Faith and the Founding Fathers

Human beings are born with an inherent desire to know who they are. We have a desire for an identity, and most people search for theirs with such zeal that if they can’t find their identity it often drives them into depression and low self esteem. This is why people build family trees, research their national origins, and ask the oldest members of their family about their own deceased parents and grandparents. Often, connecting to the past is a way for us to find out more about who we are. I, for example, became far more infatuated with beer when I found out how German I was, and I became far more infatuated with green grass, Irish literature and film, and potatoes when I found out how Irish I was. Did I love these things before I engaged in the knowledge of my family’s roots, yes to a degree, but my passion for these things accelerated dramatically when I felt connected to a history of people who embraced these things as a culture. This is really an odd thing—why should my habits change based on a loose connection to old dead people from countries I’ve never been to? How do I even know if my distant relatives from these lands ever engaged in these prototypical cultural dinstinctives? It’s possible that I could be starting a tradition rather than continuing one.

Because I enjoy literature—and because Ireland has produced some of the greatest literature the world has ever known—I like to picture some Irish relative sitting next to a fire, staying out of the rain, eating a potato cake, pounding a beer, and reading a classic novel. If my relatives didn’t engage in such activities I might be disappointed. I have created a revisionist history of my family in my own mind to accommodate my search for identity.

Today is one of my heroes’ birthday. I am an admirer of George Washington, I’ve studied his life and leadership, as well as his thought, and I have spent some time this week meditating on his contributions to our country. Thinking through this habit that most of us have of identifying with our past to define the present, and meditating on the significance of what today is, I felt it appropriate to discuss the American tendency of revising history to feel connected to something bigger than ourselves, to find an identity. I feel strongly that of all of the societies of America, Christians are guiltier of these revisions than any.

I can’t tell you how many paintings I have seen in Christian bookstores of George Washington reading a Bible or standing next to a horse with a Scripture verse under the scene. I can’t tell you how many books I have seen on Christian bookstore shelves around the 4th of July that point out that our country was founded by Bible-believing Christians. Worst of all, I can’t tell you how many Christians I have heard call this country a Christian one, or say that “all of the founders were Christians”, or say specifically that George Washington was a believer. In reality, none of these things are true. In fact, of all of the men commonly regarded as our key founding fathers—Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, Burr, Monroe, Paine, and Madison— none of them were followers of Jesus in the Spiritual sense, save Hamilton; and he did not come to Christ until he was on his death bed. Washington was a deist and a mason and believed that the Bible was a simple moral guideline for building legislation and bringing peace, he did not see it as a book that brought forth the words of life. A few of the men listed above were atheist, and one was even hostile towards all religion … especially Christians.

So why are we as Christians so guilty of revising history and creating tall tales of a Christian past that doesn’t exist? I think that this is partly because our country was indeed founded on the principles of the Bible, but being founded on the Bible and being founded on Jesus is not always the same thing. I think the other major reason is because we are searching for an identity. We as Christians want to identify with our founders as deeply as possible so that we can build an identity that involves our dual citizenship, our citizenship in heaven and our citizenship on earth. Because all of America is infatuated with wanting to know what the founding fathers thought of any issue in current debate, if Christians can claim a powerful Christian past then we can attempt to claim a powerful Christian future as well. The problem is that in the process we are putting ideas in the minds of the founders that were never there while they were alive. We are claiming people for the cause of Christianity who themselves never claimed Jesus for the cause of saving their souls. Ultimately the question must be asked, why do we do this to begin with? Is it necessary?

The answer is no—it’s not. China is communist today and has no Christian background, yet they are far more influenced by true Christianity than we are. Why is that? Where should we find our identity? Stay tuned for part two.

The whole Jesus - He's not what you think.

Christians are in love with the idea that Jesus is their Savior. We cherish the concept—we tell stories about his saving work including our own testimonies of the day we "got saved", we plead with people to come to Christ as they are and receive Jesus as their "personal Lord and Savior". Too often this recognition of Jesus as Savior remains simply cognitive. For this saving concept to transcend the conceptual and become efficacious in a believers life, Jesus needs to be viewed with a more holistic approach.

Jesus did not simply come to earth in a human suit to be your Savior; he came to be your King and to issue a fuller form of the Kingdom of God than what was in place under the old covenant. Numbers 23:21 declares Yahweh to be the King of his people, which at this point was directed solely at Israel. In the book of 1 Samuel, Israel rejects God’s reign over them and demands a human king. Samuel warns the Israelites that this is a bad idea; why would anyone reject a perfect and good King to take on a fallen and finite one?

Since Israel’s rejection of Yahweh—really since the fall of man in the Garden—human history has been about one thing. American Christians are often arrogant enough to think that it’s about us. Silly us. Human history is about Jesus, not only redeeming the debt of his people because of sin, but restoring the Kingdom to the King. For the Kingdom to be restored the same sin that led Israel to reject the king in the first place had to be dealt with, thus the need for Jesus’ sacrificial death on the Cross.

While on earth, Jesus said things like, “The Kingdom is at hand”, and that the Kingdom was “the purpose for which I have come.” Jesus arrived on earth to reveal a progressive nature and fuller consummation of the Kingdom so that people would not only seek salvation to save their own tails, but so that they would realize that there is a King who deserves to be worshiped, obeyed, and engaged in relationship. Jesus isn’t saving people to pack churches full of hypocrites—he’s saving people to advance a Kingdom that he already reigns over as King.

Would any of you walk through an American mall sporting a shaved head and wearing burlap and sandals? Of course not, because you’re not a post war Japanese monk, such attire would be normal for them but freakish for us. Why is it so easy for us to obey the customs of our American culture, but when it comes time to obey the King in his own Kingdom we either ignore him or symbolically spit in his face by showing no regard for his commands? Jesus’ Kingdom is of another world (John 18), but it also includes this world. The Scriptures say many things about God ruling from sea to sea and owning all things, including humans. Do we want to be guilty of rejecting the King like the Israelites in 1 Samuel? If you think they were foolish, look in the mirror.