July 4: Hellfire, Masons and Clerics

Once again the argument is upon us. It was splendidly encapsulated for me today by a sermon this morning and a public television presentation this afternoon. Was the United States founded as a Christian nation? Was it secular at its inception?
The gentleman who preached this morning came in with a stack of late 18th and early 19th Century books and papers. These included the first English language Bible ever published in the colonies (1782), printed by Congress and advocated for general use.
(Britain had not allowed the colonies to print Bibles in English; you were supposed to buy them, along with most other manufactured goods, from the Mother Country. After the surrender at Yorktown, we felt free to print our own.)
He had a record of the three hour prayer meeting and Bible study that preceded the opening of the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774. They had reason to be scared—they were on the verge of committing a real form of treason, and the certain penalty would be the gallows.
The report suggested that even some of the toughest of those present had tears in their eyes at the end of the Bible readings and prayers. John Adams especially urged Abigail to read Psalm 35 to herself and to her clergyman father. In it King David urgently asks God to defend him, protect him and take vengeance on his enemies. Very fitting.
At high speed the gentleman went through the various pro-Christian writings of the men who signed the Declaration and the Constitution. He cited the tremendous number of these men who had been educated as Christian clergy.
There can be little doubt that there was a tremendous amount of Christianity floating about at the beginning of the nation. There are endless references to Almighty God, to Jesus Christ and even to the Sacred Trinity. There can be no doubt of both the spiritual and cultural Christianity present in 1776 and 1787.
The PBS documentary suggested there was also present a darker side to at least some of these men. There was the Hellfire Club in England—frequented by government officials, the nobility—in short any one who held power, rank or wealth.
Young girls were brought in; orgies were held. Even in the church building the founder built on his estate there was a room for dalliance. One of the paintings on the wall shows Benjamin Franklin having a wonderfully debauched time.
After all, he lived in London over 15 years (as a single man) and even had ambitions to become a member of Parliament himself. (His conversion to the notion of American independence didn’t come until the mid-70s.)
The program went on to suggest that there is decent evidence to suggest that such clubs were exported to the American colonies. Again, men with wealth and power—and ambition to meet people who already had it—joined.
Franklin carried his promiscuous ways to Paris in 1776 where he single handedly obtained the munitions that kept us in the war. There seems to be no question that his way with highborn ladies and his willingness to join in the fun and games of the decadent French court aided the American cause significantly. (Other American diplomats were perfectly shocked at his behavior, but they weren’t getting the loans and the guns.)
Another factor PBS brought out was that Franklin’s membership in the Free Masonic Order gave him useful entry when he represented the colonies in both London and Paris. PBS went to some length in enumerating how many founding fathers were members of that order.
Washington apparently came from a family line that claimed to date its membership in the Masonic Order all the way back to some of the founding families in King Solomon’s time.
The program strongly suggested that the Masonic Lodges—since they were outside of any specific church structure—strongly influenced the American tendency to separate church and state. Such a postion would logically, offer Masons a certain amount of protection they might not enjoy in countries with a national church.
(Incidentally, the Constitution did NOT prohibit government affiliated Christian churches in the individual states. Several of these existed at the time the Constitution was written. It merely prohibited a NATIONAL church from being imposed by the federal government. This was no doubt as much to protect the state churches as it was to separate church from government.)
So we have two pictures—a nation founded by Godly men with strongly held Christian doctrines and positions. And a nation founded by men with sexual appetites that would draw prison sentences today, who were more firmly members of their lodges than their churches.
Which is true?
Both, obviously—just as it can be 2009.
One thing we can say. It was certainly not the intent of the founders to make Christian references and prayers off limits. Separation of church and state certainly did not mean that. It was much more a reference to preventing an INSTITUTIONAL rivalry, not prayer at football games.
We would not have a Catholic Church (Spain, France, Austria, Portugal, to name some) or a Protestant denomination (Holland, England, many of the Germanies, Scandanavia, Scotland, to name some of those countries) dominating the politics and the faith or our nation.
There is no doubt the founders—however personally hypocritical some may have been—believed this to be a Christian nation (just not under any one organizational banner). There can be little doubt that the Masons had a large influence (look at our national symbols!)—but they derived from Christian origins—modern Masons coming out of Presbyterian Scotland in 1599.
One could even suggest that eliminating prayer in schools violates the Constitution—as written and understood by the founders—as much as would creating a national state church. Today’s two pictures of America offered nothing in the way of a solution to any modern dilemmas.
But it did show us where we actually came from. That’s always helpful to know. It was somehow a mix of Hellfire Clubs, Masonic lodges and fervently Christian theologians. In other words, there were good people who did bad things; bad people who said good things.
How like today. We will solve nothing by suppressing either part of our heritage.