WHY ISLAM IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH AMERICA'S FOUNDING DOCUMENTS

Islam is incompatible with America’s founding documents and system of government. America is a Constitutional Republic with a constitution that guarantees certain rights to all citizens, including those who are a minority. She has a representative form of government in which laws are enacted by legislators who are elected by the people. Abraham Lincoln described it as a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Islam, on the other hand, is a theocracy in which the state and the religion are merged, and religious clerics claim to rule with authority directly from God. Wherever Islam is in the majority, the rights of Christians and other minorities are either totally denied or greatly diminished, and Sharia Law is imposed upon the masses.

In sharp contrast, America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and values, but not as a theocracy. Theocratic rulers claim a Divine right to rule over their subjects. America’s Founders held no such grandiose view of themselves or of any human being. They had rejected the theocratic claims of monarchs, popes and despots, but they had not rejected Christianity

In 18th century Europe, nations such as Italy, England, and Germany were theocracies in which the state and a cultural form of Christianity had been merged. In Italy and other European states, it was Roman Catholicism that was the state religion and imposed on the populace. In England, it was the Anglican Church, also called the Church of England. In Germany, it was Lutheran Church that was merged with the state.

America’s Founders, for the most part, identified with the mindset of those they called “dissenting Protestants.” Benjamin Franklin referred to his parents and grandparents, on both sides of the family, as “dissenting Protestants.” Virginia was founded as an Anglican colony but according to Thomas Jefferson, by the time of the American Revolution three-quarters of Virginia’s population were “dissenting Protestants"  (Hyatt, America's Reawakening, 182).

The dissenting Protestant emphasized the rejection of “power” in the teachings of Jesus and His emphasis on the equality of all believers. (Matt. 20:25-28; 23:8-11). It was the teachings of Jesus in these passages that led them to include a ban on aristocracy and honorific titles in the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 10.

The dissenting Protestant saw everyone on the same level with leaders deriving their right to govern, not from God, but from the people. The Declaration of Independence declares that Governments are instituted in the earth to secure for the people God-given rights such as Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. And those governments derive the right to govern, "from the consent of the governed.”

America’s Founders insisted, therefore, that civil government should have no power or role in the church, nor in matters of individual faith and conscience. Freedom from government tyranny in matters of faith was an ideal that pervaded the thinking of America’s Founders. This is in sharp contrast to Islam.

The Founders realized that for there to be liberty without licentiousness and freedom without chaos, the populace would have to be governed from within by virtuous values. And they all agreed that only Christianity provided the moral values and intellectual underpinnings for a stable and prosperous nation. This is why President John Adams declared in 1798,

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious [Christian} people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other  (Hyatt, America's Reawakening, 168).

Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans eventually came to see the genius of the American experiment in freedom. Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) understood this and emphasized that America must never lose sight of her origins. He wrote,

The continuing success of American democracy depends on the degree to which each new generation, native-born and immigrant, makes its own the moral truths on which the Founding Fathers staked the future of your Republic (Hyatt, America's Reawakening, 13).

As Christians, we should be friendly and kind to individual Muslims. We should pray for them that they will be converted to Christ and find the wonderful freedom that only comes through knowing Him. At the same time, we must never be fooled into thinking that the theocratic political system of Islam is in any way compatible with America’s Constitutional Republic.

Yes, America was founded as a Christian nation, but not by a legislative or judicial decree. America was founded as a Christian nation because the founding generation had been transformed by a  great Spiritual Awakening. She has been preserved to this time by subsequent Awakenings at critical moments in her history. 

America can expect to enjoy the freedoms that came with her founding only so long as there is an Awakened form of Christianity spreading its sweet aroma throughout the culture. This is why we must all, regardless of denomination or affiliation, embrace the current Spiritual Awakening that has begun to sweep across the land.

This article was derived from Dr. Eddie Hyatt's latest book, America's Reawakening, available in paperback, kindle, and audio from Amazon. It is also available from his website at http://www.eddiehyatt.com.