president: He seems to have had the characteristic
unconcern of the 18th century Deist for the forms and creeds of institutional
religion. Although he often referred to Providence as an impersonal force,
remote and abstract, he never declared himself to be a Christian according to
contemporary reports or in any of his voluminous correspondence. Washington
championed the cause of freedom from religious intolerance and compulsion. When
John Murray (a Universalist who denied the existence of Hell) was invited to
become an army chaplain, the other chaplains petitioned for his dismissal.
Instead, Washington gave him the appointment. On his deathbed, Washington
uttered no words of a religious nature and did not call for a clergyman to be in
attendance. [2]
John Adams, second president: Drawn to the study of law but facing pressure from
his father to become a clergyman, he wrote that he found among the lawyers "a
noble air and gallant achievements" but among the clergy, the "pretended
sanctity of some absolute dunces." [3] Late in life, he wrote, "As I understand
the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened
that millions of fables, tales, legends have been blended with both Jewish and
Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever
existed?" [4]
It was during Adams' presidency that the Senate ratified the Treaty of Peace and
Friendship, which states in Article XI that "the Government of the United States
of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." This treaty
with Tripoli was written and concluded by Joel Barlow during Washington's
administration. [2]
Thomas Jefferson, third president and author of the Declaration of Independence:
"I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will
not die an Unitarian." [5] He referred to the Revelation of St. John as "the
ravings of a maniac" [6] and wrote, "The Christian priesthood, finding the
doctrines of Christ levelled to every understanding and too plain to need
explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might
build up an artificial system which might, from its indistinctness, admit
everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to
profit, power and preeminence. The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus
himself are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have
not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason
that nonsense can never be explained." [7]
James Madison, fourth president and Father of the Constitution: Madison was not
religious in any conventional sense. "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates
the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." [8] "During almost fifteen
centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have
been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy,
ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and
persecution." [9]
Ethan Allen, whose capture of Fort Ticonderoga while commanding the Green
Mountain boys helped inspire Congress and the country to pursue the War of
Independence: "That Jesus Christ was not God is evident from his own words." In
the same book, Allen noted that he was generally "denominated a Deist, the
reality of which I never disputed, being conscious I am no Christian." [10] When
Allen married Fanny Buchanan, he stopped his own wedding ceremony when the Judge
asked him if he promised "to live with Fanny Buchanan agreeable to the laws of
God." Allen refused to answer until the Judge agreed that the God referred to
was the God of Nature, and the laws those "written in the great book of Nature."
[11]
Benjamin Franklin, delegate to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional
Convention: "As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly
desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion . . . has received various
corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England,
some Doubts as to his Divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon,
having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when
I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble." [12] He
died a month later, and historians consider him, like so many great Americans of
his time, as a Deist, not a Christian.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven Morris received his Bachelor's Degree in astronomy from the University of
Toronto and his Ph.D from the University of Calgary. He held a research position
at UCLA for two years working on a seismology project, which included spending
one year at the South Pole running a seismometer. He has taught at the
University of Puerto Rico and now teaches physics and physical science at Los
Angeles Harbor College. He has published several astronomy research papers and
is an active member of the Los Angeles-based Atheists United.
This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Footnotes
1. The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine, p. 8, 9 (republished 1984, Prometheus
Books, Buffalo NY)
2. George Washington and Religion by Paul F. Boller Jr., p. 16, 87, 88, 108,
113, 121, 127 (1963, Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas TX)
3. The Character of John Adams by Peter Shaw, p. 17 (1976, North Carolina
Press, Chapel Hill NC) quoting letter by J.A. to Charles Cushing Oct. 19, 1756
4. The Great Quotations, ed. by George Seldes, (Citadel Press) quoting
letter by J.A. to F.A. Van der Kamp Dec. 27, 1816
5. Thomas Jefferson, Passionate Pilgrim by Alf Mapp Jr., p. 311 (1991,
Madison Books, Lanham MD) quoting letter by T.J. to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse June
26, 1811
6. Thomas Jefferson, An Intimate History by Fawn M. Brodie, p. 453 (1974, W.
W. Norton & Co. Inc., New York NY) quoting letter by T.J. to Alexander Smyth
Jan. 17, 1825
7. Thomas Jefferson, Passionate Pilgrim by Alf Mapp Jr., p. 246, quoting
letter by T.J. to John Adams July 5, 1814
8. The Madisons by Virginia Moore, p. 43 (1979, McGraw-Hill Co., New York
NY) quoting letter by J.M. to William Bradford April 1, 1774
9. James Madison, A Biography in His Own Words, p. 93 quoting Memorial and
Remonstrance against Religious Assessments by J.M. June 1785.
10. Religion of the American Enlightenment by G. Adolf Koch, p. 40 (1968,
Thomas Crowell Co., New York NY) quoting preface and p. 352 of Reason, the Only
Oracle of Man by Ethan Allen 1784
11. Sense of History compiled by American Heritage Press Inc., p. 103 (1985,
American Heritage Press Inc., New York NY)
12. Benjamin Franklin, A Biography in His Own Words, edited by Thomas
Fleming, p. 404 (1972, Newsweek, New York NY) quoting letter by B.F. to Ezra
Stiles March 9, 1790
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