I learned that most of our Founding Fathers weren’t actually what we might consider traditional Christians, if they were actually Christians at all.  Instead a great deal of them were more Christian in title than in theology or even practice.

And the Constitution is essentially an eighteenth-century equivalent to a secular humanist text.

And it’s only a half-truth that the Pilgrims came to this country searching for religious freedom, because actually they were for the most part looking for the freedom to practice what they felt was the “right” religion.  They were distinctively opposed to someone else practicing a “wrong” religion.

And yet…

That a group of men that sat around a table, regardless of their religious beliefs, all saw the general necessity for religion in keeping civil order.  (Which was a whole separate, confusing, and probably debatable lecture.)

But they had the wisdom to see that if you make religion required, and if you give religious power to those who hold civil power, you will never have religious freedom.

So they wrote that every religion is allowed, and no political official has power to enforce (a) religion.

Pretty cool considering all I hear about on the news is how our Founding Fathers were pretty much the original A-Team of traditional Christians, and that they wrote the Constitution/Bill of Rights to be a tenet of orthodoxy for Christians generations to come, should we ever stray into the hedonistic temptations of whatever.

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Disclaimer:  I’m aware this isn’t a popular social view in many sectors.  I gotta be honest and say it’s late and I’m not super into a debate right now. If your understanding of the Founding Fathers and their involvement with the composition of the Constitution varies from mine…alright.  You wouldn’t have surprised me.  I just got out of class with some interesting ideas, and I wanted to share them with ya’ll.  Maybe we can talk about it later, but right now I’m just reveling in the wonder of our First Amendment.

1. nextinoffice likes this
2. fromthemitten said: or I think the proper spelling is “Bloudy Tenant” in the way they spelled it back in the day. He got kicked out of MA and founded Rhode Island. It was the first place to grant its citizens more rights than in England in religious freedom
3. thatismighty posted this