Benjamin Franklin Credits God for America’s Independence
If you ever had a question about how big a part faith in a Divine Power had in our country’s heritage, simply go to the Presidential Prayer Team website. You’ll find a section called “Our Nation’s Godly Heritage.”
There is no doubt in my mind about this country’s Godly heritage, but I am blown away every time I read from this section on the site. These Founding Fathers (and politicians) didn’t mince words or fool around when it came to bowing down to something more powerful than themselves.
Praise the Lord for the freedoms we enjoy!
Happy 4th of July!
This from Presidential Prayer Team :
Benjamin Franklin and “Providence”
Benjamin Franklin loomed as large as any of the key leaders of the movement toward independence. Though many consider Franklin to have been a man of questionable faith in God, he spoke frequently of his belief that God Himself was directing the parties who led the Revolution. In fact, said Franklin, it was God who orchestrated the whole history-making event!Using the colonial term for the hand of God, “Providence,” Franklin here testifies to his belief that God’s hand was ever active in the birth of our nation:
“The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”Below are two more quotes from Franklin that express his understanding of God:
“My dear friend, do not imagine that I am vain enough to ascribe our success [Revolution] to any superiority…If it had not been for the justice of our cause, and the consequent interposition of Providence, in which we had faith, we must have been ruined. If I had ever before been an atheist, I should now have been convinced of the being and government of a Deity!”
—In a letter to William Strahan, August 19, 1784“I must own I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance to the welfare of millions now existing, and to exist in the posterity of a great nation, should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler.”
—On the impact of Independence on generations of Americans during the Constitutional Convention
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The nation was been founded mostly by men who believed in God (we forgive them because they were born in a pre-Darwinian time), but the Constitution is a secular document. “We the people” gives the ownership of the rights of man over to the people. Not God.
Want proof?
Find one single mention of the word “God” or “Jesus” in the Constitution. You won’t. According to your quotes, our Founding Fathers attributed the entire venture to God, yet no mention or credit is given to him/her/it.
Freedom from Religion IS mentioned in the Constitution, which is why mythologies such as Christianity has thrived.
Sorry, but you’re wrong…
In the signature section of the US Constitution is says, “In the year of our Lord…”
The Constitution of the United State of America may not directly mention God, but the Declaration of Independence states that the primary purpose of government is to protect the unalienable rights given to all men by the CREATOR (meaning God). The Constitution merely states how we can set up a government that fulfills this purpose. The Constitution was written to set up a government that respects the absolute truth that God gives the people their rights, then the people give the government its rights, and rights cannot be given in any other order.
PS: I’m only 14 and even I can see this stuff.
It’s freedom of religion, not freedom from religion!
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Wrong again EC. In America, religion is protected from government. In fact, the very reason for the Constitution is to limit the powers of the Federal government. The ‘wall of separation’ that exists, (in the context of Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists) was to prevent federal favoritism of one Christian denomination over another. In other words, the federal government cannot establish an official church. The current war against Christianity perpetrated by secularists was far from the intentions of our founders who never imagined such thing happening in this nation under God.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”.
Here, in America, we are protected FROM religion. No law will be made ESTABLISHING a religion. Imagine that you are a Christian and the U.S. wants Islam to be it’s national religion. Actually, maybe this will hit closer to home. Imagine fundamentalist Christians want to make Christianity THE national religion. The Constitution protects all it’s citizens from this happening, therefore protecting everyone that does not believe in the Bronze Age myths of Christianity, it’s rule and so called morality. Freedom FROM religion is the exact reason our American ancestors came to this country, to escape the religious persecution of the religious majority of their countries.
You’re not seeing the difference between “of” and “from”…”from” being what it does NOT say.
Right….and so NO ONE is talking about establishment or rule! Just the freedome to express!
We indeed have both.
You have the freedom FROM religion as well as the freedom OF religion. You can feel free to practice and believe whatever you choose. You ALSO have the right to be free from any imposition of religion on you by the establishment of our government. This is exactly why prayer in schools has been outlawed and why any subsidizing by our government to faith based organizations is illegal. There is still the motto “In God We Trust” on our currency, placed there during the McCarthy era, but that too, will someday be a thing of the past. I’m sure you see the problem if our currency said, “In Allah We Trust” or “In Thor We Trust”. In keeping with the ideals of our Constitution, I feel the most appropriate motto would be “In The People We Trust”.
Hey, I find it horribly ironic that you want to impose your beliefs on Alexander. You can’t call AA an “illegal government indoctrination program” or whatever. When they say a higher Power, the God of Christians and Jews isn’t implied. I’m pretty sure you could acknowledge the People as your higher power ec, if you so chose. And removing “In God We Trust” would be a horrible act of religious intolerance. If you question Christianity’s role in making the nation, consider the fact that there were a whopping 0 atheists (so much for “The People”), 225 would be evangelical Christians by today’s standards (or as you probably call us, nutcases), 2 were Unitarians (Jefferson and John Adams), 1 Deist (Thomas Payne) and the rest were from the other various denominations of Christianity. So even the three who weren’t “Christians” at least acknowledged God for creating the universe.
But hey, maybe I’m a complete idiot, and when all the founding fathers discuss God and attribute the founding of our nation to him and his role in the universe, it doesn’t mean anything. After all, isn’t everything what you interpret it to be? Since Relativism seems to be truth (Wtf? That’s contradictory in and of itself) I will say that what ec means when he writes how we have the freedom from religion, he REALLY means how much he loves God and how great His role was in creating our nation.
My two cents. A year late, yeah. Do I care? No.
Don’t recall Allah or Thor being there in the begining of the U.S….according to my history reading.
In People We Trust? No thanks…I’ll put my trust in God everytime! Of course, you can put your trust in people if you’d like!
Trust in the people is the cornerstone of our democracy. We are ruled by the people and the expression of the vote. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, it will happen because the majority of the people, ruling themselves, have mandated this to be so.
Like I said…I’ll put my trust in God.
Exactly, how?
You may want to check out a post at my other blog. I give a short summary of how I began to trust God.
http://alexanderwrites.blogspot.com/2008/02/right-direction.html
Ah, I see. Well, AA does do an amazing job of indoctrinating people when they are the most vulnerable. It’s one of those illegal state sanctioned religious programs that the constitution is supposed to protect us from. I am happy that you believe you are on the right path and I wish you well, but I can’t help but feel that America has failed you.
@ ec…Sorry, I don’t even know what you are talking about. From illegal “religious” AA programs to America failing me… 1. no such thing, 2. no
You are all over the map.
AA is founded on the 12 step program:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program
It never ceases to amaze me how those who want freedom from religion either don’t realize it or don’t care that they are infringing upon those who want the freedom to practice it.
O boy, you said it. Notice, too, how these same people will grasp at (and distort) anything they can in order to justify themselves–even our Constitution. How do they stand up straight being so one-sided?
I almost didn’t get the sarcasm from O. and opus comments. I’m so used to illogical fundie arguements that I almost thought you were serious!
“O boy, you said it. Notice, too, how these same people will grasp at (and distort) anything they can in order to justify themselves–even our Constitution. How do they stand up straight being so one-sided?”
How can “these people” comment on entries that don’t have a point? Please avoid logical fallacy, ad hominem attacks and talk about the issue. If you are incapable of forming logical arguments, maybe thinking isn’t for you.
God bless America.
Bomb Threat Forces Evacuation of DC TEA Party Planners
http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/09/bomb-threat-forces-evacuation-of-dc-tea-party-planners.html
The FreedomWorks staffer who spoke with ABC News said that the organization has received multiple threats but that for some reason, the DC Metro police thought that this one was credible enough to evacuate the building.
http://www.cspan.org/Watch/Media/2009/09/12/HP/A/23055/FreedomWorks+Rally+in+DC.aspx
Did you know that 50 out of 50 state constitutions recognize God? America’s foundation is rooted deeply in faith in the God of the Bible. To say otherwise is as ignorant as those who say the holocaust never took place.