America the Republic: Why We Were Never Constituted as a Pure Democracy

Plato

TweetShareShare Lately, there’s been a lot of chatter about our democracy or democratic  form of government. Some political commentators use fear to suggest our “democracy is in peril” if certain people from the opposing political party are elected. Unfortunately, this type of fear mongering has been around since America was constituted. The problem with that…

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John Quincy Adams: The Hell Hound of Slavery

The Hell Hound of Slavery

TweetShareShareIt’s one thing to be a “career politician.” It’s quite another to be so influential that your very presence commands respect, honor and adoration. But John Quincy Adams was a “cut above the rest” type of man. In fact, few American leaders have exceeded the contributions of John Quincy Adams, the lawyer son of Founding…

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America the Secular? Flipping the Script on the Founding of a Nation

Secular Amerca

TweetShareShareSince the 1980s, it’s been a popular refrain to refer to America’s founding as secular in nature. Proponents of secularism often use selective quotes to promote their nonreligious agendas (1). Many Founding Fathers are now considered “Deist” (read: agnostic, atheist). These include heavyweights like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and George Washington. Perhaps we…

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“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…

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John 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…

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The 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…

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The 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…

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Alexis 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…

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The Pain of Thomas Paine

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…

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