In God's Country
Recently, various legal controversies in the United States have caused many conservative-types to assert that America is a Christian nation founded on Judeo-Christian morals. As someone with a degree in history, this has given me pause. In looking at the actual founding of the United States (as opposed to say, the imagined founding described in, say, The Patriot) there is a real confluence of different ideas at work.
The language of rights especially found in the Declaration of Independence bears a heavy debt to John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rouseau more than anyone. Certainly the central thrust of the Declaration of Independence was very much lifted from Locke's writings. The language of individual rights and the idea of a social contract were very much ideas of the 18th century Enlightenment.
The structure of the US government owed a great deal to Greco-Roman concepts. The Athenians and their democracy were surely an influence. The idea of separate powers balancing each other out is something that Aristotle would no doubt applaud. Interestingly, Machivelli also like the idea of a division of powers. The very use of the name "senate" to describe one of the houses of Congress is an echo of Rome.
As far as religious belief among the patriots, many of the founding fathers, Jefferson in particular, were deists. Thomas Paine, who wrote the famous pamphlet Common Sense was also apparently, at best, ambivalent about Christianity. Jefferson, you will note, refers to a "Creator" and not to God per se in his Declaration.
On the whole, the language of the American Revolution is that of the Enlightenment far more than it is that of the Bible. For a contrast, one can look at the abolitionists. In the wake of the second great awakening, both the abolitionist and their opponents put much of their argument into specifically biblical language.
The Christian roots of America are certainly there, but only in the sense that most citizens of the US were Christians at that time. There is little in the documents of America's revolution and her subsequent constitution to suggest that the creation of an American republic was an inherently Christian undertaking. For a curious contrast Canada, that's right, post-modern, post-Christian, secular Canada has a constitution specifically mentioning God. A constitution drawn up less than a quarter of a century ago no less! The US constitution contains no such reference.
If various groups in the US want to increase the role for their religious beliefs in public life, they are welcome to make their case for doing so. At the same time though, the claim that the United States was founded as a particularly Christian nation is something from American myth, not American history.
Postscript: Anyone want to explain how the American founding fathers squared their revolution with Romans 13 (using primary sources preferably)? If they were in fact such devout people, surely this would have been an important relgious concern.
The language of rights especially found in the Declaration of Independence bears a heavy debt to John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rouseau more than anyone. Certainly the central thrust of the Declaration of Independence was very much lifted from Locke's writings. The language of individual rights and the idea of a social contract were very much ideas of the 18th century Enlightenment.
The structure of the US government owed a great deal to Greco-Roman concepts. The Athenians and their democracy were surely an influence. The idea of separate powers balancing each other out is something that Aristotle would no doubt applaud. Interestingly, Machivelli also like the idea of a division of powers. The very use of the name "senate" to describe one of the houses of Congress is an echo of Rome.
As far as religious belief among the patriots, many of the founding fathers, Jefferson in particular, were deists. Thomas Paine, who wrote the famous pamphlet Common Sense was also apparently, at best, ambivalent about Christianity. Jefferson, you will note, refers to a "Creator" and not to God per se in his Declaration.
On the whole, the language of the American Revolution is that of the Enlightenment far more than it is that of the Bible. For a contrast, one can look at the abolitionists. In the wake of the second great awakening, both the abolitionist and their opponents put much of their argument into specifically biblical language.
The Christian roots of America are certainly there, but only in the sense that most citizens of the US were Christians at that time. There is little in the documents of America's revolution and her subsequent constitution to suggest that the creation of an American republic was an inherently Christian undertaking. For a curious contrast Canada, that's right, post-modern, post-Christian, secular Canada has a constitution specifically mentioning God. A constitution drawn up less than a quarter of a century ago no less! The US constitution contains no such reference.
If various groups in the US want to increase the role for their religious beliefs in public life, they are welcome to make their case for doing so. At the same time though, the claim that the United States was founded as a particularly Christian nation is something from American myth, not American history.
Postscript: Anyone want to explain how the American founding fathers squared their revolution with Romans 13 (using primary sources preferably)? If they were in fact such devout people, surely this would have been an important relgious concern.
posted by Dan at 12:34 PM
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