Inventing a Christian America Inventing a Christian America The Myth of the Religious Founding z STEVEN K. GREEN 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Steven K. Green 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file at the Library of Congress 9780190230975 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Contents Preface vii Introduction: The Christian Nation Debate, Methodological Fallacies, and the Role of Myths 1 1. A Haven for Religious Freedom 20 2. A Model for Christian and Civil Government 59 3. The Revolutionary and Constitutional Impulse 101 4. A Government of Men 154 5. The Birth of a Myth 199 Conclusion 242 Notes 245 Index 289 Preface One Of the more enduring themes in United States history is that of its religious founding. This narrative is pervasive in school textbooks, politi- cal lore, and the popular consciousness. In its simplest form, this account chronicles the convictions of the Pilgrim and Puritan settlers of New Eng- land, the actions of the Lords Baltimore in founding a religiously tolerant Maryland, the aspirations of Quakers, Moravians, and other religious dis- senters who sought refuge in the mid-Atlantic colonies, and the beliefs of political leaders like George Washington who identified the providential hand of God in the nation’s founding. People from all stations and walks of life—educators, schoolchildren, clergy, business leaders, and members of patriotic groups—embrace and perpetuate this narrative. Yet claims of America’s religious heritage—and here, one must qualify that heritage as being Christian, or more accurately, Protestant—are not immune from controversy. The 2010 proceedings of the Texas State Board of Education highlighted the popularity, and contention, surrounding this narrative as board members rewrote the state’s social science curriculum standards to emphasize Christian influences on the nation’s founding. Still, this accounting is widely accepted, and it is particularly evident in the rheto- ric of elected officials, including past and aspiring presidents. It has even made its way into a handful of Supreme Court opinions. It is also largely a myth.1 This book sets out to unravel the myth of America’s religious found- ings. To be more precise, this book examines how the idea of America’s Christian origins became a central part of the nation’s founding narra- tive. To do so, it explores the history behind the popular belief about the nation’s religious origins—of Christian impulses behind America’s set- tlement and in the creation of its public institutions, particularly its gov- ernment and authorizing documents: the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, among others. To a degree, the idea that religion played viii Preface a role in the settlement of what became the United States has a strong pedigree. Various peoples and communities immigrated to colonial America in search of the freedom to practice their religion unmolested. Religious diversity and experimentalism flourished in early America at levels unmatched throughout the rest of the world. The popular belief that settlers came to America to establish a regime of religious liberty, how- ever, has less foundation. While this latter idea stands on its own, it also informs the second, related myth that this book seeks to unravel: that the political values and governing structures that emerged during the found- ing period owe their lineage particularly to Christian influences.2 The word “myth” has been chosen carefully and is used intention- ally. “Myth,” as appears throughout this book, is not used to represent its popular definition of a fable or imaginary notion. The word is intended to be neither pejorative nor marginalizing. While those understandings can never be isolated from the word “myth,” as used here, myth means an explanation of events that assists in the development of a cultural and na- tional identity. Drawing from Webster’s Dictionary, a myth is a “traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people.” (Ironically, later in life Noah Webster became one of the leading purveyors of the myth of America’s Christian origins.) In provid- ing explanations of events not personally remembered, myths legitimize the past while they provide a unifying narrative for a distinct people. His- torical myths “are needful in establishing national identity and stimu- lating patriotic pride.” Accordingly, the purpose of this book is not to engage in the irresolvable debate over whether the Founders were devout Christians or atheistical deists, of whether the people of the founding generation believed chiefly in divine providence and the role of religion in public life, or in separation of church and state. (However, no discussion about the development and role of national myths can occur without some amount of debunking.) Rather, the book seeks to explain how the ideas of America’s religious founding and its status as a Christian nation became a leading narrative about the nation’s collective identity.3 Unraveling this myth is crucial if our nation is to come to grips with its religious past and its pluralistic future. A lack of historical knowledge— and of the appropriate role of history in directing current legal and policy debates—invites supplementation by mythical ideas. Historical miscon- ceptions endanger our ability to work through ongoing issues about re- ligious hegemony and equality, and of the appropriate role of religion in public life. Conflicts have frequently arisen due to misunderstandings Preface ix about the significance of religion in the nation’s founding. While, on one hand, the myth of America’s Christian founding reminds us of the ongo- ing importance of religion in the culture, it has had its dark side. The close association of American government with a Christian mission legitimized the forced “christianization” of American Natives and the destruction of their cultures and homelands; the identification of Protestant Christianity with republican values led to the marginalization of Catholic immigrants during the nineteenth century; and belief in America’s manifest destiny justified American imperialism throughout that century and into the next. Today, it encourages a form of American exceptionalism that justi- fies the exportation of “American values” while it reinforces suspicions about the compatibility of non-Christian faiths, such as fundamentalist Islam, with the American democratic experiment. As historian Martin Marty writes, “the privileging by law or naming rights for one religion . . . lead[s] to more intersectarian rivalry, discrimination against the practices of some full citizens, . . . and increasing resentments that unnecessarily upset neighborly and community life” in a religiously pluralistic nation.4 Historical misconceptions also make people susceptible to the power of political rhetoric. Conceptions of America’s Christian past (and pres- ent) legitimize the government’s use of religion to further its policies. They invite politicians to expropriate religion for political ends—what James Madison decried as an “arrogant pretention” and an “unhallowed perversion of the means of salvation.”5 Finally, myths about the role of Christianity in creating the nation’s governing institutions fuel the jur- isprudential debate over interpreting the Constitution consistently with the “original intent” of the framers. Because the motives and intentions of historical figures are never pellucid, myths fill the gaps in historical knowledge. Neither jurists nor elected officials are immune from this ten- dency to rely on myths in formulating law or public policy. To give these popular conceptions their appropriate due, however, it is important to un- derstand their origins, their purposeful creations, and their limited value as authority in the modern battles over the nation’s cultural identity. In essence, we need to understand these founding myths for what they are, along with their limitations, and not allow them to control policy-making in the world’s most religiously pluralistic nation. This is one area where getting history right matters.6 My scholarly interest in the ongoing debate about America’s Chris- tian origins extends back almost three decades to graduate school, where
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