A Talk with David Barton
What can Christians do to return the U.S. to a “Christian nation?’
The Christianity practiced in America was described by John Jay as “wise and virtuous,” by John Quincy Adams as “civilized,” and by John Adams as “rational.” A clear distinction was drawn between American Christianity and that of Europe in earlier centuries. As Noah Webster explained: “The ecclesiastical establishments of Europe which serve to support tyrannical governments are not the Christian religion but abuses and corruptions of it.” Daniel Webster similarly explained that American Christianity was: “Christianity to which the sword and the fagot [burning stake or hot branding iron] are unknown – general tolerant Christianity is the law of the land!”
Furthermore, the Christianity practiced in America was not threatened by other religions, nor did it try to exclude them. The American Founders believed that truth would prevail on its own merits and did not need the sword of government to produce compliance and enforce conformity. In fact, American Christianity generally adopted the attitude which Elijah demonstrated in his confrontation with the prophets of Baal on top of Mt. Carmel: he offered them the opportunity – and even extra opportunities – to practice their religion, to pray, to seek to rouse Baal, etc.; he simply insisted, however, that he also be allowed to make his appeal to God; the results would speak for themselves. As Founder Ezra Stiles (1727-1795, a military chaplain during the American Revolution and then the president of Yale), explained in 1783:
Here [in America] will be no bloody tribunals, no cardinal’s inquisitors-general to bend the human mind. . . . Religion may here receive its last, most liberal, and impartial examination. Religious liberty is peculiarly friendly to fair and generous disquisition. Here Deism will have its full chance; nor need libertines more to complain of being overcome by any weapons but the gentle, the powerful ones of argument and truth. Revelation will be found to stand the test to the ten thousandth examination.
True Christianity has nothing to fear from other religions; in fact, if a Christian fears the power of another religion, then perhaps he is in the wrong religion and should join the one whose power he fears.
The Christianity practiced in America, as compared with the rest of the “civilized” world, was open, protecting freedom of religion and freedom of conscience of others – even of dissenters and non-believers. This Christianity was behind the abolition movement, the civil rights movement, and the urban renewal movements – quite unlike the established Christianity that largely characterized Europe.