Liberals Lie About Our Beginnings

November 11, 2001

by Charles E. Perry

I spend some of my time in chat rooms online, and one thing I hear over and over again is that the Founders were not Christian, and the Christian faith had nothing at all to do with the beginnings of our nation. Well, that’s the biggest pack of lies I’ve ever heard.

Jefferson, who had nothing at all to do with the writing of the Constitution, is always presented as a Deist. "Deist" being defined as one who believes in God, but not Christianity. That’s another huge lie. Jefferson was a Christian, and an active member of a Christian church. But Jefferson had nothing to do with the writing of the Constitution. He was Ambassador to France at the time, and took no part at all in the constitutional convention.

Of those who did take part, quite a few were ordained Pastors, lay Pastors, and Deacons of various churches. The philosophy that all men are equal in the sight of God comes straight from the Bible, hence the basis of the philosophy that all men should be equal in the sight of government. In fact, when the constitutional convention found itself at an impasse, and it looked like they would be unable to complete their task, they prayed for guidance.

That’s right, they adjourned to consult with God, and upon their return they hammered out a compromise which resulted in our Constitution. This action doesn’t sound like men who had no faith in God, and to portray them as such is a false representation of history. This becomes even clearer when you consider the first act of the new Congress under the Constitution was to pick a chaplain to open each session with prayer.

Now there is an absurdity if ever I saw one: Congress can do something that every schoolkid in America is forbidden by law to do. In fact, the Supreme Court has ruled that legislatures can begin their sessions with prayer, because it is a part of our cultural heritage. But try to begin the school day with a generic prayer, and the court will stomp on you with both feet. Does anyone else see hypocrisy in this?

The Supreme Court has the Ten Commandments on the wall of the Supreme Court building as an example of law, but let a local judge try and post them, and the Supreme Court will throw a hissy fit. Did I mention hypocrisy already? It seems to abound in our courts, and in those who teach history.

The plain truth is that those who founded our nation were Christians. They used Christian principles when they wrote our Constitution. They didn’t want an official, tax supported church, but that doesn’t mean they intended to stifle any mention of religion by government, or that they intended those in government to be without religion.

But liberals lie about our beginnings. They try and paint a picture of the Founders as men without faith. It’s a lie, but a lie many buy into blindly. It’s up to us, those of faith, to counter the lie. We need to tell the truth about the men who wrote our Constitution, and the philosophical underpinnings they used. We cannot be silent. To be silent is to surrender and to give the liars the victory.

While our Founders did not want any one church to dominate, they were undeniably Christian. They saw the Christian faith as truth, and intended it to prosper under our rule of law. To use our law as an excuse to suppress the Christian faith is an abomination. It is not what they intended at all. They intended to create a land where Christianity could flourish, in all its myriad forms.

So the Constitution doesn’t forbid Nativity scenes or school prayer. That’s a lie, and it’s up to us, as Christians, to fight liberal lies. An "establishment of religion," my friends, is an official, tax supported church, and that’s the only thing the Constitution forbids.

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Charles E. Perry is a freelance writer living in Michigan. He has done a variety of things in his life, including Ward Supervisor at the State of Michigan's Maximum Security Mental Facility. His degree is in accounting, but he discovered writing and now spends his time hunched over a keyboard, hollow-eyed, looking for just the right word. Perry is the author of "How Government Should Work: A Look at the Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States," currently pending publication.

Send the author an E mail at Perry@ConservativeTruth.org.

For more of Charlie's articles, visit his archives.