An Interview with David Barton
What can Christians do to return the U.S. to a “Christian nation?’
The fifth societal product of Christianity was benevolence. Consider: our nation is the most benevolent on the face of the earth. When tragedy – whether earthquake, famine, tsunami, war, or whatever – strikes any nation, Americans rush in to help. We are the first there, even if it is the nation of an enemy or that of a completely different faith. Where did Americans learn this benevolence that is lacking in so many other nations?
The Founders believed they knew the answer. For example, signer of the Declaration Richard Henry Lee declared: “Christianity, in its tenderness for human infirmities, strongly inculcates principles of benevolence.” Founder James Kent (a famous judge and a “Father of American Jurisprudence”) also declared: “Christianity introduces a better and more enlightened sense of right and justice. It teaches the duty of benevolence to strangers.” And John Adams similarly explained: “Christian benevolence makes it our indispensable duty to lay ourselves out to serve our fellow-creatures to the utmost of our power.” Many others made similar statements.
The truth remains, that Americans – even non-Christian ones – have been instructed in Christian benevolence as a general principle, even if they do not recognize the source of that trait. Finally, the Founders believed that teaching Judeo-Christian principles produced a cohesive system of common values, without which it would eventually become impossible successfully to govern a nation composed of millions of individuals of diverse backgrounds and from scores of different ethnic and religious groups. These common values were inculcated throughout society in a number of manners, including through public education.
For example, on August 7, 1789, President George Washington signed the first federal law on education, declaring that schools were to teach the “religion, morality, and knowledge” which was “necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind.” And numerous other Founding Fathers – including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin who often rejected fundamental tenets of orthodox Christian theology – openly promoted the inculcation of Judeo-Christian principles throughout American society. Therefore, even an American atheist learned that it was wrong to steal, to murder, to commit adultery, etc. Americans, from the most pious minister to the most ardent atheist, had been taught a common value system.
Therefore, in conclusion, a “Christian nation,” in my opinion, is a nation whose society benefits from the effects of the open and widespread teaching of Christianity. Therefore, its civil government tolerates and even embraces Judeo-Christian principles in the public arena rather than opposes and penalizes them (as we currently do through our judicial and educational systems).