History Book: A complicated inheritance

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JENNY ROUGH, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Jenny Rough.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next: Faith and the Founding.

Today, many Americans are split about whether the country was founded as a Christian nation. But some historians argue that’s the wrong kind of question to ask about our complicated political history.

WORLD’s Emma Eicher has the story.

EMMA EICHER: In September of 1774, the first Continental Congress began the opening session in Philadelphia.

And the first act was prayer.

JOHN FEA: Jacob Duché, the Anglican minister of Christ Church came to Carpenter's Hall and prayed for the Continental Congress.

That’s John Fea, an American historian who’s written extensively on religion and the Founding. He says prayer was important in the early days of American politics.

FEA: The founders were mostly united on the idea that religion, not Christianity particularly, but religion, which is the way they phrased it, was very useful for creating republican citizens.

On July 20th, 1775, Congress proposed its first spiritual proclamation. They set aside a national day of fasting to pray for wisdom for King George III, and for peace between England and the colonies. When the Revolution started, they announced similar days about once a year.

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called for a day of fasting and prayer on March 30th, 1863.

Today, advocates for a Christian Founding point to these historical examples. But Fea says the roles of religion and morality are much more nuanced than people might think. The Founders had a complex view of religion within government.

FEA: Religion was important; they understood religion as an important dimension of building a republic. On the other hand, you will also find places where they clearly want to keep religion and state separate, like the First Amendment, the disestablishment clause, or they see the events of the American Revolution unfolding in a kind of political way rather than in a necessarily primarily Christian way.

And most of the Founders were diverse in their beliefs.

FEA: Thomas Jefferson would have rejected the divinity of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and so forth. And then all the way on the other side, you have someone like John Witherspoon who might feel comfortable today worshiping in like an evangelical congregation.

Fea says for the majority of America’s history, people didn’t debate about whether the Founding was Christian, because they took it as fact.

FEA: Most Americans believed that they were living in a Christian nation. That doesn't necessarily mean they were right in believing that, or wrong in believing that, or they were interpreting the Founding correctly. They just saw themselves as living in a nation that was demographically Christian and defined in many ways by Christian culture.

That view started to change in the 1960s …

KIDS PRAYING: Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we pray God’s blessings on us, on our parents, on our teachers, and our country. Amen.

… especially after the Supreme Court ruling in Engel versus Vitale.

[NEWSCASTER]: That is the way the prayer was recited until June 25, 1962, when a 6-1 decision of the United States Supreme Court declared the practice unconstitutional.

Shifting perspectives continued into the ‘70s:

WALTER CRONKITE: In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court today legalized abortions. Thus the anti-abortion laws of 46 states were rendered unconstitutional.

Fea also cited the 1965 immigration law that allowed new immigrants from non-Western countries to enter the United States, diversifying the religious population.

FEA: All of these things created a perfect storm, if you will, that made people wonder. Who are we as a nation? Are we a Christian nation?

Fea says the answer to that is complicated.

America has had a national day of prayer since 1952. Two years later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower added the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. A Catholic group initially lobbied for it, but it was also used as a way to assert the moral authority of the United States over the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Eisenhower also made “In God We Trust” the United States’ official motto. And for more than 200 years, the government has distributed Bibles and New Testaments to all military troops.

These events can trace their roots back to the Founding, and how religion was understood to play an important role.

FEA: John Adams famously said that the United States Constitution was built for a moral and religious people. If John Adams was right, then we need to be thinking about the role that our faith might play in public life. As we live in the 21st century, I think it's something to remember. What does it mean to be moral? What does it mean to be religious?

And as laws, culture and values continue to change the country, those questions remain worth asking.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Emma Eicher.

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