The Faith of the Founders – Claims, Facts, and Quotations

Misconceptions

1. America was founded as a completely secular nation.
2. The founders wanted a strict separation of church and state in the modern sense.
3. The founders were mostly deists, not Christians (believing that God flung the universe into existence and then withdrew).
4. The Constitution is a godless document with no reference to God or religion.
5. The founders intended religion to disappear from politics over time.
6. Christianity had little influence on the American founding.
7. The founders opposed public religious expression by government officials.
8. Jefferson and Madison represent the definitive founder position on religion.
9. The founders believed morality could survive without religion.
10. The founders were hostile to Christianity.

The Truth

*Make sure to ready the Critical Nuance section below.

1) Founders were influenced profoundly by the Bible and religious thought.

Some founders were deists or religious rationalists, but many were practicing Christians. All were familiar with the Bible, well-studied, and spoke from shared understandings. They made countless references to God, Providence, morality, and natural rights derived from a Creator.

They borrowed political philosophies and paradigms from Biblical narratives, as well as enlightenment thought, classical ideas, and English law which had deep roots in religious contexts.

In his 1988 study “The Origins of American Constitutionalism,” Donald S. Lutz demonstrates that the Bible was the most frequently cited source in the political literature of 1760-1805 that influenced American political thought.

“When reading comprehensively in the political literature of the war years, one cannot but be struck by the extent to which biblical sources used by ministers and traditional Whigs undergirded the justification for the break with Britain, the rationale for continuing the war, and the basic principles of Americans’ writing their own constitutions.”

This historical record suggests that ever signer of the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution believed in God. We do not have a single record suggesting that any of them were atheist. To the contrary, their writings overwhelmingly indicate some form of belief in God or Providence. Some could argue that the least religious of the Founders would be considered highly religious by today’s standards.

Roughly 98–99% of the colonial American population identified as Christian at the time of the founding.

2) The least religious cannot represent the whole group.

Jefferson and Madison were influential founders, but they did not represent the full range of religious views within the founding generation.

Thomas Jefferson mentored James Madison but was serving as Ambassador to France during the Constitutional Convention, so he should not be used as a proxy to interpret the religious beliefs of a quorum he did not even attend.

3) America was not established as a theocracy, meaning it would not have an established religion or national church.

The founders were generally hostile to religious coercion and state-established churches, but not to Christianity or religion as a whole.

This one deserves a little nuance. The framers of the US Constitution articulated in the First Amendment that there would not be an established national church, but there had been many states with established churches. It took quite some time for the early colonists to create a true institutional “wall of separation between church and state.” Here are some examples of state-sponsored religion in the early colonies:

1. Southern Colonies: Church of England (Anglican)
   1. Virginia
   2. Maryland
   3. North Carolina
   4. South Carolina
   5. Georgia
2. New England Colonies: Congregationalist (Puritan)
   1. Massachusetts Bay Colony
   2. Connecticut
   3. New Hampshire
3. No State-Sponsored Religion
   1. Rhode Island
   2. Pennsylvania
   3. New Jersey
   4. Delaware
   5. New York

Thomas Jefferson wrote Virginia’s Statute for Religious Freedom which includes:

“Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested or burthened, in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.”

James Madison became one of the strongest advocates for religious freedom and wrote “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments” which includes:

“Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man: To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered.”

“If with the salutary effects of this system under our own eyes, we begin to contract the bounds of Religious freedom, we know no name that will too severely reproach our folly. At least let warning be taken at the first fruits of the threatened innovation. The very appearance of the Bill has transformed ‘that Christian forbearance, love and charity,’ which of late mutually prevailed, into animosities and jealousies, which may not soon be appeased. What mischiefs may not be dreaded, should this enemy to the public quiet be armed with the force of a law?”

The Constitution explicitly prohibits religious tests for federal office:

“but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

4) Political institutions were not neutral or detached from biblical morality and religious influence.

They believed religion is essential to morality and political stability and republican government.

John Adams stated the Constitution was made “only for a moral and religious people.”

James Madison in The Federalist No. 37:

“It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [the drafting of the Constitution], a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.”

They explicitly argued that liberty and morality could not be sustained long-term without religious foundations among the people and expected religion to remain a vital support for public morality, virtue, and self-government—not to disappear from civic life.

Many endorsed public religious expression by government leaders, including prayer proclamations, chaplains, and civic acknowledgments of God.

References to God in the Declaration of Independence:

1. There is a reference to “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” in the first paragraph.
2. The text articulates that men are “created,” implying there is a Creator.
3. Explicit reference to to God in, “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”
4. The Founders looked to God for protection: “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Religious context in the US Constitution:

1. The date of the signing articulated in Article 7 uses “in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven…”
2. The Constitution formally acknowledges the Declaration of Independence in Article 7, lending civic and political credibility to the document which has several religious references.
3. Sundays are excepted from time limit the President has to veto legislation in Article 1 Section 7, potentially as a formal recognition of the Sabbath.

George Washington’s Farewell Address explicitly tied religion to morality and republican government.

Benjamin Franklin called for prayer during the Constitutional Convention.

The First Congress approved paid chaplains.

Congress and presidents repeatedly issued prayer and thanksgiving proclamations

The US Flag Code allows one flag to fly higher than the American flag:

(c) No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America, except during church services conducted by naval chaplains at sea, when the church pennant may be flown above the flag during church services for the personnel of the Navy.

Some Critical Nuance

There are debates about whether America was founded as a “Christian nation” and these debates are never completely settled because we can’t seem to come to an agreement on what constitutes a “Christian nation,” how that should be measured, or what metric thresholds need to be satisfied to meet that qualification.

What is clear is that the vast majority of Americans and Founders were religious, usually some variation of Christian, and that religious convictions absolutely influenced their political positions, judgments, and decisions. The most productive conversations about America’s religious roots general do not spend much time in the “America as a Christian nation” debate.

The history of America demonstrates the paradox that while we want freedom for ourselves, we are slow to offer it to others. The early colonists shunned established, state-sponsored religion when it was someone else’s religion, but seemed quick to embrace the opportunity when it was for their own religion.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were each religious, but they advocated strongly for religious freedom for all. That often put them in tension with other founders who were less concerned about their public expressions of religious beliefs causing non-believers to feel marginalized. The historical record is replete with examples of some founders using their political office to make religious statements while others were putting pressure on them to be speak in a more generalized and inclusive way.

There seemed to be a universal agreement that religious convictions should influence our civil engagements. However, some founders seemed to be weary that if we became too comfortable speaking as if we were one homogenous religious body, might we make the mistake of eventually using law to enforce the practice and support of specific denominations, as they had already observed among the colonies and states.

Conclusion

America was not founded as a theocracy, but neither was it founded as a religion-neutral civilization detached from biblical morality and religious influence. The founders opposed an established national church, not religious influence in public life or politics. Some founders were deists or religious rationalists, but many were practicing Christians, and most believed religion was essential to republican government.

The Constitution contains no formal establishment of Christianity, but the broader founding era was saturated with references to God, Providence, morality, and natural rights derived from a Creator. The founders generally expected religion to remain a vital support for public morality, virtue, and self-government—not to disappear from civic life.

The American founding was influenced by Enlightenment thought, classical ideas, English law, and Christianity simultaneously—not by secular philosophy alone. Many founders openly endorsed public religious expression by government leaders, including prayer proclamations, chaplains, and civic acknowledgments of God. Jefferson and Madison were influential founders, but they did not represent the full range of religious views within the founding generation.

Many founders explicitly argued that liberty and morality could not be sustained long-term without religious foundations among the people. The founders were generally hostile to religious coercion and state-established churches, not to Christianity itself.

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