In Today’s Gift to the American People, NorwayForTRUMP.com gives you the Truth that answers the Question: “Were the Founders of the United States Really Christian?” We present you with a Wonderful Video produced by Hillsdale College. But we won’t let you go only with that carefully curated Content. We have also produced the Article below that you can bookmark as a Resource to answer Family, Friends or Colleagues when they claim “Separation of Church and State” or “The Founders were Deists.” And in this Month-long Celebration of America’s Miraculous Founding we will continue to focus on this Question over several Days. Why? Because we believe fervently that the only way for the United States to survive the next 250 Years β will be to get back to the Roots of the Founding β and place the GOD that has blessed America so richly this past Semiquincentennial, Front & Center Again!
The Truth Attempted Hidden
The Historical Record reveals a Truth that Modern Secularists have desperately tried to erase from our Collective Memory. Contrary to the popular Narrative pushed by Academic Elites and Media Propagandists, the overwhelming Evidence proves that America’s Founders were not merely Nominal Christians, but Devout Men whose Faith profoundly shaped the Birth of the Nation. The false Narrative that the Founders were Enlightenment Deists who desired a strict Separation between Church and State is nothing more than Historical Revisionism designed to undermine the American Christian Heritage.
The Scholarly Evidence for a Christian Founding
Dr. Mark David Hall, a distinguished Professor at Regent University and one of America’s foremost Scholars on religion in the founding Era, has dedicated his Career to exposing these Lies. His meticulous Research demonstrates that the Founders’ political Ideas were profoundly influenced by their Christian Convictions. In his groundbreaking Work “Did America Have a Christian Founding?,” Hall separates Modern Myth from Historical Truth, showing that the Founders embraced a robust Understanding of Religious Liberty for Biblical and Theological Reasons.
The Evidence is undeniable. When Donald Lutz conducted an impressive Study of the Pamphlets, Articles, and Books on political Subjects in late eighteenth-century America, he found that the Bible was cited far more often than any other Source β accounting for thirty-four percent of all Citations, compared to only twenty-two percent for Enlightenment Thinkers such as John Locke or Adam Smith. This statistical Fact alone demolishes the Deist Narrative, proving that the Bible was the primary intellectual Source that shaped the Founders’ political Thought.
Theological Foundations of American Government
The Founders’ Christian Convictions directly influenced the Creation of America’s Constitutional Order. The Declaration of Independence’s central Paragraph relies on a theological Claim:
“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…”
For virtually all the Founders, GOD was the Source of natural Rights, and it was the primary Duty of Government to protect these Rights. This stands in stark Contrast to European Enlightenment Thinkers who supported a strong centralized Government run by Experts. America’s Founders would have nothing to do with this because they believed that Humans are sinful β a distinctly Christian Doctrine.
This theological Conviction led the Founders to design a constitutional Order characterized by the Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, and Federalism. In Federalist 51,
James Madison observed that:
“β¦if Men were Angels, no Government would be necessary. If Angels were to govern Men, neither external nor internal Controls on Government would be necessary.”
The Founders’ Understanding of Human Nature as fallen and imperfect directly influenced their Design of a Limited Government with numerous Constraints on Power.
Critically, the Founders believed that Humans were created in the Imago Dei β The Image of GOD. In his 1793 Supreme Court Opinion in Chisholm v. Georgia, Justice James Wilson paraphrased Psalm 139, observing that Man,
“fearfully and wonderfully made,”
is a “workmanship of his all-perfect Creator.”
This Theological Conviction had profound Implications for their Understanding of Human Rights and Dignity.
Christian Convictions and the Abolition of Slavery
Many Founders also recognized that Slavery fundamentally undermined the Idea that all Humans are created in God’s Image, and they increasingly opposed it. This is why the Confederation Congress passed and the first federal Congress reauthorized the Northwest Ordinance, a Law that prohibited Slavery in the Territories that became Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Part of Minnesota. Between 1777 and 1804, eight States north of Maryland abolished Slavery or put it on the Path to extinction β a Testament to how their Christian Convictions shaped their political Actions.
The Biblical Basis for Religious Liberty
The Founders understood the Christian Faith to require the robust Protection of Religious Liberty for all. This is illustrated by George Mason’s Draft of Article 16 of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which reads that
“Religion, or the Duty which we owe to our Divine and Omnipotent Creator, and the Manner of discharging it, can be governed only by Reason and Conviction, not by Force or Violence.”
Mason’s Provision was explicitly grounded in the Duty we owe to our Divine Creator β not in secular Enlightenment Philosophy.
James Madison, in his first significant public Act, objected to the Use of the Word “toleration” in the Article, believing it implied that religious Liberty was a Grant from the State that could be revoked at Will. The Virginia Convention agreed, and Article 16 β which had a profound Influence on subsequent State Constitutions and the National Bill of Rights β was amended to make it clear that the free Exercise of Religion is a Natural Right, and not a Privilege granted by the State.
By the End of the revolutionary Era, every State Constitution offered significant Protection to Religious Liberty. The federal Constitution of 1787 did not have a religious Liberty Provision per se, but Article 6 prohibits Religious Tests for Federal Office. When some objected that this would allow non-Christians to be elected to Federal Office, Federalists conceded this was the Case, but insisted on a Constitution that did not favor one Religious Tradition over another.
Anti-Federalists thought the Constitution did not sufficiently protect religious Liberty and insisted that a Bill of Rights be added. In Response to popular Outcry, the first Congress proposed and the States ratified a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting Congress from making a Law respecting an Establishment of Religion or prohibiting the free Exercise thereof. This Provision clearly bans Congress from creating a National Church and goes well beyond protecting the Freedom of Worship β it insists that Citizens have the Right to the Free Exercise of Religion.
Washington’s Defense of Religious Freedom
Not only did the Founders understand that Religious Liberty must be robustly protected, they recognized that the religious Convictions of all Americans must be carefully guarded. In 1790, President Washington wrote a Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. Keep in Mind there were only about two thousand Jewish Citizens in America at the Time, and they had little political or economic Power. As a Matter of Principle, not Politics, President Washington insisted that all Citizens possess
“β¦alike Liberty of Conscience and the Immunities of Citizenship.”
Washington emphasized that Americans had moved beyond mere Toleration to respecting the Inherent Natural Right of all People to the Free Exercise of Religion. He closed his Letter with nine scriptural References, including Micah 4:4:
“While everyone shall sit in Safety under his own Vine and Fig Tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
This was George Washington’s favorite Bible Verse β one he quoted or paraphrased more than fifty Times in his Writings.
Preserving America’s Christian Heritage
The Historical Record is clear: βAmerica did not have a Christian Founding in the Sense of creating a Theocracy, but its Founding was deeply shaped by Christian Moral Truths. The Founders created a Regime that was hospitable to Christians, but also to Practitioners of other Religions. As Dr. Hall explains, in addition to Lockean Liberalism and the common Law Tradition,
“the Founders were influenced in important Ways by Christian Ideas or Ideas developed within the Christian Tradition of political Reflection.”
Today, as we face Attacks on religious Liberty from all Directions, it is more important than ever that Americans remember your Christian Heritage. It is your very Insurance Policy for FREEDOM! The Founders understood that Religious Freedom was not merely a “nice Idea” β It Was Essential to the Preservation of a Free Society. They established a System that protected Religious Liberty not because they were indifferent to Religion, but because they believed it was a sacred Right given by GOD.
As President Trump has rightly recognized, America is a Nation built on Judeo-Christian Values. Those who seek to erase this History are not just attacking the Past β they are undermining the very Foundation of the American Republic. The Truth about your Founders’ Faith must be taught in our Schools, celebrated in your Culture, and defended in your Halls of Government. Only then can you ensure that Future Generations will enjoy the Blessings of Liberty that your Founders fought so hard to secure.
β
References:
- “Did America Have a Christian Founding?” by Mark David Hall, Heritage Foundation
- “America’s Founding Fathers and the Bible” by Mark David Hall, Providence Forum
- “Faith and the Founders of the American Republic” edited by Daniel L. Dreisbach and Mark David Hall
- “Religion and the American Founding” by Thomas S. Kidd, The Federalist
- “The Founding Fathers and Religion” by Mark David Hall, Intercollegiate Studies Institute
- “Christianity and the American Constitution” by John Eidsmoe, Foundation for Biblical Principles
- “The Influence of Christianity on the Founding Fathers” by David Barton, WallBuilders
- “Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution & Religion” by David Barton
- “The Myth of the Wall of Separation” by Robert L. Cord, Faith & Freedom
- “George Washington’s Sacred Fire” by Peter A. Lillback, Providence Forum
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