Historian Richard B. Morris in 1973 identified the following seven figures as the key Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson.
America’s Founding Fathers’ Religious Beliefs
In the last few years, there has been a tremendous emphasis—particularly from the “religious right”—about America having been conceived as a “Christian Nation.”
Although I am an ordained Christian minister, I am quite well aware of the dogma that the early church developed around the man we refer to as Jesus Christ and which has even heavily influenced the various Protestant churches in their spin-off from the Catholic church. Also, many people, having read our About page at www.buddha-consciousness.org might even seriously question our credentials with respect to being “Christian.”
On Feb 8, 2016, I viewed a VERY well-researched documentary entitled, “Hidden Faith of the Founding Fathers” and realized that:
- These very enlightened men of that period—such as Paine, Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and even Washington—were not particularly enamored with church doctrine any more than we are.
- Official documents of the period that strongly confirmed this, including the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797, as drafted by George Washington himself, and Thomas Jefferson’s Bible (the existence of which is well known, but not necessarily the reason behind his heavy editing of the New Testament). Even today’s House Resolution 33 confirms such religious tolerance among the Founding Fathers.
- Therefore, the claim of a “Christian Nation” by America’s “religious far right” is absolutely not based on any facts at all. It is simply being driven by unsupported belief systems and egos. We intend to do more research on this topic, but, in the meantime, the facts presented in the stated documentary are extremely persuasive.
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