The Christian Underpinnings of Our Nation
The season is upon us. The War Against Christmas is here. The PC warriors come out in force, ironically during the most Christian of seasons. They fight tooth and nail to prohibit siting a lovely, uplifting nativity Crèche in a town property or public place. They agitate to edit out glad Christmas tidings into pablum like: “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays” to gut the origins and deeper meanings of the event. They attempt to rename a traditional “Christmas Parade” as: a chilly, cold “Winter Parade”. We are too easily bullied by the PC police into compliance, perhaps frightened to speak out, in fear we will hurt someone’s feelings, or be considered some kind of troglodyte or “irredeemable”.
Those on the fringe left who favor the erection of a “Chinese Wall” between church and state would have us ignore our religion, our history and our heritage. They attack those traditionalists who profess faith, deriding it as ignorant fiction, claiming that it is harmful to the nation’s well-being and to the minority of non-Christians in our midst. They prefer to ignore the actual historic roots of our nation’s Christian beliefs and values or—-as products of strictly secular educations these agitators have no knowledge of it. Thus the left—as if our Christian ethics and our Christian traditions have the potential for harm—they seek to submerge the origins of of our nation’s character and value system for their own secular purposes.
Yes we are a Christian nation. As are most of the modern, advanced nations of the western world.
I want to state here, my belief that the Christian message of Jesus Christ— was and remains a watershed moment in human history which —leaving aside its strictly religious elements —transformed the western world’s concepts of how to behave in society, how treat each other, and how to live free, well and harmoniously.
From early as the 4th Century AD, Roman Emperor Constantine I, (337 AD) issued the Edit of Milan, which protected the Christians in the empire. Christian values, and ethics transformed the west. The growth and importance of these ideas and values continued on through Charlemagne (9th Century) and then on through the Middle Ages, and into the present time Christianity modified and humanized western civilization. It is the Christian nations of the world—what we now call the “West”— which formulated basic rules for human interactions, raised the world’s standards of jurisprudence, formulated patterns for international relations, all of which have resulted in the greatest most advanced civilizations—(yes my anthropologist colleagues, we can say that) that man has ever known. The west is a world based on and dominated by Christian values. So all of us have prospered — Christians, Moslems, Jew, Hindu, etc. etc! All have a debt to pay to Christianity.
OK yes these other traditions and faiths (particularly Judaism) have all contributed, as well in some small way. But the main thrust and impact has always been from Christians with Christian values,
So no need to hide your Christian faith under a basket.!
And yes, let us discuss the obvious, our own nation, perhaps the greatest of the West. Those of the left who have us deny our Christian heritage and claim that our Founders and our institutions and our early documents were secular in origin, But to make that claim one has to ignore history. There is no question that of those characteristics which have contributed to our greatness there are none which could come close to the fact that we are a Christian nation. Those who flocked here brought with them their Christian faiths.
In the south, the first permanent settlement in North America —St. Augustine, Florida bought Roman Catholics from Spain. First Jesuits and then later Spanish Franciscans based in St Augustine set up missions all through the south, as far north as present day Virginia, long before English colonization. In the north, Protestant sects from England, the Pilgrims and the Puritans, escaping religious persecution in their homeland settled the rocky inhospitable land. By the 18th Century our 13 colonies were staunchly Christian.
It was in this land where our Founding Fathers, late 18th Century authored a series of documents that would become (and remain) the ultimate, the epitome, the hope of how government, politics and society should be. The Founders, using their Christian heritage, Christian sources formulated clear and simple statements which enshrined the world’s ideals of human rights: the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that only the consent of the governed give the legitimacy to govern; and our right to free speech and to resist tyranny by all legal means.
Where—specifically— did these—earth shaking, watershed — ideas originate? They did not spring from the hard rocky soil of New England or the deep loam of the Virginian coastal plains, Nor did they arise from our Native American predecessors, The ideas enshrined in our historic documents and the basis of our heritage originated with Christian thinkers and philosophers from Europe as well as the immigrants, colonists and settlers who carried their faith in their hearts, and their Bible in their hands to the New World. The ideas and values that made us what we are were derived from the Christian Bible and the minds of devoted, practicing Christians using and reworking the these social ideals and concepts to develop a new paradigm of the social contract for new circumstances in the new world.
Our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, Samuel Adams, John Adams and others were all if not strictly practitioners, were adherents of Christian traditions, ideals and beliefs Many were well educated and conversant in religious doctrine. Those who formulated our historic documents were well-versed in the philosophers and political theorists of that time. One of the individuals most frequently claimed as the primary source of concepts which were included in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution was a Scottish theologian, physician and philosopher: John Locke.
John Locke (1632-1704) was an influential Scottish-English physician, philosopher, theologian and writer who is often credited by American scholars as one of the prime influences on the Founders of the Republic and who was especially important as a source for Thomas Jefferson who in large part composed the Declaration of Independence.
Locke’s religious beliefs and political convictions are often considered as intimately interrelated. Though he was one of the most influential secular empiricists and Enlightenment thinkers who developed the social contract theory and a rigorous political philosophy, he was also a devout and practicing Christian. It is significant that Locke’s political views were largely if not entirely based on Protestant Christian beliefs.
Locke was a Calvinist, a member of the Protestant sect, which followed the preachings of John Calvin. Calvin affirmed the sovereignty of God and the belief that God predestines individuals to salvation. Locke also held that the Bible was the literal word of God, and that its text was in agreement with human reason. Locke derived his fundamental philosophical concepts from the Bible, including: Genesis, Letters of Paul the Apostle, as well as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5: 1-7:29 and Luke 6:17-36). It is clear that throughout his life he was a devout. committed Christian.
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the other Founders studied and internalized the Christian based philosophy of Locke. Many phrases and ideas which appear in our Constitution and Declaration of Independence first appeared in the writings of John Locke.
So let’s give credit where credit is due. Our origins, our ethics, our political development and our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and yes our ascendancy in the west as the most successful and powerful modern nation, developed from Christian roots, which has nurtured our polity and our leadership from the very beginning and has continued in operation as we prospered and developed with those concepts and ideas as guides. Where we have abandoned them, we have suffered. We should have nothing but pride for our Christian history and those of our devout ancestors who nurtured and passed on these ideas and values.
Ask yourself, where would we be in this world if it wasn’t for the coming of Christ with his message of hope, peace, salvation, and redemption? Our form of government—emulated and admired around the world—could not have developed elsewhere. Not in Asia, Africa, or even the Middle East the birthplace of the Christ.
So say it with assurance and pride—it’s American as apple pie! : Merry Christmas!
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