Faith of founding fathers, part 1: Were they Christian?

As America is getting into the swing of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, there have been a lot of discussions regarding whether or not American was founded as a Christian nation. As a descendant of many of the people from England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Germany, who settled in the colonies, I’ve been doing a lot of research into the founding of this nation and discovered some interesting facts. I’ll explore these facts in a series of articles, which will definitely be a simplified version of history.

Faith played a major role in the lives of most of the people of the time, specifically some version of the Christian faith which had dominated Europe for centuries. Religious freedom was very important to the colonists. Their ancestors had experienced religious wars for generations.

Beginning with the Great Schism of 1054, when the Eastern Orthodox of the East and the Catholic Church in the West parted ways, history is replete with persecutions of people who had differing religious points of view, pagan or Christian, than their political rulers or the prevailing culture.

For those who would become Americans, the main conflict began when Martin Luther, a Catholic priest and former Augustinian monk, nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the All’s Saints Chapel in Wurttemburg Germany. This act triggered what history calls “The Reformation.” As the movement grew to reform some of the practices of the Catholic church which Luther and others deemed to be an overreach not supported by the teachings of Christ in the Bible, it began to separate into various factions and blossomed into a new social movement called “Protestantism.”

The original Protestants were a group of princes and free cities who followed Luther and took a stand against the Catholic church when it banned Luther’s writings and declared him a heretic. It was their position that if they were forced to choose between obeying God or obeying the Emperor, they would choose God. Sound familiar? Going forward this would be the underlying mantra for all the religious wars to follow, and the foundation of religious liberty in the minds of the those who would build the template for American Liberty.

Of the 54 signers of the Declaration of Independence: 24 were Episcopalian, 14 were Congregationalists, 11 were Presbyterians, 2 were Quaker, 1 Baptist, 1 Lutheran, and 1 Roman Catholic. Benjamin Franklin didn’t claim a religion but he was raised Presbyterian, and John Adams begin as a Congregationalist but converted to Unitarianism.

Thomas Jefferson is another story. Though raised as an Episcopalian he claimed no particular church membership and would probably be classified as a non-denominational Christian in today’s world. Not content with simply crafting a new nation, Jefferson crafted his own Bible in his later years. His goal was to extract only the moral teachings of Jesus Christ in their purity. He cut and pasted passages from six versions of the New Testament – in Greek, Latin, French, and English. From these he created an 86 page book called “The Life and Morals of Jesus Christ.” In a July 1822 letter to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, he wrote, “Happy in the prospect of a restoration of primitive Christianity, I must leave to younger athletes to encounter and lop off the false branches which have been engrafted into it by the mythologists of the middle and modern ages.”

My own ancestors who lived in colonial times and places include: 34 Congregationalists, 5 Reformed, 5 Lutheran, 3 Anglican/Episcopalian, 2 Presbyterians, 2 Quakers, 2 United Brethren (Moravian and Dunkers), 1 Mennonite, 1 Baptist, and 1 Huguenot lineage. They were from: England, Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.

In future articles, I’ll explore the beliefs of each of America’s founding religions and their contribution to America, and how my ancestors fit into the scheme of things.

You can explore your ancestors too. There are several well-known paid services you can use, but FamilySearch.org is free, and sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you need help, you can find FamilySearch centers locations online to connect with a Family History Consultant. The Palmer FamilySearch center is located in the chapel at 560 W Bogard Rd, Palmer. Call (907) 745-8774 for more information during hours of operation: Tuesday 10 am-8:30 pm; Wednesday 6-8:30 pm; Thursday 2-6 pm.

Karen is member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints experiencing life as a wife, mother, grandmother, writer, genealogy junkie, and political activist.