Intellect vs. Christian Right: Who actually founded America

I agree. Amazing that these pertinent word hail to us from Australia. I know other people here who share this sentiment. We all need to speak up and stick together.

Ishambat: Would it be at all possible for you to post an objective story based on fact? I've read just about everything that you've posted on NP and I've yet to see you make an honest and sincere effort at posting anything other than a bunch of leftist propaganda that very few Americans subscribe to.

You appear to have no knowledge or understanding whatsoever of American political, social, and economic history, nor do you even appear to be interested in American history. Your posts don't even allow for an open and honest debate, because they're absurd, quite frankly. I find it very curious indeed that someone from Australia is obviously obsessed with posting the type of opinion pieces on America that you do . . . .

"History furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government",Thomas Jefferson

When 9/11 was caused to happen and in its aftermath happened some thing strange.Pat Robertson resigned as head of Christian Coalition and no one filled the vacant post.Why?Because the Christian Coalition had a rightful head(head of all evils one can think of),George W.Bush.He was a born again Christian,a man of God and now zealout Christians were entrusted with handling all policy matters ranging from school curricula to foreign policy.So a born again Christian wanted a born again Christian America flouting  the Founding Fathers chersihed dreams,America of their dreams.

The rise of the religious right is a danger signal.The difference between a president and the preacher will blur if  vile conservatives are allowed to manipulate democratic mechanism and come to power again.Americans have to protect the wall erected by Thomas Jefferson between the church and the state or watch its demolition as helpless spectators.

I'm sure nobody wants to hear this but... the argument is based on opposing sides of a very flawed assumption. Neither the religious or the intellectuals founded America. 

The founding of America, it's earliest creation, was through land grants for the establishment of "trade". 

Due to the internal religious strife in great Britain at the time. Being by the 17th century there were close to 1000 different "Christian" religions battling over who was more "Christian" during that period. Those who felt the most persecuted took advantage of the "trade" grants to leave England and establish themselves in the "American colonies". 

They had to work the land and pay[Fish, timber, corn, grain, etc.] their rent to the holders of the lease. ie: Jamestown=London Virginia Company.

The Intellectuals didn't arrive until all was made safe for them and the "wilderness" conquered by those others beneath contempt. 

Classism being nothing new to the English. And the "Religious" were safely tucked into now urbanized  fortresses torturing the ungodly and hunting down witches and other boogeymen/women unfit to grace the portal of Heaven. 

It was the hard men. The adventurer, the social outcast, who dared the wilds to establish small farms, who traded in game and fur, harvested the forest for timber and mast, discovered the minerals. 

These people "founded the country" and who with out, no country would exist. Everything else is spin. And lost to the spin most notably, is the fact that Britain "shipped" ~50,000 convicts to America prior to the landing of the Mayflower and the arrival of the "separatist" Pilgrims. 

And after the hard work was done most of the colonials entering the colonies were "shipped" over as indentured servants to service the farms of the so called "religious and intellectuals" who found ways to exploit the "ignorant"  and separate them from their hard earned land.

As usual the religious and the intellectuals leave out their exploitation of those they consider unworthy and claim all glory for themselves for the good of mankind. Neither of who would have survived five minutes together living rough in the early days.

trans-parere

trans-parere: Did you ever hear of the Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock and all that stuff? The earliest American colonies were settled and developed by devoutly religious Christians. Most of the laws, political systems, etc. in America's early days were designed by Christian religious leaders and other devout Christians--many of which also happened to be intellectuals. These are just facts supported by much documentation. Of course it's true that there were atheists, witches, et al. in America's founding days. But America's early colonies were essentially founded by Christians who openly practiced their Christianity.

trans-parere: America was founded by Christians. The roots for the American government--both locally, state-wide, and nationally--were established by Christians. Many Governors of colonies were Christian clergymen. Maryland was established as a haven for Catholics and so on and so forth. You need to start reading more American history and be less selective in what you read and be more objective in your thought process while you read. If you subscribe to re-written history, that's your problem. But re-written history doesn't make your assertions true.

"Black and white people who think in black and white do bad things to blacks and whites in the name of black and white. It is recorded in history for all to read."love it.

trans-parere: The following are just a few quotes from America's founders. If you cannot come to the conclusion (after reading the following quotes) that America was founded by devout Christians and that Christianity played an integral role in the founding of America, then you are essentially out to re-write American history.

The First Charter of Virginia (granted by King James I, on April 10, 1606)

We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion . . . .

William Bradford
wrote that they [the Pilgrims] were seeking:
“The great hope, and for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world"

The Mayflower Compact (authored by William Bradford) 1620 | Signing of the Mayflower painting | Picture of Compact

“Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith . . . .

John Adams and John Hancock:
We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus! [April 18, 1775]

John Adams:

“ The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity…

Samuel Adams: | Portrait of Sam Adams | Powerpoint presentation on John, John Quincy, and Sam Adams
“ He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all… Our forefathers opened the Bible to all.” [ "American Independence," August 1, 1776. Speech delivered at the State House in Philadelphia]

John Quincy Adams:
“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the Fourth of July]?" “Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity"?

--1837, at the age of 69, when he delivered a Fourth of July speech at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

In Benjamin Franklin's 1749 plan of education for public schools in Pennsylvania, he insisted that schools teach "the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern."

In 1787 when Franklin helped found Benjamin Franklin University, it was dedicated as "a nursery of religion and learning, built on Christ, the Cornerstone." 

Alexander Hamilton:
• Hamilton began work with the Rev. James Bayard to form the Christian Constitutional Society to help spread over the world the two things which Hamilton said made America great:
(1) Christianity
(2) a Constitution formed under Christianity.
“The Christian Constitutional Society, its object is first: The support of the Christian religion. Second: The support of the United States.”

"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the Constitution] a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests." [1787 after the Constitutional Convention]

"I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man."

Patrick Henry:
"Orator of the Revolution."
• This is all the inheritance I can give my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.”
—The Last Will and Testament of Patrick Henry

“It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. [May 1765 Speech to the House of Burgesses]

John Jay:

“ Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” Source: October 12, 1816. The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, Henry P. Johnston, ed., (New York: Burt Franklin, 1970), Vol. IV, p. 393.

James Madison
“ We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart.”

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” [1778 to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia]

• I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare the unsatisfactoriness [of temportal enjoyments] by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way.
Letter by Madison to William Bradford (September 25, 1773)
• In 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided the Bible Society of Philadelphia in its goal of the mass distribution of the Bible.
“ An Act for the relief of the Bible Society of Philadelphia” Approved February 2, 1813 by Congress

“It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.”

• A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven. [Letter by Madison to William Bradford [urging him to make sure of his own salvation] November 9, 1772]

At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison proposed the plan to divide the central government into three branches. He discovered this model of government from the Perfect Governor, as he read Isaiah 33:22;
“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver,
the LORD is our king;
He will save us.”
[Baron Charles Montesquieu, wrote in 1748; “Nor is there liberty if the power of judging is not separated from legislative power and from executive power. If it [the power of judging] were joined to legislative power, the power over life and liberty of the citizens would be arbitrary, for the judge would be the legislature if it were joined to the executive power, the judge could have the force of an oppressor. All would be lost if the same … body of principal men … exercised these three powers." Madison claimed Isaiah 33:22 as the source of division of power in government
See also: pp.241-242 in Teaching and Learning America’s Christian History: The Principle approach by Rosalie Slater]

James McHenry – Signer of the Constitution
Public utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine they preach, the obligations they impose, the punishment they threaten, the rewards they promise, the stamp and image of divinity they bear, which produces a conviction of their truths, can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience.

Jedediah Morse:
"To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg
In a sermon delivered to his Virginia congregation on Jan. 21, 1776, he preached from Ecclesiastes 3.
Arriving at verse 8, which declares that there is a time of war and a time of peace, Muhlenberg noted that this surely was not the time of peace; this was the time of war. Concluding with a prayer, and while standing in full view of the congregation, he removed his clerical robes to reveal that beneath them he was wearing the uniform of an officer in the Continental army! He marched to the back of the church; ordered the drum to beat for recruits and over three hundred men joined him, becoming the Eighth Virginia Brigade. John Peter Muhlenberg finished the Revolution as a Major-General, having been at Valley Forge and having participated in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Stonypoint, and Yorktown.

Thomas Paine:
“ It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.”
“ The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal.” “The Existence of God--1810”

Benjamin Rush:
• “I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this Divine Book, above all others, constitutes the soul of republicanism.” “By withholding the knowledge of [the Scriptures] from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds.” [Letter written (1790’s) in Defense of the Bible in all schools in America]
• “Christianity is the only true and perfect religion.”
• “If moral precepts alone could have reformed mankind, the mission of the Son of God into our world would have been unnecessary.”

"Let the children who are sent to those schools be taught to read and write and above all, let both sexes be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education”
Letters of Benjamin Rush, "To the citizens of Philadelphia: A Plan for Free Schools", March 28, 1787

Justice Joseph Story:
“ I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. . . There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying its foundations.”
[Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States p. 593]
“ Infidels and pagans were banished from the halls of justice as unworthy of credit.” [Life and letters of Joseph Story, Vol. II 1851, pp. 8-9.]
“ At the time of the adoption of the constitution, and of the amendment to it, now under consideration [i.e., the First Amendment], the general, if not the universal sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state, so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship.”
[Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States p. 593]

Noah Webster:
“ The duties of men are summarily comprised in the Ten Commandments, consisting of two tables; one comprehending the duties which we owe immediately to God-the other, the duties we owe to our fellow men.”

“In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
[Source: 1828, in the preface to his American Dictionary of the English Language]

Let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God [Exodus 18:21]. . . . If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted . . . If our government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws. [Noah Webster, The History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie and Peck, 1832), pp. 336-337, 49]

“All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.” [Noah Webster. History. p. 339]

“The Bible was America’s basic textbook
in all fields.” [Noah Webster. Our Christian Heritage p.5]

“Education is useless without the Bible” [Noah Webster. Our Christian Heritage p.5 ]

George Washington:

Farewell Address:

“ It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and Bible.”

“What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.” [speech to the Delaware Indian Chiefs May 12, 1779]

"To the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian" [May 2, 1778, at Valley Forge]