Friday, September 24, 2010

George Washington & The French Revolution

Another repost to The One Best Way here.

This post hits on an historical dynamic I've uncovered that I don't think is too well appreciated (why I stress it). One could argue the American Founding was authentically Christian, the French was not. OR, that neither were authentically Christian. OR that BOTH were authentically Christian. But as a matter of what was said, BOTH the French and American revolutions and republics were identified, perhaps crassly so, with "Christianity." Indeed there is rich literature of giants from the era arguing the "Christian" case for the French Revolution. Even if they were right, John Adams and Edmund Burke were the outliers. And it wasn't just the Enlightenment Unitarian Christians Joseph Priestley and Richard Price who argued the "Christian" case for the French Revolution (though they did). It was also orthodox Christians like Ezra Stiles as well.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

orrrrrr....that even lafayette saw the difference in the american experiment and the french diaster!

Anonymous said...

ummm...disaster!

Anonymous said...

and then ask Genet why he didn't go back to france....you know....france's agent...he was here to convince us that we should help france.....well...washington was going to send him back but decided his head should stay on his shoulders so he pardened him .....and?
yeah he stayed here.
yeah blame it on christianity....no cake right?
yeah cake.
sheep.