Were the Founding Fathers Christian?

Almost since the beginning of the United States, Americans have argued over the faith and beliefs of the men we know as the Founding Fathers. Some believe the Founders were secular Deists, while others assert that the United States is (or at least was) a Christian nation founded by Bible-believing Christians.

Of course, these days, a growing number of Americans simply don’t care. They are either apathetic toward the Founders or regard them with contempt. This is sad, because…

History matters. And the Founders matter. And I believe the nature of their faith matters.

Who were the “Founding Fathers”?

Let’s first define our terms. When most Americans hear “Founding Fathers” (or “Founders”), they think of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and maybe John Adams or (thanks to the very popular play about him) Alexander Hamilton. But the group we know as the Founders comprised a much larger number of members.

There were fifty-six (56) signers of the Declaration of Independence. Forty-eight (48) men then signed the Articles of Confederation and thirty-nine (39) signed its successor, the Constitution. (Fifty-five attended the Constitutional Convention, but not all signed).

And there are those who served, at various times, in the First Continental Congress, the Second Continental Congress, and the Congress of the Confederation (the official name of the Congress that served the United States under the Articles of Confederation). Then, of course, you have those who served in the U.S. Congress in the early years of the new U.S. Constitution.

Let’s not forget the state and local leaders too. Not all the action was happening at the federal level. Each of the colonies had to transition to becoming a full-fledged state. That meant new constitutions to replace colonial charters. John Adams, for example, was the primary author of the Massachusetts constitution.

When you add up all those who served in leadership or official capacities during the American Revolution and/or the early years of the new Republic at any level (national, state, and local), you’re talking about hundreds of men who could be considered “Founding Fathers.”

And… let’s remember Abigail Adams’s exhortation to “remember the ladies.” While women mostly didn’t vote (except in New Jersey) or hold office, they were influential during the American founding. A few examples:

Women took an active part in the Stamp Act protests and boycotts of the mid-to-late 1760s.
About fifty women famously organized a boycott of British goods in Edenton, South Carolina in 1774.
Martha Washington and other officer wives actively serve the Continental Army during wartime winter quarters by making socks, nursing the sick, and other means of support. (Martha was practically revered by her husband’s army for her service).
Several women served as spies in the American Revolution.
Women took on the heavy burden of maintaining homes and farms during the American Revolution, while their husbands (and fathers and sons) served in the army.

Some of the more outspoken women in the founding era included Mercy Otis Warren (playwright), Phillis Wheatley (poet), and the aforementioned Abigail Adams.

While the men may have gotten the most notice in our history books, we owe the success of our nation as much to the “Founding Mothers” as we do to the “Founding Fathers.”

And of course, there were many indigenous Americans and Black Americans supporting the cause for independence. Many of the latter were notable in their contributions to the early years of the United States. The indispensable support to the city of Philadelphia provided by African Americans during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 is but one example.

Were the Founders Christian?

First, it must be acknowledged that the Founders were all individuals. The “Founding Fathers” were not a monolithic collective. They did not all feel or think the same way about God and the Bible. Some of the Founders were quite devout in their faith. Others were more cultural or casual in their beliefs and practices. And others were much more influenced by the Enlightenment than the Bible.

What’s more, to speak of the United States as a Christian nation suggests that nation-states can accept Jesus as their personal Savior, but John 3:16 speaks of “whoever” and Romans 10:9-10 speaks of “you.”

A personal relationship with God through Christ is just that: personal.

You aren’t a Christian because you grew up in a Christian country or home. You aren’t a Christian because you attend a Christian church. You must make a personal, individual decision to “call upon the name of the Lord” (Romans 10:13).

Some of the men we know as the Founders did this. They made a personal decision to confess Christ as their Savior. Others, it would appear, did not. And others… we just don’t know.

In fact, we really can’t speak authoritatively of the heart of any person other than ourselves. Ultimately, only God knows.

But…

Some of the men we know as the Founders most certainly left pretty clear evidence that they embraced Christ as their Savior. Some examples:

“I . . . [rely] upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.” -Samuel Adams
“I give and bequeath my soul to Almighty God that gave it [to] me, hoping that through the meritorious death and passion of our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ to receive absolution and remission for all my sins.” -George Mason
“On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation and on His merits, not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts.” -Charles Carroll
“It becomes a people publicly to acknowledge the over-ruling hand of Divine Providence and their dependence upon the Supreme Being as their Creator and Merciful Preserver . . . and with becoming humility and sincere repentance to supplicate the pardon that we may obtain forgiveness through the merits and mediation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” -Samuel Huntington
“The Gospel of Jesus Christ prescribes the wisest rules for just conduct in every situation of life. Happy they who are enabled to obey them in all situations! . . . My only hope of salvation is in the infinite tran¬scendent love of God manifested to the world by the death of His Son upon the Cross. Noth¬ing but His blood will wash away my sins [Acts 22:16]. I rely exclusively upon it. Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly! [Revelation 22:20]” -Benjamin Rush
“[I]f you are not rec¬onciled to God through Jesus Christ – if you are not clothed with the spotless robe of His righteousness – you must forever perish.” –John Witherspoon
“Rendering thanks to my Creator for my existence and station among His works, for my birth in a country enlightened by the Gospel and enjoying freedom, and for all His other kindnesses, to Him I resign myself, humbly confiding in His goodness and in His mercy through Jesus Christ for the events of eternity.” -John Dickinson
“Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by His beloved Son. . . . Blessed be His holy name.” -John Jay
“My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away . . . the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances [permits] His disciples in asserting that He was God.” -John Quincy Adams

Other Founders fall into the camp of “We don’t know.” They either kept their personal beliefs about Jesus close to the vest OR (in some cases) expressed skepticism or misgivings about some of the central claims of Christianity (such as the Trinity or the nature of sin and salvation).

“The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.” -John Adams
“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” -George Washington
“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and His religion as He left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see.” -Benjamin Franklin
The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses. -Thomas Jefferson

George Washington was probably a believer in Christ, but he could be cagey in his public remarks about his faith. John Adams was a New England Congregationalist, but some of his personal writings raise questions, and even cast doubt, on his beliefs regarding Christ’s Deity. And, in the case of Jefferson and Franklin, it would seem neither ever fully embraced the Deity of Christ or entered into a personal relationship with Him.

Ultimately, only God knows our hearts — and theirs. But…

Whatever the particulars of the faith of the men we regard as our Founders, only a tiny few outright rejected Christianity. Thomas Paine was one who did — and he lost nearly all his popularity because of it.

The bottom line is that our nation today would be better off if we respectfully listened more to their wisdom.

“Through His Meritorious Righteousness”

I close with excerpts from a letter Elias Boudinot sent his daughter. Boudinot was a member of the Continental Congress during the American Revolution, serving as its president from 1782 to 1783. He was one of the signers of the treaty with Great Britain in which the Mother Country formally recognized our independence. In the years following the Revolution, Boudinot served in the U.S. Congress and was ultimately appointed by President George Washington to be the Director of the U.S. Mint.

Yet, as you can see from this letter, as important as the United States was to him, his faith in Christ was most dear.

You have been instructed from your childhood in the knowledge of your lost state by nature – the absolute necessity of a change of heart and an entire renovation of soul to the image of Jesus Christ – of salvation through His meritorious righteousness only – and the indispensable necessity of personal holiness without which no man shall see the Lord [Hebrews 12:14] … And may the God of your parents (for many generations past) seal instruction to your soul and lead you to Himself through the blood of His too greatly despised Son, Who notwithstanding, is still reclaiming the world to God through that blood, not imputing to them their sins. To Him be glory forever!
A letter of Elias Boudinot to his daughter, Susan Boudinot (October 30, 1782)

To God to be the glory indeed.

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For more on this subject, here are a few resources: