How Christian were U.S.A. States!

Christian History

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

Hosea 4:6

After passing the U.S. Bill of Rights, Congress requested President Washington issue a National Day of Thanksgiving to God, October 3, 1789, stating: “I do recommend… the 26th day of November… to be devoted by the People of these United States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be… to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue.“

Wow!! The U.S. Congress and George Washington – “be devoted… to promote… practice of true religion!” And what did they consider “true religion”? Unlike today, when the word “religion” was used by George Washington and all early Americans, it was understood then as only Christianity. Worship of any other god or gods in other parts of the world, were referred to as “ill-religions”.

That is why the American Founding Fathers wrote “freedom of religion” and not “freedom of religions”. They only considered Christianity as “true religion”, and freedom for only the different Christian sects in the United States.

Furthermore, the U.S. Constitution restricted the Federal government from having anything to do with any of the State’s different Christian denominations or state civil officers required in vow to be a Christian and promote Christianity etc. Even AFTER the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were signed – 8 of the 13 States still maintained their Christian Protestant Denomination as their State Religion and some with State Tithe tax to support their churches and pastors.

Today in the U.S. Library of Congress, you can read a letter from George Washington chiding James Madison for NOT supporting Virginia’s State Tithe tax. Also, State Christian Religion remained the law for some States through the 19^th century. AFTER the Constitution and Bill of Rights were signed, these State Constitutions continued, and in part read:

NEW JERSEY: “All persons, professing a belief in the faith of any PROTESTANT sect… shall be capable of being elected.“

MARYLAND: “No other test … ought to be required, on admission to any office … than such oath of support and fidelity to this State … and a declaration of a belief in the CHRISTIAN religion.”

NORTH CAROLINA: “No person, who shall deny the being of GOD or the truth of the PROTESTANT religion, or the Divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments … shall be capable of holding office.”

SOUTH CAROLINA: “No person shall be eligible to a seat … unless he be of the PROTESTANT religion … The CHRISTIAN PROTESTANT religion shall be deemed … the ESTABLISHED RELIGION of this State.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE: “No person shall be capable of being elected … who is not of the PROTESTANT religion.”

DELAWARE: “Every person … appointed to any office shall subscribe … ‘I profess faith in GOD THE FATHER, and in JESUS CHRIST His only Son, and in the HOLY GHOST, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration.'”

PENNSYLVANIA: “Each member, before he takes his seat, shall subscribe … ‘I do believe in one GOD, the Creator and Governor of the Universe, the Rewarder of the good and the Punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration.'”

RHODE ISLAND: “By the blessing of God… rightly grounded upon GOSPEL principles… in the true CHRISTIAN faith and worship of God … They may defend themselves, in their just rights and liberties against all the enemies of the CHRISTIAN faith.”

VIRGINIA: “It is the mutual duty of ALL to practice CHRISTIAN forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.”

MASSACHUSETTS: “Towns … to make suitable provision for the institution of the public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers… Every denomination of Christians… under the protection of the law.”

CONNECTICUT: “Oath of the Governor … swear by the great and dreadful name of the Ever-living God, to promote all wholesome laws … according to the rule of God’s Word; so help me God, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote in 1833: “The purpose of the First Amendment was NOT to discredit the then existing State Establishments of Religion, but rather to exclude from the National Government all power to act on the subject.”

Justice Joseph Story wrote in 1840: “We are NOT to attribute this prohibition of a national religious establishment to an indifference especially to Christianity, which none could hold in more reverence than the framers of the Constitution… the universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the State… The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance Mohammedism, or Judaism, or infidelity… but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects.”

So “freedom of religion” in the United States was never intended to be freedom for the world’s ill-religions, but only freedom for Christian sects – “true religion”, as George Washington wrote. As these laws changed in the States – it was the beginning of the end for the United States.

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Ps. 9:17).

“Now consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be no one to save you” (Ps. 50:2).