7 Faiths of the Founding Fathers - Perimeter Church

A History of Christianity in America • Part VII: Faiths of the Founding Fathers 7Rationalistic TheistsBenjamin Franklin (1706-90).• A pragmatist, an independent thinker, an ambitious overachiever,and an American success story.• A Calvinistic background.• A young Deist.• A religious seeker.• Franklin’s “first principle.”• Some reasonable assumptions.• Some theological modifications.• Natural Law religion.• An emphasis on Providence.• Orthopraxy, not orthodoxy.• Franklin: “A good Christian is a good Parent, a good Child,a Good Husband or Wife, a good Neighbour or Friend, agood Subject or citizen.”• David L. Holmes: “Insatiably curious, ambivalent about religion... offended bydogmatism and intolerance, opposed to the highly emotional conversion experiencesof the Great Awakening, Franklin made morality primary in his interpretation ofreligion. Like other Deists, he believed that humans served God best when theyperformed good works on behalf of humanity and society.”• Divine judgment and the afterlife:• Franklin: “Without a Belief of a Providence that takes Cognizance of, guards,and guides, and may favour particular Persons, there is no Motive to Worship aDeity, to fear its Displeasure, or to pray for its Protection.”• Franklin, 1738: “I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy ismore regarded than virtue; and the scriptures assure me that at the last day weshall be examined not on what we thought but on what we did; and ourrecommendation will be that we did good to our fellow man.”• Guidelines for “moral perfection.”• A religious pluralist.• The Franklin Creed.• Non-orthodox beliefs.• Franklin to Ezra Stiles (1790): “Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, Creator ofthe Universe. That he governs the World by his Providence. That he ought to beworshiped. That the most acceptable Service we can render to him, is doing good tohis other Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated withJustice, in another life, respecting its Conduct in this. These I take to be thefundamental Principles of all sound Religion. As to Jesus of Nazareth... I have...some doubts as to his Divinity, though it is a Question that I do not dogmatize upon,having never studied it, & think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expectsoon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble.”• A man of contrasts.• Friend to George Whitefield.• A prolific philanderer.• A problematical husband and father.• A slave-owning abolitionist.