What about Benjamin Franklin? Well, Ben Franklin was raised as a Presbyterian, but never became a Christian and experienced several moral failures. Yet he was supportive of biblical Christianity.
In fact, Franklin regularly attended worship at Christ Church in Philadelphia along with many of the Founding Fathers. In July of , Franklin was also appointed to the same committee along with Jefferson to draft a national seal. Franklin loved George Whitefield, the Great Awakening preacher.
Might it not greatly facilitate the introduction of pure religion among the heathen, if we could, by such a colony, show them a better sample of Christians than they commonly see in our Indian traders? It was Ben Franklin, the eldest member of the committee drafting our Constitution, who chided the delegates because they had not submitted their plans for a new government to God:.
Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection — our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor.
And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages….
Here was probably the least religious of the Founding Fathers calling for prayer and quoting Scripture. The only Roman Catholic, Charles Carroll, was in one sense an odd inclusion to the mix of signers, given the anti-Catholic feelings of the day.
He was one of the best educated of the signers, having studied with the Jesuits both in the British colonies and in France.
He was also the wealthiest of the signers, having over two thousand pounds, or about a half-billion dollars in modern currency. The Revolution would have been hard pressed without his financial contributions to the cause. Before the Revolution, he was one of the first to declare that the path to independence could not be won by diplomacy and discussion but only by armed revolution. He was the last of the signers to die in Perhaps the background of religious belief in the Revolutionary period is best represented by a famous speech made by Benjamin Franklin on June 28, , to the Constitutional Convention 11 years after the original declaration.
Reminding the Constitutional Convention that in the days of the original Declaration of Independence, the signers had begun every session with prayers, he called for the following:. In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection.
Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity.
And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance. The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with all this artificial scaffolding These are not the words of a man who wishes to establish a Christian theocracy.
Jefferson promoted tolerance above all and said earlier that his statute for religious freedom in Virginia was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammeden, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.
Let us be perfectly clear: We are not now, nor have we ever been, a Christian nation. Our founding fathers explicitly and clearly excluded any reference to "God" or "the Almighty" or any euphemism for a higher power in the Constitution. Not one time is the word "god" mentioned in our founding document. Not one time. The facts of our history are easy enough to verify. Anybody who ignorantly insists that our nation is founded on Christian ideals need only look at the four most important documents from our early history -- the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers and the Constitution -- to disprove that ridiculous religious bias.
All four documents unambiguously prove our secular origins. The most important assertion in this document is that "to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Note that the power of government is derived not from any god but from the people. No appeal is made in this document to a god for authority of any kind. In no case are any powers given to religion in the affairs of man. Remember, too, that this document was not written to form or found a government but was stating intent in a way that was meant to appeal to an audience with European sensibilities.
Only four times is there any reference at all to higher powers -- "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," "Supreme Judge of the world," "their Creator," and "divine Providence" -- and in all four cases the references to a higher power appeal to the idea of inherent human dignity, never implying a role for a god in government.
Throughout the entire document, in all 13 articles, the only reference to anything remotely relating to a god is a term used one time, "Great Governor of the World," and even then only in the context of general introduction, like "Ladies and gentlemen, members of the court The authors gave no power or authority to religion. And this document is our first glimpse into the separation of church and state, because just as the Articles of Confederation give no authority to religion in civil matters, so too does the document deny any authority of government in matters of faith.
This one is easy, because the Constitution of the United States of America makes zero reference to a god or Christianity. The only reference to religion, found in Article VI, is a negative one: "12107o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
While Thomas Jefferson was the genius behind the Declaration of Independence, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison publishing under the pseudonym "Publius" were the brains providing the intellectual foundation of our Constitution. And what brilliance they brought to the task. The first time I picked up the Federalist Papers, I intended to scan the book briefly and then move on to more interesting pursuits.
But I could not put it down; the book reads like an intriguing mystery novel with an intricate plot and complex characters acting on every human emotion. There is no better way to get into the minds of our founding fathers and understand their original intent than by reading this collection of amazing essays. As with the Constitution, at no time is a god ever mentioned in the Federalist Papers.
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