Neat article in the Nation about the Deism predominant among America’s founding fathers. I’ve always had a chuckle when I’ve heard America referred to as a Christian nation.
Here’s a snippet from Ben Franklin, a few weeks before his death:
As for Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble.
It seems to me (and I never really pondered on it before, so cut me some slack, or ramble about it in the Comments section) that the remarks made by the framers regarding tolerance of “Mohametans” are consciously designed to cut the Gordian knot of the Crusades, by directly removing the Christian/heathen conflict from America’s mythology.
They envisioned a world that sidestepped those conflicts, avoiding the example of Christian Europe. Unlike Henry IV, there is no Jerusalem chamber.
Read and let me know what you think. I’m still formulating (and procrastinating on the parenteral outsourcing article for my mag).