Bad Article Misunderstands Founding Principles:

But what else would you expect from WorldnutDaily? The culprit is Tom Flannery. Let's take this line by line.

At the end of the 18th century, Founding Fathers like John Adams and Alexander Hamilton were becoming increasingly troubled by the revolution that was unfolding in France.

Unlike the American Revolution, which was founded on the Christian principles delineated in the Declaration of Independence, the French version was virulently anti-religious (particularly in regard to Christianity). The revolutionaries sought to replace religion with human reason, even going so far as suggesting that Notre Dame be renamed the "Cathedral of Reason."

First, it's ironic that Flannery begins by citing John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, both of whom were theistic rationalists (Hamilton converted to orthodox Christianity only towards the end of his life, after he did his work founding the nation); that is they elevated man's reason over revelation as the ultimate arbiter of Truth.

Next, he claims that "Christian principles delineated...the Declaration of Independence." Funny, I don't see one citation to Scripture or reference to God in Biblical terms at all in America's Declaration. And Flannery draws a faux distinction between the ideology of the American and French Revolutions (indeed, I wrote this post exposing the way Christian Nationalists often make this error). It's true that the French Revolution became hostile to religion in a way that the American never did (and keep in mind, they had a national Church to disestablish -- one that was very illiberal at the time, the RCC -- and we didn't). But both revolutions, in their founding documents, make parallel ideological assertions. This shouldn't surprise given that Thomas Jefferson, the author of America's Declaration, was in France helping to spur on their Revolution and assisted in writing their Founding document, the French's Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Perhaps he should read both documents and see for himself. If "Christian principles" delineate the Declaration of Independence, they likewise delineate the French's Declaration of the Rights of Man. That document was done "under the auspices of the Supreme Being," and actually refers to property as "an inviolable and sacred right." That's about as "Christian" language as you will find in America's DOI.

Back to the article:

Well, don't look now, but a move is afoot by leftists in media and government today -- having learned nothing from the horrors of the French Revolution or the Soviet experiment or other such examples throughout history -- to once again enshrine human reason, with the twin engine of scientific discovery, as man's guiding light. They hope that by doing so they can do away once and for all with what they view as the "superstition" of religion.

Again, I note with further irony that our Founding Fathers, like Adams and Hamilton, were rationalists who believed man's reason and scientific discovery were indeed man's guiding light. Here is John Adams's in his own words on the matter:

"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.

". . . 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."

John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1788

Likewise Adams and company, in 1797, ratified a treaty (making it part of "the law of the land") which explicitly stated, "the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."

And while our Founders supported religion generally and had no desire to "do away with it," they did believe man's reason superseded Biblical revelation, and they disdained much of what they regarded as "superstition" coming from orthodox Christianity -- doctrines like the Trinity, the Incarnation, the atonement, eternal damnation, and others. See this post for John Adams's quotations on those matters.

Finally, one last error to point out in Flannery's article:

The experimental method known as science, you see, was founded by Christians who wanted to explore the universe for the glory of God and the benefit of mankind. But when you remove God from that equation, then man is the final arbiter of what is good and what is bad, what is morally acceptable and what is not. The result of this is the embrace of godless concepts like evolution and communism....

Ah no, Aristotle, of Pagan Ancient Greece, "founded" the "experimental method known as science." Christians learned science from the West's Pagan Greco-Roman heritage.

When will they ever learn?