Ford Dude, while Wikipedia is often referenced on a myriad of subjects, I wouldn’t place too much confidence in it, as anyone can add, alter, and delete content on the site as they see fit. Attacking the Christian faith grows more commonplace every day, including revising our history, and it’s disturbing to watch Christians simply accept these attacks instead of defending their faith. Wikipedia, I repeat, while informative to a point, can not be relied upon as a foundation for accurate information regarding our faith, including its history.
This myth regarding the religious inclinations of the founding fathers (JesusPhreak, those were the 55 delegates who participated in the four-month long Constitutional convention) was started back in ‘95, by a professor of physics at L.A. Harbor College named Steven Morris. He wrote an op-ed piece in the
L.A. Times entitled,
“America’s Unchristian Beginnings.” The subtitle read,
“Founding Fathers: Despite preachings of our pious Right, most were deists who rejected the divinity of Jesus.” It should be of particular interest to any reader of this opinion piece that Steven Morris is also a member of the L.A.-based Atheists United.
It’s also interesting to note that Mr. Morris chose the word “most” to portray the number of founding fathers who were allegedly deists. A close scrutiny of the writings of these men, both public and personal, refutes that claim. To substantiate his claims, Morris lifted quotes from various selected writings of a few of the founding fathers. As you well know from studying the Bible, one can’t isolate a single passage and expect to understand the message intended. One needs to look at the entire column of scripture, at least, to get the gist of the message.
For example, concerning John Adams, Morris claimed, “Late in life, he wrote
“Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been upon the point of breaking out, “This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it!!!”
It’s true this statement did appear in a letter Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson in 1817, in which Adams recounted a conversation between Joseph Cleverly and Lemuel Bryant; a schoomaster and a minister he had known. Fed up with the petty religious bickering that went on between the two, Adams declared to Jefferson (now please read carefully):
Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been upon the point of breaking out, “This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it!!!” But in this exclamation I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean h**l.
BTW, the following month Jefferson wrote back and said he agreed!
The revisionist effort is self-evident and should be of no surprise. Deliberately coloring the Christian beliefs of our founding fathers a darker hue, or painting over them altogether, is a tact any atheist worth his salt would attempt. To me, the really disturbing aspect of this ploy isn’t the action of the atheist, but the willingness of good Christians to swallow this diet of fraud without so much as a taste test.
Ford Dude, I also disagree with you on your assessment of what a Protestant is and was then. IMO, technically a Protestant is simply a non-Catholic Christian; it is not “a statement of someone’s background or upbringing.”
JP, Thomas Jefferson may have been attracted to deism for a lengthy period of his life, but it’s evident from his writings later on that he revised his earlier beliefs. For example, in a letter he wrote to Charles Thomson in 1816 he wrote, “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.”
Hope this helps, and God Bless
