Christian Education, Part 4
Posted on April 14, 2007
Filed Under Worldview |
If education in the early life of America was so clearly Christian-based and the founders seemed to believe that education was critical to the well-being of the republic, then we are now led to ask the question: “Why?”
I hinted at that yesterday, and so let’s view a few statements from that era that will help us understand the answer to that question. Let’s begin with our first two presidents: George Washington and John Adams. That will be all we can handle in today’s blog. We’ll take some other founders later. Not that I want to drag this out, but the principles we are going to examine here are extremely critical for understanding the foundations of this nation and, I believe, the foundations that we should be interested in rebuilding.
So, let’s first look at George Washington’s final address to the nation. One would expect the Father of America to take his last opportunity to point us to the fundamentals, and he did not disappoint. Here is an excerpt that I recall hearing for the first time as our family was attending a re-enactment of Washington’s Farewell Address at the Lyceum in Old Alexandria in 1992. Note how he highlights the essential pillars of religion and morality:
“Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion, and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked where is security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure. reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle”
Now, this could be a mere curiosity if it were not a prevalent theme within the statements of the other founders. Let’s look at a couple from John Adams, the second president of the United States:
“Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand … the only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.”
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
These are remarkable statements in light of our culture today, yet they reflect what they believed was critical and help us understand why early American education sought to teach those foundations to its youth.
Tomorrow, I want to look at a few other founders so that we get the feel for how much this was ingrained in their thinking—the notion that the form of government that they had built and their hope for a lasting freedom and liberty was resting upon these two vital foundations.
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2 Responses to “Christian Education, Part 4”
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Dr. Del Tackett is president of the Focus on the Family Institute and Senior Vice President to Focus on the Family. He is also the architect and chief spokesperson for Focus on the Family's The Truth Project--a nationwide initiative designed to bring the Christian worldview to the body of Christ.
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Wow. I have never heard these quotes! I never really knew that our Founding Fathers felt so strongly about Christianity & America. I had been given some idea that they were “religious”, but I never knew how much it meant to them - reading these quotes makes it very clear to me! Thank you for posting this. It really opened up my eyes and gives me more information to share with others.
I wish they had used the word “Christianity” instead of “religion”. These quotes, necessarily brief, could be read by Islamists as referring to their religion. Islam cannot possibly support a republic. I also wish they had used the word “Biblical Law” instead of “morality”. “Morality” to an Islamic Fundamentalist includes killing people who do not espouse Islam. Check it out in the Koran.