I have a thorough contempt for all men who appear to be
the irreclaimable enemies of religion. Samuel Adams
The most important of all lessons from the Scriptures is
the denunciation of ruin to every State that rejects the precepts of religion.
Gouverneur Morris, Penman and Signer of the Constitution
Shun, as a contagious pestilence, those especially whom
you perceive to be infected with the principles of infidelity or who are
enemies to the power of religion. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple
not to call him an enemy to his country. John Witherspoon, Signer of the
Declarations
There is abundant evidence to refute any notion that the
Founding Fathers were atheists, agnostics, or deists, or that they wanted to
divorce religious principles from public affairs. The more one learns about
their activities and writings, the easier it is not only to understand but also
to agree with the characterization given by many of them concerning the
Christian nature of the American nation and its government. In fact, following
the death of Richard Henry Lee President of the Continental Congress and the
man who officially introduced in Congress the call for America’s independence,
his papers and correspondence, including numerous original handwritten letters
from other patriots e.g., George Washington, Benjamin Rush, John Dickinson,
etc., were passed on to his grandson who compiled those documents into a
two-volume work published in 1825. After having studied those personal letters,
the grandson described the great body of men who founded the nation in these
words:
The wise and great men of those days were not ashamed
publicly to confess the name of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! In
behalf of the people, as their representatives and rulers, they acknowledged
the sublime doctrine of his mediation! Despite the abundance of evidence on the
highly religious nature of the Founding Fathers, many groups have ignored the
clear historical records. Instead, they have promoted their own view of the
alleged anti or non-religious beliefs of our Founders in attempts to bolster
their arguments for the current separation doctrine. The result is that the
nation’s policies concerning religion and government have been turned
upside-down. In fact, not only does much of the nation not realize that the
current “separation of church and state” is not constitutionally mandated, many
are not even aware that “the free exercise” of religion is. A recent study
showed that “only a third of the nation’s citizens knew freedom of religion was
guaranteed by the Constitution’s First Amendment.” How did this reversal
happen?
