Halloween, the Reformation and the formation of America

Examiner ^ | October 29, 2013 | Shawn Mathis

[Alex Murphy]

Yale historian George Fisher wrote: “How is it, then, that Calvinism is acknowledged, even by foes, to have promoted powerfully the cause of civil liberty? The reason lies in the boundary line which it drew between church and State. Calvinism would not surrender the peculiar notions of the Church to the civil authority. Whether the church, or the Government, should regulate the administration of the Sacrament, and admit or reject the communicants, was the question which Calvin fought out with the authorities at Geneva…” This idea was institutionalized in the Puritans of the Presbyterian Church and Congregationalist settlers on the shores of America.

[SNIP]

The right to resist unlawful government was furthered by the Reformers. Dave Kopel (of the Independence Institute) wrote in Liberty magazine, October 2008, “The [Reformed] Congregationalist and Presbyterian ministers played an indispensable role in inciting the American Revolution.” The great statesman John Adams bluntly acknowledged the influences of both the 16-century French-Calvinist’s work Vindicus Contra Tyrannus and the English Calvinist work of Ponet (A Shorte Treatise of Politike Power); both books defended the right of the people to rise against tyrants. Modern historians such as Daniel Elazar (of Temple University) have made similar claims: “In all of the places where Reformed Protestantism was strong, there emerged a Protestant republicanism that opposed tyrants even as it demanded local religious conformity.” In fact, much of the early American culture was Reformed or tied strongly to it (just read the New England Primer). Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, a Roman Catholic intellectual and National Review contributor, asserts: “If we call the American statesmen of the late eighteenth century the Founding Fathers of the United States, then the Pilgrims and Puritans were the grandfathers and Calvin the great-grandfather…”

[Alex Murphy]

The great statesman John Adams bluntly acknowledged the influences of both the 16-century French-Calvinist’s work Vindicus Contra Tyrannus and the English Calvinist work of Ponet (A Shorte Treatise of Politike Power); both books defended the right of the people to rise against tyrants. Modern historians such as Daniel Elazar (of Temple University) have made similar claims: “In all of the places where Reformed Protestantism was strong, there emerged a Protestant republicanism that opposed tyrants even as it demanded local religious conformity.” In fact, much of the early American culture was Reformed or tied strongly to it (just read the New England Primer). Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, a Roman Catholic intellectual and National Review contributor, asserts: “If we call the American statesmen of the late eighteenth century the Founding Fathers of the United States, then the Pilgrims and Puritans were the grandfathers and Calvin the great-grandfather…”

[HiTech RedNeck]

Calvin’s game wasn’t perfect, but the realization of Christianity in any earthly church isn’t perfect either.

That noted, yes I’d agree. The desire to keep the church pure, however flawed the execution, managed to get it to back away from asking to take over the reins of government. The Lutheran church didn’t get that point. However, clergy (pastors and further ecclesiastical hierarchy) are given for believers, not for unbelievers.

Of course it is just fine to evangelize the hell out of a society (and that’s about the only time it’s proper for a Christian to use that phrase). Individual Christians, the church qua believers not qua pastorate, do a wonderful job managing governments.