How Christian Were the Founders?

In today's New York Times Magazine there is an important article by Russell Shorto entitled "How Christian Were The Founders?" The article details the efforts of the Texas School Board to include more references in the Social Studies curriculum to America being a Christian nation and founded by Christians on Christian principles. It is a lengthy article but worth the read.

The article can be found here -

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?pagewanted=1&ref=magazine


Here are just a few quotes so you can get a flavor of it:

"..... they hold that the United States was founded by devout Christians and according to biblical precepts.... When they proclaim that the United States is a "Christian nation," they are not referring to the percentage of the population that ticks a certain box in a survey or census but to the country’s roots and the intent of the founders."

"Many of the points that have been incorporated into the guidelines or that have been advanced by board members and their expert advisers slant toward portraying America as having a divinely preordained mission.... The language in the Mayflower Compact... describes the Pilgrims' journey as being "for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith" and thus instills the idea that America was founded as a project for the spread of Christianity. In a book she wrote two years ago, Cynthia Dunbar, a board member... quoted the document and then said, "This is undeniably our past, and it clearly delineates us as a nation intended to be emphatically Christian."

“Many of us recognize that Judeo-Christian principles were the basis of our country and that many of our founding documents had a basis in Scripture. As we try to promote a better understanding of the Constitution, federalism, the separation of the branches of government, the basic rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, I think it will become evident to students that the founders had a religious motivation.”

"In the new guidelines, students taking classes in U.S. government are asked to identify traditions that informed America’s founding, “including Judeo-Christian (especially biblical law),” and to “identify the individuals whose principles of law and government institutions informed the American founding documents,” among whom they include Moses. The idea that the Bible and Mosaic law provided foundations for American law has taken root in Christian teaching about American history."

"In 2008, Cynthia Dunbar published a book called “One Nation Under God,” in which she stated more openly than most of her colleagues have done the argument that the founding of America was an overtly Christian undertaking and laid out what she and others hope to achieve in public schools. “The underlying authority for our constitutional form of government stems directly from biblical precedents,” she writes. “Hence, the only accurate method of ascertaining the intent of the Founding Fathers at the time of our government’s inception comes from a biblical worldview.”

This is just a small sample of what's going on in Texas.

While I'm certainly not an expert on this, here's my take on the notion that America was founded as a "Christian nation" or on Christian principles. Yes, America was founded by men who were Christian, and yes, for many their Christian faith played a large role in their fight for American independence and freedom. But they had varying views and opinions on what that Christianity meant and for many that included the view that their religious beliefs should not be made a part of the new government. And since many of them came to America to escape religious persecution they were intent on granting religious liberty to all, not dictating to anyone what he or she should or shouldn't believe, and most importantly not establishing a national religion or any one particular theological viewpoint.

If anyone wants to read a well-balanced book on this subject I recommend Founding Faith: How Our Founding Fathers Forged a Radical New Approach to Religious Liberty by Steven Waldman.

Some Thoughts On The Third Commandment

What makes the Ten Commandments so special, so important, that so many people insist on placing monuments depicting them in public places or on courtroom walls? Why are the Ten Commandments seen as such a cornerstone to Judeo-Christian legal principles?

And for Jews, are the Ten Commandments that much more important than any of the other six hundred and three commandments? Or do we only consider them more important because God spoke them to the entire Israelite nation?

While I would agree that their importance stems from our collective experience of receiving them at Mount Sinai, I would also like to offer another reason. And that is that the ten commandments are important and memorable because of their relative simplicity.

"I am the Lord Your God who brought you out of Egypt. Remember the Sabbath. Honor your father and mother. Do not kill. Do not steal."

But there is one commandment out of these ten which I don't believe fits this bill. I don't believe it is quite as straightforward as it otherwise may seem.

Take a look at the Third Commandment. In English it's usually translated as “you shall not take God’s name in vain.” But what does that actually mean? What does it mean to not “take” God’s name? And what does it mean “in vain?”

I want to offer this definition because I believe it has so much more meaning in today's world than merely taking God's name in vain.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin wrote the following in his book Jewish Literacy.

“Many people think that this means that you have to write God as G-d, or that it is blasphemous to say words such as goddamn. Even if these assumptions are correct, it's still hard to figure out what makes this offense so heinous that it’s included in the document that forbids murdering, stealing, idolatry, and adultery. However, the Hebrew, Lo Tisa, literally means “you shall not carry God’s name in vain.”

In other words, don’t use God as your justification in selfish causes.

According to Telushkin, the prohibition is not in merely using God’s name. The prohibition is the actions you take in the name of God.

Let me see if I can drive this point home more clearly.

We are not permitted to justify illegal or evil acts by saying that they mandated by God. We can never use God as an excuse or justification to do evil, to otherwise violate the laws of civilization and the laws of the Torah.

Think about the world we live in. Think about the religious fanatics, fanatics and zealots of all religions - Jews, Christians and Muslims - who kill innocent people and commit other horrendous acts, all in the name of God.

I believe that the third commandment warns against that. It warns us in no uncertain terms that we cannot go around defending our lawless actions by constantly claiming that they have God's seal of approval. It warns us that we cannot use the Ten Commandments, or the Torah, or God, as a sword, as a way of coercing others that our understanding of God is the true and correct one. It tells us in no uncertain terms that being "holier than thou" is not acceptable.

Remember Dr. George Tiller, the Kansas abortion doctor who was murdered? His killer's defense was based on fulfilling God's directive to save unborn children. That is taking God's name in vain. That is a violation the third commandment

Let God punish those who He believes takes his name in vain. But we should never take the law into our own hands and then use God as our justification for doing so.

At the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington the other day Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said the following, which is certainly apropos to my message here this morning.

"All religions have their version of the Golden Rule and direct us to love our neighbor and welcome the stranger.... Yet across the world, we see organized religion standing in the way of faith, perverting love, undermining that message...

Religion, cloaked in naked power lust, is used to justify horrific violence, attacks on homes, markets, schools, volleyball games, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples.... Religion is used to enshrine in law intolerance of free expression and peaceful protest. Iran is now detaining and executing people under a new crime – waging war against God."

That is why we must remain committed and proactive in speaking up about the perversion of religion, and in particularly the use of it to promote and justify terrorism.

I want to share with you a positive way to look at this otherwise ambiguous third commandment.

In response to the Haitian earthquake, President Obama said, "We unite, recognizing that there but for the grace of God go I, recognizing that life's most sacred responsibility -- one affirmed, by all of the world's great religions -- is to sacrifice something of ourselves for a person in need."

In other words, we can interpret the third commandment not merely as a prohibition on taking God's name in vain, or sitting around and waiting for God to help, but as an affirmative obligation to do good for others in God's name, on using God's name only when we do good and not evil for others, and by giving God credit for our doing good in this world.

To sum it all up, we should only use God's name to promote righteousness and justice and love and peace. And we must never use God to justify any illegal or unjust actions. In Judaism we have a name for this. It's called Kiddush Hashem, the sanctification of God's name. May we continue to lead our lives with this commandment always as our guide.