WERE OUR FOUNDING FATHERS CHRISTIANS?

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WERE OUR FOUNDING FATHERS CHRISTIANS? THE
HISTORY OF A BAD QUESTION
David Barton
Madalyn Murray O'Hair
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David Barton's "America's Godly Heritage"

• 52 of the 55 signers of the Constitution were
  "orthodox" Christians and many were "evangelical
  Christians."
• Cites the Church of the Holy Trinity v. United
  States,
• 143 U.S. 457 (1892), for the proposition that
  this is "emphatically a Christian nation."

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Benjamin Rush Christianity is
the only true and perfect religion.
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John Jay it the duty, as well as the
privilege and interest of our Christian nation to
select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
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Steven Morris The Founding Fathers Were Not
Christians!
The Christian Right is trying to re-write the
history of the United States, as part of their
campaign to force their religion on others who
ask merely to be left alone. According this
Orwellian revision, the Founding Fathers of this
country were pious Christians who wanted the
United States to be a Christian nation, with laws
that favored Christians and Christianity. The
Atheist Alliance Web Center
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Ethan Allen "That Jesus Christ was not God is
evidence from his own words." I am
denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never
disputed, being conscious that I am no
Christian."
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Thomas Paine My country is the world, mankind
are my friends, and my religion is to do
good. "It is the duty of every true Deist to
vindicate the moral justice of God against the
evils of the Bible." I do not believe in the
creed professed by the Jewish church, by the
Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish
church, by the Protestant church, nor by any
church that I know of...Each of those churches
accuse the other of unbelief and for my own
part, I disbelieve them all." The Age of
Reason
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THE AVOIDED MIDDLE OR WHY LOADED QUESTIONS ALWAYS
HAVE EASY ANSWERS
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Excerpts from Benjamin Franklins Creed " We
best render God service by doing good for his
other children." " The soul will be treated with
justice in another life respecting its conduct in
this. " " I dont think that the Supreme Being
doesnt take it amiss whether you believe or not.
v. He (God) ought to be worshiped
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First Four Presidents As Complex Historical
Examples
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George Washington
"Dear Sir In regard to the subject of your
inquiry, truth requires me to say that Gen.
Washington never received the communion in the
churches of which I am the parochial minister.
Mrs. Washington was an habitual communicant.
Memoir of Bishop White The Hand of providence
has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must
be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and
more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough
to acknowledge his obligations. 1778, Letter to
Thomas Nelson
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John Adams "Where do we find a precept in the
Bible for Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines and
Oaths, and whole carloads of other trumpery that
we find religion encumbered with in these days?"
"The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made
a convenient cover for absurdity. It is
religion and morality alone which can establish
the principles upon which freedom can securely
stand. The only foundation of a free constitution
is pure virtue. (Bartons favorite quote) "The
government of the United States is not in any
sense founded on the Christian religion." The
Treaty of Tripoli, passed by the U.S. Senate in
1797,
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Thomas Jefferson
Millions of innocent men, women and children,
since the introduction of Christianity, have been
burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has
been the effect of this coercion? To make one
half the world fools and the other half
hypocrites to support roguery and error all over
the earth." "The day will come when the mystical
generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his
father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed
with the fable of the generation of Minerva in
the brain of Jupiter." Letter to J. Adams April
11,1823
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James Madison "Religious bondage shackles and
debilitates the mind and unfits it for every
noble enterprise." "Religion and government
will both exist in greater purity, the less they
are mixed together." "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." A letter to William Bradford
April 1, 1774,