I have seen and heard with increasingly frequent accounts from some of my left-wing friends of how our great nation was NOT necessarily founded as a Christian nation. Now that absolutely astounds me, as there is gargantuan amounts of documentation that positively supports the inarguable fact that America was indeed founded as a Christian nation. See one of my previous posts that helps to make this point: http://savingcommonsense.blogspot.com/2009/09/in-god-we-trust.html .The funny thing is that if the people espousing this nonsense would actually look at history and the incontrovertible evidence, they would not continue on this ridiculous debate. Heck, if anthropogenic global warming had that much evidence, then Gore would finally be right and the debate would indeed be over.
That aside, I read another interesting quotation from Alexis de Tocqueville acknowledging our Christian founding as a nation. I thought I would share part of the text, including his quote, that comes from the CEO of the Presidential Prayer Team. (Yes, I have been a member for years and pray often for Obama. He seems to need prayers even more than President Bush and Clinton did.)
Anyway, the text:
One of my favorite things to do is read what the Founding Fathers and their contemporaries thought and had to say when our nation was being born.
A French dignitary, Alexis de Tocqueville, is one such figure. His tour of America in 1831-1833 to research our prisons and justice system had a lasting effect on him, causing him to write his hallmark Democracy in America. For a child raised in the politically tumultuous country of revolutionary France, this expansive volume was the result of his fascination with our government and its founding.
His research and observations uncovered many things about our young country, not the least of which was his realization that a belief in God played a very critical role in its birth. "The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds," he wrote, "that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other."
Yet Alexis also had a warning:
"Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity? "
As you read more about Our Nation's Godly Heritage , will you consider what focus should be made as we continue to move through history as a nation?
Will you, indeed?
3 comments:
Why is there no mention of Christianity in the Constitution?
That, alone, would appear to decimate your argument (one which began in the 1990s under the Christian Coalition). It used to be a nation founded on religious freedom and tolerance, and now the right has changed it to a nation where you are free to be a Christian and tolerated if you are not.
We've discussed this before, I know, but I will forever be offended, as a Jew, by the notion that America is a Christian country.
There is no mention of Christianity in the Constitution because this is NOT a theocracy.
The first amendment of the Bill of Rights guarantees the individual's right to worship however he/she sees fit.
It does not preclude Jews, Muslims, Hindi's, Taoists, etc from worshiping as they please.
You are correct in your statement that the country, as espoused in the Constitution, is one that theoretically is accepting of freedom of religion.
All of the being said does NOT change the fact that nearly without exception, most of our founders saw the founding of the nation and its governance as being irrevocably tied to a Judeo/Christian tradition.
Christianity, as stated in myriads of examples from many many of our founders is something they deemed as vital in the founding and sustaining of a free people in a representative republic.
Whether our nation's history is offensive to you or not changes nothing. It is as it is. This doesn't mean that you cannot worship and be an excellent American in all aspects while being a Jew. On the contrary, peoples of all religions are vital to the vibrance of this melting pot, in my humble opinion.
The fact that America was founded as a Christian nation is not intended to exclude you or any other person that is not of a Christian faith.
Nor does it mean that the left can use political correctness to engage in revisionist history so as to assuage "offended" individuals. The fact remains that this was and by and large still is a Christian nation.
You are just as much a part of it as is the next person.
Trying to pretend that something is what it is not is a waste of your energy and talents though, Splash.
Offense to you or anyone else of any faith is not intended. The purpose of my post was simply to espouse a fact that many on the left are trying to erode and deny, sir.
By the way, most of the founders were of Anglican and various Protestant denominations. Very few had any use for Catholicism back then.
As a Catholic, I am not offended by the facts of our history. You should not be either, Dave.
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