Founding Fathers
“God Helps Those Who Helps Themselves”: The Eclectic Faith of Benjamin Franklin
TweetShareShareBenjamin Franklin was a scientist, patriot, politician, diplomat…and Deist. That’s a fact according to many modern historians. After all, Franklin himself advocated for Deism. He once wrote that his skepticism of Christianity made him “a thorough Deist.”[i] Of course it should be noted he wrote that conviction at the tender age of fifteen in a…
Read MoreJohn Locke: How a Great Philosopher Influenced the Founding of America
TweetShareShare The Founding Fathers of the United States of America had many influences, but possibly none more than John Locke (1632-1704). Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and John Madison revered Locke. John Quincy Adams penned, “The Declaration of Independence [was]…founded upon one and the same theory of government…expounded in the writings of Locke.” But who was…
Read MoreThe Black Robe Regiment: How a Group of Patriots Founded America
TweetShareShareThey were called the “Black Robe Regiment.” A group of patriots who served in Congress, presided over influential American schools, led troops in the Revolutionary War, signed the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and other important founding documents. Their names? JOHN WITHERSPOON (President of Princeton) JOHN P. MUHLENBERG (Revolutionary War General) FREDERICK A. MUHLENBERG…
Read MoreRev. Timothy Dwight: How the President of Yale Indicted the French Revolution
TweetShareShareOn July 4, 1798, TIMOTHY DWIGHT, the President of Yale College gave an address titled “The Duty of Americans at the Present Crisis.” It was a stinging indictment upon the French Revolution and their enlightened, secular culture. Dwight particularly noted how the infidel Voltaire had orchestrated the plan to convert Christian France into a secular…
Read MorePublic Education, America and Religion
TweetShareShareAmerica’s schools are a mess. Teacher morale is low. Disrespect, truancy and discipline problems are rampant. Today’s kids are more profane, angry, hurting, confused, violent…and ignorant (especially of their history). But a failing education system was a problem our Founding Fathers knew was possible. In a rather inconvenient quote about American education. Dr. Benjamin Rush penned:…
Read MoreThe Summer of ’77: When a Bible Shortage Forced the Hand of Congress
TweetShareShareThe summer of 2022 was a season for shortages. From fuel to rental cars, certain food items to paper goods, stock was low and prices were high. Gasoline, for the first time in U.S. history averaged more than $5/gallon. In some places a gallon of petrol could run as high as $10/gallon! But it wasn’t…
Read MoreThe Yale Man: How One American Preacher Lit the Fuse for the First Great Awakening Revivals
TweetShareShareAmerica’s first colleges were in the Ivy League. And they were created for a distinct purpose. The original 1636 purpose of a Harvard education was to “…advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity: dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.” Essentially, Harvard trained the…
Read MoreAlexis de Tocqueville: The French Man Who Saw America’s Past, Present and Future
TweetShareShare “[It’s] the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written.” That’s how one historian described Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America; a work considered among the most influential books of the 19th century. Published in two volumes between 1835 and 1840, Alexis de…
Read MoreThe Pain of Thomas Paine
TweetShareShareIn 1776 Thomas Paine was a “rock star” among American patriots. His writings inspired a loosely united thirteen colonies to revolt against the great British Empire. But Paine lived down to his name. He’d die a “penniless drunk in Manhattan,” scorned by most of the Founding Fathers. Only six people attended his funeral. Thomas…
Read MoreMolly Pitcher: The Revolutionary Woman Behind the Name
TweetShareShare Betsy Ross. Martha Washington. Dolly Madison. These were all great women of the American Revolution. But have you heard of Mary Ludwig Hays? She might be the bravest, strongest and most patriotic woman of them all. During the Revolution women were cut from a different cloth. Many women refused to stay home,…
Read More