CALIVINISM

http://incolor.inebraska.com/stuart/ajc.htm

God seems to have been preparing a land where the followers of the Reformation could flee to avoid religious persecution. To allow the flowering of a nation, devoted to worshipping God in spirit and truth, powerful enough to spread the true gospel throughout the world. History demonstrates that those early settlers were staunch Calvinists. When the Pilgrims landed on the shores of this new land, they declared:

"We take possession of this land in the name of God Almighty, and to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout this land to all inhabitants."

The principles laid out in this document buttressed religious tolerance as well as political freedom. Charles Carrol, the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration and the last of the signers to die, wrote on February 20, 1829--"When I signed the Declaration of Independence, I had in view not only our independence from England, but the toleration of all sects professing the Christian religion and communicating to them all equal rights."

The influence of Calvinism as a guiding force in the political development of the United States is one of the brightest moments in the history of Calvinism. John Endicott and John Withrop of Massachusetts; Thomas Hooker of Connecticut; John Davenport of the New Haven Colony; and Roger Williams of the Rhode Island Colony were all Calvinists.

Fully two-thirds of the entire colonial population had been trained in the school of Calvinist thought. Never in the history of the world had a nation been founded by people such as these.

With this background, we should not be surprised to find that the Calvinists took a very important part in American Revolution. Calvin emphasized that the sovereignty of God, when applied to the affairs of government proved to be crucial, because God as the Supreme Ruler had all ultimate authority vested in Him, and all other authority flowed from God, as it pleased Him to bestow it.

History is eloquent in declaring that the American republican democracy was born of Christianity and that form of Christianity was Calvinism. The great revolutionary conflict which resulted in the founding of this nation was carried out mainly by Calvinists--many of whom had been trained in the rigidly Presbyterian college of Princeton.

It is recorded that when Cornwallis was driven back to ultimate defeat and surrender at Yorktown, all of the Colonels of the Colonial army, except one, were Presbyterian Elders.

Another important factor in the independence movement was what is now known as the "Mecklenburg Declaration," proclaimed by the Scots-Irish Presbyterians of North Carolina, on May 20, 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence was signed by the Continental Congress.

These North Carolinians had been watching the progress of the Colonists against the Crown. They deemed it was time for the patriots to speak out. Calling their church representatives together, by unanimous resolution they declared the people of the colony free and independent, and all laws and commissions from the king would henceforth be null and void.

The Declaration stated the following: "We do hereby dissolve the political bonds which have connected us with the mother-country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiances to the British Crown. We hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people, under control of no power, other than that of our God and general government of the Congress. To the maintenance of which we solemnly pledge each other our mutual cooperation and our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor."

That assembly was composed of twenty-seven Colonists. One-third of these were ruling Elders in the Presbyterian Church, including the president and secretary and one clergyman. The man who drew up that famous and important document was the secretary--Ephraim Brevard, a ruling Elder and graduate of Princeton. It was sent by a special messenger to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia and many of these concepts were obviously incorporated into the Declaration of Independence.

From 1776 to the present time, the Declaration of Independence has been the inspiration of a new hope amongst the oppressed of every nation throughout the world. The Founding Fathers in 1776 made the radical statement that under the form of government they were proposing, all men were equal in political privilege and political obligation. The Declaration says to all humanity that there is only one family on this tight little playground of ours called earth.

As originally presented to the Continental Congress the Declaration of Independence contained numerous and frequent references to God. First, in the opening paragraph, where the write stated "the laws of nature and nature of God are invoked,"' in the second paragraph he states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with inherent and certain unalienable rights,"; and thirdly, that portion of the document in which the signators appeal to "the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our inhabitants." Congress also felt led to insert these few words--"with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence."

The principles laid out in this document buttressed religious tolerance as well as political freedom. Charles Carrol, the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration and the last of the signers to die, wrote on February 20, 1829--"When I signed the Declaration of Independence, I had in view not only our independence from England, but the toleration of all sects professing the Christian religion and communicating to them all equal rights."

John Calvin was the first Reformer to demand complete separation between church and state. The Swiss Reformation brought about a government ruling by the will of the people, expressed through the majority vote of the populace. Calvin established a free state and a free church--two obedient bodies, but both under the sovereign authority of Almighty God.

When the authors of the Constitution set out to frame a system of representative government, their task was not as difficult as some may have imagined. They had a model from which to work. The German historian Ranke has stated that: "John Calvin was the virtual founder of America." Still another historian of the Reformation, D'Aluigne, writes: "Calvin was the founder of the greatest republics. The Pilgrims, who left their country and landed on the barren soil of New England founded populous and mighty colonies, were his sons, his direct and legitimate sons: that American nation, which we have seen growing so rapidly boasts as its father, the humble Reformer from the shores of Lake Lemon."

Calvinists have not been builders of great cathedrals, but they haven been builders of schools, colleges, and universities. When they came to America they brought with them not only the Bible and their confessions, but also the schools. As the pioneers advanced westward, establishing new towns along the way, they always set aide parcels of land, one for a church, and one for a school. Wherever one saw a church spire on the horizon, one could be sure that a school was nearby. As soon as the school was built, one of the first items installed was almost always a copy of the Ten Commandments for the classroom wall. The Bible was commonly used as a textbook.

Three of our oldest, most prestigious universities--Harvard, Yale and Princeton--were originally founded by Calvinists as institutions of higher learning where every course of study was infused and illuminated by the light of Scripture. The curriculum was designed to give the student a sound basis of theology to complement the other branches of learning. The goal was to teach them to love God, country, and to live honorable lives.

It is almost unbelievable to those of my generation, when we compare the schools of today with those which existed when we were young. Bibles are not allowed; some schools even attempt to prevent students from bringing their own Bibles to the classroom. The Ten Commandments can no longer be displayed in the school; it is seen as almost seditious to suggest the idea of prayer in school, and even mentioning the concept of God is not allowed in today's classroom.


The fanatic for Calvinism was a fanatic for liberty; and, in the moral warfare for freedom, his creed was his most faithful counsellor and his never-failing support.

For "New England was a religious plantation, not a plantation for trade. The profession of the purity of doctrine, worship, and discipline was written on her forehead." "We all," says the confederacy in one of the two oldest of American written constitutions, "came into these parts of America to enjoy the liberties of the gospel in purity and peace." "He that made religion as twelve, and the world as thirteen, had not the spirit of a true New England man." Religion was the object of the emigrants, and it was their consolation. With this the wounds of the outcast were healed, and the tears of exile sweetened.
George Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol.1, p.319

Much of this sentiment may be traced to the influence exerted by the opinions of one man, John Calvin. "We boast of our common schools, Calvin was the father of popular education, the inventor of free schools. The Pilgrims of Plymouth were Calvinists; the best influences of South Carolina came from the Calvinists of France. William Penn was the disciple of the Huguenots; the ships from Holland that first brought colonists to Manhattan were filled with Calvinists. He that will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of American liberty. He bequeathed to the world a republican spirit in religion, with the kindred principles of republican liberty."
William Jackman, History of the American Nation, Vol.2, p.394

"Federalism," "representative government," "social contract" -- these are ideas which are nothing else than political presbyterianism. The British called the American Revolution "The Presbyterian Revolt."

George Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol.4,
Chapter 1: America Sustains the Town of Boston, May 1774, p.9
New York anticipated the prayer of Boston. Its people, who had received the port act direly from England, felt the wrong to that town as a wound to themselves, and even the lukewarm kindled with resentment. From the epoch of the stamp act, their Sons of Liberty, styled by the royalists "the Presbyterian junto," had kept up a committee of correspondence.

Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order, p. 236
Politically, the tendency of Protestantism was toward democracy. Luther preached obedience to legitimate princes; Calvin established at Geneva a kind of aristocratic republic of virtue, governed in effect by presbyters (ministers and elders of the church). Yet the idea of the priesthood of all believers gradually would be transferred from the realm of religion to the realm of politics. The presbyterian form of Calvinism especially would become a forerunner of democratic institutions, even though in the beginning it had more nearly resembled the ancient Hebrew concept of theocracy.


George Bancroft points out that Locke's political ideas were not "enlightenment" ideas, but were largely lifted from Calvinists:
History of the United States, Vol. 5, p. 229
In 1688 England contracted to the Netherlands the highest debt that one nation can owe to another. Herself not knowing how to recover her liberties, they were restored by men of the United Provinces; and Locke brought back from his exile in that country the theory on government which had been formed by the Calvinists of the continent, and which made his chief political work the text-book of the friends of free institutions for a century.

Jean Bethke Elshtain, "Protestant Communalism."
Crisis Magazine, October 1995, p.41
That his basic thesis will surprise and disturb many in the academy, perhaps tells us more about the academy than it does about American politics and history. Political theorist George Armstrong Kelly, in a brilliant and much ignored book, Politics and Religious Consciousness in America, published over twenty years ago, argued that it was impossible to understand American history and life without coming to grips with the "fragmenting" offshoots of Calvinist orthodoxy that quite literally peopled and defined the American republic.

Shain shows that the doctrines of original sin and human depravity grounded much of the political theory and practice of the day. But again, he treats the doctrines as Calvinist or Reformed, although his evidence shows that, within the limits here applicable, the Reformed theologians shared this ground with other Christians. Since he is right to stress the dominance of the Reformed churches, the criticism might seem a pedantic quibble.

Paul Gottfried, "Concepts of Government."
Modern Age: A Quarterly Review, Vol. 37, No. 3, p.267
To me it seems remarkable that one can discuss European and American republicanism without analyzing its Calvinist roots. The one reference by Rahe to Calvin is to the Protestant reformer's critical opinion of classical virtue. More important from a political and theoretical standpoint, how did the Calvinist ideas of Covenant and the right to rebellion influence English Puritans, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, and New England Congregationalists? Such a question is still asked in history classes, and for good reason.

Kirk, The Roots of American Order, p.212
Because the colonies were governed from London, sometimes Scottish contributions to young America are neglected by historians. But much of America's early energy, in politics, commerce, and on the frontier, was that of Scots—who would become more successful in America than any other ethnic group except the New England Puritans. James Wilson, signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Constitutional Convention, a principal author of the Constitution, and later an associate justice of the Supreme Court, was one of the more ardent advocates of popular sovereignty; he had been born and schooled at the Scottish university town of St. Andrews. Scottish Presbyterianism worked intricately upon American life and character.

The Calvinist who believes in a Sovereign God will not allow any king or prince to claim a similar sovereignty.

Bancroft, the Unitarian, does not really understand Calvinism as a political philosophy, part of a unified weltänschauüng. But as a historian he was able to see the political effects of Calvinism, and able (unlike modern historians) to report it.

The separation of churches and state (a completely different doctrine than the modern myth of "separation of church and state) is a Calvinist doctrine.


Calvinism has had a greater influence on human history and institutions than any other theology ever formulated . . . .
C. Gregg Singer, John Calvin: His Roots and Fruits

No, at least politically speaking, which is what this Message Board is all about. A person can be an atheist and have political views which are staunchly Calvinist, especially if he was raised a staunch Calvinist and moved toward deism only in theological terms.

Russell Kirk, speaking of Fisher Ames, the author of the First Amendment, in The Conservative Mind from Burke to Eliot, p.84:
Of all the terrors of democracy, the worst is its destruction of moral habits. "A democratick society will soon find its morals the encumbrance of its race, the surly companion of its licentious joys….In a word, there will not be morals without justice; and though justice might possibly support a democracy, yet a democracy cannot possibly support justice." Here speaks the old Calvinism which finds milder expression in John Adams.

Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind from Burke to Eliot, p.243
"Experience has ever shown, that education, as well as religion, aristocracy, as well as democracy and monarchy, are, singly, totally inadequate to the business of restraining the passions of men, of preserving a steady government, and protecting the lives, liberties, and properties of the people." This admonition by John Adams meant nothing to Emerson. Only the balancing of passion, interest, and power against opposing passion, interest, and power can make a state just and tranquil, said Adams. John Adams believed the existence of sin to be an incontrovertible fact; while Emerson, discarding with the forms of Calvinism the very essence of its creed, never admitted the idea of sin into his system. "But such inveterate and persistent optimism," Charles Eliot Norton remarks of his friend Emerson, "though it may show only its pleasant side in such a character as Emerson's, is dangerous doctrine for a people. It degenerates into fatalistic indifference to moral considerations, and to personal responsibilities; it is at the root of much of the irrational sentimentalism of our American politics."

Recognition of the abiding power of sin is a cardinal tenet in conservatism. Quintin Hogg, in his vigorous little book The Case for Conservatism, re-emphasizes the necessity for this conviction. For conservative thinkers believe that man is corrupt, that his appetites need restraint, and that the forces of custom, authority, law, and government, as well as moral discipline, are required to keep sin in check. One may trace this conviction back through Adams [p.244] to the Calvinists and Augustine, or through Burke to Hooker and the Schoolmen and presently, in turn, to St. Augustine—and, perhaps (as Henry Adams does) beyond Augustine to Marcus Aurelius and his Stoic preceptors, as well as to St. Paul and the Hebrews.

Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind from Burke to Eliot, p.254
Now belief in the dogma of original sin has been prominent in the system of every great conservative thinker—in the lofty Christian resignation of Burke, in the hard-headed pessimism of Adams, in the melancholy of Randolph, in the "Calvinistic Catholicism" of Newman.

Calhoun rejected one doctrine of Calvinism but held to many others.
He held to a doctrine of Calvinism which holds that men are sinful and that a government of checks and balances is required. This distinguishes him from the French Revolutionaries of his day.

However, I digress...you have made your argument, it must stand or
fall on its own merits.

Adams violated the ACLU myth of "separation" at every turn.

In fact, I'd be embarrassed to rely on this article if I were a separationist. I've never seen an article that more clearly commits this basic fallacy, and it makes obvious the point that anti-Calvinists and Unitarians can be -- and were -- very conservative and can use the government to endorse and promote their brand of theism.

I would undoubtedly have been executed for my anarchistic views in any city in Europe in 1540. But secular governments are far more lethal than Christian governments. Its no contest. You can complain all you want about a nutcase like Servetus, but in a now-secular America 4,000 mothers kill their own babies every day, and atheistic civil governments have killed an average of 5,000 more innnocent people PER DAY every day in the 20th century.

Calvin changed the world for the better, politically speaking, as most of the Founding Fathers would agree. I can't think of a single Unitarian 200 years ago who would not acknowledge a debt of freedom to Calvin.

Death By Government
http://members.aol.com/XianAnarch/pacifism/rummel.htm

Overall, Calvin's ideas brought the flowering of western civilization and less-tyrannical republican governments. Anti-Calvinist governments are best seen in Communist China and the gulags of the "former" soviet union. I'll take Calvin in a heartbeat.

George Washington (QUOTE)
1796 - letter to Alexander Hamilton
Category: International Relations
But if we are to be told by a foreign Power ... what we shall do, and what we shall not do, we have Independence yet to seek, and have contended hitherto for very little.
Reference: The Writings of George Washington, Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 35 (40)

http://www.mrdawntreader.com/the_dawn_treader/2006/06/calvinism_and_i.html
http://www.citizensoldier.org/hannitycolmesatheists.html

http://members.aol.com/Patriarchy/definitions/nature.htm

It seems rather odd that the constitutional framers would thank God for allowing them to draft a Constitution that excluded Him from the Constitution and the civil affairs of government.

“Our Constitution makes no mention whatever of God.” “No mention whatever” is pretty absolute. Given this bold claim, then how does she explain that the Constitution ends with “DONE in the year of our Lord”? “Our Lord” is a reference to Jesus Christ. This phrase appears just above the signature of George Washington, the same George Washington who took the presidential oath of office with his hand on an open Bible, the same George Washington who was called upon by Congress, after the drafting of the First Amendment, to proclaim a national day of prayer and thanksgiving. The resolution read as follows:

That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a Constitution for their safety and happiness.

It seems rather odd that the constitutional framers would thank God for allowing them to draft a Constitution that excluded Him from the Constitution and the civil affairs of government.

"Federalism," "representative government," "social contract" -- these are ideas which are nothing else than political Presbyterianism. The British called the American Revolution "The Presbyterian Revolt."
http://www.electricscotland.com/books/scots_virginia.htm
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/read_blackregiment.html

George Bancroft points out that Locke's political ideas were not "enlightenment" ideas, but were largely lifted from Calvinists:
History of the United States, Vol. 5, p. 229
In 1688 England contracted to the Netherlands the highest debt that one nation can owe to another. Herself not knowing how to recover her liberties, they were restored by men of the United Provinces; and Locke brought back from his exile in that country the theory on government which had been formed by the Calvinists of the continent, and which made his chief political work the text-book of the friends of free institutions for a century.