How many preachers signed the constitution

He was the last of the signers to die in Perhaps the background of religious belief in the Revolutionary period is best represented by a famous speech made by Benjamin Franklin on June 28, , to the Constitutional Convention 11 years after the original declaration.

Reminding the Constitutional Convention that in the days of the original Declaration of Independence, the signers had begun every session with prayers, he called for the following:.

In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor.

To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? Deism is a philosophical belief in human reason as a reliable means of solving social and political problems. Deists believe in a supreme being who created the universe to operate solely by natural laws—and after creation, is absent from the world.

This belief in reason over dogma helped guide the founders toward a system of government that respected faiths like Christianity, while purposely isolating both from encroaching on one another so as not to dilute the overall purpose and objectives of either.

James Madison, for instance, was vigorously opposed to religious intrusions into civil affairs. In his first term as president, Thomas Jefferson declared his firm belief in the separation of church and state in a letter to the Danbury, Conn.

Washington read it and approved it, although it was not ratified by the senate until John Adams had become president. But those who argue that America is a Christian nation usually mean something more, insisting that the country should be officially Christian. The very character of our country is at stake in the outcome of this debate.

Religious Right groups and their allies insist that the United States was designed to be officially Christian and that our laws should enforce the doctrines of their version of Christianity.

Is this viewpoint accurate? Is there anything in the Constitution that gives special treatment or preference to Christianity? Did the founders of our government believe this or intend to create a government that gave special recognition to Christianity? The answer to all of these questions is no. The U. Constitution is a wholly secular document. It contains no mention of Christianity or Jesus Christ.

In fact, the Constitution refers to religion only twice in the First Amendment, which bars laws "respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," and in Article VI, which prohibits "religious tests" for public office. Both of these provisions are evidence that the country was not founded as officially Christian.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;. The Founding Fathers did not create a secular government because they disliked religion. Many were believers themselves. Yet they were well aware of the dangers of church-state union. They had studied and even seen first-hand the difficulties that church-state partnerships spawned in Europe. During the American colonial period, alliances between religion and government produced oppression and tyranny on our own shores.

Many colonies, for example, had provisions limiting public office to "Trinitarian Protestants" and other types of laws designed to prop up the religious sentiments of the politically powerful.

Some colonies had officially established churches and taxed all citizens to support them, whether they were members or not. Dissenters faced imprisonment, torture and even death. These arrangements led to bitterness and sectarian division. Many people began agitating for an end to "religious tests" for public office, tax subsidies for churches and other forms of state endorsement of religion.

Those who led this charge were not anti-religion. Hence the First Amendment. If you are using "Republicanism" in its 18th century meaning as diversly understood within the zeitgiest of the time, which I believe you do, than I cannot disagree with the contents of your post. I'll not go so far as to say that what died with the founding generation "deserved to die. That we would "deeply disagree" would not be surprising, or for that matter of any lasting or significant importance.

Schweikart's article is supported by the political, religious and intellectual history of the founding generation and the early republic. James Hutson had done a lot of work on government practices that openly endorsed Christianity. It is hard to read documents in these periods and not see generous doses of Christian rhetoric along with Republicanism. The term Christian Nation can get the blood boiling and needs to be carefully explained I prefer not to use it because of its 21st century baggage , but in many respects we were a "Christian nation".

To the extent historians have missed early Christian influences at the expense of secularism and revolutionary philosophy, they have really missed the mark badly. Jefferson and Paine obviously made great contributions to the U.

Some of what they built deserved to die -- three-fifths compromise, etc. If the author is correct in his statement that half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence had "divinity school training" this presumably simply reflects the fact that those who had attended college had to take mandatory religion courses. I believe that all colleges in the colonies in the middle third of the 18th Century when those founders who had the benefit of higher education would have been attending college were basically religious institutions.

It is certainly incorrect to imply that the mere attendance at such an institution implies an intention to seek ordination. I suppose that most or all colleges and universities in the Islamic world today have mandatory religion courses. If someone who wishes to be an engineer or a physician has to take mandatory courses in the Koran to attend university, that does not make his attendance at the university any sort of affirmation of religious faith.

The "social and political fabric" of this country is already torn apart with America having ceased representing the kind of country the founding generation crafted a very long time ago. What they built died with them. Your right, today's America is something else. New Amsterdam and the southern colonies? While to be sure by the colonies were in British, although soon not to be, control, the Dutch founded what became New York and the southern colonies were mostly founded as profit making ventures.

While these folks were indeed religious in the 17th century sense, their motives were monetary not religous. Most historians know quite well that the founding of the colonies is much more complicated than Mr. Schweikart suggests. Also, what of Rhode Island, that was founded because of the religious orthodoxy of the Puritans. While it is interesting to note that many of the signers of the Declaration had religious training, it does not follow that the U. By , those who debated and wrote the Constitution knew full well the problems of state sponsored religion.

Now, did Judeo-Christian values shape some of their lives, sure. But to say that the nation was founded as a Christian nation is drawing a simple conclusion from a complex story. As usual, history is much too complex for simple answers. That is why it is so much fun to debate. This is the problem with "originalism": even if Schweikart is right, and I don't believe that he is, this is not the Founder's nation anymore.

Defining American identity through specific religious formulations is a step towards a virulent and narrow nationalism which would tear the social and political fabric of this nation asunder.

Unfortunately, for this position, it must be remembered that Jefferson rewrote the New Testament in order to excise what he did not like. Franklin and Adams also "rewrote" Christianity for their liking. Their definition of Christianity is not that of a true Bible believing Judeo-Christian.

Moses was a "tyrant" in Jefferson's eyes G-d forbid! The Greeks were his model. They understood the necessity of a Godly value system, as they defined it. We should remember how much of this Ethical Certainty we have lost on this Memorial Day. The epidemic of divorce and adultery, celebrated on such disgusting programs as "Desparate Housewives" and "Sex in the City", along with "Friends" and other cesspools, is a direct result of leaving that value system.

In a day and age when Deists and Freethinkers of old are more G-dly than so-called "Christians" of today, we are in sad times. No, the Founders did not create a Christian Nation. The shame is on you, not on the Founders or on the modern liberals. During the Constitutional Convention's most contentious moments, it was Franklin who not only offered a prayer but who added: Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.