The Faiths of the Founding Fathers fell into three religious categories:
1. The smallest group, founders who had left their
Judeo-Christian heritages and become advocates of the
Enlightenment religion of nature and reason called "
Deism". These figures included
Thomas Paine and
Ethan Allen.
2. The founders who remained practicing
Christians. They retained a
supernaturalist world view, a belief in the
divinity of Jesus Christ, and an adherence to the teachings of their
denomination. These founders included
Patrick Henry,
John Jay, and
Samuel Adams. Holmes also finds that most of the wives and daughters of the founders fell into this category.
3. The largest group consisted of founders who retained Christian loyalties and practice but were influenced by Deism. They believed in little or none of the miracles and supernaturalism inherent in the
Judeo-Christian tradition. Holmes finds a spectrum of such
Deistic Christians among the founders, ranging from
John Adams and
George Washington on the conservative right to
Benjamin Franklin and
James Monroe on the skeptical left.
The Faiths of the Founding Fathers - Wikipedia
Our country was formed on the belief of freedom
OF religion, not freedom
FROM religion. The cornerstone of their founding principles was not to eliminate religion in government, but to prohibit the establishment of a governing religion.
Enlightened Christians use the Bible as a source of wisdom to guide their lives, not to direct every decision they make.
Hopefully your enlightenment is imminent. Perhaps tolerance and temperateness would then follow.
