I realize I am standing on the edge of a chasm that separates people, especially in the political world.  Including God, the Bible, and Christianity in any discussion regarding government and politics frequently opens the door to hateful vitriol.  It becomes a hotbed of dissension, and almost immediately, we are told that our founders wanted an impenetrable wall of separation between the church and the state.  By that, most assume that means nothing of God, Christianity, or the Bible can be included in government.

I have been asked and asked, “Did America have a Christian Founding?”  I have asked that in church circles, academic groups, and liberal and conservative gatherings, and a stunning majority of the time, I hear – NO!  Those on both sides of the answer use flawed logic and presentations to prove their point. 

Let me state that I believe we did have a founding rooted in Christianity, the Bible, and faith in God.  I believe that the founders wanted to have a separation between church and state not to prevent anything of God from influencing governmental decisions but to prevent the state from infringing upon the religious liberties of Americans.  The 1^st Amendment was designed to prevent the government from usurping our inalienable rights of speech, assembly, religion, and press. 

Simply, we were to be free to say what we thought, gather peaceably, worship according to our beliefs, and write what we believed without undue obstruction by the government.  Keeping anyone from being offended at what we said, thought, or wrote was not the objective; ensuring that we would always maintain that right was. 

Today, this administration and previous administrations, at the behest of the globalists, and activists of various sects, have placed our religious and other liberties in the crosshairs.  If they could, they would censor all pulpits that preach biblical precepts and principles that are counter to their particular ideology and agenda.

The America of today does not resemble the America of the late 1700s or even the America of the 1950s.  During the past couple of decades, our identity as a Christian nation with a Christian and biblical foundation has been significantly eroded.  History is replete with declarations by our founders of their view regarding the providence of God and how it was by His guidance and grace that we became a nation and then became arguably the greatest nation known to man.  We were a beacon of freedom and hope shining into the darkness of hopelessness.

What was the view of the masses in 1776?  Historically, we find that almost every European American, except for about 2,500 Jews, identified as a Christian.  I would say all, but that is doubtful, although virtually everyone expressed a belief in God.  Historical records indicate that about 98 percent of the colonist were protestants, and the remaining 1.9 percent were Roman Catholic. 

I acknowledge that statistic is almost meaningless because we do not know the depth of their Christian commitment or adherence.  They may have been like some of the GOP, identified as RINOs; they may be CINOS (Christians in name only).   The argument that most of our founders were Deists is countered by some of their writings and other historians. Who is right, and who is wrong?  No amount of detail would fully persuade those who are persuaded.  It is almost, “My mind’s made up, don’t confuse me with the facts.” 

Just as it is possible for a nominal Christian to be influenced by Christian ideas, it is equally possible for an orthodox devout Christian to be influenced by non-Christian ideas.  I believe the case is easily made that the Bible highly influenced our founders and that Christianity profoundly influenced them. 

If we make 1776 the beginning place of the founding of the nation, we err and subject ourselves to a skewed view of the true American founding.  I agree with historians such as Gary De Mar that our “nation begins not in 1776, but more than one hundred fifty years earlier.”  If we go back to the beginning, we are much more likely to understand how God, the Bible, and Christianity influenced our founders and defined our republic.

The Puritans were serious in their desire and attempted to create “a shining city upon a hill.”  Early colonial laws and constitutions actually incorporated entire biblical texts.  Therefore, dismissing the influence of the Bible, God, and Christianity is impossible. 

In the late 18^th century, the American Republic was brought to a new place of establishment through the War for Independence.  For many, that is entirely unbiblical based on Paul’s discourse in Romans 13 about subjection to civil authorities.  But history reveals that in the 12^th century, Christian scholars allowed for citizens to overthrow evil kings.  John Calvin, possibly the most politically conservative of those of his era, contended that it was mandated by God to do just that in some cases.

Those views predated Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government,” which profoundly influenced colonial America.  The “Black Robed Regiment” (dissenting clergy) actively participated in the War for Independence.  They preached it from their pulpits, threw off their clerical robes, and took up arms fighting for freedom in the name of God.

The Declaration of Independence makes it impossible to dismiss the influence of God, the Bible, and Christianity on the founders.  “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  The text makes references to the laws of nature and of nature’s God, appealed to the Supreme Judge of the world, and expresses their reliance on the protection of divine Providence.  How could we not conclude that Christianity was a significant, if not a supreme, influence on our founding?

Christianity is not mentioned in the Constitution or Bill of Rights. Still, it is inescapable, and the repeated reminders by our founders of the value of morality, ethical behavior, and sinfulness of man substantiate the view that we were founded as a Christian nation. 

In Federalist 51, James Madison famously declared, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.  If angels were to govern, neither external or internal controls on government would be necessary.”  Obviously, we are not angels and not governed by angels in America.  The moral standards of the Bible were lauded, and we have a mountain of evidence in the laws passed that affirm that reality. 

In 1947 we took a significant shift in the wrong direction, slowly eroding our Christian foundations and transforming America into something unrecognizable by the founders.  The Supreme Court decision in Emerson v. Board of Education.  Justice Wiley Rutledge expressed the view that the founders desired an impenetrable wall of separation between church and state to prevent anything of God in the government.  But that is inconsistent with the written expressions of the founding fathers.

The founding fathers believed that religious liberty was a right that had to be protected.  I encourage you to read George Mason’s 1776 draft of Article XVI of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights.  James Madison argued for an amended wording to clarify that “the free exercise of religion” is a right, not a privilege granted by the state.  It is inalienable!  Even our first Congress, the body of legislators that crafted the 1^st Amendment, as their first act was to appoint and pay congressional chaplains.  Does that sound like they wanted to ban God, the Bible, and Christianity from Government?

I do not wish to make this treatise overly lengthy, but it must include a letter written by Founder Benjamin Rush in 1791.  He said: “To the arguments I have mentioned in favour of the use of the bible as a schoolbook, I shall add a few reflexions. The present fashionable practice of rejecting the bible from our schools, I suspect, has originated with the deists. They discover great ingenuity in this new mode of attacking Christianity. If they proceed in it, they will do more in half a century in extirpating our religion than Bolingbroke or Voltaire could have effected in a thousand years. I am not writing to this class of people. I despair of changing the opinions of any of them. I wish only to alter the opinions and conduct of those lukewarm or superstitious Christians who have been misted by the deists upon this subject. On the ground of the good old custom of using the bible as a schoolbook, it becomes us to entrench our religion. It is the last bulwark the deists have left it; for they have rendered instruction in the principles of Christianity by the pulpit and the press, so unfashionable that little good for many years seems to have been done by either of them.”

America, our moral fiber has been severely damaged, and we have lost sight of the value of every human life and the benefit of the moral, ethical, societal, and governmental guidelines found in the pages of God’s Holy Writ.  We need, no, we must return to our moral moorings, or we will lose the Republic.

God bless you, and God bless America!