by:
Gary DeMar
Jeff Schweitzer is a scientist and former White House Senior Policy
Analyst. He holds a Ph.D. in marine biology/neurophysiology. He’s
obviously a smart guy, but he needs to spend more time checking out the
facts related to Christianity and the founding of America. America did
not begin in 1787, and there's more to the impact that Christianity had
on the nation than the writings of five or six founders.
In this article, I will only be dealing with one item claimed by Dr. Schweitzer. I've addressed most of his claims elsewhere.
Read more: "North Carolina Judge Rules Against State’s Religious and Constitutional History."
Recently, Schweitzer wrote “
Founding Fathers: We Are Not a Christian Nation.”
He immediately goes off track with the following quotation that he
attributes to John Adams with no documentation (see image below):
“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
John Adams neither said nor wrote this. The phrase "the government of
the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the
Christian religion" has been attributed to George Washington numerous
times. A portion of the above quotation found its way on the cover of
Liberty Magazine.
The publisher gave the impression that George Washington wrote the
words. Washington's signature followed the excerpted line that read,
"The United States of America is not in any sense founded on the
Christian religion."
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy
concocts a story of how George Washington “acquiesced” to the radical
deistic views of Joel Barlow, then American consul in Algiers. Here is
how the story is told:
“In answer to a
direct question from a Muslim potentate in Tripoli, Washington
acquiesced in the declaration of Joel Barlow, then American Consul in
Algiers, that ‘the government of the United States of America is not in
any sense founded on the Christian religion.’”
This is pure fiction. Washington had no direct involvement with the Treaty. He had left office before the Treaty was signed.
So
what is the origin of the citation? It’s found in a 1797 treaty with
the Muslim territory of Tripoli. Adams signed it, and so did a unanimous
Congress, most of whom were orthodox Christians. How can this be
explained given the fact that America has a rich Christian heritage
exemplified in various state constitutions and official declarations?
Forrest Church offers this bit of commentary on Article 11 of the Treaty
of Peace and Friendship between the United States and Tripoli:
“Too much can be made of this document as a proof text that Adams
believed, as the treaty says, that ‘the United States is by no means
founded on the Christian religion.’ Washington, Jefferson, and Madison
certainly could have endorsed this clause, but Adams, at this point in
his political career, anyway, could not. . . . At the time Adams
expressly believed that the U.S. government could not prosper apart from
a sound Christian foundation.”
The statement in the 1797 treaty was a declaration “that ‘the
Christian religion’ as a formal institution was not a part of the
American government in the same way that the religious structures of
Islam are a part of Islamic governments.”
The statement was to assure a Muslim government that America would not
depose that government and impose Christianity by force, something
Islamic nations do.
If the United States was a Christian nation in
the same way that Muslim nations were Islamic, Muslims would not sign
such a treaty.
Our own
government today makes accommodations with Muslim nations by removing crosses and forbidding passing out Bibles. There was a directive given to U.S. soldiers on how they were to act
during Ramadan.
The late self-professed anti-theist Christopher Hitchens commented:
“[T]hose secularists like myself who like to cite this treaty must
concede that its conciliatory language was part of America’s attempt to
come to terms with Barbary demands.”.
The Barbary pirates habitually preyed on ships from “Christian
nations,” enslaving “Christian” seamen. Since the treaty with Tripoli
was a treaty between the United States and an Islamic government, was
America not one of these Christian nations? Joseph Wheelan’s historical
assessment of the time is on target. “Except for its Native American
population and a small percentage of Jews, the United States was solidly
Christian, while the North African regencies were just as solidly
Muslim — openly hostile toward Christians.”
Stephen Decatur boarding a Tripolitan gunboat during a naval engagement (August 3, 1804)
In
drafting the treaty, the United States was assuring the Dey (ruler) of
Tripoli that in its struggle with the pirates “it has in itself no
character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of
Musselmen” (an archaic designation for Muslims], that “the said states
never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any
Mehomitan [Muslim] nation” due to religious considerations. These are
the qualifying statements found in the treaty that explain why the
phrase “founded on the Christian religion” was used.
In what way is the “government of the United States of America . . .
not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion”? Here’s the passage
in context:
“As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, -- as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,
-- and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of
hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties
that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an
interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”
The Dey of Tripoli had to be convinced that America, as a Christian
nation based on the reading of the state constitutions and other
official documents, would not impose its religion on the Muslim people.
Our own Constitution references Jesus Christ with the phrase, just above
George Washington’s signature, “Done in Convention by the Unanimous
Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September
in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth. . .”
In the
Annotated Translation of 1930,
there’s mention of “American Christians,” “Christian enemies,”
“Christians with whom we are at peace,” and “like all the other
Christian nations.” Presumably this means that Tripoli considered the
United States to be a Christian nation as well as other nations at the
time.
It is important to note that the 1805 treaty with Tripoli,
drafted during Thomas Jefferson’s administration, differs from the 1797
Treaty in that the phrase “as the Government of the United States of
America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion” is
conspicuously absent.
Article 14 of the new 1805 treaty corresponds to Article 11 of the first
treaty of 1797. It reads in part: “[T]he government of the United
States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the laws,
religion, or tranquility of Musselmen.” Once again, the issue of
American interference in the internal affairs of an Islamic nation is at
issue, the same issue that was stated in the 1797 treaty. Assurances
are still offered that the United States will not interfere with
Tripoli’s religion or laws. It’s obvious that by 1805 the United States
had greater bargaining power and did not have to knuckle under to the
demands of this Muslim stronghold. A strong navy and a contingent of
Marines also helped.
