Famous actor Chuck Norris recently corrected a widely held belief that America was founded without religion while simultaneously illustrating why the nation is in dire need of God. Many have tried to portray the founding fathers as secular men while emphasizing the U.S.’s separation of church and state.
However, Norris points out that this is inaccurate as the nation’s patriarchs came from heavily Christian backgrounds where faith had an undeniable influence on the country’s founding. “Many today may not realize that there was an active clergyman (Presbyterian minister John Witherspoon) among the signers of the Declaration of Independence,” Norris explained in a recent article. “Two others had previously been ministers. Others were sons of clergy or had studied theology.”
The actor pointed out that of all the signers of the Constitution, nearly every single one hailed from some form of the Christian faith, with the possible exception of Benjamin Franklin, about whom there is debate about his religious leanings.
“Of the 39 signers of the Constitution, 37 were professed Protestant Christians (though at least one of those, Benjamin Franklin, was probably a deist), and two, Daniel Carrol and Thomas Fitzsimons, were Roman Catholics,” Norris said. “They were a diverse group of men in some respects, but they were united by their belief in a Creator God.”
Despite this obvious evidence of Christian influence on America, some would contend that the founding fathers never intended to establish a Christian nation but a country that embodies the moral values set forth by the religion. Norris cited John Witherspoon when he served as the president of New Jersey College, now known as Princeton.
“He is the best friend in American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who set himself with the greatest firmness to bear down on profanity and immorality of every kind,” Witherspoon wrote, stressing the importance of God in the country. “Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country.”
Norris also drew on a powerful quote from former Republican President Ronald Reagan, who previously explained that God is the very foundation of our moral fabric, asserting that if America casts aside its roots in faith, there will be dire consequences.
“As Ronald Reagan eloquently concluded at that 1984 Dallas Prayer Breakfast,” Norris wrote, “‘Without God, there is no virtue, because there’s no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we’re mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.’”
Unfortunately, the United States has become increasingly secular in recent decades with church attendance and religious affiliation falling. While the U.S. is certainly more of a Christian stronghold than many Western European nations, the consequences of our abandonment in God are beginning to show. Across American culture, values that directly contradict the teachings of Christ are becoming ever-more prevalent.
Featured image credit: Craig Michaud, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NorrisCrop.jpg