Quote:
Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
Agreed completely on the diversity of views, but the most important point historically is that the views expressed by many (not all) of the founders would have been radically anti-Church and anti-religion by today's standards. This is a period when American religion is relatively demure, organized, and on the side-lines, but when there is a sizable anti-clerical anti-establishment crowd that is in the ascendancy. The fact that the British lost the war and the establishment church was run from Canterbury, of course, had nothing to do with any of this.
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What the Founders said to each other in letters etc. was very different from what they said in public, when they would invoke the Almighty Creator and Providence and some such to bless their undertakings. Jefferson was no fool -- he spent a lot of his valuable time editing
Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth but never allowed it to be published in his lifetime -- it was first published in 1895. But you'd better believe he said whatever it was you needed to say to get elected in 1769, 1775, 1779, 1783, 1797, and 1801.
So the religion acid test for elected officials was different then, and I continue to think that was because the evangelical contingent was politically irrelevant and the landed gentry had various amounts of religious zeal but that shouldn't get in the way of political discourse and civility, tut tut.
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