By DON SWEETING | Guest Commentary
America’s founding was deeply influenced by the principles of Christianity. While our nation has not always lived up to our ideals, the principle of human dignity and the promises of “liberty and justice for all,” articulated in 1776, still stirs our hearts today.
Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are utterly unique in the history of nations. They were framed under the influence of a biblical understanding of life, history, government and human nature. We desperately need to return to this understanding.
While the earliest settlers were not saints, and had varied understandings of their faith, they were overwhelmingly professing Christians—pilgrims, missionaries, and pioneers. The composition of the early colonies at the time of the American Revolution was 98% Protestant. Most of our Founding Fathers self-identified as Christians, even though they had their blind spots. Yet many of their actions gave testimony to their faith, including appointing chaplains, issuing calls for prayer and fasting, maintaining established churches in the states and using federal funds to promote religion and morality in the schools because they believed it was necessary for good government.
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