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The World Union of Deists Quarterly Publication
RELIGIOUS RIGHT LIE: AMERICA IS A CHRISTIAN NATION
by Robert L. Johnson
Americans, and most people throughout the world, love freedom. We don't like the
idea of anyone telling us what we can and cannot do. The religious right in this
country, lead by the Christian Coalition, is in the process of achieving the power to
do
just that. They are working to change the divorce laws in this country state by state
to
the extent that no-fault divorces are abolished. If they are successful, the only ones
who will benefit other than themselves are divorce attorneys. They are also
attempting to remove protection from people who file for bankruptcy. Of course, their
specific aim is concerned with religious organizations who are currently being
ordered by the bankruptcy courts to return thousands of dollars they recently fleeced
from their often sincere yet always gullible followers through tithes and offerings.
Due
largely to the special treatment they receive while hiding behind the guise of
religion,
the religious right is currently pressuring Congress to pass legislation that will do
away with the bankruptcy protection of their own members (what ever happened to
"Christian Charity")! They are pushing for the passage of a bill called the Religious
Liberty and Charitable Donation Protection Act sponsored by California
Representative Ron Packard. This bill, if passed into law, will allow the Churches,
who are already exempt from paying their fair share of taxes, to keep for themselves
the money and resources that the people in their congregations need.
A key element in the power of the religious right over the minds of their followers is
the false idea they constantly promote regarding the origins of America. They claim
America was founded as a Christian nation. This false idea makes many people feel
they are un- American or unpatriotic if they question Christianity. A good example of
this lie they never tire of telling is found in the writings of the founder of the
Christian
Coalition, Pat Robertson. On page 270 of his book The Turning Tide he writes: "It is
certainly true that the precepts of faith are interwoven throughout the founding
documents of this nation. The forms of our constitutional government - as
implemented by Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and others -
were carefully designed to acknowledge the authority of the Scriptures and our
dependence upon the Creator." He is wrong.
None of the five founding fathers mentioned above by Robertson were Christians by
Pat Robertson's definition, which requires belief in the absurd idea that Jesus is the
Son of God, was born via a miraculous conception, and that he rose from the dead
and bodily ascended into heaven. The religion of John Adams was Unitarian which
Pat Robertson and the religious fundamentalists reject and do not consider "true"
Christianity. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin
Franklin were all Deists, not Christians. That is, they believed in God or a Creator
based on nature and reason, but rejected revealed religions like Christianity as well
as the "Holy Books" of the various revealed religions such as the Bible, the Koran,
and the Torah.
Prior to the American Revolution, people who aspired to political advancement
needed to belong to the established church. Even though this was the case, George
Washington, according to his own diaries, rarely attended church and refused to
accept the sacrament of communion. A friend of his, Dr. Abercrombie, said,
"Washington was a Deist." In addition to this, George Washington approved of a
document which specifically states, "As the Government of the United States of
America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion; . . ." The document
mentioned is the Treaty of peace and friendship between the United States of
America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli, of Barbary, more commonly referred to
as the Treaty of Tripoli. The above quote is taken from article XI of that treaty. If
Washington was a devout Christian, and if America was founded as a Christian
nation, would he and the other founders of our nation ever approved such language
in an official binding U.S. document?
In Charles B. Sanford's book The Religious Life of Thomas Jefferson we see that
Jefferson, too, was a Deist. On page 85 he writes, "But in the intellectual sense of
being one who believed in the Deity, as opposed to the atheist who did not, Jefferson
was a staunch Deist." For some reason the facts run counter to the dribble of the
religious right.
In a letter to his nephew Peter Carr, Thomas Jefferson revealed his true appreciation
of truth regardless of the consequences when he wrote, "RELIGION: Your reason is
now mature enough to examine this object. In the first place divest yourself of all
bias
in favor of novelty and singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject
rather
than that of religion. It is too important, and the consequences of error may be too
serious. On the other hand shake off all the fears and servile prejudices under which
weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her
tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a
god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than
that of blindfolded fear. You will naturally examine first the religion of your own
country. Read the bible then, as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The facts which are
within the ordinary course of nature you will believe on the authority of the writer,
as
you do those of the same kind in Livy and Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs
in their favor in one scale, and their not being against the laws of nature does not
weigh against them. But those facts in the bible which contradict the laws of nature,
must be examined with more care, and under a variety of faces. Here you must recur
to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from god. Examine upon what evidence
his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong as that its
falsehood would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature in the case
he relates. For example in the book of Joshua we are told the sun stood still several
hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or Tacitus we should class it with their
showers of blood, speaking of statues, beasts, etc. But it is said that the writer of
that
book was inspired. Examine therefore candidly what evidence there is of his having
been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, because millions believe it.
On the other hand you are astronomer enough to know how contrary it is to the law
of nature that a body revolving on its axis as the earth does, should have stopped,
should not only by that sudden stoppage have prostrated animals, trees, buildings,
and should after a certain time have resumed its revolution, and that without a
second general prostration. Is this arrest of the earth's motion, or the evidence which
affirms it, most within the law of probabilities? You will next read the new testament.
It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in your eye the opposite
pretensions I. of those who say he was begotten by god, born of a virgin, suspended
and reversed the laws of nature at will, and ascended bodily into heaven: and 2. of
those who say he was a man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic
mind, who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, and was
punished capitally for sedition by being gibbeted according to the Roman law which
punished the first commission of that offense by whipping, and the second by exile or
death." Does this sound like something you would hear on Pat Robertson's 700
Club?
Another aspect of the religious right and religious fundamentalists in general is the
importance they put on "the end times." As we approach the year 2,000 the end-
timers are coming out of the wood-work. Christians believe the last book of the New
Testament, Revelations, tells us what will happen in the last days of earth's
existence. If Robertson and his political machine are correct in their ideas about
America's Christian origins then surely our founding fathers would have written
something positive about that apocalyptic book. But instead of writing something
positive about the Biblical book of Revelations, here's what Mr. Jefferson had to say
about it: "No man on earth has less taste or talent for criticism than myself, and the
least and last of all should I undertake to criticize works on the Apocalypse
(Revelations). It was between fifty and sixty years since I read it and then I
considered it as merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy, nor capable of
explanation than the incoherence of our own nightly dreams. I was, therefore, well
pleased to see, in your first proof sheet, that it was said to be not the production of
St. John, but of Cerinthus a century after the death of that apostle. Yet the change of
the author's name does not lessen the extravagancies of the composition; come they
from whomsoever they may, I cannot so far respect them as to consider them as an
allegorical narration of events, past or subsequent. There is not coherence enough in
them to countenance any suite of national ideas. You will judge, therefore, from this
how impossible I think it that either your explanation or that of any man in 'the
Heavens above or on the earth beneath' can be a correct one. What has no meaning
admits no explanation!" (Thomas Jefferson: In His Own Words, page 360).
James Madison was a key figure in the adoption of the United States Constitution.
He worked and fought long and hard to bring the Constitution to a reality. In 1785 he
wrote in his Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments: "During
almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial.
What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the
Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and
persecution." Does this sound like someone Pat Robertson and the religious right
would endorse?
When Benjamin Franklin was visiting England in his youth he read several Christian
books attacking Deism. In his autobiography he wrote concerning this, "Some books
against Deism fell into my hands. It happened that they wrought an effect on me
quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which
were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in
short I soon became a perfect Deist." How Pat Robertson can twist this to make
Franklin a Christian is unbelievable! In his own words Ben Franklin claimed to be a
Deist and not a Christian.
Benjamin Franklin met Thomas Paine in London, England. It was Franklin who
suggested to Paine that he come to America. In fact, Ben Franklin wrote a letter of
introduction to his son and son-in-law for Tom Paine.
Thomas Paine was pivotal in the American Revolution. He played such an
indispensable role John Adams wrote that without the pen of Tom Paine, the sword
of George Washington would have been wielded in vain. Thomas Paine wrote
Common Sense that brought many of the average people into the camp of the
revolutionaries. Later, when it looked like the revolution would be lost and that the
British would prevail, he wrote The Crisis which strengthened the resolve of the
revolutionaries and filled them with hope and purpose. This enabled them to carry on
the struggle and eventually defeat the strongest military power on the face of the
earth at Yorktown, Virginia.
Tom Paine wrote an essay comparing the revealed religion of Christianity with the
natural religion of Deism. In it he wrote, "Every person, of whatever religious
denomination he may be, is a Deist in the first article of his Creed. Deism, from Latin
Deus, God, is the belief of a God, and this belief is the first article of every man's
creed.
"It is on this article, universally consented to by all mankind, that the Deist builds
his
church, and here he rests. Whenever we step aside from this article, by mixing it with
articles of human invention, we wander into a labyrinth of uncertainty and fable, and
become exposed to every kind of imposition by pretenders to revelation.
"But when the divine gift of reason begins to expand itself in the mind and calls man
to reflection, he then reads and contemplates God and His works, and not in the
books pretending to be revelation. The creation is the Bible of the true believer in
God. Everything in this vast volume inspires him with sublime ideas of the Creator.
The little and paltry, and often obscene, tales of the Bible sink into wretchedness
when put in comparison with this mighty work.
"The Deist needs none of those tricks and shows called miracles to confirm his faith,
for what can be a greater miracle than the creation, and his own existence?"
In Paine's monumental book on religion and Deism, The Age of Reason, he honestly
looks at the claims of the Jews and Christians as written in the Old and New
Testaments. Contrary to the religious right, he doesn't buy the Old Testament story
that the Jews are God's chosen people. He looks at them as just another group of
people who are being deceived by their religious leaders and priests.
Regarding Christianity he bluntly writes on page 187 of The Age of Reason that, "The
study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is
founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no
data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion. Not any thing can
be studied as a science, without our being in possession of the principles upon which
it is founded; and as this is not the case with Christian theology, it is therefore the
study of nothing."That doesn't sound like a Christian to me.
Another interesting non-Christian figure in the American Revolution is Ethan Allen.
He led a group of revolutionaries known as the Green Mountain Boys from Vermont
into Canada and captured much needed artillery pieces for General Washington's
beleaguered army.
Original sin, the insane idea and dogma of Christianity, did not sit well with Ethan
Allen. One of his cousins, Jonathan Lee who was a Christian preacher, told him that
without original sin there was no need for atonement through Jesus, and in fact no
need for Christianity. The honest straight forward Allen thought about it for a few
months and then wrote his preacher cousin that he agreed, there was no need for
Christianity!
Before the American Revolution the American colonies were under the same
combination of church and state that England suffered and that the religious right
wants to bring back today. This un-Godly combination required everyone to attend
the government approved church every Sunday or else they would be fined. The fact
that today in America churches are exempt from paying their fair share of taxes is a
vestige of this pre-revolutionary theocratic colonialism.
Living in a society governed primarily as a theocracy is not only thought stifling,
but it
can also be dangerous as Allen found out. In Salisbury, Connecticut in 1764, Allen,
according to the book by Michael A. Bellesiles, Revolutionary Outlaws, had himself
inoculated for smallpox right in front of the church on a Sunday as the services were
ending. He was tried in a court of law for blasphemy! The outcome was social
ostracism. I'm sure in his heart of hearts, Pat Robertson would love to have
blasphemy laws back on the books!
Like Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen wrote a book on religion and Deism called Reason
the only Oracle of Man: or a Compenduous System of Natural Religion. In it he
confronts the unreasonable doctrines of Christianity and demonstrates how believing
in "revealed" religion a person is only putting their trust, not in God, but in someone
who says God told them or revealed to them such and such. Allen noted that the
various revealed religions, all of which claim special revelation from God, all claim
they themselves are the only true revealed religion with true revelation, and all other
revealed religions are false. As far as he was concerned, one person's revelation is
another person's superstition.
When Pat Robertson writes that, "the precepts of faith are interwoven throughout the
founding documents of this nation," he is just as demonstrably wrong as when he
states America's key founders were Christians.
The first document of the founders was written before America was even a united
nation. That first document is the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson,
already proven to be a Deist and not a Christian, wrote this document. In the
Declaration God is referred to as Nature's God, the Creator, Supreme Judge of the
World, and divine Providence. Nowhere in the Declaration is God referred to as
Jesus, Jehovah, or any other Judeo- Christian name. If America was intended to be
a Christian nation the Declaration of Independence would have been filled with
Biblical references. But the contrary is true. There is not one reference in it to the
Bible or any Christian character or dogma.
The United States Constitution must really give the religious right nightmares. In the
Constitution there is not one mention of God in any way, shape or form. Not even in
the Deistic sense. How Christian fundamentalists can claim this document as one of
their own can never be logically explained.
Christians claim the Bible is the revealed word of God. They place the Bible above
any and all writings. Based then on the Bible itself, the founders of our country could
not have been Bible believing Christians, since the Bible plainly states that to rebel
against any government is a sin. In short, it is not a Christian thing to do. In Romans
13:1-2 we read: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there
is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those
who resist will incur judgment." So, according to the Christians' own holy book,
America was founded on disobedience to God by rebellion to the British Crown and
monarchy. How could any Bible believing, God fearing Christian take part in
something as anti-Biblical as the American Revolution? And knowing the Bible, as
I'm sure Pat Robertson does, why doesn't he try to distance the Christian Coalition
from the disobedient pagans of the American Revolution who are now, according to
the Bible, "incurring judgment?"
As you are reading this, the religious right is fighting and working to make sure they
will have the final say over what kind of movies you watch, what kind of music you
listen to, what kind of books you read, and thereby what kind of thoughts you think.
Already they have installed a conservative republican Congress for the first time in
decades. Robertson reveals a big part of their secret to political success on page 63
of The Turning Tide. He writes, "The simple truth regarding apathy, low voter turn
out, and close elections tells us that the combined strength of dedicated Evangelicals
coupled with equally dedicated pro- family Roman Catholics and Orthodox Jews is
more than sufficient to decide any election for any office in the land." They are well
on their way to turning America into a dangerously repressive un-American
theocracy. What are you going to do to stop them?
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