Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? Revised Edition by John Fea

Author:John Fea [Fea, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, General, Religion, Religion; Politics & State, Christianity
ISBN: 9781611646931
Google: k6E8DQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Published: 2016-10-01T00:22:42+00:00

God and the Ratification Debate

With the exception of John Jay’s Christian nationalist argument in Federalist #2 and Madison’s suggestion in Federalist #37 that the Constitutional Convention was blessed by the “finger of that Almighty Hand,” the Federalists generally did not appeal to God as a means of convincing the states to ratify the Constitution. As we have seen, there was nothing in the Constitution itself that they could appeal to in order to make such an argument. Instead, they extolled the benefits of Article VI and patted themselves on the back for championing religious freedom for officeholders. James Iredell of North Carolina, a future Supreme Court justice, went so far as to argue that he had no problem with Americans choosing political officials who were “pagans,” “Mahometans,” or had “no religion at all.” Baptist leaders, such as John Leland and Isaac Backus, were thrilled that their denomination’s 150-year fight for religious liberty in America had finally come to fruition.17

This was not the case for the Anti-Federalists, however, who openly opposed ratification. While Anti-Federalist opposition was always more political than it was religious, many Anti-Federalists rejected the Constitution because it did not make any appeals to God. Even some statesmen who were prone to give their support to the Constitution on political grounds wondered why the framers had not made the slightest mention of God in drafting the document. The writings of these constitutional skeptics present an interesting dilemma for those today who want to argue that the Constitution was a Christian document. In the eighteenth century it was those who opposed the Constitution who made the strongest arguments in favor of the United States being a Christian nation.

When Luther Martin reported on the events of the Constitutional Convention to the Maryland state legislature, he could not help including some editorial comment about the way that the convention handled the question of religion. According to Martin, “there were some members so unfashionable as to think, that a belief of the existence of a Deity, and of a state of future rewards and punishments would be some security for the good conduct of our rulers.” For Martin, the United States was a “Christian country” and the Constitution should “hold out some distinction between the professors of Christianity and downright infidelity or paganism.”18

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