Growing up as a child, I have always heard that our "Founding Fathers" were Christian and that our government was based upon Christian morals. God is mentioned in almost every document of our country, but did the writers really mean the Christian God?
In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin he writes on page 232 of our anthology, "And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all Humility to acknowledge, that I owe the mention'd Happiness of my past Life to his kind Providence, which led me to the means I us'd and gave them Success." In this passage he is thanking God for allowing himself to be successful. Later on in a letter to Franklin from Benjamin Vaghan, he writes , ..." will show that you are ashamed of no origin; a thing the more important, as you prove how little necessary all origin is to happiness, virtue, or greatness." Mr. Vaghan is saying that Benjamin Franklin does not believe in the Christian view of "the fall", or when sin entered into humanity and because of one person's sin, everyone else is born a sinner. That is why we need God. We depend on everything from him. What Benjamin Franklin wrote at the beginning of his autobiography just contradicted what his friend wrote to him. Was our country really founded on Christian values? I am not sure. What do you think?
I think that our country is founded on religious values. As you commented, Franklin seemed religious but perhaps he was not "Christian." I belive it is telling further on in his autobiography how he mentions that all religions seem to have similar focuses and he respects all of them.
ReplyDeleteSo I think the United States was founded on a lot of good values, beliefs, morals, and ideals that are commonly found in Christianity.