Letter: Doubt behind founders’ affiliations

Thanks to Bob Mattila’s April 30 letter, “Nation on destructive course,” we are again treated to the myth that our nation was founded by men following the laws of God. While I’m sure that there were godly men involved in the Constitutional Convention, here are five who certainly run contrary to the popular myth:

George Washington was a Deist. He believed in God, but that God was not an active participant in human affairs.

John Adams considered Christian dogma incomprehensible. He signed the Treaty of Tripoli, which stated, “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”

Thomas Jefferson, from his writings, was clearly skeptical of Christian teachings. He did not believe in the Trinity, the virgin birth, the divinity of Jesus, the resurrection, original sin and other core Christian doctrines.

James Madison is most easily described as a Deist. Of all he was the most strict proponent of the separation of church and state.

Thomas Paine, while never holding an elective office, was nonetheless influential through his pamphlets like “Common Sense,” and was a radical Deist. Paine attacked institutionalized religion and all of the major tenets of Christianity.

This small sample is clearly evidence to the absence of Christian dogma to the founding of our great nation.

Joseph R. Maurer

Vancouver