Founding Fathers not Christians

In last week’s edition of my local paper, a writer stated that “Our country was founded on Christian principals, most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were Christians”, however, the historical record does not bear this out. Here are some quotes from some of the men who had a hand in writing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution:

Thomas Paine , author of Common Sense, “I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."

John Adams, 2nd President of the United States, "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!" It was during Washington’s administration that the Treaty of Peace and Friendship was written and it was during Adam's administration that the Senate ratified it. In the Treaty it states in Article XI "the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion."

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and 3rd President of the United States, in a letter to John Adams dated April 11, 1823 - "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

James Madison, 4th President of the United States, “Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." "During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."

Eathan Allen, hero of the American Revolution, "That Jesus Christ was not God is evidence from his own words." Allen noted that he was generally "denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed, being conscious that I am no Christian."

Ben Franklin, helped write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, “As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion...has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now.."

As you can clearly see, many of the Founding Fathers did not support the Christian Religion. It is a patently untrue when conservatives and the religious right claim the United States was founded on Christianity and that the Founding Fathers were Christians. A trip through the historical archives and writings of these men disprove this. I believe the Founding Fathers would be horrified and dismayed at the blatant use and disuse of their names in support of the religious rights agenda.