In 1836, Noah Webster, often considered “The Father of American Education,” believed that the purpose of schools was to advance the Christian faith. “In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed…No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
Tragically, the Biblical values upon which the nation was founded and thrived have come under continual assault and it continues today. John Dewey, a philosopher and psychologist born October 20, 1859, is known as “The Architect of Modern Education.” He said, “There is no God, and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion.”
Is it any wonder that America, the richest country in the world now falls behind even some Third World nations in student performance today? American schools now are considered a Jesus-free zone while poor village children in Communist Vietnam can wear backpacks declaring ‘Jesus Loves Me’ on them?
Abortions and deviant sexual lifestyles can be obtained at school here and a student has a shot at being molested or engaging in a sexual encounter with a teacher. Meanwhile, the union controlled schools protect the perverts and even knowing hire them.
It is no surprise that our founding history has been dumbed-down, revised, and attacked in schools today. Much has even been hidden or discarded. However, any serious look at the original writings, personal correspondence, biographies and public statements of the founders will reveal lives directed by a Christian worldview.
Not every founder was a Christian convert, but even the few that were not were influenced by Biblical principles that shaped their political ideals. This Biblical thinking can be noted in our founding documents. The Declaration of Independence identified the source of all authority and rights as “The Creator” and not government. They were God-given, not man-made rights.
There would be no king or established religion to stand in the path of human liberty or dignity – both uniquely Judeo – Christian ideals. An oft-repeated phrase in the colonies was “No King but Jesus.”
While the term “Founding Fathers” could describe a larger group, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention included 28 Episcopalians, 8 Presbyterians, 7 Congregationalists, 2 Lutherans, 2 Dutch Reformed, 2 Methodists, 2 Roman Catholics, 1 unknown, and 3 deists (belief in an impersonal God who started the world but left it to itself). So, 93% of this body were church members or were deeply influenced by a biblical view of man and government.”
The last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence Charles Carroll said, “Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure…are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security of the duration of free governments.”
The churches were the primary source of revolutionary activism telling colonists that the British government was usurping their God-given rights, and the King and Parliament were violating the laws of God. Founders believed that it was their sacred duty to uphold the law of God against the unjust and oppressive laws of man.
In 1775, the Lutheran pastor John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg spoke from Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. Concluding he said, “In the language of the Holy Writ, there is a time for all things. There is a time to preach and a time to fight. And now is the time to fight.”
He then removed his clerical robes to reveal a uniform of a Revolutionary Army officer. That same afternoon, leading 300 men, he marched off to join General Washington’s troops and became Colonel of the 8th Virginia Regiment.
Ministers turned the colonial resistance into a righteous cause and served at every level of the conflict, from military chaplains to members of the state legislatures to taking up arms to leading troops to battle.
Patrick Henry’s words were true, “Three million people, armed with the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.”
Tragically, John Dewey, Barack the Narcissist and others who come in the same socialist and Godless spirit have replaced a God-given liberty with a Satanic lawlessness and rebellion. It’s working very well and the sooner ministers and church people wake-up the better.