How well do you think you know the spiritual roots of our nation?
About 25 years ago, for the first time, I met author/speaker William J. (Bill) Federer, who knows them very well. I have interviewed him multiple times since. Bill is the author of the classic book, “America’s God and Country,” which contains quotes from the settlers and founders of America, documenting beyond a reasonable doubt that this nation was uniquely shaped by the Bible.
The first time we met, we got into a long discussion, marveling at how the more you dig into our nation’s history, the greater you see the role of the Scriptures in helping with the creation of the nation. Our convictions on same have only grown stronger.
The facts of America’s Christian heritage – a few of which I plan to marshal in this particular column (and perhaps later ones) in honor of America at 250 – are just the tip of the iceberg.
In 2014, the Supreme Court grappled with an issue: If a town opened up with prayer (a long-standing American tradition), was it OK if they prayed in the name of Jesus? A majority of the court (not reliably conservative in those days) answered, “Yes.” One source of their reasoning came from Bill’s book.
The case is Greece v. Galloway, 2014, in which the Supreme Court wrote: “The first prayer delivered to the Continental Congress by the Rev. Jacob Duché on Sept. 7, 1774, provides an example: ‘… All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Saviour, Amen.’ W. Federer, ‘America’s God and Country’ 137 (2000).”
How well do you know anything about our nation’s Christian roots? See if you can get any of these correct.
Q. When the settlers of various northern colonies created a joint document in 1643, the New England Confederation, what did they say was the purpose of all their settlements?
A. The document states, “… we all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace.”
Q. Who said that the founders achieved independence upon “the general principles of Christianity”?
A. John Adams said this in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, June 28, 1813.
Q. Where in the Constitution is the phrase, “the separation of church and state”?
A. Those words are not in the Constitution, which says in the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Q. What is the source of the phrase “the separation of church and state”?
A. A private letter President Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, Jan. 1, 1802. The Supreme Court used that letter in 1947 (in Everson v. Board of Education) to interpret the constitutional phrase prohibiting an “establishment of religion.”
Q. How does Thomas Jefferson end his letter to the Danbury Baptists of 1802, which gave us the phrase, “the separation of church and state”?
A. He asks them to pray to God for him, and he promises to pray to God for them. If the “separation of church and state” absolutists were correct, the source of the phrase violated “the separation of church and state.”
Q. Who was Los Angeles reportedly named after?
A. Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The original name of the Catholic mission was “The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciúncula River.” Los Angeles means “the angels.”
Q. All of the Ivy League schools but one were founded by Christians for Christian purposes. Name the one.
A. Cornell was founded in the 1840s (with no explicit Christian purpose). By the time Cornell was created, Harvard had been operating (Christianly) for 200 years.
Q. What did George Washington do after he took the oath of office with an open Bible?
A. He leaned over and kissed the holy book.
Q. What was the Christian denomination of the majority of the members of the Constitutional Convention?
A. Author John Eidsmoe says that 27 of the 55 men were members of the Church of England or the Anglican Church (at a time when the denomination was faithful to core Christian doctrines).
Q. Which of the original 13 colonies said in its charter of 1632 that its Catholic founder was animated with “a laudable, and pious Zeal for extending the Christian Religion”?
A. The Charter of Maryland.
And on it goes. All of these questions and answers show just a small taste of how important Christianity was to the founding of this country. No wonder President Andrew Jackson once remarked: The Bible is “the rock on which this republic rests.”
