Faith of our Fathers

The disoriented author has just completed reading biographies of each of the pantheon of Founding Fathers. Along the way I have read The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands, James Madison: A Biography, by Ralph Louis Ketchum, Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph J. Ellis and John Adams by David McCullough. Finally I read Joseph J. Ellis' brand new George Washington biography, His Excellency.

I have been deeply involved in politics for the last decade and a half. Being  an evangelical Christian, many of the people I run into hold firmly to the belief that this Nation was founded by like-minded Christians on Christian principles. They point to the Founding Fathers as examples of Christian character. In an attempt to be intellectually honest — I have not been able to come to the same conclusion.

In the days to come I will be chronicling my search for the Faith of our Fathers.

In 1984, George Orwell wrote:

He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.

In this country, we are reaching a crossroads. As a nation we are struggling to determine what place religion and people of faith play in our society. It is no wonder that Christian evangelicals want to portray the Founding Fathers as kindred spirits, to control the past as Orwell put it. I am one of those Christian evangelicals. I would certainly like to discover that the Founding Fathers and I share a heritage of faith not just a political heritage. On the other hand, my search is a search for truth.

I understand that many of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence were Christians. The Scottish Minister and Princeton University President, John Witherspoon certainly belongs in the Christian camp. But the philosophical and political leaders — the Pantheon, were they men of faith.

My initial reading seems to indicate that most were Deists not Evangelical Christians. Interestingly the two that seem to be exceptions may be John Adams and Alexander Hamilton.