Everything You Were Taught About Early America Might Be WRONG
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome back to our special Politics by Faith, God versus Country. Want to go to William Wolfe. He's the executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership. William, how you doing, brother?
Good. Glad to be back with you.
What is your argument for America was founded as a Christian nation?
Well, you know, that argument, I think, is just fundamentally a historical argument. If you look at our founding fathers and what they believed, you look at our founding documents and what they say, really, for the first 200 years of American life, from the founding to the mid-20th century, our leaders understood that we were, if not an explicitly Christian nation, we were a nation of Christians. Mark David Hall is a historian who would not adopt the word Christian nationalist for himself, and yet in his great book, Did America Have a Christian Founding?, he argues that America was founded as a nation Christian nation and it's really indisputable. So my main argument is historical. Just look at the records.
You can't escape it.
So my answer to that is, well, if we weren't a Christian nation, what were we? Were we a Buddhist nation? Right. So, okay. So obviously we're a Christian nation now, but that was a long time ago, William.
How does William Wolfe argue America was founded as a Christian nation?
who cares now we're not and we shouldn't be anymore is what people would say so i guess my follow-up question is if we were a christian nation then why was that good well i mean i think it was it was obviously good for so many reasons because america has become the the greatest nation in modern history it's given more freedom to its citizens perhaps too many freedoms we could we could think about when we think of how liberty has become licentiousness right but you know The founding fabric of America built, quite frankly, on the Bible. I gave a talk about this a while back on the Bible and American public life, and I just looked at how the Bible was used. John Adams talked about how if a nation was founded on the precepts of the Bible, it would become a utopia.
And he used that word sort of loosely. George Washington argued that the Bible was the source of the principles that taught us that national morality must prevail. During the heated Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin got up and cited Psalm 127.1, those who build it labor in vain so why is it good for everybody because what the bible teaches is good and right and true and people who follow biblical wisdom whether they're christians or not people who live according to god's word in god's world will live happier more prosperous lives this is the bedrock of societies and families and we need it for our country what is a christian nationalist Well, that's a great question. To turn it back on you, I'd say, what do you mean by a Christian nationalist, right?
What evidence from the Founding Fathers and documents supports a Christian founding?
Because that's how the conversation goes with these people. I think fundamentally a Christian nationalist is somebody who just believes in the founding principles of America and is a Christian themselves. Somebody who believes that God is over the government. Somebody who believes that all government officials must fulfill the Romans 13 duty to serve God and to punish evildoers and to commend what is good according to biblical principles. And, and I'll let one last point on that. They're not globalists, right? So it's like, if you don't want globalism, which is the big push from the left and from the EU and the W E F and everybody trying to flood our nation with infinity immigrants. Um, if you don't want globalism, what do you want?
Well, let's have nationalism, but let's have a rightly ordered nationalism that's bounded by Christian principles and grounded in Christian morality.
Are you forcing your Christian morality on me?
What? Yes, absolutely. In the sense and here's what I mean by that. Because look, Christian, like, look at what happens in the Ten Commandments, right? The commandments, particularly the second table of the law, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery, commands like that honor your father and mother.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:07–1:31
2
How does William Wolfe argue America was founded as a Christian nation?
1:31–3:11
3
What evidence from the Founding Fathers and documents supports a Christian founding?
3:11–8:49
4
Why does a Christian foundation matter for America’s success and morality?
8:49–12:38