Betsy's Page

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Religion and our Founding

Jon Meacham, who wrote a very worthwhile book on the role of religion in our nation's founding, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, has written an essay about what Mitt Romney could say today about religion and our nation's history.
The separation of church and state—including the explicit prohibition against a religious test for office in the Constitution—was essential to the Founders, but they also understood that religion and politics were always going to be mixed up together. The critical thing was to manage this human reality, to minimize its ill effects and to make the most of the possible good it could do. And so if Romney wishes to argue that religion is important but not all-important, and that judging candidates by sectarian labels is not what America was intended to be about, then history is on his side.
This is an important message and reminder of the important role religion has played in our history. It's a delicate balance. Although, many of the Founders were deists, not believing in a specific religion, but definitely believing in a divine Providence, many who fought in the Revolution were extremely religious. I use this Library of Congress site with my students in my class on the American Revolution and have them look through these "exhibits" to gain a sense of how rich, varied role of religion at the time. It's not enough to just look at what Jefferson or Franklin might have believed, but a full picture includes the men who joined in the growing movement against English rule and then fought in the ranks.
Religion played a major role in the American Revolution by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British--an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God. As a recent scholar has observed, "by turning colonial resistance into a righteous cause, and by crying the message to all ranks in all parts of the colonies, ministers did the work of secular radicalism and did it better."

Ministers served the American cause in many capacities during the Revolution: as military chaplains, as penmen for committees of correspondence, and as members of state legislatures, constitutional conventions and the national Congress. Some even took up arms, leading Continental troops in battle.

The Revolution split some denominations, notably the Church of England, whose ministers were bound by oath to support the King, and the Quakers, who were traditionally pacifists. Religious practice suffered in certain places because of the absence of ministers and the destruction of churches, but in other areas, religion flourished.

The Revolution strengthened millennialist strains in American theology. At the beginning of the war some ministers were persuaded that, with God's help, America might become "the principal Seat of the glorious Kingdom which Christ shall erect upon Earth in the latter Days." Victory over the British was taken as a sign of God's partiality for America and stimulated an outpouring of millennialist expectations--the conviction that Christ would rule on earth for 1,000 years. This attitude combined with a groundswell of secular optimism about the future of America to create the buoyant mood of the new nation that became so evident after Jefferson assumed the presidency in 1801.
In such a mixed environment, what emerged was a consensus that we could not have an established church and instead should found our nation on the principle that all religions are welcome and none should be favored by governments. This was not a universally accepted princple at the time. Massachusetts' state constitutionactively encouraged church membership. Many other state constitutions had religious restrictions on who could win public office well into the 19th century. Public schools in the 19th century had an overt Protestant message. But the principle enshrined in the First Amendment gradually emerged as the proper foundation for a pluralistic society.

As Meacham concludes,
In fact the wondrous thing about the Founding of the nation is how consciously and how carefully the Founders went about securing liberty of conscience. Washington said that the government of the United States was "to give to bigotry no sanction … and to persecution no assistance." Jefferson said that his Virginia act for religious liberty was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination." And Madison said, "The religion of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man."

Romney ought to call on Americans to recover and respect what Benjamin Franklin called our public religion: the belief that there is a divine force at work in the world, by whatever name, and that we render homage to it by doing good to others. Acts of charity and grace need not be religiously inspired, but many are. Religious people can be intolerant, cruel and exclusionary; they can also be broad-minded, kind and welcoming. And the same can be said of people who adhere to no religious faith. Yet it is the case that many Americans are religious—or say they are—and that the fundamental promise of the Founding, that all men are created equal, is grounded in the divine, as the gift of the "Creator."

American history is checkered with stories of exclusion and intolerance. In 1808, Jacob Henry, a Jewish American, was elected to the state legislature of North Carolina, which refused to seat him unless he was A) a Protestant and B) conceded the divine authority of the Old and New Testaments. Here is what Henry said to them: "Governments only concern the actions and conduct of man, and not his speculative notions. Who among us feels himself so exalted above his fellows as to have a right to dictate to them any mode of belief?"

Sadly, too many people do feel so exalted, which is why it is incumbent on the rest of us to recall the work of the Founders. They are often dismissed as dead white men, which they are, but when they were living white men they saw further ahead than most. They knew religion was a perennial factor in the lives of men and nations, and they sought to respect it but to manage it—to make it one thread in the tapestry. Sectarian labels mattered little, doctrinal differences even less.
If Romney can make that message clear, he will have made a major contribution to the nation's understanding of the role of religion in our nation's history and politics.

posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 6:52 AM 0 comments

Comments:

Jon Meacham, who wrote a very worthwhile book on the role of religion in our nation's founding, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, has written an essay about what Mitt Romney could say today about religion and our nation's history.

The separation of church and state—including the explicit prohibition against a religious test for office in the Constitution—was essential to the Founders, but they also understood that religion and politics were always going to be mixed up together. The critical thing was to manage this human reality, to minimize its ill effects and to make the most of the possible good it could do. And so if Romney wishes to argue that religion is important but not all-important, and that judging candidates by sectarian labels is not what America was intended to be about, then history is on his side.

This is an important message and reminder of the important role religion has played in our history. It's a delicate balance. Although, many of the Founders were deists, not believing in a specific religion, but definitely believing in a divine Providence, many who fought in the Revolution were extremely religious. I use this Library of Congress site with my students in my class on the American Revolution and have them look through these "exhibits" to gain a sense of how rich, varied role of religion at the time. It's not enough to just look at what Jefferson or Franklin might have believed, but a full picture includes the men who joined in the growing movement against English rule and then fought in the ranks.

Religion played a major role in the American Revolution by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British--an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God. As a recent scholar has observed, "by turning colonial resistance into a righteous cause, and by crying the message to all ranks in all parts of the colonies, ministers did the work of secular radicalism and did it better."

Ministers served the American cause in many capacities during the Revolution: as military chaplains, as penmen for committees of correspondence, and as members of state legislatures, constitutional conventions and the national Congress. Some even took up arms, leading Continental troops in battle.

The Revolution split some denominations, notably the Church of England, whose ministers were bound by oath to support the King, and the Quakers, who were traditionally pacifists. Religious practice suffered in certain places because of the absence of ministers and the destruction of churches, but in other areas, religion flourished.

The Revolution strengthened millennialist strains in American theology. At the beginning of the war some ministers were persuaded that, with God's help, America might become "the principal Seat of the glorious Kingdom which Christ shall erect upon Earth in the latter Days." Victory over the British was taken as a sign of God's partiality for America and stimulated an outpouring of millennialist expectations--the conviction that Christ would rule on earth for 1,000 years. This attitude combined with a groundswell of secular optimism about the future of America to create the buoyant mood of the new nation that became so evident after Jefferson assumed the presidency in 1801.

In such a mixed environment, what emerged was a consensus that we could not have an established church and instead should found our nation on the principle that all religions are welcome and none should be favored by governments. This was not a universally accepted princple at the time. Massachusetts' state constitutionactively encouraged church membership. Many other state constitutions had religious restrictions on who could win public office well into the 19th century. Public schools in the 19th century had an overt Protestant message. But the principle enshrined in the First Amendment gradually emerged as the proper foundation for a pluralistic society.

As Meacham concludes,

In fact the wondrous thing about the Founding of the nation is how consciously and how carefully the Founders went about securing liberty of conscience. Washington said that the government of the United States was "to give to bigotry no sanction … and to persecution no assistance." Jefferson said that his Virginia act for religious liberty was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination." And Madison said, "The religion of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man."

Romney ought to call on Americans to recover and respect what Benjamin Franklin called our public religion: the belief that there is a divine force at work in the world, by whatever name, and that we render homage to it by doing good to others. Acts of charity and grace need not be religiously inspired, but many are. Religious people can be intolerant, cruel and exclusionary; they can also be broad-minded, kind and welcoming. And the same can be said of people who adhere to no religious faith. Yet it is the case that many Americans are religious—or say they are—and that the fundamental promise of the Founding, that all men are created equal, is grounded in the divine, as the gift of the "Creator."

American history is checkered with stories of exclusion and intolerance. In 1808, Jacob Henry, a Jewish American, was elected to the state legislature of North Carolina, which refused to seat him unless he was A) a Protestant and B) conceded the divine authority of the Old and New Testaments. Here is what Henry said to them: "Governments only concern the actions and conduct of man, and not his speculative notions. Who among us feels himself so exalted above his fellows as to have a right to dictate to them any mode of belief?"

Sadly, too many people do feel so exalted, which is why it is incumbent on the rest of us to recall the work of the Founders. They are often dismissed as dead white men, which they are, but when they were living white men they saw further ahead than most. They knew religion was a perennial factor in the lives of men and nations, and they sought to respect it but to manage it—to make it one thread in the tapestry. Sectarian labels mattered little, doctrinal differences even less.

If Romney can make that message clear, he will have made a major contribution to the nation's understanding of the role of religion in our nation's history and politics.

posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 6:52 AM 0 comments

Comments: Post a Comment

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Thursday, December 06, 2007

Religion and our Founding

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HOME Betsy neither necessarily uses, nor endorses, the products advertised on this site. Advance your career by earning a masters degree online. The truth about Avesil Wikio Get exclusive travel deals and book discount cheap flights Comments from an AP history and government teacher in Raleigh, NC. e-mail betsynewmark AT gmail.com Commissions earned from selling items through Amazon will go towards buying materials for my classes. Thank you. Site Feed		Thursday, December 06, 2007 Religion and our Founding Jon Meacham, who wrote a very worthwhile book on the role of religion in our nation's founding, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, has written an essay about what Mitt Romney could say today about religion and our nation's history. The separation of church and state—including the explicit prohibition against a religious test for office in the Constitution—was essential to the Founders, but they also understood that religion and politics were always going to be mixed up together. The critical thing was to manage this human reality, to minimize its ill effects and to make the most of the possible good it could do. And so if Romney wishes to argue that religion is important but not all-important, and that judging candidates by sectarian labels is not what America was intended to be about, then history is on his side. This is an important message and reminder of the important role religion has played in our history. It's a delicate balance. Although, many of the Founders were deists, not believing in a specific religion, but definitely believing in a divine Providence, many who fought in the Revolution were extremely religious. I use this Library of Congress site with my students in my class on the American Revolution and have them look through these "exhibits" to gain a sense of how rich, varied role of religion at the time. It's not enough to just look at what Jefferson or Franklin might have believed, but a full picture includes the men who joined in the growing movement against English rule and then fought in the ranks. Religion played a major role in the American Revolution by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British--an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God. As a recent scholar has observed, "by turning colonial resistance into a righteous cause, and by crying the message to all ranks in all parts of the colonies, ministers did the work of secular radicalism and did it better." Ministers served the American cause in many capacities during the Revolution: as military chaplains, as penmen for committees of correspondence, and as members of state legislatures, constitutional conventions and the national Congress. Some even took up arms, leading Continental troops in battle. The Revolution split some denominations, notably the Church of England, whose ministers were bound by oath to support the King, and the Quakers, who were traditionally pacifists. Religious practice suffered in certain places because of the absence of ministers and the destruction of churches, but in other areas, religion flourished. The Revolution strengthened millennialist strains in American theology. At the beginning of the war some ministers were persuaded that, with God's help, America might become "the principal Seat of the glorious Kingdom which Christ shall erect upon Earth in the latter Days." Victory over the British was taken as a sign of God's partiality for America and stimulated an outpouring of millennialist expectations--the conviction that Christ would rule on earth for 1,000 years. This attitude combined with a groundswell of secular optimism about the future of America to create the buoyant mood of the new nation that became so evident after Jefferson assumed the presidency in 1801. In such a mixed environment, what emerged was a consensus that we could not have an established church and instead should found our nation on the principle that all religions are welcome and none should be favored by governments. This was not a universally accepted princple at the time. Massachusetts' state constitutionactively encouraged church membership. Many other state constitutions had religious restrictions on who could win public office well into the 19th century. Public schools in the 19th century had an overt Protestant message. But the principle enshrined in the First Amendment gradually emerged as the proper foundation for a pluralistic society. As Meacham concludes, In fact the wondrous thing about the Founding of the nation is how consciously and how carefully the Founders went about securing liberty of conscience. Washington said that the government of the United States was "to give to bigotry no sanction … and to persecution no assistance." Jefferson said that his Virginia act for religious liberty was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination." And Madison said, "The religion of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man." Romney ought to call on Americans to recover and respect what Benjamin Franklin called our public religion: the belief that there is a divine force at work in the world, by whatever name, and that we render homage to it by doing good to others. Acts of charity and grace need not be religiously inspired, but many are. Religious people can be intolerant, cruel and exclusionary; they can also be broad-minded, kind and welcoming. And the same can be said of people who adhere to no religious faith. Yet it is the case that many Americans are religious—or say they are—and that the fundamental promise of the Founding, that all men are created equal, is grounded in the divine, as the gift of the "Creator." American history is checkered with stories of exclusion and intolerance. In 1808, Jacob Henry, a Jewish American, was elected to the state legislature of North Carolina, which refused to seat him unless he was A) a Protestant and B) conceded the divine authority of the Old and New Testaments. Here is what Henry said to them: "Governments only concern the actions and conduct of man, and not his speculative notions. Who among us feels himself so exalted above his fellows as to have a right to dictate to them any mode of belief?" Sadly, too many people do feel so exalted, which is why it is incumbent on the rest of us to recall the work of the Founders. They are often dismissed as dead white men, which they are, but when they were living white men they saw further ahead than most. They knew religion was a perennial factor in the lives of men and nations, and they sought to respect it but to manage it—to make it one thread in the tapestry. Sectarian labels mattered little, doctrinal differences even less. If Romney can make that message clear, he will have made a major contribution to the nation's understanding of the role of religion in our nation's history and politics. posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 6:52 AM 0 comments Comments: Jon Meacham, who wrote a very worthwhile book on the role of religion in our nation's founding, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, has written an essay about what Mitt Romney could say today about religion and our nation's history. The separation of church and state—including the explicit prohibition against a religious test for office in the Constitution—was essential to the Founders, but they also understood that religion and politics were always going to be mixed up together. The critical thing was to manage this human reality, to minimize its ill effects and to make the most of the possible good it could do. And so if Romney wishes to argue that religion is important but not all-important, and that judging candidates by sectarian labels is not what America was intended to be about, then history is on his side. This is an important message and reminder of the important role religion has played in our history. It's a delicate balance. Although, many of the Founders were deists, not believing in a specific religion, but definitely believing in a divine Providence, many who fought in the Revolution were extremely religious. I use this Library of Congress site with my students in my class on the American Revolution and have them look through these "exhibits" to gain a sense of how rich, varied role of religion at the time. It's not enough to just look at what Jefferson or Franklin might have believed, but a full picture includes the men who joined in the growing movement against English rule and then fought in the ranks. Religion played a major role in the American Revolution by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British--an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God. As a recent scholar has observed, "by turning colonial resistance into a righteous cause, and by crying the message to all ranks in all parts of the colonies, ministers did the work of secular radicalism and did it better." Ministers served the American cause in many capacities during the Revolution: as military chaplains, as penmen for committees of correspondence, and as members of state legislatures, constitutional conventions and the national Congress. Some even took up arms, leading Continental troops in battle. The Revolution split some denominations, notably the Church of England, whose ministers were bound by oath to support the King, and the Quakers, who were traditionally pacifists. Religious practice suffered in certain places because of the absence of ministers and the destruction of churches, but in other areas, religion flourished. The Revolution strengthened millennialist strains in American theology. At the beginning of the war some ministers were persuaded that, with God's help, America might become "the principal Seat of the glorious Kingdom which Christ shall erect upon Earth in the latter Days." Victory over the British was taken as a sign of God's partiality for America and stimulated an outpouring of millennialist expectations--the conviction that Christ would rule on earth for 1,000 years. This attitude combined with a groundswell of secular optimism about the future of America to create the buoyant mood of the new nation that became so evident after Jefferson assumed the presidency in 1801. In such a mixed environment, what emerged was a consensus that we could not have an established church and instead should found our nation on the principle that all religions are welcome and none should be favored by governments. This was not a universally accepted princple at the time. Massachusetts' state constitutionactively encouraged church membership. Many other state constitutions had religious restrictions on who could win public office well into the 19th century. Public schools in the 19th century had an overt Protestant message. But the principle enshrined in the First Amendment gradually emerged as the proper foundation for a pluralistic society. As Meacham concludes, In fact the wondrous thing about the Founding of the nation is how consciously and how carefully the Founders went about securing liberty of conscience. Washington said that the government of the United States was "to give to bigotry no sanction … and to persecution no assistance." Jefferson said that his Virginia act for religious liberty was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination." And Madison said, "The religion of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man." Romney ought to call on Americans to recover and respect what Benjamin Franklin called our public religion: the belief that there is a divine force at work in the world, by whatever name, and that we render homage to it by doing good to others. Acts of charity and grace need not be religiously inspired, but many are. Religious people can be intolerant, cruel and exclusionary; they can also be broad-minded, kind and welcoming. And the same can be said of people who adhere to no religious faith. Yet it is the case that many Americans are religious—or say they are—and that the fundamental promise of the Founding, that all men are created equal, is grounded in the divine, as the gift of the "Creator." American history is checkered with stories of exclusion and intolerance. In 1808, Jacob Henry, a Jewish American, was elected to the state legislature of North Carolina, which refused to seat him unless he was A) a Protestant and B) conceded the divine authority of the Old and New Testaments. Here is what Henry said to them: "Governments only concern the actions and conduct of man, and not his speculative notions. Who among us feels himself so exalted above his fellows as to have a right to dictate to them any mode of belief?" Sadly, too many people do feel so exalted, which is why it is incumbent on the rest of us to recall the work of the Founders. They are often dismissed as dead white men, which they are, but when they were living white men they saw further ahead than most. They knew religion was a perennial factor in the lives of men and nations, and they sought to respect it but to manage it—to make it one thread in the tapestry. Sectarian labels mattered little, doctrinal differences even less. If Romney can make that message clear, he will have made a major contribution to the nation's understanding of the role of religion in our nation's history and politics. posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 6:52 AM 0 comments Comments: Post a Comment

Advance your career by earning a masters degree online.

The truth about Avesil

Wikio

Get exclusive travel deals and book discount cheap flights

Comments from an AP history and government teacher in Raleigh, NC. e-mail betsynewmark AT gmail.com Commissions earned from selling items through Amazon will go towards buying materials for my classes. Thank you. Site Feed

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Religion and our Founding

Comments from an AP history
and government teacher in Raleigh, NC.

e-mail betsynewmark AT gmail.com

Commissions earned from selling items through Amazon will go towards buying materials for my classes. Thank you.

Site Feed