European settlers (and they were virtually all Europeans) who sailed to the Americas beginning in the 1500’s were, when it came to their religion, virtually exclusively Christian. Not Atheist, not Muslim, not Hari Krishnas, not New Age Crystal worshippers: They were Christians. They were Christians of all stripes. Catholics, Protestants, Quakers, Puritans, Mennonites, Calvinists, and other assorted sects, some radical, some more traditional and sedate. But, in any event they were beyond debate Christians. It is only after about 1820 or so that the Christian monopoly on New World settlement begins, in some small degree, to lessen. By the twentieth century, United States’ Christian society had begun to be slightly diluted by non-Christian immigration. By century’s end, we saw the appearance of secularism in younger generations.
Small groups of English arrivals in what became known as New England came to build their religious settlements. They came to escape the Church of England and practice Catholicism (which was outlawed in England) or to practice some more radical form of Protestantism (which was frowned on by the more authoritarian and hidebound Protestant Church of England). Each different group came to the shores of New England for the freedom to practice their unique brand of religion and ensure that those who came with them and came after them were completely and wholly free to practice the exact same brand of Christianity to the letter without exception. Freedom to these groups meant freedom from punishment by the English Monarchy and Church of England. It did not mean the individual freedom for their members to do whatever they chose religiously. When it came to religious behavior these communities were quite un-free.
The Puritan dream of impermeable communities of dogmatic purity with which each early New England settlement began was to soon be overwhelmed by the reality of mass migration across the Atlantic mostly from England. These second-wavers were Christians too. There were some few, of course, for whom religion never entered consciousness one way or the other but even these would claim to be Christian.
The settlements in the South, as opposed to New England, were founded and created more with profit and business in mind than enclaves of religious purity. Few settlement communities in the south were set up as new religious societies. But the settlements in the south were nevertheless foundationally and socially Christian in their religious practice. And that Christian practice was an important part of their lives. To be sure contradictions abounded as they do in any society. There was slavery. There was chicanery, fraud, and psychopaths. But yes, the Europeans that settled in the New World between 1600 and 1800 were most decidedly Christians of some sort.
Were the Founding Fathers Christians?
The Founding Fathers are generally considered to be those men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Fifty-six men signed, so we have fifty-six founding fathers. Most extraordinarily intelligent and were also educated and learned men. Each had a publicly known and historically recorded religious and church affiliation. Here is the list:
Religious Affiliation of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Religious Affiliations:
Episcopalian/Anglican
32 of the signers = 57.1%
Congregationalist
13 of the signers = 23.2%
Presbyterian
12 of the signers = 21.4%
Quaker
2 of the signers = 3.6%
Unitarian or Universalist
2 of the signers = 3.6%
Catholic
1 of the signers = 1.8%
TOTAL
56 total signers = 100%
Name of Signer his state and religious affiliation
Charles Carroll, Maryland, Catholic
Samuel Huntington, Connecticut, Congregationalist
Roger Sherman, Connecticut, Congregationalist
William Williams, Connecticut Congregationalist
Oliver Wolcott, Connecticut, Congregationalist
Lyman Hall, Georgia, Congregationalist
Samuel Adams, Massachusetts, Congregationalist
John Hancock, Massachusetts, Congregationalist
Josiah Bartlett, New Hampshire, Congregationalist
William Whipple, New Hampshire, Congregationalist
William Ellery, Rhode Island, Congregationalist
John Adams, Massachusetts, Congregationalist; Unitarian
Robert Treat Paine, Massachusetts, Congregationalist; Unitarian
George Walton, Georgia, Episcopalian
John Penn, North Carolina, Episcopalian
George Ross, Pennsylvania, Episcopalian
Thomas Heyward Jr., South Carolina, Episcopalian
Thomas Lynch Jr., South Carolina, Episcopalian
Arthur Middleton, South Carolina, Episcopalian
Edward Rutledge, South Carolina, Episcopalian
Francis Lightfoot Lee, Virginia, Episcopalian
Richard Henry Lee, Virginia, Episcopalian
George Read, Delaware, Episcopalian
Caesar Rodney, Delaware, Episcopalian
Samuel Chase, Maryland, Episcopalian
William Paca, Maryland, Episcopalian
Thomas Stone, Maryland, Episcopalian
Elbridge Gerry, Massachusetts, Episcopalian
Francis Hopkinson, New Jersey, Episcopalian
Francis Lewis, New York, Episcopalian
Lewis Morris, New York, Episcopalian
William Hooper, North Carolina, Episcopalian
Robert Morris, Pennsylvania, Episcopalian
John Morton, Pennsylvania, Episcopalian
Stephen Hopkins, Rhode Island, Episcopalian
Carter Braxton, Virginia, Episcopalian
Benjamin Harrison, Virginia, Episcopalian
Thomas Nelson Jr., Virginia, Episcopalian
George Wythe, Virginia, Episcopalian
Thomas Jefferson, Virginia, Episcopalian (Deist)
Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, Episcopalian (Deist)
Button Gwinnett, Georgia, Episcopalian; Congregationalist
James Wilson, Pennsylvania Episcopalian; Presbyterian
Joseph Hewes, North Carolina, Quaker, Episcopalian
George Clymer, Pennsylvania, Quaker, Episcopalian
Thomas McKean, Delaware, Presbyterian
Matthew Thornton, New Hampshire, Presbyterian
Abraham Clark, New Jersey, Presbyterian
John Hart, New Jersey, Presbyterian
Richard Stockton, New Jersey, Presbyterian
John Witherspoon, New Jersey, Presbyterian
William Floyd, New York. Presbyterian
Philip Livingston, New York, Presbyterian
James Smith, Pennsylvania, Presbyterian
George Taylor, Pennsylvania, Presbyterian
Benjamin Rush, Pennsylvania, Presbyterian
Note that Franklin and Jefferson were both members of the Episcopalian Church as well as Deists. This fact, at least in my view, demonstrates that both Franklin and Jefferson were believers in God and had warm relationships with Christians and Christianity, not atheists as some progressives assert. Franklin beseeched his fellow constitutional conventioneers to begin each session with the “prayerful piety that inspired the revolution.” Hardly the words of a postmodern anti-Christian. The current effort of postmodernist to paint Franklin and Jefferson as hostile to Christianity seems to me clearly laughable. I suspect that Judea-Christian values permeated Jefferson’s and Franklin’s world view. I further suspect that like many intelligent people educated in the post Enlightenment post Newtonian world, they had difficulty with the Christian requirement for belief in miracles such as the virgin birth, the resurrection, and biblical miracles. However, anti Christians they were not. As men of letters and men who read history in-depth, they comprehended Christianity at several levels – not just at the literal level.
Was the United States Founded as a Christian Nation?
No, it was not. The United States was a decidedly Christian society founded as a Constitutional Republic. The American Constitutional Republic, as brought to life by the Founding Fathers, was a brilliant and enlightened modification of Classical Greek republicanism. Our Christian and Deist Founding Fathers placed, along with the creation of a taxing enabled Central Government, three inviolable principles in the very soul of our Republic: 1) A Powers Limited Federal Government; 2) Fiscal Prudence on the Part of the Federal Government and; 3) The Rule of Law to be strictly adhered to by the Federal Government. One can see that there is not a lot remaining of these three constitutional principles today. Between the profoundly misinterpreted 14th amendment which eviscerated the power of the states, modern day Federal “Courts” and contemporary politics, our Constitutional Republic has been almost wholly co-opted by mobster style progressives.
Was the United States Found as a Nation Under God?
Yes, unequivocally. The Founding Fathers say in the Declaration of Independence “…to which the Laws of Nature and of Natures God”. Then go on to say “…endowed by their Creator”. Thus, it is irrefutable fact that the United States was, with deliberation and intent, founded as a Nation under God albeit a more Deist and “natural” God than a purely Christian God.
Thomas Jefferson words are those of a Deist. Which is to say a believer in God. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that followed it are clear that the essential rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of all Americans flow from our Creator and never at anytime from politicians and bureaucrats. This principle too has been shredded in the grinding-bin of postmodernism and mobster progressivism.
In closing, I will opine that Jefferson, great Deist and Christian Church member that he was, used the word “Happiness” in the Aristotelian Greek sense. Happiness in the Greek sense means the sense of accomplishment and personal satisfaction that results from a virtuous life of self-discipline, skills acquisition, achievement of professional expertise, and adding value to the community. Jefferson did not mean everyone had the right to “feel good”. This historical fact too has been lost to the storms of postmodernism.
Brent Perkins August 21, 2011 – Published in The Voice of Commonsense
