Was America founded as a Christian nation?
John Fea is Chair of the History Department at Messiah College. (Photo courtesy of Messiah College)
By Alexis Grant, Contributing Writer
Tuesday evening, the Pennsylvania Iota chapter of Phi Beta Kappa sponsored a lecture by historian John Fea entitled, “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction.”
As a historian of early America, Fea is the chair of the history department at Messiah College. He has written extensively on the topic of religion in American life including the book from which this lecture was derived.
Fea’s goal for this lecture was not to provide definite affirmation or refutation to the question of America being founded as a Christian nation, but rather to encourage his audience to think about the topic historically.
“There is a lot of polarization on this topic,” Fea said. “A lot of people stand on the right, believing the nation was founded on Christianity, but there are also many people who stand on the left.”
“I don’t believe you can go into the past in an objective way.”
The lecture was based on five main premises: Americans have always believed that they were living in a Christian nation; the Bible was important to the revolutionary generation; the constitution is Godless; the founders were champions of religious freedom; and the founders believed that religion was good for the republic.
Examining the nation’s founders, Fea said, “All of them, with the exception of Franklin, defined themselves in some way, shape or form as a Christian.”
He continues by explaining that the 10 commandments of the Bible are the foundations of American law; however, the constitution has not established a church of the nation nor has any references to God.
One attendee commented, “If you’re an American, you can’t really escape the cultural influences of Christianity.”
Fea agreed that Christianity was a base of the country’s culture and elaborated on his fifth premise. He suggested that the founders of America would promote any religion if it were for the common good because they believed “religion would create virtuous citizens,” and these people would help build a better republic.
By promoting religion, the founders were “largely talking about Christianity because that was the majority in the 18th Century.”
century.”
Alex Sirugo, a Philosophy and History double major, said of the lecture, “It’s hard to discuss this topic in an unbiased way.”
He said his personal opinions had not changed, but he was challenged to think about the topic in a purely historical context.
Fea concluded that “there is a lot of room for interpretation” on this subject, but he believes it is safe to say if you reject the notion of America being founded on the basis of Christianity from a historical perspective, “you would certainly be a minority.”
