The Dogmatic Divide Between Modern Evangelical Christianity And The Founding Fathers

The two most interesting founding fathers I have saved for last.

Benjamin Franklin, father of the American revolution, perhaps the most politically influential American alive during the birth of this nation, as well as a world renowned scientist, philosopher, diplomat, inventor, etc. (the list is nearly endless), was born to Puritan parents, but would later come to classify himself as a Deist (albeit a “Christian” one). The heart of Deism is the declaration that God can be found to exist through a scientific study of the natural order of the world and the exercising of human reason, not strict adherence to religious dogma.

He would endorse Puritan virtues, like industry, temperance and thrift, but refrained from invoking classical Christian dogma like the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. Towards the end of his life he was pressed for an answer on his beliefs concerning mainstream (or Trinitarian) Christianity by Ezra Stiles. He responded by writing “as to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it…”

Above all else, Franklin believed that the plurality of religious belief in the United States was a great virtue. He was called the Prophet of Tolerance and frequently expressed his wish to remain on good terms with every religion that did not preach intolerance. In another section of the letter cited above, Franklin went on to yet again espouse this belief, writing that, “I have ever let others enjoy their religious sentiments, without reflecting on them for those that appeared to me unsupportable and even absurd. All sects here, and we have a great variety, have experienced my good will in assisting them with subscriptions for building their new places of worship; and, as I never opposed any of their doctrines, I hope to go out of the world in peace with them all.”