I’m curious. How would you answer that
question?
Yes 2:1
Comment: The founders were deists.
Reponse: Fea makes a good case that the
founders were not deists. They were
rationalists, products of the enlightenment but within a Christian framework.
Basically John Fea suggests that the
answer depends on how you define Christian?
I think it’s probably true that we can’t
really comprehend “the pervasiveness of
religion and its universal influence upon men, women and children.” during
colonial times.[2]
Religion
was established by law in both Jamestown, Virginia and Plymouth, Massachusetts—the
Church of England in Jamestown, the Puritans in Massachusetts. Church
attendance was required, enforced by fines and even jail.
The
Puritans sought to bring the Church of England nearer to the scriptural
model as they understood it and closer
to the patterns of the Reformed churches of the Continent. They rejected every
practice of the Church of England that they associated with Catholicism.
One of the most successful of these
settlements was founded by Puritans who arrived in present-day Boston in 1630
under the leadership of soon to be colonial governor John Winthrop. On the voyage across the Atlantic, Winthrop
delivered one of the best-known sermons in American history in which he called
for the Puritans to build a Christian civilization that would stand as a “city
on the hill”—a Christian utopia that would be a beacon of spiritual
light to the rest of the world.
Visible sainthood, testifying to a
conversion experience and a life of exemplary moral behavior, was required for
church membership, to partake in communion, to have their children baptized and
to vote or hold office. Since both church and state were run by saints,
they tended to work closely together in the creation and enforcement of laws.
Although attendance at religious services
was required of all inhabitants, church membership
was never very high in Puritan churches and declined through the 17th
Century. Historian John Fea concludes, “while
New England was governed as a Christian society, the majority of those living
in that early settlement following the first generation of settlers did not
necessarily conform to Puritan practice.[3]
Seventy-five percent of the emigrants to
Virginia came as indentured servants responding to brochures promising the
opportunity to strike it rich. Once freed, they settled on the frontier where
the soil was poor and
they were vulnerable to attacks from the
Indians. Within a few decades, the freed
men were protesting against the colonial leaders. The introduction of slavery
resolved the problem. Even poor whites could strike it rich by appropriating
the labor of African blacks. In their sense of superiority over the blacks, the
freed slaves allied with the wealthy plantation owners, and stability was
restored.
Both Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay began
with high hopes that a truly Christian civilization was possible. Both societies
did their best to embed the teachings of the Bible, as its leaders understood
them, into their laws and statutes. In this sense, one might call them
“Christian” societies. However, both colonies failed at maintaining societies
in which public behavior was guided by the dictates of Christianity. In
Jamestown greed and the pursuit of wealth among white settler resulted in the
human bondage of thousands of Africans. It
is one of the ironies of history that some of the greatest advocates for freedom
(e.g., Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and George Mason) benefited the most
from the introduction of slavery into Virginia.
The
Christian society in Massachusetts Bay was defined so narrowly that believers
who deviated from Puritan orthodoxy were forced to leave the colony or, in some
cases, were imprisoned or fined. Some dissenters, such as the Quaker Mary Dyer, were even killed for
their obstinate lack of submission to Puritan authority.
Roger Williams – Purity of the Church
Anne Hutchinson – Works Righteousness
Roger Williams
and Anne Hutchinson probably had more impact on the subsequent history of the
nation than the Puritans.
After the French-Indian War (1754-1763), colonists were united in patriotism as British citizens. However,
the British had obtained a huge swath of territory, including Quebec, Canada. In
order to provide protection against Indian attacks, George III wanted to tax the
colonists for 1/3 of the cost of providing protection for them. England would pay 2/3’s of the cost. Several taxes were enacted and then repealed. The
cost was not the issue, the issue was taxation of British citizens without representation.
The idea of liberty had long been associated
with Protestantism and every individual’s freedom to read the Bible. However, the
revolutionary ideas that would define colonial resistance to England were
probably shaped more by John Locke and the English Whig party than by
Christianity. The ever present threat of tyranny from government was central to
English Whig thought.
John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government (1689) was written to explain why it
was right for the English to remove King James II from office in 1688. Locke
argued that when a government broke its
contract with its people—a contract that required submission to government as
long as government was protecting natural rights to life, liberty, and
property—revolution was justified. Sound familiar?
Christianity was present at the time of the
American founding, but it often merged with other ideas that were compatible
with, but not necessarily influenced by, Christianity. Basically the
founders were well-educated in enlightenment thought and placed a high value on
reason. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin
all rejected the supernatural aspects of Christianity. There were also many Othodox believers. Still
I am struck by the degree to which enlightenment thought influenced their
beliefs. For example, the only minister who signed the Declaration of
Independence, John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian clergyman and president of the
College of New Jersey at Princeton developed a curriculum at Princeton
that reflected accommodation to the
beliefs of the Enlightenment, particularly his acceptance of “The New Moral Philosophy.” The belief
that There was a source of morality that
did not find its source in the Bible or a special infusion of God’s grace! Even the most orthodox Presbyterian clergyman
showed an independence and individuality of perspective that is very different
from the insistence on specific beliefs today. Indeed, there was extraordinary individuality in the founders’
religious views.
George
Washington – The Role of Providence
Since 1755, George Washington had wondered if Providence
was preparing him for something great. The 23-year-old Washington served as an aide
to General Braddock when his forces were ambushed. Braddock was killed. As Washington
rode among the dying, two horses were shot out from under him and a musket ball
brushed his uniform. He attributed his survival “the miraculous care of Providence that protected me beyond all human expectation.”
The Battle
of Brooklyn provided one of the best examples of the role of Providence.
The revolutionaries had been soundly defeated by the British. Washington led
9000 men in retreat across the east river with horses and canons at night
without the loss of a single man or piece of equipment. At dawn, the retreat
was still in progress. The New York side of the river was sunny, but a fog
covered the Brooklyn side of the river, so the British could not see
Washington’s army in retreat. If the British had sailed up the river, the war
would have ended. But the wind was in the wrong direction. The difference
between victory and defeat was a providential fog and a wind in the wrong
direction.
After the revolutionary war, many shared
Washington’s belief in the role of Providence in the creation of the United
States. After all, a poorly equipped, ragtag army with little training or
experience had defeated the greatest power in the world! How could one not see
the hand of God in that outcome?
And then a few decades later we had the First Great
Awakening and America truly became a Christian nation.
The heritage that contemporary
Christianity has lost by focusing on affirmations of faith is what was most central to the faith of the
founders of our nation -- the role of God’s
providence. May we recover our
faith in God’s active participation in history.
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