Christianity and American Government

John Jay, first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Probe Ministries has a great compilation on the inextricable connection between American government and the Christian worldview.

Probe Ministries creates small 1-minute radio spots that play on many Christian radio stations. When a series is complete, they compile them on their website so you can take them in altogether.

You can listen to this important series here.

The series points out that the United States is not a “Christian nation” in the sense of a theocracy as many Muslim nations are; in fact, that is the sense expressed between the United States and several Muslim nations in the Treaty of Tripoli.

However, in the sense that our nation was founded by Christians on Christian principles enlightened by a Christian worldview, America was undeniably (to anyone reasonable, that is) founded a Christian nation. Whether that is still true or not is debatable, since we have for more than 50 years allowed secularists and God-haters to wage an unrelenting campaign against our nation’s history, Constitution and against the expression of Christianity in public.

The series quotes John Adams, an author of independence and our second president, as to the importance of religion and morality to the health and longevity of our republic.

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

George Washington in his Farewell Address is also quoted on this theme:

And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Contrary to revisionist lies claiming the founders were a bunch of deists and secularists, the vast majority of the founders were most assuredly serious, committed Christians who understood how important the Christian worldview was to the maintenance of our freedom and our republic.

The importance of this truth cannot be overstated. One of the most unique things about the American form of government is that while it acknowledges the fallen nature of humanity and the tendency toward evil, the very freedoms we enjoy are contingent on a society of people who understand the need to control ones self, to restrain ones self from evil; only a moral, religious people can have any hope of doing so. A people that can restrain themselves from evil through the dictates of conscience has less need of a strong, authoritarian government. A people who live for license and intend to get away with everything they possibly can will naturally need a strong, authoritarian government to maintain order and to protect other citizens from the egregious employment of personal license.

Unfortunately, these last 50 years of our war on God have illustrated the proof of this truth, in both the growth of crime and corruption, and in the growth of government power. And the loss of freedom.

Daniel Webster reiterated these truths:

Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits. . . .Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.

Probe also cites John Jay, one of the authors of the Federalist Papers and first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court:

Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.

It stands to reason that if you have a nation whose government is founded on Christian principles (as ours is), the best choice for leaders in that government is men who believe in those principles. On the other hand, if you choose immoral or amoral men for leaders, you will get immoral or amoral leadership–as we have seen.

Probe points out that even the least religious of the founders like Thomas Jefferson were deeply influenced by the Christian worldview. The English jurist William Blackstone and his Commentaries on the Laws of England were among Jefferson’s favorites.

It was Blackstone who referred famously to the Natural Law (i.e. the law of nature and Nature’s God)

“as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should, in all points, conform to his Maker’s will. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature.”

Blackstone also wasn’t shy about acknowledging that God’s truth was revealed in both nature and in specific revelation in the Bible–and that all good law depends on this ultimate Law:

Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws.

Whether you know something of America’s rich Christian heritage and foundations, or whether you’ve been misled by the secular revisionists who wish this had never been (to their own detriment, they are unable to understand), consider taking the time to read or listen to this important Probe series.

Note: Reader comments are reviewed before publishing, and only salient comments that add to the topic will be published. Profanity is absolutely not allowed and will be summarily deleted. Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will also be deleted.