Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
Bill McGurn ·
March 7, 2011 at 11:19pm
Archbishop Charles Chaput, in a keynote address at Georgetown, on the American experiment and global religious freedom.
One of his more interesting reminders is that "America was born Protestant." In other words, unlike other countries in Europe where Protestantism took hold, there was no Catholicism prior to Protestantism. Gives us a very different heritage.
In a related note, Evelyn Waugh once wrote that "we are all born American but we all die French."
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Re: Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
It's great to hear an American Bishop speak with such authority on concrete issues and in such specific terms.
"At the heart of the American model of religious liberty is a Christian vision of the sanctity and destiny of the human person."
This raises two questions for me:
1. If democracy in Africa and the middle east leads to more persecutions of Christian minorities, hence even less religious liberty, have they improved anything over there?
2. With 40,000 different protestant denominations and one Catholic one (with a tiny exceptions like Pius Xthers), perhaps we were born protestant, but as adults, are we more of a Catholic nation than anything else?
With strong American Bishops like Chaput and Dolan, we could do a lot worse (than be a Catholic nation). And in L.A. we have nothing but high hopes for our Opus Dei formed new Archbishop Jose Gomez.
Edited on March 8, 2011 at 6:23amSep '10
Re: Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
Could someone explain Mr. Waugh's quote to me? I am too ignorant to penetrate it.
Nov '10
Re: Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
I was thinking just the same thing.
On the Protestant/Catholic thing, I think it is narrower than that. It was really the non-conformist Protestants (Puritans, Anabaptists, et al) who were the real founding majority.
Re: Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
of U.S. Founding Fathers
Founding
Fathers
Founding
Fathers
Source:
http://www.adherents.com/gov/Founding_Fathers_Religion.html
Don't know if it is accurate or not, but it's on the Internet!
Jun '10
Re: Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
I could be wrong, but I think it means that we're optimists when born, and cynics when we die.
May '10
Re: Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
The Bishop explains his observation on the founding of the US more fully later in the talk contrasting the American and French revolutions (quoting Bonhoeffer) . In France the crown and the church were traditionally affiliated, but the American founders, especially those with Puritan roots, held no such feelings. The American revolution was therefore a replacement of an earthly power with free men living under the "sovereignty of God."
Later the Bishop says, "In the vision of America‘s Founders, God endows each of us with spiritual freedom and inherent rights so that we can fulfill our duties toward him and each other. Our rights come from God, not from the state. Government is justified only insofar as it secures those natural rights, promotes them and defends them."
and
"We are created for a religious purpose. We have a religious destiny. Our right to pursue this destiny precedes the state."
There's more, all worth reading. Thanks, Bill for bringing it to our attention.
May '10
Re: Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
Bishop Chaput makes a point that the once broadly understood "idea of a civil society pre-existing and distinct from the state" and of "rights [that] come from God, not from the state" are less well understood now, even, perhaps especially, amongst the ruling class.
The religious convictions of the founding generation informed their understanding of the relationship between the state, the people and the ultimate source of authority and rights. They held that authority flows to the state through the people (who receive it from God). That is not commonly held around the world and now not much believed in Washington. God has been once again replaced by the state.
Chaput's statement that the expression of religious faith "demand a public space" and on how we, in foreign policy, "overestimate the appeal of Washington-style secularity" are also worth discussion.
Feb '11
Re: Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
It's interesting to consider the inherent conflict between this idea and those described in Andrew McCarthy's recent article in NRO "Jean-Jacques Jihad".
"Nevertheless, for all their differences, what unites Islamists and leftists is stronger than what presently divides them. They both support totalitarian systems. They would both attempt to recreate mankind, intending to perfect us by indenturing us to their utopian schemes. Their general will cannot abide free will. They both abhor individual liberty, unfettered reason, freedom of conscience, equality of opportunity rather than result, and bourgeois values that inculcate a devotion to bedrock Western principles and traditions."
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/261366/jean-jacques-jihad-andrew-c-mccarthy?page=2
Aug '10
Re: Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
Tommy, that's a great chart except that the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Reformed and Hugenots were all Calvinist. Bishop Chaput would also have been correct to say "America was born Calvinist." Thus, our federal system of government is the presbyterian form of government imported from John Knox's Scotland. Checks and balances, forms of appeal to higher courts. They believed, above all things that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick: who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9.
Aug '10
Re: Faith of Our (Founding) Fathers
Sorry, duplicate post.
Edited on March 8, 2011 at 9:24pm