FAITH OF THE FOUNDERS

[Daystar]

One of the most debated issues about the birth of our nation is what it was founded upon. I suggest that it was indeed founded by godly men who would not have objected to such things as the public posting of the Ten Commandments, or the Pledge of Allegiance or prayer in a classroom. What say ye?

[Tigerlilly]

Creator can mean many things. Many of the Founding fathers were deists, and in many of their wirtings, they adamantly despised christianity or organized religion. They also specifically stated that the United States was not a christian nation inthe Treaty of Tripoli.

[mrmufin]

As anyone brought up the point that our founding father were Mason. The Masonic creed holds to no specific religion or GOD. THe only criteria being that one believe in a higher being. IE a being greater than himself.

Yes, that is, essentially, a requirement of being a free mason: to have a belief in a higher being. However, the term "higher being" pretty much includes all of the gods of the major religions, and perhaps even deist god concepts. I don't think the fact that a number of the Founders were masons could allow us to draw any firm conclusions about their personal beliefs. Of the masons that I've known, some are very devout in their beliefs, in others, their beliefs are not quite as apparent. Though belief is required to become a mason, some of the most vocal opponents to freemasonry consider it a "cult" which places their rites and rituals ahead of the god of their religion.

Regards,
mrmufin

[oxbow]

Daystar, are you a fan of David Barton? Because many of your arguments are similiar to the ones I have seen employed in his books. If so, you may want to check out these links. The man is definitely not respected by serious scholars of American history because of his method. He has a bad habit of distorting facts, leaving out information that doesn't match his thesis and other questionable behavior.

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/bartidx.htm
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/boston1.htm

Incidentally, the framers of the constitution may have often said good things about christianity in public but for the majority of them, a look at their private letters reveals a profound uneasiness concerning the marriage of church and state. It is good habit to not take the public words of politicians at face value.

[Dilettante]

I think many people must be conflating in their minds the Mayflower Compact (which mentions Christianity) with the US Constitution (which does not mention God except to say at the end that it was written "in the year of Our Lord...", a conventional way to specify the date--like AD). However, many years separate the two documents.
Of course the US is a Christian nation if what you mean by that is that most Americans are Christian. But the American Government is not founded on Christianity, and many of the Founding fathers (not just Jefferson and Franklin) were not Christians, as other forum members have demonstrated.
Separation of Church and State was very, very important to them because they had just gained independence from a nation (Britain) where religion was established and which, to this day, has its Chief of State as Head of the national church. Surely this fact predisposed them against making religion the business of government.