#170: Out For Some Clarity

I'm currently reading John Adams by David McCullough and came across yet another interesting quote that made me think about the claims of folks who say America was a "Christian nation" "back in the day." On pg. 130 it states, "That the hand of God was involved in the birth of the new nation he had no doubt. "It is the will of heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever.' If the people now were to have 'unbounded power,' and as the people were quite as capable of corruption as 'the great,' and thus high risks were involved, he would submit all his hopes and fears to an overruling providence, 'in which unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe.'"
That phrase, in which unfashionable as the faith may be, clearly indicates that holding a Calvinistic belief in the God of the Bible as the One who runs world history and raises up or brings down nations was out of vogue for a large portion of the populace in 1776. It would appear that the same could be said as the nation continued to develop politically and religiously.

Patrick Henry, famed for his "Give me Liberty or give me Death" speech on March 23, 1775 wrote to his daughter, Betsy, on August 20, 1796, describing himself and the country, "The view which the rising greatness of our country presents to my eyes is greatly tarnished by the general prevalence of deism, which, with me, is but another name for vice and depravity....I hear it is said by the deists that I am one of their number; and indeed that some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives me much more pain than the appellation of Tory, because I think religion of infinitely higher importance than politics, and I find much cause to reproach myself that I have lived so long and have given no decided and public proofs of my being a Christian. But, indeed, my dear child, this is a character which I prize far above all this world has or can boast."
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It's my opinion that American Christians in the public domain and those who write history books and certain biographies are looking back to some idealistic "good old days" that the Book of Ecclesiastes says never existed, that can be statistically shown to not be the case, and are contributing to the "woe-is-us-let's-be-like-we-used-to-be" nostalgia that needs to be confronted with some hard nosed reality similar to that given to the nation of Israel under the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. In fact, I think it's the responsibility of preachers in America's pulpits to get their flocks ready for a real fleecing brought about by the God they say they worship as a result of their on-going refusal to follow the demands of the Great Commission.

But, Hey, the 10,000 non-denominational congregations of America should do as good old deist Tom Jefferson wrote in the Declaration and "with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence...mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." Who knows, maybe Jesus' prayer for unity in John 17 might come to be without a Persecution.

Got Odds or Evens?

Source: S.G. Arnold, The Life of Patrick Henry of Virginia. Miller, Orton & Mulligan, New York and Auburn, 1857, p. 249-250