[betty boop]

Desist do not believe in the divinity of Christ. Some Deists believe in a ‘clockmaker’ Creator who doesn’t interfere in the affairs of the universe. Franklin was not among these Deists. He believed that everything was a manifestation of Divine Will. But he didn’t believe that Christ was Lord.

Etc.

We can quibble over details all day long, but I have not the slightest doubt that Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, et al., are firmly within the JudeoChristian cultural orbit. The first two especially were prime figures of the American Enlightenment. Notwithstanding they believed in a Creator who is the source of unalienable human rights and, because we are his creatures, made in His image, in the sovereign dignity of every human person. Their own lives demonstrate that faith and reason aren't the mutually opposed irreconcilables as we are being taught today by such notables as Dawkins, Harris, Dennett, and Hitchens. There is absolutely no doubt that these Framers were not atheists; nor Buddhists, Hindus, or Muslims either. Granted the fact that they departed from certain dogmas on rationalist grounds may make them "heretical" in some people's eyes. Nonetheless they were Christian in fundamental belief. Ellis Sandoz suggests that they were generic Christians, or "Providential Christians." Indeed, my quote upthread from John Adams illustrates and supports this view.

Another thing worth considering is the history of Christian religious revival in America. The first Great Awakening was in the early 18th century; the second in the early 19th. The first ultimately spent its energies in the American Revolution itself. The second, in the Civil War, which ultimately boiled down to the institution of slavery. The abolition of slavery and the slave trade was preeminently a Christian project, first in England, in the crusade led by William Wilberforce; and then later in America. The Christian belief that all men are created equal in the sight of God is what essentially motivated this quest.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for keeping me in the loop on this wonderful thread!

Concerning the agreement among on the founders with reference to Christian principles, perhaps the Lurkers would benefit from a repeat of the excerpt you already provided at post 179?

"Who composed that Army of fine young fellows that was then before my eyes [during the American Revolution]? There were among them, Roman Catholicks, English Episcopalians, Scotch and American Presbyterians, Methodists, Moravians, Anabaptists, German Lutherans, German Calvinists, Universalists, Arians, Priestleyans, Socinians, Independents, Congregationalists, Horse Protestants, House Protestants, Deists and theists; and [Protestants who believe nothing]. Very few however of several of these Species. Never the less all educated in the general Principles of Christianity: and the general Principles of English and American Liberty.

"The general Principles, on which the Fathers atchieved Independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful assembly of young gentlemen could unite.... And what were these general Principles? I answer [John Adams wrote]-- the general principles of Christianity, in which all those sects were united: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young men united, and which had united all parties in America, in majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence. 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 those principles of Liberty, as unalterable as human nature and the terrestrial, mundane system" (Letter of Adams to Jefferson, June 28, 1813).