The Nature of Religion by David Barton

The John Adams’ quote is taken from a letter he wrote to Thomas Jefferson on April 19, 1817, in which Adams illustrated the intolerance often manifested between Christians in their denominational disputes. Adams recounted a conversation between two ministers he had known: Seventy years ago. Lemuel Bryant was my parish priest, and Joseph Cleverly my Latin schoolmaster. Lemuel was a jocular humorous and liberal scholar and divine. Joseph a scholar and a gentleman.

The parson and the pedagogue lived much together, but were eternally disputing about government and religion. One day when the schoolmaster Joseph Cleverly had been more than commonly fanatical and declared “if he were a monarch, he would have but one religion in his dominions;” the parson Lemuel Bryant coolly replied, “Cleverly! You would be the best man in the world if you had no religion.” Lamenting these types of petty disputes, Adams declared to Jefferson:

Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, “This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!!!” But in this exclamation I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean hell. In reality, Adams’ position on religion was exactly the opposite of what is put forth by many groups.

Adams believed that it would be “fanatical” to desire a world without religion, for such a world would be “hell.” Jefferson wrote back and declared that he agreed. Amazingly, while the assertion concerning Adams was completely inaccurate, the words attributed to Washington are totally false “The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion”.

Congress of the States by David Barton

On this account particularly he deserves applause and encouragement. On September 12, 1782, the full Congress approved that Bible which soon began rolling off the presses. Printed in the front of that Bible the first English-language Bible ever printed in America was the Congressional endorsement: Whereupon, Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States. Of this event, one early historian observed: Who, in view of this fact, will call in question the assertion that this is a Bible nation? Who will charge the government with indifference to religion when the first Congress of the States assumed all the rights and performed all the duties of a Bible Society long before such an institution had an existence in the world!

A year after this Bible, and almost two years after the British had laid down their arms at Yorktown, there still was no treaty, and thus no official guarantee that the hostilities would not resume. Yet, since there had been no further fighting, and the prospect of a lasting peace appeared to be growing, George Washington began to anticipate his return to private life.

In contemplation of this, on June 3, 1783, he explained: Before I retire from public life, I shall with the greatest freedom give my sentiments to the States on several political subjects. Consequently, five days later on June 8, Washington issued a circular letter to the Governors of all the States in which he told them: I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you and the State over which you preside in His holy protection that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.

The Laws of God by David Barton

They were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledged as the rules of their conduct. Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a church choir leader, musician, noted poet and literary figure, similarly discounted any notion of anarchy or rebellion in his 1777 work “A Political Catechism”:

Q. What is war?

A. The curse of mankind; the mother of famine and pestilence; the source of complicated miseries; and the undistinguishing destroyer of the human species.

Q. How is war divided?

A. Into offensive and defensive.

Q. What is the general object of an offensive war?

A. For the most part, it is undertaken to gratify the ambition of a prince, who wishes to subject to his arbitrary will a people whom God created free, and to gain an uncontrolled dominion over their rights and property.

Q. What is defensive war?

A. It is to take up arms in opposition to the invasions of usurped power and bravely suffer present hardships and encounter present dangers, to secure the rights of humanity and the blessings of freedom, to generations yet unborn.

Q. Is even defensive war justifiable in a religious view?

A. The foundation of war is laid in the wickedness of mankind. God has given man wit to contrive, power to execute, and freedom of will to direct his conduct. It cannot be but that some, from a depravity of will, will abuse these privileges and exert these powers to the injury of others: and the oppressed would have no safety nor redress but by exerting the same powers in their defense: and it is our duty to set a proper value upon and defend to the utmost our just rights and the blessings of life: otherwise a few miscreants unprincipled individuals would tyrannize over the rest of mankind, and make the passive multitude the slaves of their power. Thus it is that defensive is not only justifiable but an indispensable duty.

Q. Is it upon these principles that the people of America are resisting the arms of Great Britain, and opposing force with force?

A. Strictly so. And may Heaven prosper their virtuous undertaking! Quite simply, the American Revolution was not an act of anarchy. In fact, throughout the course of the struggle, the conflict was often described by the Americans as a civil war rather than a revolution; and a chronological survey of the acts before, during, and after America’s separation from Great Britain provides numerous examples illustrating the Americans’ consistent reliance on spiritual principles. For example, in the early 1770s when English oppression had been steadily mounting and injustices increasing, there had been no reliable source from which the Colonists could receive either accurate news reports or patriotic inspiration. To meet this need, Samuel Adams of Massachusetts and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia formed the Committees of Correspondence an early pony-express style news service. The original Committee in Boston had a threefold goal: 1 to delineate the rights the Colonists had as men, as Christians, and as subjects of the crown, 2 to detail how these rights had been violated, and 3 to publicize throughout the Colonies the first two items.

Political Equality by David Barton

Lindenmuller v. The People, 1860 Supreme Court of New York this court ruled that while Blue Laws could be considered a civil prerogative of the State to provide a day of rest for all people, it further explained that even if they were adjudged to be a specific legislation of Christianity, that this would be permissible since Christianity was part of the common law: It would be strange that a people Christian in doctrine and worship, many of whom or whose forefathers had sought these shores for the privilege of worshipping God in simplicity and purity of faith, and who regarded religion as the basis of their civil liberty and the foundation of their rights, should, in their zeal to secure to all the freedom of conscience which they valued so highly, solemnly repudiate and put beyond the pale of the law the religion which was dear to them as life and dethrone the God who they openly and avowedly professed to believe had been their protector and guide as a people.

The court further explained that maintaining an official respect for Christianity did not infringe upon the free exercise of religion for others; instead, it provided an umbrella of protection: Religious tolerance is entirely consistent with a recognized religion. Christianity may be conceded to be established religion to the qualified extent mentioned, while perfect civil and political equality with freedom of conscience and religious preference is secured to individuals of every other creed and profession and every man is left free to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience, or not to worship him at all, as he pleases.

Compulsory worship of God in any form is prohibited, and every man’s opinion on matters of religion, as in other matters, is beyond the reach of the law. No man can be compelled to perform any act as a duty to God; but this liberty of conscience in matters of faith and practice is entirely consistent with the existence, in fact, of the Christian religion. All agreed that the Christian religion was engrafted upon the law and entitled to protection as the basis of our morals and the strength of our government.

Shover v. State, 1850 Supreme Court of Arkansas This court accepted the fact that the establishment of Sunday laws was within the legitimate legislative power of the State, regardless of whether such laws were religious in nature. However, it did not hesitate to expound upon the important relationship between Christianity and the law: The Christian religion is recognized as constituting a part and parcel of the common law and as such, all of the institutions growing out of it, or, in any way connected with it, in case they shall not be found to interfere with the rights of conscience, are entitled to the most profound respect and can rightfully claim the protection of the law-making power of the State.