Yesterday at our church service we had a guest speaker, Bill Federer. He is an author, a historian focusing on the Christian heritage in America. Like our pastor said, this man has forgotten more then everything I will ever learn! His wealth of knowledge was unbelievable. He talked at a crazy fast pace, about Presidents, the first 13 colonies, on and on. Now that I am reading my biographies/autobiographies, my nonfictions, I will have to check out one of his books. I quickly wanted to repeat (as best I can) 3 things he said to us yesterday that really stuck out to me.
#1. When talking about one of his books (the one I most want to read) "Three Secular Reasons Why America Should Be Under God". Mr. Federer made an analogy that I continue to think about. He was talking about the idea of "every man created equal." He said that if Americans appreciated and believed this ideal then they are supporting an idea from God. The idea is alone a Judeo-Christian belief. It is certainly not Islamic, women and infidels are worth much less. It is not Hindu because they have some 7 levels of worthiness...(something to that effect anyways, I don't have a clue about that religion). Where does "all created equal" come from? From Genesis, in that all men where created in the image of God. America at its creation was rooted in Christianity, he went into further detail about the 13 colonies, etc. (Hang in there, here comes the analogy) Mr. Federer said "now does this mean there is no place for another religion in the United States? No, but if you like the table you have to have respect for its legs."
Cool, I realize that it loses something in my translation but I hope that you understand the gist. It's a great thought!
#2. This one was just AN INCREDIBLE quote from President Lincoln. Read it, and then read it again!!!
"But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own."
Yeah, read it a 3rd time, it's awesome!
#3. Simply that you can go the bones of Muhammad and Buddha, you can go to the grave of Jesus, but HE WON'T BE THERE! Christianity is the ONLY religion where our Savior is alive! And PRAISE GOD for that! Jesus brought people back to life. In no other religion does that happen. Jesus himself came back to life and He is coming to get us too!
I enjoyed listening to Mr. Federer. His new book is on Islam. That I'm sure would be an interesting read too. ***Here is my quick disclaimer, I obviously have not read any of his books so if you were to get one and it said something crazy in it, sorry! I just listened to him yesterday and so much of what he said rang true with me.*** It was amazing the amount of quotes he could rattle off. WOW. I only wish I were a better writer and so you guys could really grasp what it was like to hear him but I can only offer this. Read that Lincoln quote again. AMAZING!
6 comments:
For all those romantic thoughts about the Christian founding of America and "all men are created equal", that simply was not the case back then, just ask the thousands of slaves. The table legs aren't quite as nice as he makes them out to be. Yep, it's Thad who can't keep his mouth shut on this topic.
It is silly to say that our founding fathers were not believers. As far as "all men created equal" I read in my GW biography they didn't consider the slave issue then because they didn't know if the NEW country as a whole would survive through such a major change. But they knew the time was coming and it certainly DID! The country righted itself. (No, I am not approving their call, slavery was horrible and unjust, of course I know that!)But lets not pretend no one thought of it. And yes, I do know some 'fathers' owned slaves.
I think the legs of our nation are strong, they have lasted for 232 years now and they do encompass Christian ideals, like it or not!
Here are some more fun quotes for you: "We believe that all men are created equal, because they are created in the image of God" - Harry S Truman, 1949, Inaugural Address
"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people, it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other" - John Adams, 1798, Letter to the Massachusetts Third Division.
I know that I can't really compete with you Thaddeus in the category of history. But I do know that our country having faith and knowing God is a good and precious thing that we desperately need to get back to!!!
Happy Harmon Family,
I don't know you guys, but I stumbled across your blog and read this first entry (I hope that is ok...)
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One of my favorite historical facts to help prove that our founding fathers intended to build our nation on a Christian foundation is... in 1787 James Madison (a devout Christian) proposed the idea of splitting our government into 3 branches (The Judicial, legislative and executive) based on Isaiah 33:22. "The Lord is our judge (Judicial), the Lord is our lawgiver (Legislative), the Lord is our King (Executive)" So, to anyone who refutes the Christian foundation claim we can say, "The infrastructure of our government was based on Isaiah 33:22!" Pretty cool.
Jim
It's Thad again. Our founding fathers began this built our nation upon the ideas of philosphers, ideas from the Enlightenment, and the model of Roman government. Religion had never believed in democracy and all forms of Christianity Protestant to Catholic were operated based on a heirarchical system completely opposite to our future government. Influence for our system of government and principles come from Locke, Montesquieu, the Roman example, and many others. It was using the new ideas regarding people, liberty, and governments that this country has based it's beginning.
Wow Jess, looks like you got quite the discussion stirred up!
Thanks for this post! I am glad you had such an interesting sermon-we rarely do! I have to weigh in on this as I teach AP US History. I have to whole heartedly agree with Thad and remember that I am also a devoted Christian. Our system of government, our founding fathers, and our social fabric reflects only VERY LOOSELY the ideals of the Bible. Slavery...case in point. The first economic plan implemented under Washington and organized by Hamilton designed to benefit the wealthy - most certainly does not reflect Christ's message of concern for the poor. The founding fathers were largely interested in a democratic system that supported the needs of the wealthy aristocratic. If you remember at the Constitutional Convention in 1789, there were 55 wealthy white males minus Thomas Jefferson who was in France. There was no regard for the minorities, the rights of Natives were trampled and indentured servants were horribly mistreated under the rule of law. This does not sound like Christian ethic to me!
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