Founding Fathers Religious Quotes Page 2

There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity.

It has made one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.

God has appointed two kinds of government in the world, which are distinct in their nature, and ought never to be confounded together; one of which is called civil, the other ecclesiastical government.

It is no slight testimonial, both to the merit and worth of Christianity, that in all ages since its promulgation the great mass of those who have risen to eminence by their profound wisdom and integrity have recognized and reverenced Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of the living God.

The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.

The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing.

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men.

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.

It is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws.

The Constitution of the U.S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion.

I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.

Christianity is the only true and perfect religion.

. . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.

Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell.

You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do every thing they can to assist you in this wise intention.

Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths . . . ?

A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district;

all studied and appreciated as they merit; are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.

I would not dare so dishonor my Creator's name by attaching it to this filthy book.

Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption

Preachers dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight.

Now I realize it's fashionable in some circles to believe that no one in government should encourage others to read the Bible. That we're told we'll violate the constitutional separation of church and state established by the Founding Fathers and the First Amendment. The First Amendment was not written to protect people and their laws from religious values. It was written to protect those values from government tyranny.

I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did.

We beseech [God] to pardon our national and other transgressions.

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.

America's founding fathers did not intend to take religion out of education.

Many of the nation's greatest universities were founded by evangelists and religious leaders; but many of these have lost the founders concept and become secular institutions. Because of this attitude, secular education is stumbling and floundering.

The religion-builders have so distorted and deformed the doctrines of Jesus, so muffled them in mysticism, fancies, and falsehoods.

Have you considered that system of holy lies and pious frauds that has raged and triumphed for 1,500 years?

Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?

Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise, and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.

It is my firm belief that the God of Heaven raised up the founding fathers and inspired them to establish the Constitution of this land. This is part of my religious faith. To me this is not just another nation. It is a great and glorious nation with a divine mission to perform for liberty-loving people everywhere.

It is the fable of Jesus Christ, as told in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary doctrine raised thereon, against which I contend. The story, taking it as it is told, is blasphemously obscene.

I looked around for God's judgments, but saw no signs of them.

Creeds have been the bane of the Christian church ... made of Christendom a slaughter-house.

It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.

[V]irtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.