Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers

Brooke Allen presents a quick history of six of the primary Founding Fathers of the USA and their views towards religion and government. Allen lets each featured statesman speak largely for himself, with excellect excerpts taken in context, conveying the undoubtable position that Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton were absolutely determined to create a nation which maintained walls between church and state. Each of the first six chapters features a different statesmen. Throughout, Allen largely excerpts topical writings from letters, speeches, and other documents which offer keen insight into the thoughts and opinions of each man. Allen points out that many modern Christians try to argue that these men were likewise Christian, founding the nation on primarily Christian beliefs and values. By reading the thoughts of these men, that argument could not be any more wrong. Although none of these men were atheist or agnostic (in modern terms, though Franklin may have been despite a few of his public statements), most were Deists who specifically denied the very Christian beliefs of the divinity of Jesus, revelation, atonement, and the historical value of the Bible. Each man argued prodigiously against mingling church and state. Latter parts of the book give the reader a nice history of Enlightenment thought which greatly influenced these men. The ideals of natural law and personal freedoms come not from Biblical interpretations and implementations, but instead from enlighted thinkers such as Locke, Paine, Voltaire, and Smith. Allen's history is brief but covers the subject very nicely. Jefferson himself shows that he understood the concepts of natural law to come early Saxons prior to their exposure to Christianity, contrary to the breathless claims made by modern evangelicals and apologists. Moral Minority is a great book to offer any reader willing to consider the words of the Founders themselves rather than simply accept the modern-day evangelical propaganda regarding our 'Christian' heritage. While there is no doubt that Christianity played a large role in the development of our nation, as did many practicing, devout Christians, the most commonly cited statesment responsible for leading the Revolution and early US govenrment were, without a doubt, against any co-mingling of church and state. It could not be more clear, and it makes the secular-religious struggle over church and state issues today blatantly one of revisionist history by those on the religious side, a deceptive tactic that launched during the lifetimes of these statesmen. One of the interesting side effects noted by Allen is that the drive for a truly secular government rather than a tolerant one (the tolerant government has an official state religion but offers 'toleration' to other religions) was the development of a more religious population. Had a specific Christian denomination been given sanction, argues Allen, it is very likely that the result

Brooke Allen's 'Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers' could hardly be more necessary coming as it does during the reign of a President who uses federal funds to directly promote religion and a Supreme Court that refuses to allow review of same (Hein v. FFRF). As Allen demonstrates in this tidy little dynamo of a book our primary founders were men of the Enlightenment, skeptical of faith and devoted to reason. Allen's subjects are Washington, Franklin, John Adams, Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton. Allen presents six biographical essays focusing as her preface states on their "attitudes toward religion in general, and Christianity in particular". A final chapter that takes up nearly a quarter of the book's 183 pages gives the reader a concise summary of the Enlightenment background as well the 16th-17th century religious turmoil in England from which these leaders ultimately sprang. We read of David Hume refuting intelligent design in 1757 and of retaining a `deliberate doubt' due to lack of evidence. Hume concluded that "the whole is a riddle, an aenigma, an inexplicable mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspense of judgment appear the only result of our most accurate scrutiny." One only wishes that Hume had lived to see Darwin blast away these doubts a century later. Allen does not uncover much new, but she brings it together in an imminently interesting and admirably concise way. George Washington does not give up any secrets, but the evidence suggests at least by strong negative inference that Washington was not a Christian or at most a very half-hearted one. He generally declined to take the sacrament and when a preacher called him on this behavior as setting a bad example for others Washington agreed and never attended church on sacramental Sunday again! (Perhaps more interesting, Allen discloses that most worshippers at least in Washington's church typically departed before taking the sacrament). An excellent antidote to the nonsense passed around as 'common knowledge' these days. This reader appreciates more and more a writer who can make her point without drowning the reader in needless repetition. Allen succeeds. Very highly recommended.

Brooke Allen is most known for her stellar literary criticism in journals like New Criterion and the Hudson Review, but here, she leaves her "conservative journal" credentials to the side and examines six of the Founders' religious views and their impact on our formation of government. Religious conservatives will be disabused of their "Christian Nation" and "Reconstructionist" views. While 6 of 51 Constitutional Conventioneers does not establish the whole Convention's point of view, certainly Washington, Franklin, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, and Hamilton were the central architects of our Founding Documents. What Allen aims to show is that these six individuals in particular were not normative Christians, and whatever religious views they held (mainly Deism or unorthodox Theism), the Enlightenment Ideals, not Christianity, prevailed. But, of course, it did. One finds not a single Judeo-Christian notion, belief, concept, or ideal in any of our founding documents. NO mention of God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, the Decalogue, Charity, Faith, Hope, Forgiveness, Non-Judgmentalism, Self-denial, Spiritual Rebirth, etc. is found in any of the founding documents. Not even American "exceptionalism," based on Calvin's Divine Election of the Chosen, is found (however much it continues to surface in practical politics). If America's founding was "Christian," no evidence exists for a single Christian idea. The Liberal Ideals of the Enlightenment, of course, opposed much of historical Christianity: Notions of self-rule, democracy, autonomy, freedom/liberty, anti-authoritarianism, equality, pluralism, freedom of thought and belief and practice, fairness/justice, impartiality, one-person-one-vote, human rights, diffusion of power, etc., all hail from the Enlightenment. Not one, not one, can be found in the Bible. The Age of Enlightenment (16-18th centuries) was grounded in Reason, not Religion. Indeed, the Authority of King and Church was opposed by all the Founders. Even those with a decidedly Calvinist cast recognized (largely through self-interest) that privileging any particular form of Christianity would disadvantage theirs. The dominant Enlightenment thinkers, from Hobbes, Locke, Voltaire, Hume, Smith, Kant, etc. were either nominal Christians or atheists. "Obedience" to a book, church, monarch, deity -- some of which had to become manifest, if America was founded on Christianity -- is repudiated. The idea of "religious obedience" was disagreeable, except to the Puritans came to these shores to avoid religious persecution, only to do to others what they sought to avoid in Europe. Thus, the freedom to exercise religion was granted, but no particular religion could be established. It was in the Calvinists, Anabaptists, Anglicans, and Free-Thinkers' interest, all. One assumes one learned this stuff in high school civics courses. But, it's not ignorance, it's the preposterous Christian Nationists, the Evangelicals, and Biblical Reconstructions who Allen intends t

In response to the "brilliant historian" who gave this book one star because he claims the founders neglected slavery all I can say is people who know nothing about history should not make such outlandish claims. Of course the founders did not neglect slavery...The Constitution banned the slave trade beginning in 1808, and the founders knew that if they banned it before then the southern states would have never ratified the Constitution...and the U.S. as we know it today would not have been formed...at any rate this is an excellent book about the brilliant minds of our founders...

"Moral Minority" by Brooke Allen is a brilliant refutation of the popular but misbegotten notion that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation. Ms. Allen profiles the religious lives of six key Founding Fathers and proves that their scepticism was in fact widely shared among the vanguard of the Enlightenment. Placing the founder's source writings within their proper historical context and astutely drawing parallels to the culture wars of our own time, this important work deserves to be read by a wide audience. Ms. Allen dedicates individual chapters to the religious attitudes of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. Ms. Allen peruses the personal correspondences and other original documents of the founders to discuss how their thinking on religion might have developed over the course of their lives. In most cases, she finds that with education and life experiences came expressions of disillusionment and even hostility to organized religion, providing further evidence that these attitudes only became more resolute with age. In the case of Washington, who wrote almost nothing on the subject, the author presents strong circumstantial evidence that the first president was at best a Deist but almost certainly not a Christian. Ms. Allen finds a modern antecedent in the person of Hamilton, whose defense of the Constitution's no establishment clause did not prevent him from advocating the use of religion as a political weapon. We learn that Hamilton's cynical political tactic to label Jefferson as the champion of 'no god!!!' during the 1800 presidential contest backfired, even as the advent of the Second Great Awakening was threatening to elevate religion as a major campaign issue. Interestingly, Ms. Allen shows that religious groups rallied around Jefferson specifically for his staunch defense of church/state separation and his personal guarantee that no national religion would be established. The final two chapters expound upon the character of the American colonies and the Enlightenment values that shaped the founder's attitudes. Through Ms. Allen's compelling comparative analysis, there is no doubt that many of the founders shared a widespread revulsion of organized religion in general and of Christianity in particular. Ms. Allen cites the works of John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith and others as evidence that Enlightenment thinkers sought to separate ethics from religion, prefering the moral examples that might be drawn from Classical ideals to religious superstition and ritual; importantly, the author draws a straight line to the founders who were guided by these great texts in their architecting of the U.S. system of government. I highly recommend this powerfully persuasive and irrefutable book to everyone.