In my last article, “The Devil’s Three Greatest Lies,” I said Lie #3 was the devil’s lie that Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics. The usual firestorm by those who hate the mere mention of God in the same sentence as “politics” or “government” ensued. Rather than respond to each and every comment to defend my point of view, I thought I would rather let the Founders of America speak for themselves on the subject.

What sort of America did the Founders want?

Before I do, it needs to be stated that the perverted argument (yes, I deliberately used the word “perverted” because the argument twists words) that this is not a Christian nation because our Constitution does not include references to Biblical precepts, is irrational. One last time – in the interest of being as clear as possible – I will say it again, this is not a theocracy. It is a Constitutional Republic – but: our system of government was based on Christian “principles.” Our Founders, regardless of what denomination they practiced, recognized the value of the Christian faith to create a moral and virtuous society that was capable of self-government. But don’t take my word for it; our Founders can speak for themselves.

Thomas Jefferson speaks for America

In the Declaration of Independence

An American flag flying in Chimney Rock, NC. Photo: William Klos, CC BY 2.0 Generic License

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation.

…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.

And beyond the Declaration

God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God?

I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.

Other Founders speak for America under God

Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual…Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.

John Hancock, History of the United States of America, Vol.II, p.229.

In the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior. The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.

John Adams in An Oration Delivered Before the Inhabitants of the Town of Newburyport at Their Request on the Sixty-First Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1837.

The only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.

Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Dec. of Ind.; Surgeon General of the Continental Army, Ratifier of the U.S. Constitution; Father of American Medicine, Treasurer of the U.S. Mint, Father of Public Schools under the Constitution, he also founded the first Bible society

Our Constitution was designed for a moral and religious people…it is wholly inadequate to govern any other.

John Adams.

Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.

Senator Daniel Webster

Noah Webster (of dictionary fame) speaks for America under God

The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles…This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.

Our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion.

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The Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children under a free government ought to be instructed. No truth is more evident than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.

The Christian religion…is the basis, or rather the source, of all genuine freedom in government…I am persuaded that no civil government or a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of Christianity have not a controlling influence.

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