The founders understood that self-governing nations are built upon self-governing individuals. The founders believed that our form of government was insufficient for governing immoral or irreligious citizens. Julian zelizer: the founders as well as subsequent courts and congress believed intensely that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, produced the public morality.
The founders understood that self-governing nations are built upon self-governing individuals. The founders believed that our form of government was insufficient for governing immoral or irreligious citizens. Julian zelizer: the founders as well as subsequent courts and congress believed intensely that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, produced the public morality.
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The founders understood that self-governing nations are built upon self-governing individuals. The founders believed that our form of government was insufficient for governing immoral or irreligious citizens. Julian zelizer: the founders as well as subsequent courts and congress believed intensely that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, produced the public morality.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
These were the founding fathers’ indispensible supports for
good government, political prosperity, and national well being. The founders understood that self-governing nations are built upon self governing individuals, and personal self- government is achieved only by adherence to moral and religious principles. In fact, they believed that our form of government, despite its worthy documents, was insufficient for governing immoral or irreligious citizens. As President John Adams proclaimed: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion…Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other”.
John Quincy Adams proclaimed:
“Three points of doctrine, the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of a God; the second is the immortality of a human soul; And the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of a tiger of the sharks; the laws of man may bind him in chains of may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy”. Scripture: psalms 73:22 So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. Ecclesiastes 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the state of the sons of men that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beast.
Our founders as well as subsequent courts and congress –
believed intensely that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, produced the public morality without which civil government would not long survive. On this basis, they neither created nor tolerated acts diminishing Christianity’s effects; to have done so would have been to invite the demise of good government. No rational government would intentionally commit suicide by destroying its very foundation. While the over effects of religion on a society were well understood, there were also specific benefits of Christianity which were enumerated by the founders. For example, Thomas Jefferson noted: “The precepts of philosophy, and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only, Jesus pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man, erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head”.
According to Jefferson, Christian principles unlike those of
other religions went beyond merely addressing and attempting to regulate or restrain outward behavior. Consider murder as an example: civil law prohibits it; how can Christianity contribute anything more? Unlike civil statutes, Christianity address murder before it occurs- while it is still only a thought in the heart (see matthew 5:22-28). Civil laws cannot address the heart, which is the actual seat of violence and of all crime. The true effectiveness of the teachings of Christianity were that, as Jefferson expressed it, they” purified the waters at the fountain head.” John Quincy Adams similarly explained why this aid from Christianity was so necessary to civil government. He declared: “human legislators can undertake only to proscribe the actions of men: they acknowledge their inability to govern and direct the sentiments of the heart; the very law styles it a rule of civil conduct, not of internal principles…it is one of the greatest marks of Divine favor…that the Legislators gave them rules not only of action but for the government of the heart. To hate is not legally a crime, yet it often leads to a crime (assault, murder, slander,etc). Similarly, to covet is not legally a crime; yet it too often leads to a crime (theft, burglary, embezzlement, etc) Only religion effectively provides what John Quincy Adams termed “rules for the government of the heart” and thus prevents the crimes which originate internally. This aspect of personal, internal self-government was long understood to be direct societal benefit resulting from the widespread teachings of Christianity. As Zephaniah Swift explained: “Indeed moral virtue is substantially and essentially enforced by the precepts of Christianity and me b considered to be the basis of it. But in addition to moral principles, the Christian doctrines inculcate a purity of heart and holiness of life which constitutes its chief glory. When we contemplate it in this light, we have a most striking evidence of its superiority over all the system of pagan philosophy which were promulgated by the wisest men of ancient times.” Disregarding the direct societal benefits which result from the promotion of religious principles, government utilizes extensive and expands massive financial sums attempting to restrain behavior which is the external manifestation of internal chaos and disorder. If human behavior is not controlled by the internal restraints provided through religion, then the only others means to restrain misbehavior is the threat of shear force. As founder James Otis queried: “When a man’s will and pleasure is his only rule and guide, what safety can there be either for him or against him but in the point of a sword”. Speaker of the U.S. House Robert Winthrop best summarized this principle when he declared: “Men in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the bible of by a bayonet”. In fact so much were these religious teachings considered to be a fundamental part of a well-rounded education that the founders feared what might transpire if education no longer included these teachings as Benjamin Rush warned: “In contemplating the political institutions of the United States, I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes, and take so little pains to prevent them. We profess to Republicans and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible”.