Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 11/03/2026 3:29:25 PM PST by Twotone
With the midterm elections approaching, Americans face a critical decision about the future of their country. The Democratic Socialists of America have a radical vision for America, one that rejects both the Constitution and the Bible. But this conflict over faith, freedom, and the role of government is nothing new. It dates back to the founding of our nation, when it wasn't the DSA challenging these principles, but the Deists. The Founders confronted these competing ideas more than two centuries ago, and the debate continues today. With so much at stake in the upcoming elections, understanding this history — and exercising the right to vote — is more important than ever.
Thomas Paine, a prominent Deist, argued for one branch of government, a legislature in which the “social compact” existed not between the government and the governed, but between the individuals themselves. A republic to Paine, was not a particular form of government, but an establishment for the interests of the forever changing public.
Whether conversing with Christians or not, every time I mention studying the American Founders, I get the same response,
“They were all deists.”
This is a common charge in my comments on social media as well. Conspicuously, none of the Founders claimed to be deists. Not George Washington, or James Madison, or Alexander Hamilton. Not even Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin.
Also conspicuously, those who claimed to be deists, Ethan Allen, Thomas Paine, and Elihu Palmer, vied for a unicameral legislature. They sought to abolish the three branches of government and enact a democracy controlled by a single legislature, which is controlled by the people directly—meaning they also rejected a republic. Most Americans never heard of Palmer, but he was the most influential deist at the time of the American Revolution.
Thomas Jefferson never claimed to be a deist, but identified as a Christian. He wrote to Benjamin Rush, “that Anti-Christian system, imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. to the corruptions of Christianity, I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian . . .” Jefferson despised sectarian infighting and kept his personal religious beliefs out of the public, but his daughter, Martha, confirmed that she had been “most religiously brought up.”
Benjamin Franklin admitted to reading deists' books as a teenager, which he found convincing at the time, but he also noted in his autobiography that deism corrupted his friends, causing them to be unloving toward their fellow man. Franklin suspected that deism “was not very useful” even in his youth. Thus, Franklin’s deism appears nothing more than a teenage phase. Benjamin Franklin’s memorable speech at the Constitutional Convention gave proof that he had abandoned deism by the end of his lifetime.
Also conspicuously, the three colonial men who claimed to be deists, Allen, Paine, and Palmer, displayed poor character. It is significant to note that none of these men constructed or signed any founding documents, nor did they construct any federal or state laws; therefore, none of them are Founders.
Ethan Allen, famous for leading the Green Mountain Boys in capturing Fort Ticonderoga from the British in 1775, published Reason, The Only Oracle of Man, under his own name, although the majority of the work was written by Thomas Young, who died before publication. Paine and Palmer caused more significant issues for Colonial America due to their opposition to Christianity and the Constitution.
Elihu Palmer graduated from Dartmouth with a theology degree. He was dismissed from both a Long Island Presbyterian church and a Philadelphian Baptist church for heresy. By the 1790s, Palmer was founding deist societies and newspapers when he was struck blind at 29 years old by yellow fever, which also claimed his wife’s life. He sent his children to live with his parents and continued to travel the colonies preaching deism.
Palmer penned, “It may be confidently maintained that the world must either retrograde to a state of darkness, or… the Christian religion must become wholly extinct.” He died at 42 years old from what seemed to be a stroke.
Thomas Paine is the most famous of the three, mostly for his Common Sense, but Americans have not been informed of Paine’s character. Paine never held a job for longer than six years, and by many accounts was often inebriated, quarrelsome, lazy, continually in debt, unkempt in appearance, and known to exaggerate his accomplishments. It also appears that one of his marriages was to benefit him in business, but once he ran the business into the ground, his ex-wife paid him a large sum to leave the area and never contest her family business again. He also questioned Christianity from an early age.
Paine interjected himself into three revolutions—America, France, and his attempted revolution in England, in which he fled for his life from the Crown. While imprisoned in Luxembourg for his part in France’s revolution, he penned a scathing letter against George Washington, accusing him of corruption and blaming him for the delay in extraditing him.
Paine also penned a mocking and offensive work against the Bible, called The Age of Reason. In it, he accuses God of committing debauchery with Mary to produce Jesus. He also vies for life on other planets. When Paine died, the Quakers refused to bury him, and only eight people attended his funeral, two of them servants. Abigail Adams noted that Paine was “detested very generally” by the Colonists.
One newspaper printed an untoward poem after Paine died:
“Poor Tom Paine! There he lies;
Nobody laughs and nobody cries.
Where he has gone or how he fares,
Nobody knows, and nobody cares.”
Deists never formulated doctrines, and there was great disagreement among them. What was common between them was a complete rejection of the entire Bible. God is known through nature and reason alone. Deist newspapers died out by 1815, while most of the Founders were still living; therefore, historians have greatly overestimated its impact to claim that freedom is wrought by secularism. Yet, the Founders and the Colonists rejected Paine by the end of his lifetime. Thomas Jefferson, who was known to despise breaking fellowship for religious or political differences, also broke all contact with Paine.
Both Paine and Palmer are considered the founders of American secularism, while Paine’s works sowed seeds of socialism. Societies that glorify these two men and their beliefs still exist both in Europe and America.
For socialists, government is their god, and inconsistency is their deception. They will always attempt to remove all government restraints on morality, while relegating all socio-economic power to the government, claiming that the people will be safe and free.
As always, our Founders spoke to every issue that the left raises today. Ben Franklin famously said, “Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” The midterms will define whether Americans still reject socialism and embrace freedom as they did during the War for Independence, or fall for the socialism which the Founders and the Colonists rejected since our inception.
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Any thoughts...I think you know something about this philosophy?
Thank God for a constitutional republic. What a train wreck we would be as a democracy, mob rule.
Indeed. I cannot think of a single "pure" democracy in all of history that was not a train wreck, whether slow or quick.
There have been plenty of mob-rule states. All were disasters.
He very clearly did not accept what leftists teach… did you even bother to read the article?
He doesn’t show any Founders were Deists. Instead he points to various “influencers” like Paine and Palmer. OK, so they were Deists - but they weren’t Founders. My point stands. He does make good points about the moral failings and poor grasp of constitutional foundations that they had.
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.