| Were the Founding Fathers Christians? |
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| One thing you'll hear rather frequently from hard core fundies is that the founding fathers were Christians. Somehow, I guess, that would mean that this is a Christian theocracy, and that other people can practice whatever religion they choose, as long as Christians have more rights than they do. Does it really matter? We could all sit around and debate what the founding fathers might have believed until we turn blue, but the fact is they lived 200 years ago and we really can't say for sure what religion they had. One person can vomit up some old quote by Madison about how necessary religion is in this country, and somebody else can vomit up another quote by Madison about how much he hated religion. Either one of these quotes was made up over the years, or Madison was a contradictory screwball. If you look around on the internet, you can find many quotes from the founders that favor both sides of the issue. I'm not posting any of them in this article, because they get in the way and prove nothing. Another problem with the assumptions that the founding fathers were Christians is: Which ones? We can't assume that ALL the founders were Christians, just as we can't assume that NONE of them were. So, for the sake of the argument, we'll just assume that all the founding fathers were Christians. Every one of them. Does that make this a Christian country all of a sudden? Fundies apparently believe that everything other Christians do is based around religion. If they did found this country on their religion, why do we have freedom of religion? If they're going to base the entire existence of the American people on Chritianity, why even bother to let us all worship as we choose? And what about us modern Americans? Are we supposed to fall flat and worship the original purposes of a bunch of religious freaks who died 200 years ago? Fortunately, this isn't so. All of the founders weren't Christians. And even if they were, we know they didn't found this country on their religion. And how do we know this? Why, the Treaty of Tripoli, of course! Article 11 of the Treaty of Piece and Friendship with Tripoli, November 4, 1796 (*gasp*! That's when the founders were alive): "As the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion--as it has itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of Musselmen--and the said states have never entered into any act of war or hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religous opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. (page 365)" There it is, folks. In writing. Plain as day, and can't be disputed. But I guess the Treaty of Tripoli doesn't matter. It matters much more to debate what the personal beliefs of the founding fathers were. |