Never let it be said that our forefathers did not understand America in its intent and origin to be a Christian nation. The very idea betrays a willful lack of understanding of our history, and a shameful intellectual dishonesty. Throughout our history, those influential men who forged this nation into what it is today, in speeches, letters, and comments, clearly stated what was thought by the broad populace of the time, and only a revisionist history would deny the truth, that America was, and is, a nation founded upon Christianity, by Christians.
Take President John Quincy Adams, who said in a July Fourth speech in Newburyport, Massachusetts, this...
"Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and 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?"
The first signatory of the Declaration of Independence, the flamboyant John Hancock, said "Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us."
Benjamin Franklin, scientist, economist, genius, claimed that "[h]e who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world."
John Adams stated that the "general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity."
Patrick Henry, he of "Give me Liberty, or give me Death," once said that "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
Noah Webster, creator of Webster's Dictionary, said "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 for a free people."
This was our heritage, handed down to us from men of wisdom, men of prayer, men our contemporary handlers would rather we saw as flawed, intemperate, racist, and bigoted. So why is it that we have allowed our heritage to be wrested from us so? James Garfield, twentieth President, was no less then prescient when he said, "Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, if is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If is be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. If the next centennial does not find us a great nation, it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."
So here we are, less great a nation than we were a centennial ago. Why? Because we allowed those whose disdain for things Christian manifests itself in visible hatred, to revise our nations history, its cultural heritage, into something less than it is. Our exceptionalism has been reduced to commonality, our birthright muddled into a multicultural stew. All because we tolerated ignorance, recklessness and corruption in our leaders, and in ourselves. We stopped demanding purity, and put up with mediocrity. We stopped demanding bravery, and tolerated cowardice. We stopped demanding intelligence, and accepted elitism.
Take an honest look at history, brush away the cobwebs, and we may yet turn our nation around.
