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Lee v. Weisman

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Religion is the Foundation of Government
The Founding Fathers Believed Government was of God

The modern doctrine of "separation of church and state" is a myth. It is anti-American. Modern secularists have problems understanding the American relationship between religion and government because they do not understand that the Founding Fathers believed:

• Religion was the foundation of government;
• There was a true religion and there were other false religions;
• It would be suicidal to base a commonwealth on a false religion;
• The Government, in order to survive, must endorse and promote the true religion.

Every single person who signed the Constitution agreed with these four premises, and they agreed that the true religion was Christianity. It doesn't matter that they didn't agree among themselves as to the details of the Christian religion. It doesn't matter that they made sure that one variety of Christianity would have no legal power over other varieties of Christianity. What matters is that not a single signer of the Constitution believed in the "separation of church and state" where the word "church" means "Christianity, the true religion." A secular (that is, atheistic) government was not in the mind of a single signer of the Constitution. None of them accepted the possibility of a Civil Magistrate separated from true religion and independent of God, owing no duties to God to abide by His Standard of Justice.

Both Church and State were under God, though there was a "wall of separation" between these two Christian institutions. And make no mistake: the "minister of justice" in the State was just as directly responsible to God as a "minister of the Word" in the Church.

All of these beliefs were largely deduced by the Founding Fathers from a single passage of Scripture. All of their political thinking ultimately rested on this single Biblical text.

Probably one of the most important Biblical texts in the history of political science in Western Civilization is the thirteenth chapter of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans. Since the time of Augustine, this passage has been the starting point for all discussions of government. And that starting point led to the conclusion -- universally held by the Founding Fathers -- that the human task of forming civil governments was a religious obligation. If you're a Christian, you probably don't need to click those links.

Yet most Secular Humanists haven't the foggiest idea what this passage of Scripture says, nor have they the remotest sensitivity for how the Founding Fathers reverenced this text. History shows it pervaded their thinking. It was an underlying assumption. Even today, when people speak of "the powers that be" they are using the language from Romans 13, likely without knowing the source.

If you know nothing about Romans 13, start by reading the passage here.

Then review some history. Romans 13 and a Biblical doctrine of government pervades Western thought and influenced the Founding Fathers. (The ironic thing about the use of Romans 13 in Western political science is that the passage, though clearly intended to inculcate non-resistance to the magistrates, has been most frequently cited in treatises which advocate violent revolution.)

Romans 13 says that the civil magistrate is "the minister of God." The Founding Fathers, to a man, agreed.

Here is a sampling of what the Founders believed about government's dependence on God:

[T]he only true basis of all government [is] the laws of God and nature. For government is an ordinance of heaven, designed by the all benevolent Creator.
Samuel Adams
Writings, vol. I, p. 269, Samuel Adams in the Boston Gazette of Dec. 19, 1768 as "Vindex."

Has it [government] any solid foundation? Any chief corner stone?  . . . I think it has an everlasting foundation in the unchangeable will of God. . . .  The sum of my argument is that civil government is of God.
James Otis, mentor of Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty
The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved (London: J. Williams and J. Almon, 1766) pp. 11, 98.

[W]e will look for the permanency and stability of our new government to Him who bringeth princes to nothing and teacheth senators wisdom [Isa. 40:23; Ps. 105:22]
John Hart, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Address, October 5, 1776, in, The Papers of William Livingston (Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1979) Vol. I, p. 161.

[T]he rights essential to happiness . . . . We claim them from a higher source -- from the King of kings and Lord of all the earth.
John Dickinson, Signer of the Constitution
The Political Writings of John Dickinson (Wilmington: Bonsal and Niles, 1801) Vol. I, p. 111.

Richard Gardiner, in his impressive collection of "Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History, lists many sources which introduce the average Secular Humanist to the now-unknown religious foundations of American Revolution and Government.

A Short Treatise on Political Power, John Ponet, D.D. (1556) President John Adams credited this Calvinist document as being at the root of the theory of government adopted by the the Americans. According to Adams, Ponet's work contained "all the essential principles of liberty, which were afterward dilated on by Sidney and Locke" including the idea of a three-branched government. (Adams, Works, vol. 6, pg. 4). Published in Strassbourg in 1556, it is one of the first works out of the Reformation to advocate active resistance to tyrannical magistrates, with the exception of the Magdeburg Bekkentis (the Magdeburg Confession).
How Superior Powers Ought to Be Obeyed by Their Subjects, Christopher Goodman (1558). Justifying a Christian's right to resist a tyrannical ruler. Goodman indicated that he had presented the thesis of this book to John Calvin, and Calvin endorsed it.
The Right of Magistrates Over Their Subjects, Theodore Beza (1574). Expanding upon Calvin's political resistance theory set forth in the final chapters of his Institutes, this work by Calvin's successor in Geneva, Theodore Beza, was published in response to the growing tensions between Protestant and Catholic in France, which culminated in the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre in 1572. This text suggests that it is the right of a Christian to revolt against a tyrannical King: a principle central to the American colonists' cause.
Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos, or, A Vindication Against Tyrants (1579). This Calvinist document is one of the first to set forth the theory of "social contract" upon which the United States was founded. The idea was disseminated through the English Calvinists to the pen of John Locke, and eventually into the Declaration of Independence. John Adams reported the relevance of this document to the American struggle.
The Dutch Declaration of Independence (1581); This Calvinistic document served as a model for the U.S. Declaration of Independence. In his Autobiography, Jefferson indicated that the "Dutch Revolution" gave evidence and confidence to the Second Continental Congress that the American Revolution could likewise commence and succeed. Recent scholarship has has suggested that Jefferson may have consciously drawn on this document. John Adams said that the Dutch charters had "been particularly studied, admired, and imitated in every State" in America, and he stated that "the analogy between the means by which the two republics [Holland and U.S.A.] arrived at independency... will infallibly draw them together."
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639) Acknowledged by scholars to be a prototype of the U.S. constitution, while not explicitly mentioning Romans 13, contains the same thinking:

For as much as it hath pleased Almighty God by the wise disposition of his divine providence so to order and dispose of things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and upon the River of Connectecotte and the lands thereunto adjoining; and well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion shall require; do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one Public State or Commonwealth; and do for ourselves and our successors and such as shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation together, to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess, as also, the discipline of the Churches, which according to the truth of the said Gospel is now practiced amongst us; as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed according to such Laws, Rules, Orders and Decrees as shall be made, ordered, and decreed as followeth:

Lex Rex, Samuel Rutherford (1644). This treatise systematized the Calvinistic political theories which had developed over the previous century. Rutherford was a colleague of John Locke's parents. Most of John Locke's Second Treatise on Government is reflective of Lex Rex. From Rutherford and other Commonwealthmen such as George Lawson, through Locke, these theorists provided the roots of the Declaration of Independence. This page provides the list of questions Lex Rex addresses.
Lex, Rex, Samuel Rutherford (1644). This excerpt shows Rutherford's social contract theory and includes the Puritan theory of resistance to a tyrant.

In 1644, John Winthrop, Then Deputy-Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, wrote Arbitrary Government Described And The Government of the Massachusetts Vindicated From That Aspersion. He spoke of government as ordained by God:

There are some few cases only (beside the capitals) wherein the penalty is prescribed; and the Lord could have done the like in others, if He had so pleased; but having appointed governments upon earth, to be His vicegerents, He hath given them those few as presidents to direct them and to exercise His gifts in them (Deut. xvii; 9, 10, 11).
Harvard Classics (1910), Vol.43, p.96-97

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) In addition to being the decree of Parliament as the standard for Christian doctrine in the British Kingdom, it was adopted as the official statement of belief for the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Although slightly altered and called by different names, it was the creed of Congregationalist, Baptist, and Presbyterian Churches throughout the English speaking world. Assent to the Westminster Confession was officially required at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.Princeton scholar, Benjamin Warfield wrote: "It was impossible for any body of Christians in the [English] Kingdoms to avoid attending to it." [Link goes to chap.23, "On the Civil Magistrate."]
The Westminster Catechism (1646) Second only to the Bible, the "Shorter Catechism" of the Westminster Confession was the most widely published piece of literature in the pre-revolutionary era in America. It is estimated that some five million copies were available in the colonies. With a total population of only four million people in America at the time of the Revolution, the number is staggering. The Westminster Catechism was not only a central part of the colonial educational curriculum, learning it was required by law. Each town employed an officer whose duty was to visit homes to hear the children recite the Catechism. The primary schoolbook for children, the New England Primer, included the Catechism.  Daily recitations of it were required at these schools. Their curriculum included memorization of the Westminster Confession and the Westminster Larger Catechism. There was not a person at Independence Hall in 1776 who had not been exposed to it, and most of them had it spoon fed to them before they could walk. [Link to Q. 127 of Larger Catechism; cf. also Q. 129.]

In 1651 Thomas Hobbes penned Leviathan, which has a lengthy section describing a Christian Commonwealth (usually omitted in secular school texts). He wrote:

[M]en that are once possessed of an opinion that their obedience to the sovereign power will be more hurtful to them than their disobedience   will disobey the laws, and thereby overthrow the Commonwealth, and introduce confusion and civil war; for the avoiding whereof, all civil government was ordained.
Hobbes, Leviathan, Part III, Chapter XLII

In 1656, Cromwell issued a proclamation for a general fast to consider the cause of the continued distracted condition of Britain. In response, Sir Henry Vane, previously Governor of Massachusetts, and one of the most high-minded statesmen of the period of the Commonwealth in England, published A Healing Question Propounded And Resolved, Upon Occasion Of The Late Public And Seasonable Call To Humiliation, In Order To Love And Union Among The Honest Party, And With A Desire To Apply Balm To The Wound Before It Become Incurable, expounding the principles of civil and religious liberty, and proposing that method of forming a constitution, through a convention called for the purpose, which was actually followed in America after the Revolution.

The root and bottom upon which it stood was not public interest, but the private lust and will of the conqueror, who by force of arms did at first detain the right and freedom which was and is due to the whole body of the people; for whose safety and good, government itself is ordained by God, not for the particular benefit of the rulers, as a distinct and private interest of their own; which yet, for the most part, is not only preferred before the common good, but upheld in opposition thereunto.
Harvard Classics (1910), Vol.43, p.129-130

The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, May 5, 1682, contains extended references to Romans 13:

The Federal and State Constitutions Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America Compiled and Edited Under the Act of Congress of June 30, 1906 by Francis Newton Thorpe (Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1909.) Also available at the Avalon Project of Yale Law School.

In his Second Treatise on Government, John Locke declared that government was ordained by God (Romans 13), and that this ordination began as long ago as the time of Noah (Genesis 9):

If one can doubt this to be truth, or reason, because it comes from the obscure hand of a subject, I hope the authority of a king will make it pass with him. King James the first, in his speech to the parliament, 1603, tells them thus, I will ever prefer the weal of the public, and of the whole commonwealth, in making of good laws and constitutions, to any particular and private ends of mine; thinking ever the wealth and weal of the commonwealth to be my greatest weal and worldly felicity; a point wherein a lawful king doth directly differ from a tyrant: for I do acknowledge, that the special and greatest point of difference that is between a rightful king and an usurping tyrant, is this, that whereas the proud and ambitious tyrant doth think his kingdom and people are only ordained for satisfaction of his desires and unreasonable appetites, the righteous and just king doth by the contrary acknowledge himself to be ordained for the procuring of the wealth and property of his people, And again, in his speech to the parliament, 1609, he hath these words, The king binds himself by a double oath, to the observation of the fundamental laws of his kingdom; tacitly, as by being a king, and so bound to protect as well the people, as the laws of his kingdom; and expressly, by his oath at his coronation, so as every just king, in a settled kingdom, is bound to observe that paction made to his people, by his laws, in framing his government agreeable thereunto, according to that paction which God made with Noah after the deluge. Hereafter, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease while the earth remaineth. And therefore a king governing in a settled kingdom, leaves to be a king, and degenerates into a tyrant, as soon as he leaves off to rule according to his laws. And a little after, Therefore all kings that are not tyrants, or perjured, will be glad to bound themselves within the limits of their laws; and they that persuade them the contrary, are vipers, and pests both against them and the commonwealth. Thus that learned king, who well understood the notion of things, makes the difference betwixt a king and a tyrant to consist only in this, that one makes the laws the bounds of his power, and the good of the public, the end of his government; the other makes all give way to his own will and appetite.

The Second Treatise of Government, Chapter 18: Of Tyranny, Section 200

Discourses Concerning Government, Table of Contents. Algernon Sidney (1698) Built principles of popular government from foundation of natural law and the social contract. This book has been considered by scholars the "textbook of the American Revolution."
Discourses Concerning Government, Algernon Sidney, excerpts. [Russell Kirk, in The Roots of American Order, p.402-3, writes:

The Continental Congress appeals to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God": that is, to natural law. They could have referred to the authority of the judicious Hooker; however, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that phrase, knew his Locke and his Blackstone better than Hooker. Jefferson was influenced, too, by Algernon Sidney's compact-doctrine in Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government, written at the beginning of England's Civil Wars.

[Developing the principles of Civil Government by beginning in Genesis and tracing its growth through the historical chronicle in Scripture was a common pedagogical technique, and was used by Sidney. It demonstrates the widely-held belief that the Bible was a textbook of political science. We employed the same process in our analysis of the rise of the State.]
A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers [see "Sermons," below]
Speech on Conciliation with America, Edmund Burke, March 22, 1775; Burke describes the character of the American colonists and links their commitment to liberty to their Protestantism. [Russell Kirk says of Burke's position,

To assure the reign of justice and to protect the just share of each man in the social partnership, government is established. Government is a practical creation, to be administered according to practical considerations; for Burke distinguishes between the "state" or social being, which is ordained of God, and "government," or political administration, which is the product of convention.
The true natural rights of men, then, are equal justice, security of labor and property, the amenities of civilized institutions, and the benefits of orderly society. For these purposes God ordained the state, and history demonstrates that they are the rights desired by the true natural man. These genuine rights, without which government is usurpation, Burke contrasts with the fancied and delusory "rights of men" so lusted after across the Channel
Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind from Burke to Eliot, p.55-6

Election Day Sermons

Yale Historian Harry Stout has shown the centrality of the sermon in the formation of the American Revolution and Government. Richard Gardiner's invaluable archive of links contains the following:

The Sin and Danger of Self-Love (1621) There were no clergymen among the pilgrims at Plymouth when they first settled. This sermon was written and given by a layman, Robert Cushman, to the Plymouth congregation in December 1621. Robert Cushman was a member of the Pilgrims church in Leyden, Holland, and came on (and returned in) the ship Fortune.
A Model of Christian Charity by John Winthrop (1630). A sermon preached aboard one of the ships carrying the Puritans to New England.
Theopolis Americana ("God's City: America"), Cotton Mather (1709) This excerpt from Mather's sermon shows how Mather, with other Puritans, believed that America was truly the "Promised Land." This thinking led ultimately to the doctrine of Manifest Destiny.
Vindication of the Government of New England Churches, John Wise (1717) A Puritan political sermon which included most of the principles of government embraced by the founders of the U.S.
A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers, Jonathan Mayhew (1750) About this document, John Adams wrote, "It was read by everybody; celebrated by friends, and abused by enemies... It spread an universal alarm against the authority of Parliament. It excited a general and just apprehension, that bishops, and dioceses, and churches, and priests, and tithes, were to be imposed on us by Parliament." This sermon has been called the spark which ignited the American Revolution. This illustrates that the Revolution was not only about stamps and taxes but also about religious liberty. [Anarcho-Calvinist rebuttal]
Religion and Patriotism the Constituents of a Good Soldier, Samuel Davies (1755). Davies, a Presbyterian preacher and president of the College at Princeton, here interprets the French and Indian war as a religious war. In this excerpt from a sermon preached in Virginia, Davies rouses the anti-Catholic sentiment of his hearers to rally them to arms against the French in the Ohio country.
An Election Sermon, Daniel Shute; Delivered in Boston, Massachusetts-Bay, 26 May 1768.
An Oration on the Beauties of Liberty, Reverend John Allen (1772)
Oration Delivered at Boston, Joseph Warren (1772)
Second Oration Delivered at Boston, Joseph Warren (1772)
An Election Sermon, Simeon Howard (1773) Demonstrating that an armed war against a tyrant was a Christian's duty.
Early Virginia Religious Petitions (1774-1802)
Boston Massacre Oration, John Hancock (1774)
A Plea Before the Massachusetts Legislature, Isaac Backus (1774)
First Prayer Given in the Continental Congress, Rev. Jacob Duche (1774)
Sermon on Civil Liberty, Nathaniel Niles (1774) An example of how clergymen stoked the revolutionary spirit
Defensive War in a Just Cause Sinless, David Jones (1775). Sermon justifying the revolution.
Government Corrupted by Vice, and Recovered by Righteousness, Samuel Langdon, May 31, 1775; This sermon preached a year before Jefferson wrote his declaration, included this phrase: "By the law of nature, any body of people, destitute of order and government, may form themselves into a civil society, according to their best prudence, and so provide for their common safety and advantage."
On Civil Liberty, Passive Obedience, and Nonresistance, Jonathan Boucher (1775)
A Calm Address To Our American Colonies, John Wesley (1775)
The American Vine, Jacob Duche (1775)
The Church's Flight into the Wilderness, Samuel Sherwood, January 17, 1776; A sermon which labels British tyranny Satanic.
The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men, John Witherspoon, May 1776. This sermon was preached by a member of the Second Continental Congress during the period in which the members were deciding upon American Independence.
On the Right to Rebel against Governors, Samuel West (1776)
Divine Judgements Upon Tyrants, Jacob Cushing, April 20, 1778; a sermon on the three year anniversary of the war.
Election Sermon, Phillips Payson (1778)
Defensive Arms Vindicated (1779) A sermon vindicating the activity of General George Washington.
A Sermon on the Day of the Commencement of the Constitution, Samuel Cooper (1780)

These sermons were often preached in the state capitols before governors and legislators at the request of the governments. These legislators would then carry their obligation to be a "minister of God" into their public office. See an example in the Proclamation of March 6, 1799, by President John Adams.

Common Sense (1776) Thomas Paine agitated for revolution against Britain by appealing to the chronicle of history in Scripture. Paine on 1 Samuel 8.

The pages below are designed to expose the myth of pluralism and to show that pluralism was universally denied by the Founding Fathers. The truths found in the links below stem from the belief of our Founding Fathers that the institution of civil government is ordained by God. The "separation of church and state," as understood today (the separation of religion and civil government) is a myth.

• Religion is the foundation of government. There can be no secular government. Deism, infidelity, and atheism are threats to good government.
• There is a true religion, others are "false religions."
• America's attitude toward false religions is peaceful and respectful the more those false religions resemble Christianity.
• But if false religions require anti-Christian conduct, they will be penalized by the criminal code. There is no such thing as "pluralism."
• This means the government in America endorses Christianity, and the "separation of church and state" as it has become expressed in the "no-endorsement" test of the Supreme Court, is completely mistaken.
• Not just passive approval, favoritism, or endorsement -- the government in America must actively promote Christian piety, according to the Founders.
• The establishment of Christianity is the goal of America.

For more information on Christian Theocracy and a Biblical Society, write to:
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Micah 4:1-7