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Was America Founded As A Christian Nation?
Forbes ^ | 9/25/2012 | Bill Flax

Posted on 09/25/2012 7:24:27 PM PDT by billflax

Few matters ignite more controversy than America’s Christian roots. The issue reverberates anew this electoral season where the faiths of both major candidates have been questioned. Religion imbues politics.

The battle over America’s beginnings muddles wishful hero worship with efforts to commandeer America’s past so to steer her future. The most vocal proponents of Christian America and their counterparts advocating a completely secular state necessarily cherry-pick data to prove exaggerations while discarding inconvenient details.

By transforming our Forefathers into faithful servants of Christ the Religious Right risks compromising the biblical message. Baptist theologian Al Mohler warns advocates of Christian America have “confused their cultural heritage with biblical Christianity.” While Believers must exercise their views, cheapening what constitutes Christianity for political gain profanes the Gospel.

Moreover, Believers should refuse Big Government operating in Christ’s name. As empty pews in Europe testify, politicized religion impedes ministry. Beautiful cathedrals dot the Old World, but with scant congregants, they memorialize a funereal dearth of faith coming from state sanctioned pulpits.

Meanwhile, those most ardently challenging America’s Christian origins wrongly portray the Founders as rank secularists. They would seemingly reduce religious liberty to mere freedom of worship letting Believers pray in their hovels, but in public: Be seen and not heard. Some liberals seem inclined on expunging Christianity. Democrats nearly revolted over a fleeting reference to “God-given potential” at their convention.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: History; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: americachristian; christian; christiannation; constitution; declaration; forefathers; founders; nation
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The secularists are wrong, period. But we cannot remake the Founders in our image to claim they were something they weren't.
1 posted on 09/25/2012 7:24:34 PM PDT by billflax
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To: billflax

Well, of course this country was not founded on Christian Principles That would be wrong /s.


2 posted on 09/25/2012 7:26:44 PM PDT by KittenClaws (You may have to fight a battle more than once in order to win it." - Margaret Thatcher)
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To: billflax

30% of the founders were ministers. Most were religious men.

They came here to practice Christianity out from under the control of the King.


3 posted on 09/25/2012 7:27:09 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

exactly..


4 posted on 09/25/2012 7:28:40 PM PDT by dalebert
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To: dalebert

“One Nation Under God”, and all that stuff.


5 posted on 09/25/2012 7:30:05 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: billflax

America was NOT founded as a Christian nation.

A true Christian nation would not have allowed false gods to be worshipped in it’s society.

Islam, Buddhism and satanism would have been banned outright.


6 posted on 09/25/2012 7:31:49 PM PDT by 353FMG (The US Constitution is only as effective as those who enforce it.)
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To: billflax

Jamestown first settlement.

” The first representative assembly in the New World convened in the Jamestown church on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly met in response to orders from the Virginia Company “to establish one equal and uniform government over all Virginia” which would provide “just laws for the happy guiding and governing of the people there inhabiting.” The other crucial event that would play a role in the development of America was the arrival of Africans to Jamestown. A Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of Africans for food in 1619. The Africans became indentured servants, similar in legal position to many poor Englishmen who traded several years of labor in exchange for passage to America. The popular conception of a race-based slave system did not fully develop until the 1680s.”

http://www.apva.org/history/


7 posted on 09/25/2012 7:31:58 PM PDT by cruise_missile (')
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To: driftdiver

yes..the proof is all over the place


8 posted on 09/25/2012 7:31:58 PM PDT by dalebert
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To: billflax

To the headline: yes


9 posted on 09/25/2012 7:33:03 PM PDT by svcw (If one living cell on another planet is life, why isn't it life in the womb?)
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To: billflax; 353FMG

Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America.

—Thomas Jefferson, November 29, 1775


10 posted on 09/25/2012 7:33:11 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: billflax
Well, whatever, King Philippe II/III, of Spain, founded America with the Treaty of London 1604. He was very much a Christian man ~ and at the time the richest man in the world.

He set aside a desolate and nearly abandoned portion of North America for the exclusive use of Protestants.

Considering who his father was, this was a magnificent gesture ~ worthy of memory.

11 posted on 09/25/2012 7:36:10 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: billflax
George Washington, November 5, 1775, General Orders
George Washington: Letter to the Roman Catholics

George Washington's Prophesy [sic] of America
Happy 278th Birthday George Washington, The 1st and Best President the US has ever had.
The Character of George Washington
10 Things We Should Know About George Washington
The Popes on "the Great Washington"
Where Have you Gone George Washington?
A Few Quotes from George Washington
Mighty Washington: The greatest President
George Washington’s Tear-Jerker
This Day In History February 4,1789 George Washington is elected president

12 posted on 09/25/2012 7:41:11 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: cruise_missile
Catholics settled in Floriday long before Jamestown.

How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization
America’s Catholic Colony [Ecumenical]
The Catholic Church in the United States of America [Ecumenical]
Catholic Founding Fathers - The Carroll Family [Ecumenical]
Charles Carroll, founding father and "an exemplar of Catholic and republican virtue" [Ecumenical]

13 posted on 09/25/2012 7:43:02 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: billflax

Our Constitution is based on the Ten Commandments, not the koran.


14 posted on 09/25/2012 7:43:02 PM PDT by Slyfox
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To: Slyfox

Muslims have started the rewrite and are saying they were here before we were.


15 posted on 09/25/2012 7:44:47 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: driftdiver

“Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America.

—Thomas Jefferson, November 29, 1775”

Is that statement supposed to prove Jefferson was a Christian rather than a Deist?


16 posted on 09/25/2012 7:44:50 PM PDT by Okieshooter
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To: 353FMG
Christian missionaries regularly pushed back the boundaries between barbarism and civilization and lived side by side with pagans of all sorts in the process.

Back when King Philippe I of Spain was favoring the Jesuits (I belive that's the order) as the bearers of Christianity to the Indians the chief Cardinal of Spain prevailed on him to allow all the orders in Europe to send missionaries to the New World ~ else he promised schism with Rome ~ meaning the same sort of Protestant/Catholic dispute as they had in France.

That squared away the old guy for a while, at least on that issue, and the settlement of America proceded with input from virtually every nation ~

Every part of America had been the subject of intense lobbying by Christian institutions long before the Founders managed to get here.

This was the GREAT PRIZE OF ALL HISTORY ~ a whole new world!

17 posted on 09/25/2012 7:45:27 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Okieshooter

Its intended to show what his motivations were and that he believed in a creator.


18 posted on 09/25/2012 7:47:37 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: 353FMG

Technically, freedom of religion in the colonies only applied to Christianity as all other “comparative religions” were considered pagan or false religions.

This was especially true of British, Scottish, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swiss, and Russian settlers.

Judaism was also considered consistent with Christianity as the root of Christianity. Islam was not in consideration except as a false belief system.

Just study Church History and a globe and follow the growth of freedom in the West.


19 posted on 09/25/2012 7:51:55 PM PDT by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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To: Salvation

“Oldest church structure in the U.S. The original adobe walls and altar were built by Tlaxcala Indians from Mexico under the direction of Franciscan Padres, circa 1610”

http://www.evanderputten.org/special/newmexico/sanmiguel.htm


20 posted on 09/25/2012 7:52:11 PM PDT by cruise_missile (')
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