Tuese: CHRISTIAN VALUES & WORLDVIEW in FOUNDING DOCUMENTS

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (Explicitly Theistic)

• CREATOR & Natural Rights: Mentions "CREATOR," "Nature's God," and "Divine Providence,"

ASSERTING RIGHTS COME FROM GOD, NOT GOVERNMENT.

• Equality: "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL," ROOTED IN THE IDEA OF BEING MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE.

• Moral Foundation: Views government's purpose as SECURING GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS and legitimizes revolution against tyranny, ALIGNING WITH BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY.

Key References to the Divine

• "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God": The famous second sentence grounds human rights in natural law, which is itself derived from God.

• "the Creator": This term emphasizes that rights like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are endowed by a divine being, not by governments.

• "Divine Providence": The final paragraph expresses reliance on God's guidance and protection for the new nation.

• "Supreme Judge of the world": The founders appeal to God as the ultimate moral arbiter for the righteousness of their actions.

CONSTITUTION (Implicitly Influenced)

• No Religious Test: Article VI prohibits religious tests for office, ensuring a secular government.

• First Amendment: Protects free exercise of religion and prohibits established religion, reflecting a desire for religious liberty.

• Separation of Powers: Distrust of human nature (influenced by Christian views of fallen man) led to checks and balances, preventing absolute power.

• "Day of Rest": The Constitution allows the President to keep a bill for 10 days, excluding Sundays, showing sensitivity to Christian observance.

CHRISTIAN VALUES & WORLDVIEW

• Core Beliefs: Ideas like inherent human dignity, intrinsic value of the individual, and the need for a moral people (often seen as Christian) underpinned the Founders' vision for a republic.

• Influence vs. Theocracy: While Christian morality was foundational to public life and law (e.g., anti-cruelty laws), the documents established a framework for religious freedom.

The majority of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were PROTESTANTS,

primarily Episcopalians (Anglican),

followed by Congregationalists

and Presbyterians, with smaller numbers of Quakers, Unitarians,

and one Roman Catholic (Charles Carroll).

While most identified with established Protestant denominations, some, like

Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, leaned towards Deism, and others held diverse views, but the overall religious background was predominantly Christian and Protestant.

Breakdown by Denomination (Approximate Numbers):

Episcopalian/Anglican: Around 32 signers, the largest group.
Congregationalist: About 13 signers.
Presbyterian: Around 12 signers.
Quaker: 2 signers, including Joseph Hewes.
Roman Catholic: 1 signer, Charles Carroll.
Unitarian/Universalist: 2 signers.

*The numbers aren't mathing up!!??

56 signers, yet 62 in breakdown on religion. Since Episcopalian/Anglican use the word, "Around" 32 will equate that to 62-56=6,

32-6=26 Episcopalian/Anglican.

So, 54 out of 56 were Christian.

Key Figures & Their Faith:

John Adams & Samuel Adams: Congregationalists.
George Washington & John Jay: Anglican (Episcopalian).
Thomas Jefferson: A Deist, believing in a CREATOR but less in traditional Christian doctrine.
Benjamin Franklin: Also leaned towards Deism.
Charles Carroll: The only Catholic signer.

In essence, the signers represented the diverse religious landscape of colonial America, predominantly Protestant, but with a growing acceptance of varied Christian viewpoints and Enlightenment philosophies like Deism.

SIGNERS:

Fifty-six delegates eventually signed the Declaration of Independence:

President of Congress

1. John Hancock(Massachusetts Bay)

New Hampshire

2. Josiah Bartlett

3. William Whipple

4. Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts Bay

5. Samuel Adams

6. John Adams

7. Robert Treat Paine

8. Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

9. Stephen Hopkins

10. William Ellery

Connecticut

11. Roger Sherman

12. Samuel Huntington

13. William Williams

14. Oliver Wolcott

New York

15. William Floyd

16. Philip Livingston

17. Francis Lewis

18. Lewis Morris

New Jersey

19. Richard Stockton

20. John Witherspoon

21. Francis Hopkinson

22. John Hart

23. Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania

24. Robert Morris

25. Benjamin Rush

26. Benjamin Franklin

27. John Morton

28. George Clymer

29. James Smith

30. George Taylor

31. James Wilson

32. George Ross

Delaware

33. Caesar Rodney

34. George Read

35. Thomas McKean

Maryland

36. Samuel Chase

37. William Paca

38. Thomas Stone

39. Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia

40. George Wythe

41. Richard Henry Lee

42. Thomas Jefferson

43. Benjamin Harrison

44. Thomas Nelson, Jr.

45. Francis Lightfoot Lee

46. Carter Braxton

North Carolina

47. William Hooper

48. Joseph Hewes

49. John Penn

South Carolina

50. Edward Rutledge

51. Thomas Heyward, Jr.

52. Thomas Lynch, Jr.

53. Arthur Middleton

Georgia

54. Button Gwinnett

55. Lyman Hall

56. George Walton

Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the last living signer of the document at the time of his death in 1832 at the age of 95. He died 56 years after the signing.

Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

Note: The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflects the original.

In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, that they are endowed by their CREATOR with certain UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to THE SUPREME JUDGE OF THE WORLD for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.