So Why Did We Start This Country?
Nov 29th, 2011 | By Tim George | Category: History, Misc, Top Headline | Print This Article
If you ask the next ten people you meet why we started this country, three or four will answer “taxation without representation” while the rest will shrug and amble on by. In truth, the Declaration of Independence listed twenty-seven reasons, and taxation is not even mentioned until number seventeen. It is doubtful most of us could name any of the other reasons given for forming this union without the help of Google or a pocket copy of the Declaration.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence addressed a wide variety of grievances that focused on moral and religious complaints against England and King George. Those grievances were not born in a vacuum, but rather found their way to our most famous document because of very real religious and moral issues the colonists could not overlook any longer.
In 1762, the king vetoed the charter for America’s first missionary society. King George also issued proclamations to suppress other religious freedoms and even prevent the colonists from printing English-language Bibles. Declaration signers such as Charles Carroll and Samuel Adams cited religious freedom as their grounds for becoming involved in the American Revolution.
Nearly half of the signers of the Declaration held what today would be considered seminary or Bible school degrees. For many founders, religious issues were an important motivation behind their separation from Great Britain. In spite of this, these reasons are all but ignored today.
The supreme moral issue of that day was slavery; and after several of the American colonies moved toward abolishing slavery in 1773, the King vetoed those anti-slavery laws and sustained slavery in America. Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin quickly founded America’s first abolition society as a direct response against the king’s order.
The desire to abolish slavery in America was a significant motivation not only for Franklin and Rush, but also for a number of others. There were many who wanted to end slavery but could not under Great Britain’s rule. While it would take years to settle the matter completely in our own Civil War, six of the thirteen colonies abolished slavery immediately after the Declaration of Independence.
There were many other noteworthy issues that led the formation of this country; so why aren’t Americans familiar with the rest? Beginning in the 1920s, a group of secular-minded writers such as W. E. Woodward, Charles and Mary Beard, and Fairfax Downey began to rewrite history. For these, economics was the only issue of importance, so they began to write texts accordingly. With a focus solely on economics, “taxation without representation” became the sole clause that Americans studied.
By eliminating the religious and moral reasons for our founding, we have been left with a purely secular mandate. Texts now convincingly emphasize that the American founding produced the first intentionally secular government in history. This is in spite of the fact our Declaration officially acknowledges God in four separate clauses. John Hancock and John Adams are given credit as being the source of our independence, even though John Adams himself declared that the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Mayhew and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper were two of the individuals “most conspicuous, the most ardent, and influential” in the “awakening and revival of American principles and feelings” that led to American independence.
In other words, the paradigm has been shifted from a well-rounded understanding of why this country was found to a narrowly focused one. Take the legendary minutemen. Even though they are still honored, their leader, the Rev. Jonas Clark, is no longer mentioned. Nor is there mention that many of the minutemen were deacons in his church.
Rev. James Caldwell is no longer acknowledged to have been a key leader of military forces in New Jersey, nor is the Rev. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (who led 300 men from his church against the British) remembered as one of Washington’s most trusted generals. Forgotten is the indispensable role played by pastors in the founding of our civil government. Americans have been subjected to revisionism that attempts to alter the way we see out history in order to cause a change in public policy.
Unfortunately, it has worked all too well.
©2013 Off The Grid News
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Why did you not list all 27? =)
Though I don’t deny that the authors/signers of the Declaration were more religious men than most are today, I looked through the “27″ reasons and can’t find a SINGLE religious one. They’re all quite “governmental” in nature – not religious. In fact, (based on a quick re-read) there seems to be very little mention of religious reasons or justifications other than referring to “Nature’s God” – which seems pretty non-committal for religious men – and one of “their creator” – which again – could even be stomached by an atheist.
I think you have a good point – but the Declaration is not a good vehicle to use to make it.
If one actually reads the declaration, the only conclusion that could be drawn is that America revolted because of purely political reasons.
I was also hoping to see the list of 27. Good article! Thanks
why do most people think that just because someone went to bible college that he is a paster, mister , precher, bible college is man made if you read the bible jesus told them not toworry about what to say that the holy spirit would speak through them also meaning all these new high tec bibles so you can understand better are hog wash the KING JAMES is the only bible if you have the holy spirit you will understand it remember he said there would be false preachers ,teachers in the last days what makes you think the founding fathers were not false also wake up
Dear Swampratt ,
You are correct that the preaching of God’s holy Word does not require any secular education apart from that needed to learn how to read and write ; the 12 apostles were mostly men of little formal education other than the synagogue schools that young boys were sent to in those times. A genuine love for God’s Word and a corresponding desire to “rightly divide” it is all that is required to be a godly minister. My only disagreement with you is in the elevating of the King James Version above all others. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament were written in languages that are “dead” , that is , no one speaks them in daily life today. The King James Version is a magnificent translation , one that has had immeasureable influence on our culture. It’s beauty and majesty can not be denied even by its textual critics. But , it was written in the early seventeenth century . Not only has spoken English changed dramatically in the years since , but numerous early biblical fragments have been found in the intervening years , shedding much light on passages that have previously been hard to understand. God gives us these tantalizing bits and fragments of old scripture to reinforce our faith , to remind us that that He is eternal. He “changeth not” yet gives us new info to remain relevent to every generation. Many new translations are not faithful to the meaning of the original and thus should be rejected , But that does not throw out all the research being done to ensure modern , clearly understandable translations of His Word to twenty-first century christians. Praise God !
hey,
One of the many attacks on our country from the Religious Right is the claim that our country is a Christian Nation…not just that the majority of people are Christians, but that the country itself was founded by Christians, for Christians. However, a little research into American history will show that this statement is a lie. Those people who spread this lie are known as Christian Revisionists. They are attempting to rewrite history, in much the same way as holocaust deniers are. The men responsible for building the foundation of the United States were men of The Enlightenment, not men of Christianity. They were Deists who did not believe the bible was true. They were Freethinkers who relied on their reason, not their faith.
If the U.S. was founded on the Christian religion, the Constitution would clearly say so–but it does not. Nowhere does the Constitution say: “The United States is a Christian Nation”, or anything even close to that. In fact, the words “Jesus Christ, Christianity, Bible, Creator, Divine, and God” are never mentioned in the Constitution– not even once. Nowhere in the Constitution is religion mentioned, except in exclusionary terms. When the Founders wrote the nation’s Constitution, they specified that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” (Article 6, section 3) This provision was radical in its day– giving equal citizenship to believers and non-believers alike. They wanted to ensure that no religion could make the claim of being the official, national religion, such as England had.
The Declaration of Independence gives us important insight into the opinions of the Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the power of the government is derived from the governed. Up until that time, it was claimed that kings ruled nations by the authority of God. The Declaration was a radical departure from the idea that the power to rule over other people comes from god. It was a letter from the Colonies to the English King, stating their intentions to seperate themselves. The Declaration is not a governing document. It mentions “Nature’s God” and “Divine Providence”– but as you will soon see, that’s the language of Deism, not Christianity.
None of the Founding Fathers were atheists. Most of the Founders were Deists, which is to say they thought the universe had a creator, but that he does not concern himself with the daily lives of humans, and does not directly communicate with humans, either by revelation or by sacred books. They spoke often of God, (Nature’s God or the God of Nature), but this was not the God of the bible. They did not deny that there was a person called Jesus, and praised him for his benevolent teachings, but they flatly denied his divinity. Some people speculate that if Charles Darwin had lived a century earlier, the Founding Fathers would have had a basis for accepting naturalistic origins of life, and they would have been atheists. We’ll never know; but by reading their own writings, it’s clear that most of them were opposed to the bible, and the teachings of Christianity in particular.
Yes, there were Christian men among the Founders. Just as Congress removed Thomas Jefferson’s words that condemned the practice of slavery in the colonies, they also altered his wording regarding equal rights. His original wording is here in blue italics: “All men are created equal and independent. From that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable.” Congress changed that phrase, increasing its religious overtones: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” But we are not governed by the Declaration of Independence– it is a historical document, not a constitutional one.
If the Christian Right Extremists wish to return this country to its beginnings, so be it… because it was a climate of Freethought. The Founders were students of the European Enlightenment. Half a century after the establishment of the United States, clergymen complained that no president up to that date had been a Christian. In a sermon that was reported in newspapers, Episcopal minister Bird Wilson of Albany, New York, protested in October 1831: “Among all our presidents from Washington downward, not one was a professor of religion, at least not of more than Unitarianism.” The attitude of the age was one of enlightened reason, tolerance, and free thought. The Founding Fathers would turn in their graves if the Christian Extremists had their way with this country.
Consider this: IF indeed the members of the First Continental Congress were all bible-believing Christians, would there ever have been a revolution at all?
“For rebellion as is the sin of witchcraft.” 1 Samuel, 15:23
1 Peter 2:13: “For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right.”
Paul wrote in Romans 13:1: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resist authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”
Sometimes Christians offer up the Pilgrims as an example of our nation’s Christian founding. That is sheer ignorance on their part. The Pilgrims weren’t the ones who crafted the Constitution that governs our nation! They weren’t the ones who rebelled against England. The Pilgrims fled from horrible religious persecution in England only to practice the SAME HORRIBLE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION here, as you can read on this pious Christian site http://christsassembly.com/literature/blasphemy.htm. The “religious freedom” so often spoken of in regards to the pilgrims was espoused by them only when they were the victims. It was not based on any principle of fairness– it was a belief born of weakness, to be fogotten in their moment of power. Christian Colonists branded non-christians on the forehead with red-hot irons, bore them through their tongues, confiscated their property and threw them in jail, hanged them and burned them at the stake– THAT is what happens when Christians have their way! But that website is wrong in claiming that non-Christians are “criminals under the CONSTITUTION”. It’s the Constitution that did away with Christian persecution. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” That means people can freely exersize whatever religious belief they wish, Christian or not. Thanks to the Constitution, Christians can no longer persecute and kill those who do not agree with them.
cheers
thank you now maybe people will understand who really runs this country THE BRITISH CROWN………