HOW AMERICA'S FOUNDERS WOULD END GUN VIOLENCE IN MODERN AMERICA

If America’s founders were involved in the current gun debate, they most likely would insist on a moral test for gun owners. John Adams, founding father and the country’s second president, declared, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other” (Hyatt, Pilgrims andPatriots, 173).

According to Adams, the Second Amendment was not made for the sick, the secularist, the amoral, and the agnostic. It was, as Adams declared, given for a moral and religious [Christian] people. It was made for people with a transcendent moral compass by which they order their lives.

America’s Founders Would Insist on a Moral Test

America’s founders, without exception, believed that Christian teachings provided a moral restraint on evil and was necessary for a stable and prosperous society. George Washington made this clear in his Farewell Address after serving two terms as the nation’s first president. He said, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports” (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 169).

When the founders use the word “religion” they are referring to Christianity. Note that Washington did not refer to religion and morality as something optional for the new nation. The word he used was “indispensable.” He believed that only Christianity provided the moral restraints and underpinnings for a peaceful and stable society.

The writings of the Founders are filled with such exhortations about the necessity of faith and morality for a stable society. James Madison, the chief architect of the Constitution, wrote,

The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 131).

Thomas Jefferson also believed that Christian teachings were necessary to provide a moral restraint on evil passions. Having read the Koran and the literature of ancient Greece, Rome, and the Enlightenment, he stated, “Of all the systems of morality that have come under my observations, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.”

Jefferson’s commitment to Christian values is why he closed all presidential documents with the appellation, “In the year of our Lord Christ.” It is also why he took money from the federal treasury to pay for a missionary to work among the Kaskasia Indian tribe and to build them a building in which to worship. He did this because he believed Christian principles necessary for a stable and happy people.

A Moral Test for Gun Ownership

A moral test for gun ownership would be constitutional and the founders would certainly be on board. Here are some suggested non-sectarian moral questions that could be asked on an application for a gun purchase.

1.       Do you believe in a Supreme Being to whom you are accountable for your words and deeds?

2.       Apart from self-defense, do you believe it is wrong to do bodily or mental harm to another person?

3.       Do you accept the moral teachings of Jesus, such as, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and “Do unto others as you would have them to unto you?”

4.       Do you seek to live a life of integrity, never violating your conscience or internal sense of right and wrong?

The Political Left Opposes Such a Test

Admittedly, in and of itself, such a moral test would have little impact on gun violence in America. What we must have is a general Awakening of Christian morality that touches all segments of American society.

Left-wing politicians, of course, reject any public display of Christian morality. They falsely claim that the First Amendment secularized America and banned public displays of Christian faith. If that is the case, then Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin did not get the memo. 

In addition to the founders many calls for Christian morality, the day after ratifying the First Amendment, that reads, “Congress shall make no law concerning the establishment of religion or hindering the free exercise thereof,” those same founders proclaimed a national day of Prayer and Thanksgiving. 

Sadly, modern secularist politicians are doing the very things Washington and the founders warned against. They have implemented secularist policies that have left a spiritual and moral void in American society. 

They have pushed for the removal of crosses and displays of the Ten Commandments in all public places. They deny children the right to pray and read their Bibles in their public schools. Heaven forbid that children would be exposed to such moral truths as “Thou shalt not kill” or “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”

In place of the transcendent morality on which this nation was founded, these politicians insist on an atheistic worldview that logically leads to the conclusion that all truth is relative and “I” can make up my own moral system.

It is this modern, amoral worldview that is opening the way for mass shootings and other atrocities. None other than Benjamin Franklin warned about the social consequences of rejecting Christian morality.

Franklin’s Warning is Being Realized in Modern America

Thomas Paine sent Franklin a manuscript copy of his book, The Age of Reason, in which he attacked orthodox Christianity. Franklin was not pleased. Not only did he refuse to print the book, he suggested to Paine that he burn it so that no one else would ever see it.

Franklin then asked a rhetorical question that is stunningly relative to the present gun debate and America’s moral dilemma. He asked, ”If men are so wicked with religion [Christianity], what would they be if without it” (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 142)?

After sixty years of a war by the left to remove everything Christian from the public life of America, we are beginning to see the answer to Franklin’s question.

This article was derived from the book by Dr. Eddie Hyatt entitled, Pilgrims and Patriots, with the subtitle, The Radical Christian Roots of American Democracy and Freedom. This book and others are available from Amazon and Dr. Hyatt's website @ www.eddiehyatt.com.

THE DEMOCRAT PARTY REJECTS THE AMERICA OF WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON AND MADISON

The Democrat National Committee unanimously passed a resolution affirming atheists and the non-religious and insisting that neither Christianity nor any religion is necessary for morality and patriotism. In a swipe at evangelical Christians, they condemned those who are, in their words, “loudly claiming that morals, values and patriotism must be defined by their particular religious views.”

Obviously rejecting the First Amendment guarantee of religious liberty, the DNC also accuses Christians of using “misplaced claims of ‘religious liberty’ – to justify public policy that has threatened the civil rights and liberties of many Americans, including but not limited to the LGBT community, women and ethnic and religious/nonreligious minorities.”

With this resolution, the DNC rejected the Christian vision of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams and the entire founding generation.

George Washington Saw the World Very Differently

Enter George Washington and America’s Founders who, without exception, believed that only Christianity provided the moral values that would lead to a stable, free and prosperous nation. Washington made this clear in Farewell Address after serving two terms as America’s first president. He said,

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion [Christianity]. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 169-70).

Washington clearly contradicts the DNC on three points.

1)  He says that religion and morality are indispensable supports for political prosperity.

2)  He says that anyone who subverts these “great pillars of human happiness” cannot claim the tribute of patriotism.

3)  He says that national morality will never prevail apart from religious principle.

In the same address, Washington again warned the nation to not neglect its duty toward God, saying, “The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the external rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained” (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 174).

Thomas Jefferson Agreed with Washington

Thomas Jefferson was in complete agreement with Washington and he made his Farewell Address required reading at the University of Virginia, which he had founded. Notice that Washington did not call religion optional. The word he used was “indispensable” and Jefferson obviously agreed. It should be remembered that when the Founders used the word “religion” they were referring to Christianity.

Jefferson may have had questions at times about certain aspects of Christian doctrine, but there is no question that he saw Christianity as providing the moral and intellectual system necessary for a stable society. Having read the Koran and the literature of ancient Greece, Rome, and the Enlightenment, he stated, “Of all the systems of morality that have come under my observations, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.”

Jefferson’s commitment to Christian values is why he closed all presidential documents with the appellation, “In the year of our Lord Christ.” It is also why he took money from the federal treasury to pay for missionaries to work among the Kaskasia Indian tribe and to build them a building in which to worship.

John Adams Agreed

John Adams, America’s second president, was also convinced that only Christian morality would enable the American Republic to survive. Two weeks before he signed the Declaration of Independence, Adams wrote to his cousin, Zabdiel, a minister of the Gospel and exhorted him about his vital role in the success of the nation, saying,

Statesmen, my dear sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles, upon which Freedom can securely stand (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 173).

In a 1798 address to the officers of the Massachusetts Militia, Adams again made clear his belief in a national, Christian morality as the only hope for the survival of the American Republic. He declared,

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . .  Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious [Christian] people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 173).

The Catholic scholar, William Novak, commented on why Adams believed Christianity necessary for the survival of a free society. He writes,

Without the existence of an all-knowing Governor of the universe, the Divine Judge and Arbiter, Adams argued, there can be no right or wrong, only subjective opinion, whim, and desire. Turning from God is a recipe for moral chaos which no appeal to reason is efficacious, a world in which brute power decides right and wrong.

James Madison Agreed

The Founders unanimously believed that unless America’s citizens would have a moral sense of obligation to their Creator, they would tend to live self-centered lives, harmful to society. This is why James Madison, the chief architect of the Constitution, wrote,

The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 131).

Good Government and Religion Go Hand in Hand

The same Founders who gave us the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment, also passed the Northwest Ordinance establishing the Northwest Territory--at the same Constitutional Convention in 1787. Not only did they ban slavery in the territory, they also set aside federal lands and funds for the building of schools in order to promote “religion, morality and knowledge.”

They did this because, in their own words, the promotion of religion and morality are “necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind.” Further demonstrating that the First Amendment had nothing to do with putting restrictions on religious expression, the Founders also proclaimed a day of “Prayer and Thanksgiving” the day after ratifying the First Amendment.

Novak is thus correct in saying, “The founders did not think that the constitutional government they were erecting could survive without Hebrew-Christian faith.” He also says,

Far from having a hostility toward religion, the founders counted on religion [Christianity] for the underlying philosophy of the republic, its supporting ethic, and its reliable source of rejuvenation (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 174).

It’s Time for Another Spiritual Awakening

The DNC has rejected, not only the vision of the Founders, but the Declaration of Independence itself and its insistence that our rights and liberties come from God. For the DNC, God seems to be an unnecessary inconvenience. A comment from Jefferson is stunningly applicable in this regard. He wrote,

God who gave us life, gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that His justice cannot sleep forever (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 160-61).

We too should tremble at the open rejection of God and His moral laws. American liberty has survived because of periodic, national spiritual awakenings that have renewed the faith of American citizens and strengthened their moral resolve. These include the Second Great Awakening (1800-1840), the Great Prayer Awakening of 1857-58, and other regional and national awakenings.

We must pray for another such awakening that will transform the churches of America and stem the tide of secularism and immorality that is flooding the land. Such an awakening is not a luxury but a necessity if the America of Washington, Jefferson and Madison is to survive. Such an awakening will come, not by instituting a new religious order or program, but by following those same instructions God gave Israel for a national healing.

If My people who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray,

And seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, And I will forgive their sin and heal their land (II Chronicles 7:14).

This article is derived from Dr. Eddie Hyatt’s book, Pilgrims and Patriots, and his soon to be published book, 1726, with the subtitle, The Spiritual Awakening that Defined America. His books are available from Amazon and his website at www.eddiehyatt.com.