Christian Nationalism and the Original Meaning of the term "Religion"

In the United States Constitution, the term "religion" is used in the First Amendment and in the unamended Constitution, Art. VI, Cl. 3, the term is "religious." The term "religion" is like a genus that could give rise to various species. What is meant by that term and consequently what is "protected" constitutionally is contentious. 

I've observed a tendency in certain Christian Nationalist circles to attempt to limit the meaning to only those religious sentiments that are "acceptable." So for instance, "religion" here doesn't just mean "Christianity," but certain "acceptable" kinds of "Christianity." Roman Catholicism for instance, may or may not qualify. Some religious conservatives accused of "Christian Nationalism" have no problem with adding "Judeo" to the prefix, perhaps in an attempt to form an alliance between traditionally minded Jews and Christians. ... But not others. Not Islam. Not Hinduism. On the other hand, today's Alt-Right breed of Christian Nationalists tend to agree that Judaism is NOT Christianity, and ought to be placed in the same "outside the box" category as Islam and Hinduism. 

After intensely researching this matter for over 20 years, I've concluded that when America's founders used the term "religion," it transcended "Christianity," and "Judeo-Christianity." It may not have meant blatant Satanic demon worship; but other religions like Islam, Hinduism and unconverted Native American "Great Spirit" worship qualified as "religions." 

Here is a quotation from John Adams that well illustrates this:

It has pleased the Providence of the first Cause, the Universal Cause, that Abraham should give religion not only to Hebrews but to Christians and Mahomitans, the greatest part of the modern civilized world.

–- John Adams to M.M. Noah, July 31, 1818.

I've amassed many other quotations over the years that illustrate the point. But that one above will suffice for now. 

Not a Christian Nation

Sticking to the religious freedom theme... As a Christian and a historian I’m always bugged when my fellow believers insist that all of the Founding Fathers were devout textbook Christians who used Christianity as the basis to establish the country. That simply isn’t true.

Based on the reading I have done (others may disagree) I have found there were different religious habits among the Founders. Most of the Founders were Protestants but their practice of their religion varied. There were three categories of believers:

1. The Founders who left their Christian heritage and became proponents of the Enlightenment and natural religion called “Deism”. This belief acknowledges a creator but ignores the supernatural such as the contact between God and man. This included Thomas Paine.

2. The Founders that remained Christians and acknowledged the divinity of Jesus Christ and the supernatural events in the Bible. This included Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams.

3. The group that consisted of Founders that were in between. Practicing Christians who were influenced by “Deism”. They believed in Jesus Christ but little or none of the supernaturalism that was inherent to the teachings of the Bible. This included John Adams and George Washington on the conservative side to Benjamin Franklin and James Monroe on the skeptical left.

4. Thomas Jefferson was not a proponent of the supernatural either and even went so far as to cut and paste his own bible removing those segments.

So although the Founders were influenced by their beliefs it was not what we would call today “textbook Christianity.” Unfortunately there are far too many Christians that are teaching this oversimplistic version of history.

Many believe that the rights of religious freedom that the Founding Fathers spoke about were only regarding Christian denominations. Once again this is not true. Jews were well represented in the country to have the same freedoms and about 10-20% of the enslaved people in the country were Muslim. This also included the desire to not practice a religion by the Atheists.

George Washington expected people coming from other parts of the world to represent other beliefs. Washington sent a letter to his agent in Baltimore in 1784, asking him to acquire some qualified indentured tradesmen with specific skills to work at Mount Vernon. He wrote that, “If they are good workmen, they may be of Assia [sic], Africa, or Europe. They may be Mahometans [Muslims], Jews, Christian of any Sect—or they may be Atheists.” All he asked was that they do good work.

I believe James Monroe captures the essence of this philosophy: “We hold it for a fundamental and inalienable truth that religion and the manner of discharging it can be directed only by reason and conviction not by force and violence. The religion, then, of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate.”

So unlike today, an equal acknowledgement appeared to be given to Christian, Jew, Muslim or Atheist. This is another lesson that we can learn from our Founding Fathers. Don’t discriminate.

John Fea Featured on PBS Regarding America's 250th

Dr. Fea emerges as the voice of reason in this attempt to put into perspective "Christian Nationalism" and America's 250th. 

See here. 

And I've embedded a YouTube clip:

Frazer, Fea and Hall Featured on the Christian Nation Question

Drs. Gregg Frazer, John Fea, and Mark David Hall were recently featured in an AP article that got lots of press. A taste:

“Neither side really wants to hear what I say,” says Frazer, a professor of history and political studies at The Master’s University, a Christian school in Santa Clarita, California.

The founders, Frazer says, did not create a Christian republic. Several key founders either rejected core Christian doctrines or were vague enough to keep historians debating. For Frazer, that often disappoints audiences of his fellow Christians.

[...]

The long-running debate over the founders’ intentions about religion has been turbocharged with the approaching 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. Amid the America 250 celebrations, some Christian activists and authors are redoubling claims that the U.S. had a Christian founding.

[...]

Why do the founders’ beliefs and intentions matter?

“Everyone’s looking for what we historians call a usable past,” says John Fea, author of “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?”

“We go into the past looking for what we want in order to advance a particular political or cultural agenda,” says Fea, a fellow at the Lumen Center, a Christian research institute and study center in Madison, Wisconsin.

[...]

Historian Mark David Hall argues that Christianity did strongly impact the founding. While core founders did not hold traditional Christian beliefs, he contends many other founders did, and that this shaped their thinking about how to form the new republic.

“There’s plenty of evidence Christianity had an influence,” says Hall, author of “Did America Have a Christian Founding?”

He says founders’ attention to human dignity harmonizes with the Bible’s teaching of humanity created in God’s image. The system of checks and balances — to prevent the concentration of power — reflects teachings about human sin that would have permeated a largely Protestant culture, he says.

[...]

There is no reference to any specific religion in the Constitution beyond the date — “in the year of our Lord” 1787. It forbids religious tests for officeholders. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights guarantees religious freedom and forbids “establishment” of a national religion.

[...]

Frazer argues that the Bible is not cited as a source for any governing principles in the documented proceedings of the Constitutional Convention or in the influential Federalist Papers, which advocated for the Constitution. He says the founders drew on influences such as Enlightenment thinking on such concepts as human equality, accountable government and freedom of religion. Early critics of the Constitution faulted it for lacking religious content.

The Declaration of Independence does have religious language, declaring that rights come from the “Creator.” It appeals to “divine Providence” and to the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”

Thomas Jefferson and other founders — adroitly, Frazer says — used terms acceptable to Christians as well as followers of other religious and philosophical movements.

Quotations For The D.O.I.'s 250th: John Adams on the General Principles of Christianity

I'm trying to motivate myself to start posting more here, especially as America approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Here is a quotation that we oft-see cited to prove the Christian Nation hypothesis: It's from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, June 28, 1813:

The general principles, on which the Fathers Atchieved [sic] Independence, were…the general Principles of Christianity, in which all those Sects were United: and the general Principles of English and American Liberty…Now I will avow, that I then believed, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System.

The context of the quotation though, shows that it's a wildly heterodox and quite pluralistic notion. Adams considered himself to be a "Christian" -- a "liberal unitarian Christian." He was militantly anti-Trinitarian and bitterly rejected the doctrine of the Incarnation. So it stands to reason that his understanding of the "general principles of Christianity" might be unconventional. Indeed, when we examine the sects that were united under these principles that's exactly what we see:

Who composed that Army of fine young Fellows that was then before my Eyes? There were among them, Roman Catholicks, English Episcopalians, Scotch and American Presbyterians, Methodists, Moravians, Anababtists, German Lutherans, German Calvinists Universalists, Arians, Priestleyans, Socinians, Independents, Congregationalists, Horse Protestants and House Protestants, Deists and Atheists; and “Protestans qui ne croyent rien ["Protestants who believe nothing"].” Very few however of several of these Species. Nevertheless all Educated in the general Principles of Christianity: and the general Principles of English and American Liberty.

Of late I've been reflecting on the just how pluralistic the sectarian nature of religion was during America's founding era and Adams' quotation perfectly illustrates this. There's also the following passage where Adams used various philosophes associated with challenging conventional Christian notions as authoritative support for the quotation:

I could therefore safely say, consistently with all my then and present Information, that I believed they would never make Discoveries in contradiction to these general Principles. In favour of these general Principles in Phylosophy, Religion and Government, I could fill Sheets of quotations from Frederick of Prussia, from Hume, Gibbon, Bolingbroke, Reausseau and Voltaire, as well as Neuton and Locke: not to mention thousands of Divines and Philosophers of inferiour Fame.

See also here for a more detailed analysis.