Christianity's Impact on America, Part 3

As we celebrate the semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) of the birth of the United States of America, this column has had an opportunity to explore the influences of Christianity upon the founding of this country. The previous two articles in the series have described the settling of the American colonies as the introduction of the Christian worldview to North America, and the Christian impact of the Great Awakening’s revivals as an essential prologue to the formation of the United States. This month’s article will examine the founding influences and documents of the new nation and how Christianity played a part in the establishment of the United States. The debate over whether the United States was founded as a Christian nation has long been a hotly contested topic. Much ink has been spilled, and many books have been written in efforts to defend either side of this issue, so this brief article is unlikely to provide a definitive answer to the question. Nevertheless, it will offer a few insights into the role of Christianity in the nation’s emergence.

Enlightenment Influences on the United States

The Enlightenment was a cultural and intellectual movement that emerged in Europe during the seventeenth century and eventually influenced American intellectuals in the latter half of the eighteenth century. With a focus on science and philosophy, the proponents of Enlightenment thinking stressed reason and rationalism as the true sources of human knowledge (often capitalizing the words as if they represent deity), rather than tradition or revelation. Among the key ideas espoused in the Enlightenment were natural rights, religious tolerance, human equality, and the people’s consent to be governed (i.e., opposition to the divine right of kings).

Before the Enlightenment, the leadership within the medieval Roman Catholic Church (as well as the leadership of the Eastern Orthodox Churches) had forged close ties to the political powers of their states. Within many of the Protestant Movements of the sixteenth century, the close ties of church and state continued. Martin Luther (1483-1546), for example, called upon the monarchy to correct the errors of the church, and Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531), another leading reformer, argued that the church and state are the same thing, contending that civic leaders are the elders of the New Testament. With such close ties, it was common for governmental leaders to advance their brand of Christianity as the state religion, often excluding other forms of Christianity to the point of persecution and executions.

In response to this idea, England’s John Locke (1632-1704), one of the greatest Enlightenment philosophers, wrote A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) as a plea for the separation of church and state powers, and to advance the idea of religious toleration. In the same year, Locke also wrote his most important political work, Two Treatises of Government. As the supporters of the deposed King James II argued that his removal was illegal, Locke defended the overthrow of the monarch in Two Treatises by contending that all humans have “inalienable rights,” that governments exist by the consent of the governed, and that people have a right to overthrow a government that violates their rights. In a stroke of brilliance, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) borrowed Locke’s justification for overthrowing King James and used it as a basis for the Declaration of Independence and the American desire for withdrawal from King George III’s authority.

While the ideas of Locke, as well as many other Enlightenment philosophers (e.g., Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, etc.), influenced the foundational ideas that gave birth to the United States, it’s interesting to note that many—though not all—of their ideas were based on long-standing Christian beliefs and values. Locke himself insisted that his belief in natural rights (i.e., “life, liberty, and estate [property],” which Jefferson later changed to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”) was based on the dignity of humanity as being created in the image of God. Other Enlightenment ideas, such as human equality, religious toleration, government of laws, etc., were also borrowed from the Bible, though the Enlightenment advocates of these concepts attempted to argue that they were derived from reason.

Founding Documents and Christianity

Although the founding documents of the United States are not specifically “Christian” documents, nor do they directly use Christian nomenclature, it’s beyond dispute to claim that they recognize biblical ideas such as God, the fallen nature of humanity, and religion (which would have meant Christianity to the founders), and that they were influenced by Christian principles. While there are many documents and decrees from the colonial era that could be cited for a more thorough examination of Christianity’s influence upon the nation’s founding, space and time limit us to the examination of only a few of the most significant.

The Declaration of Independence was written, as its title suggests, to declare the American colonies independent from British control. It did not establish a new government in the colonies, nor was it intended to define the new nation’s religious outlook. Nevertheless, it established the core attitudes and principles that would define the United States government and its laws. In stating that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” the Declaration reflects at least three Christian assumptions: (1) There is a God, (2) This God is the Creator, and (3) Humans, as entities created in God’s image, have intrinsic value and possess equality in their personhood. Moreover, by appealing to the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” the Declaration recognizes the existence of a moral lawgiver (i.e., God) and the existence of moral laws, grounded in God, that supersede and even establish human governmental edicts.

While the Declaration does not explicitly mention Jesus, the Bible, or Christianity, it does mention “Nature’s God,” the “Creator,” the “Supreme Judge of the world,” “Divine Providence,” and other Bible-based concepts. The very mention of these things demonstrates a theistic worldview that aligns most readily with Christianity, while clearly avoiding any semblances of a state-defined or authorized religion.

In his book, On Two Wings: Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding, Michael Novak notes that “Virtually all the signers of the Declaration and Constitution were churchgoing men. Several were ministers or chaplains, others had trained to become ministers, and still others were conspicuously learned in religion. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration, 34 were Anglican, 13 Congregationalist (once known as Puritans), 6 Presbyterian, and one each Baptist, Catholic, and Quaker.” Sadly, Novak also points out that “The three figures of the founding era most studied nowadays are the figures regarded as the least religious: Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin,” which has led many to question the Christian influence upon the founders.

The United States Constitution, which was enacted twelve years after the dissemination of the Declaration of Independence, was designed to establish a government for the young nation that had liberated itself from England through a revolutionary conflict. Unlike the Declaration, however, the Constitution did not appeal to the Creator for justification of its ideals and purpose. Rather, it offered “We the people…” as the source for the document’s content. Perhaps this significant difference arises from the Declaration’s effort to define the unique, immutable, and God-given rights of humans, while the Constitution aimed to develop a human government, which has no divinely inspired or incontrovertible format.

While the Constitution tends to avoid religious statements (it mentions neither Jesus, Christianity, nor the Bible), Christian ideas and assumptions appear within it. For example, the framers of the Constitution recognized the fallen and flawed nature of humanity, which inspired them to mandate a separation of powers within the government to prevent any single figure or group from gaining too much control. Moreover, the framers built checks and balances into the Constitution to prevent the growth of unrestrained political power or authority. To protect the rights and liberties of America’s citizens, Congress established a Bill of Rights (1791) as ten amendments to the Constitution that specifically address personal liberties. The first of these is freedom of religion, which referred specifically to Christianity because there were few other religions in America at that time. The First Amendment, as contained within the Bill of Rights, prohibits the government from establishing a national church or interfering with the free exercise of religion. The inclusion of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights (and as the first of the ten amendments) demonstrates the founders’ desire to recognize the nation as a religious nation (specifically Christian) while maintaining a religiously neutral government.

Two Decrees

The discussion of Christianity and the American founding may be compared to a coin with two sides. On one side of the coin are those who oppose the suggestion that Christianity had anything to do with the founding of the United States. Those who object to the notion that the United States has a Christian background are quick to point to the Treaty of Tripoli (1797), in which Article 11 clearly states, “The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” This treaty was a diplomatic agreement between the United States and the Muslim state of Tripoli in North Africa. It was designed to protect American shippers from attacks in the Mediterranean Sea from the Islamic Barbary Coast pirates. The ‘non-Christian’ clause was included in the treaty because many European conflicts at that time were framed as Christian vs. Muslim in nature. To acquire their diplomatic goals, the American envoys were willing to formally state that the American government is not based on Christianity. This does not, however, diminish the influence of Christianity on the formation of the United States or its government; it’s more akin to claiming that the United States government is not a Christian theocracy. Moreover, the very fact that such a statement was required insinuates that the young nation was viewed by others as a Christian nation. Of interest, however, is the fact that the ‘non-Christian’ clause survives only within the English copies of the Treaty; the surviving Arabic versions of the treaty do not contain this clause.

On the other side of the coin are those who contend for the belief that America was founded as a Christian nation. Those who support this view will appeal to the 1892 Supreme Court case, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, in which Supreme Court Justice David Brewer (1837-1910), writing for a unanimous court decision that allowed the church to hire a rector who was not an American, stated: “This is a Christian nation.” He explained that there are “a mass of organic utterances” and “unofficial declarations” that support this contention. Brewer later wrote The United States: A Christian Nation (1905), in which he made it clear that he was not suggesting that Christianity was the legally established religion of the United States, nor should people be compelled to be Christians. The nation is Christian, he explained, because of its historical, traditional, and cultural identity, but he insisted that the government must be a “legal organization independent of all religions.”

Conclusion

The conflict over whether America was founded as a Christian nation will continue to rage as both the opponents and advocates of Christianity’s influence on America attempt to bolster their respective positions. While it may be incorrect to suggest that the United States was founded specifically to be a Christian nation, it is equally incorrect to suggest there was little or no Christian influence on the nation’s establishment. Both the settling of the American colonies by European Christians and the impact of the Great Awakening throughout the colonies evoked within the people of America a Christian worldview that both colored and directed their efforts and desires for launching the new nation. Thus, in an exchange of letters between two of the most prominent founding figures, John Adams (1735-1826) told Thomas Jefferson in a 1813 letter, “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.”

Dr. Rick Cherok serves as Managing Editor for Christian Standard, Executive Director of Celtic Christian Mission, and Director of Men's Services at Kentucky Christian University. He may be contacted by email at rick.cherok@gmail.com.