Does the United States have a defined Christian heritage? (Jesus Christ, Creator)

[Sabio]

I contend that in fact the United States has a firm Christian heritage which was established by our founding fathers based on their own faith in Jesus Christ.

I will submit these quotes from the founding fathers for your consideration.

Sabio

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George Washington (1732-1799)

—First President of the United States and chairman of the Constitutional Convention

—

"O most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful and loving Father, I acknowledge and confess my guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day."

from Daily Sacrifice, Washington’s personal prayer book, written in his own handwriting, declaring continual faithfulness to Jesus Christ.

"These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial

"Without making ostentatious professions of religion, he was a sincere believer in the Christian faith, and a truly devout man."

—John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1801-1835) who served with George Washington at Valley Forge, describing Washington in his Life of George Washington(1804-7), a biography written at the request of Washington’s family.

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John Adams (1735-1826)

—Second President of the United States and signer of the Declaration of Independence —

On March 6, 1799, President Adams proclaimed a national day of prayer and fasting so that America might "call to our mind numerous offenses against the most high God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, imploring his pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgression, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience."

—National Proclamation for a Day of Fasting and Prayer.

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James Madison (1751-1836)

—Fourth President of the United States and member of the first U.S. Congress

—

"Christ’s Divinity appears by St. John, chapter xx, 2: ‘And Thomas answered and said unto Him, my Lord and my God!’ Resurrection testified to and witnessed by the Apostles, Acts iv, 33: ‘And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.’"

—written in the margin of Madison’s Bible.

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John Jay (1745-1829)

—First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1789-1795), President of the Continental Congress –

"Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by His beloved Son."

—Last Will and Testament, 1829.

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Patrick Henry (1736-1799)

—Patriot famed for his words "Give me Liberty or give me death."

—

"My heart is full. Perhaps I may never see you in this world. O may we meet in heaven, to which the merits of Jesus will carry those who love and serve Him."

—Letter to his sister, Ann Christian, upon the death of her husband, 1786.

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George Mason (1725-1792)

—Well-known for his insistence that Congress add the Bill of Rights to the Constitution —

"My soul, I resign into the hands of my Almighty Creator, whose tender mercies are all over His works, who hateth nothing that He hath made and to the Justice and Wisdom of whose dispensation I willingly and cheerfully submit, humbly hoping from His unbounded mercy and benevolence, through the merits of my blessed Savior, a remission of my sins."

—Last Will and Testament, 1792.

[jewscout]

James Madision



"Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." - James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785

John Adams

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson

"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" - John Adams, letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27, 1816

Thomas Jefferson

"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth." - Thomas Jefferson, from "Notes on Virginia"

Ben Franklin

"If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish Church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. They found it wrong in Bishops, but fell into the practice themselves both here (England) and in New England." - Benjamin Franklin

-quotes taken from http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism...g-fathers.html

[Sabio]

"

What our fathers with so much difficulty attained, do not basely relinquish."

—Inscribed, in Latin, on Governor William Bradford’s gravestone, Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1657.

What Did Congress Have to Say?

September 11, 1777

—The Continental Congress recommended and approved that the Committee of Commerce

"import 20,000 Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere," because of the great shortage of Bibles created by the Revolutionary War’s interruption of trade with England.

September 25, 1789

—After months of discussion and debate, the Congress of the United States approved the language of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the "Bill of Rights," including the First Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Also September 25, 1789

(after passing the First Amendment)

—Congress unanimously voted to ask President Washington to declare a national

"day of public thanksgiving and prayer."

http://www.reclaimamerica.org/PAGES/...anHeritage.pdf

[Sabio]

Originally Posted by jewscout

James Madision
"Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." - James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785
John Adams
"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson
"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" - John Adams, letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27, 1816
Thomas Jefferson
"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth." - Thomas Jefferson, from "Notes on Virginia"
Ben Franklin
"If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish Church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. They found it wrong in Bishops, but fell into the practice themselves both here (England) and in New England." - Benjamin Franklin

-quotes taken from http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism...g-fathers.html

Part of the Christian Heritage of the United States is our insistence on the freedom for people to worship how "they" see fit. Worship is not to be determined by our Government or by the ACLU's attempts to remove these freedoms.

Sabio


Patrick Henry 1776, he wrote:



"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."

[robtex]

qoutes aside, we can stipulate that some of the europeans that came here were christians because the religion spread through the usa. I would surmise we do have a christian heritage since
1) some of the pilgrims were likely christians
2) christanity spead and flourished here after the pilgrims arrived.


But before the christians were here the native americans had a religion, when some of the pilgram christians got here they brought, deists, atheists, and possibly other religions. We have since housed a large percentage of the jewish population we have muslims, hindus who now bring their religion to our hertiage.

So before and after any christian came here so too came people of other thoughts, and other beliefs. The difference is that all these other came with a highly tolerant attitude overall, of different beliefs. I find the camp mixed on christians who feel comfortable with neigbors who have different beliefs.

[Aqualung]

Originally Posted by robtex

But before the christians were here the native americans had a religion, when some of the pilgram christians got here they brought, deists, atheists, and possibly other religions. We have since housed a large percentage of the jewish population we have muslims, hindus who now bring their religion to our hertiage.

This is certainly true, but our government was founded on Judeo Christian beleifs, and, while it does give people of other religions the same freedoms, it does not give other religions' freedoms. For example, there is no federal law that states that women must wear those head things whose name I can't remember. The federal day of rest, however, which states that one cannot be forced to work all seven days (mail doesn't come on Sunday, nobody works all seven days), (as far as I know) is expressly judeo christian (sabbath day holy, and what not).
Congress prays before session.
The supreme court has numerous judeo christian things in it, (but no muslim, hindu, etc things.) This country may have a strong base of non judeo christian people, but the fact is, this country was founded on those principles.

[huajiro]

I am sure that the Pilgrims that came here were promised earthly as well as heavenly riches for coming to develop the New World. The first colonies were developed by Quakers and Puritans trying to escape religious persecution they had faced where they came from.

Rather than set an example here and moving away from the sort of treatment the endured, they treated the Indians twice as bad. They had to establish an economy at any cost, in order to build an maintain their churches.

If you look at Christianity throughout history, it was a sort of glamorized pyramid scheme. The settlers move in, kill many indegenous people, turn the rest into slaves. Then, they try to control them by building churches and instilling the fear of "God" in them.

[michel]

Originally Posted by huajiro

I am sure that the Pilgrims that came here were promised earthly as well as heavenly riches for coming to develop the New World. The first colonies were developed by Quakers and Puritans trying to escape religious persecution they had faced where they came from.

Rather than set an example here and moving away from the sort of treatment the endured, they treated the Indians twice as bad. They had to establish an economy at any cost, in order to build an maintain their churches.

If you look at Christianity throughout history, it was a sort of glamorized pyramid scheme. The settlers move in, kill many indegenous people, turn the rest into slaves. Then, they try to control them by building churches and instilling the fear of "God" in them.

I dare say that the pilgrims (Like all who have emigrated as a group) were so keen to keep their traditions and cultures that they failed to 'evolve' in the manner they would have had they not emigrated.

[robtex]

Aqualung, I hope you take some time to study judaism while you are on here. What I can tell you right up front is that from the Jewish perspective, there is not such thing as a Judeo-christian heritage or judeo-christian anything for that matter. The lack of work on sunday, which are called the "blue laws" were enacted in about the 1970's and have since been laxed in many industries. The Jewish tradition doesn't make sunday its special holy day but instead friday. The tradition is christian and christian alone. It didn't start out that way but is a recent development.

Can you give us some examples of christianity in the supreme court as far as worshiping the christian god? Also, when you say american was founded on christian princples can you site a few of them and when they were enacted and why you feel they were presented to the early settlers as mandated by the christian god? I just want to see what your frame of reference is for your post.