A Nation of Christians Is Not a Christian Nation 0

It has been a long time since I read the Richmond Times-Dispatch (in my younger days known as the “Trash Disgrace” for its solid adherence to the “Lost Cause” and segregation) with any regularity, but, in responding to the Regent’s declaration last month of Christian Heritage Week, they got one right:

McDonnell’s language is typical. Paragraphs opening with a “whereas” include statements many construe as indicative of America’s status as a Christian commonwealth. Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Henry, and Mason are cited to support the proposition. Several entries specifically refer to Christianity; other quotations mention God or “righteousness.” The latter, of course, could be employed to say the U.S. is a Jewish nation, or a Muslim one, or a nation built by generic believers.

The faith of the Founders eludes definition according to the standards of our day. Jefferson indeed would not qualify as an orthodox Christian, or perhaps even as a heterodox one. His version of the Bible omits the very things that make the New Testament a declaration of Christianity. Jefferson’s architectural masterpieces — the Rotunda, Monticello, and the Virginia Capitol — manifest soul craft. They resemble neither cathedrals nor kirks but classical edifices redolent of Greece and Rome. Franklin, too, is hard to classify. Church attendance is not an accurate gauge of devotion; Franklin’s participation alternated between steady and sporadic. He harbored persistent doubts of Christ’s divinity, however. He is not to be mistaken for Mike Huckabee.

(snip)

The Founders drew their ideals and their practical solutions from numerous sources. Christianity inhabited the minds of many. Inspiration also came from the ancient world, as well as from philosophers associated with the Enlightenment.

Christianity’s role in American politics and culture cannot be denied. Nevertheless, Christian Heritage Week and similar assertions seldom serve as examples of historical scholarship or, for that matter, of creedal exactitude. Religion in general and Christianity in particular are diminished by attempts to conform the Founders to our world.

The Founders were certainly influenced by the philosophy of thinkers within the context of a Christian Europe. It was the world they knew.

So too were they influenced by Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, and others who were in no way Christian, though they were in the great stream of European philosophical and legal thought (which has also helped shaped Christianity).

Most of the Founders–with the possible occasional exception of Jefferson–cannot be considered philosophers in any sense. They were practical men concerned with what works, not with internally coherent theories to explain causality, being, and knowledge.

But in no way did the Founders wish to establish a theocracy; those who today claim that they did are at best deluded, at worst liars.

And I don’t buy the “at best” alternative.

Remember, Iran is a theocracy.