Theophobia, Part Two
By Michael P. Tremoglie (01/12/05)
The Myths about the Founders and Religion.
According to the Washington Times, “The California lawyer who tried to have the phrase "under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance now wants to legally prevent President Bush from placing his hand on a Bible while being sworn in at his inauguration.”
This is just the latest part of the theophobic campaign to eliminate religion from American society.
Theophobes like to claim that the Founding Fathers were deists who never wanted a religious society. They maintain that there were numerous quotes and examples of their contempt for religion.
One thing referenced is the Treaty of Tripoli of 1797. This is proffered as absolute proof that the Founding Fathers did not want the United States to be a religious nation.
Alan Colmes referenced this treaty during Hannity and Colmes one evening and so has the ACLU. This treaty ranks next to Jefferson’s “ wall of separation between church and state “ phrase as the core of their argument to prohibit the expression of religion in public.
This is sheer sophistry.
If all the evidence the theophobes have that the Founders wanted to bowdlerize religion from America is a meaningless symbolic phrase, fraudulently inserted into an obscure unconscionable treaty that was revoked three years later, and, ratified so that the lives of American hostages could be saved, then they have no evidence at all.
There are several problems with using this treaty as an example that the Founders disdained religion.
Theophobes like to state that John Adams signed this treaty and it was ratified by the Senate even though it included this clause: “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion…”
However, they omit several things about this treaty:
• The treaty was revoked a few years later anyway
• The clause was not included in the original version of the treaty. It was mysteriously, perhaps fraudulently, inserted by Joel Barlow the Algerian Consul who was a contemner of Christianity.
• The original Arabic version is on file at the State Department although it is Barlow’s English version that was ratified by the Senate and signed by Adams.
• The treaty states several times the phrase “Praise be to God.”
• The treaty was made primarily to save the lives of American hostages. One can conclude that if the treaty said the moon were made of green cheese it would have been ratified by the Senate and signed by Adams.
• A Spanish translation of this treaty references treaties with Christian nations – meaning in this case the US.
When one considers these facts about the treaty, the assertion that it is evidence of the Founders intent to prohibit religious expression or that there is no relevance to religion or for that matter Judeo-Christian history is not true.
Theophobes like to ignore legal documents claiming that America is a religious nation. There are several - including at least one Supreme Court case.
One such document is the opinion in the 1811 case of People v. Ruggles. This is a ruling by the New York Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court was James Kent, author of Commentaries on American Law. He wrote in his opinion, “We are a Christian people…. Christianity, in its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught in the Bible, is not unknown to our law.”
Another court case is the 1892 United States Supreme Court opinion in Holy Trinity Church v US. This involved the hiring of an English pastor which was prevented by immigration officials because of a prohibition of foreign laborers (could this even be conceivable today). The U.S. Supreme Court determined that the prohibition did not apply to pastors because “this is a Christian nation.” The justices cite the People v Ruggles.
Theophobes have a catalogue of quotes to indicate that the Founders were either deists or atheists or hated Christianity. This is to prove that the Founder’s wanted a completely secular nation.
As is usually the case, the theophobes only marshal those quotes that advocate their cause and do not provide others by the same people that would make their cause illegitimate.
For example, it is often said that George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were deists. This is not true.
There is a church in Philadelphia, Saint Peter’s Episcopal, which indicates the pew used by Washington when he attended services there.
(Ironically, Stephen Decatur the hero of the Battle of Tripoli is buried in this same churchyard.)
Benjamin Franklin is buried in the Old Christ’s Church burial ground. This would be an odd place if he were the irreligious person theophobes claim.
Theophobes like to refer to various quotes from Thomas Jefferson to deny his religiosity including the separation of church and state quote. However, they ignore his 1816 letter to Charles Thomson in which he said, “I am a real Christian."
Theophobes like this quote of Adams, “ I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" Yet, they ignore Adams’ 1797 Inaugural speech (same year as the treaty) during which he said,
“ consider….Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service…”
There are too many religious practices and symbols associated with the United States to claim that the Founders were not religious or wanted to exclude religion from America. Indeed, at least one signer of the Constitution was an ordained minister.
It is unfortunate that despite the evidence, mythologies that the Founders were irreligious or wanted to ban religion are considered fact. This is a function of the erroneous revisionist history taught by schools and colleges.
A benefit of living and working for two decades near Independence Hall is that history is right here and does not depend on the prejudicial prism of a tendentious scholar.
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