41. Is the U.S. Constitution a Christian Document? with Mike Gaddy

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“We the People..” have you ever stopped to consider who was included in that “we”?  

This week Mike Gaddy returns to discuss the question: Is the Constitution a Christian document? Join us for a trip to 1785 Philadelphia where we look inside “the room where it happened” and uncover the possible motives and supposed religiosity of the 55 white men who devised the system that we, two centuries later, are still trying to untangle our basic Liberties from.

Many Christians on the political right, and even the left, considered the United States Constitution to be a Christian document. Yet, the founders avoided consulting with or even making reference to the teachings of Christ or any Deity, Creator, or Higher Power for that matter, in the formation of the Constitution. When we look at what the founders said and did we are left with a very different image of the motives that may have inspired the document that for too long Christians have been misled to see as divine.

You can connect with Mike at rebelmadman.com. He hosts two radio shows, Addicted to Your Own Destruction, (Fridays at 12 PM EST) Forensic Autopsy of Consitution & its Characters, as well as Addicted to Our Own Destruction (6 PM EST) On Rev radio.

Timestamps:

1:35  Mike’s Episode on Succession (Ep. 24)

2:12 Does the Christian-right view the constitution as God-Breathed?

  • It’s important to look at how both sides view the constitution in relation to their Christianity

3:31 What Mike has learned from his studies of the Christian Right and Left

  • Jury Duty selection and biases

  • We should be led by evidence rather than emotion

5:38 Were all the founders Christain?

9:59 Why Mike is so passionate about this topic

  •  Believing something false is going to affect our decision-making process over and over again

  • False narratives don’t bear good fruit

13:10 How did we get to the Constitutional Convention?

17:38 Term Limits

22:26 Term Limits, Taxes, and the Federalist push for the Amending the Articles of Confederation

26:24 Did the founders at the Constitutional Convention act like Christians?

  • “Thou shall not steal” includes taxes

  • Quakers in Philadelphia provided a written proposal to Constitutional Convention asking them to outlaw slavery - given to Tinch Cox (president Quaker foundation) and Benjamin Franklin

    • Was never read to the convention for consideration

    • Antislavery/Abolishing slavery was never discussed

  •  When slavery was discussed:

    • Luther Martin - known drunk, longest sitting attorney general in US, not a Christain by any record

      • On the topic of slavery: “the revolution was grounded in defense of the natural god-given rights possessed by all mankind, but this constitution is an insult to that god who views with equal eye the poor African slave and his American slave master.

        • Geroge Mason only one who agreed - calling it a “crime against heaven”

  • Gandhi: I like your Christ but I don’t like your Christianity

  • Were the founders there as delegates to protect the rights of the people or to protect their financial interests?

  • Federalist: Oliver Ellsworth and Robert Livingston “we are not here to discuss moral or religious issues, we are here to discuss commerce”

34:11 Samuel Bryant - The Cloak of Divinity

  • Antifederalist

  • Federalists will have to “cloak their message in divinity to sell it to the American public”

  • The easiest thing is to get people to believe what they want to believe

  • Patrick Henry - Federalist used his Christain image to push the constitution, though he was most vocal against it (the invention of fake news) 

  • 1 Samuel 8 KVJ - choosing a King other than God(probably a bad idea)

39:57 Daniel Dresback (American University Professor) - “one of the most striking features is the absence of the acknowledgment of a supreme deity…”

  • Articles of Confederation and Declaration of Independence included acknowledgments to a supreme being

  • Franklin noted lack of prayers in the second constitutional convention vs. first

  • Alexander Hamilton referred to it’s lack as avoidance of foreign aid

  • 12 of 13 colonies has Christian oaths in their states’ Constitutions; Article 6 Clause 3 Federal Constitution did away with these

  • Flip Wilson - Christians and Lions; Christians got a great coach but their team is shaky

53:33 Henry Abbot - North Carolina ratification convention delegate

  • Foresaw what Article 6 Clause 3 impact would be

54:59 The Fraud of “We the People”

  • The population at the time was about 3 million.

  • The “we” excluded: women, non-land-owning white men, and enslaved people(about 700,000 at the time)  

  • The “we” was about 65,000-80,000 people were eligible to vote out of the 3 million

 57:00 Have things changed since 1787?

  • Constitution created a system

  • Voting as states the 55 delegates rejected a Bill of Rights but made provisions for slavery

  • The first power they gave congress was unlimited taxation from unlimited sources 

59:19 One Verse from New Testament repeated throughout countries founding

  • “Stand fast therefore in the liberty of which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yolk of bondage”

  • Did they do this, did they protect the individual, or did they protect their own interest?