Revisionists want to wipe out or ignore evidence of America’s Judeo-Christian heritage. But on this 250th anniversary of American independence, the evidence remains as clear as ever that Christianity was a core belief of this country’s founders.
One example is found in John Adams, who is remembered for being one of the great minds and statesmen of the American Revolution. He was highly influential in America’s earliest moments and went on to become the second president of the United States.
In June of 1776, John Adams was in Philadelphia, deep in the flurry of the push for freedom. The Continental Congress appointed him, along with Thomas Jefferson and three others, to draft a “Declaration of Independence” from England. His prolific diaries, letters, and books provide an invaluable insight into the thinking of the time and to what liberty meant to the founding fathers.
Freedom, Adams believed, did not rest solely on man. Instead, he wrote in a letter to his cousin Zabdiel Adams, “It is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand … the only foundation for a free constitution is pure virtues, and if this cannot be inspired into our people, in a greater measure, than they have it now, they may change their rulers, and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty” (June 21, 1776).
Twenty years later, Adams would clarify in his diary on July 26, 1796, that he didn’t just promote “religion” in general, or some undefined “morality,” but rather Christianity itself. He said, “The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.”
America’s second president would face a difficult situation in 1798. He had a hard act to follow — the popular George Washington. Although he tried to avoid the trap of partisan politics, Adams soon found himself caught in its web. And if trouble at home wasn’t bad enough, diplomatic relations with France were rapidly sinking. Adams prepared the American army and navy for defensive measures against France.
It was during this time that Adams spoke to the first brigade of the militia of Massachusetts and reaffirmed the foundations for the American government:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion,” Adams said. “Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Throughout his life, Adams wrote letters to his friend and fellow founder Thomas Jefferson on a regular basis, yielding some of his most profound quotes about Christianity and the Bible in the process.
In a letter written on June 28, 1813, Adams declared, “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
Adams also wrote to Jefferson, on December 25, 1813, “I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world.”
