The Fathers of America and the Christian Nation Myth...

Benjamin Franklin; Deist, Fornicator, Adulterer

-clarified himself as a deist in his 1771 autobiography, rejected Christian
dogma in a 1725
-brought his Illegitimate son into a Common Law marriage with a divorced
woman, eventually abandoned to die alone, rarely attended religious
services.
George Washington; Deist, Freemason, Slave Owner
Washington was a typical 18th-century deist, Refused Christian communion
and would leave services early to avoid it.
John Adams; Unitarian, Deist
his beliefs excluded the divinity of Christ, synthesized Puritan, deist, and
humanist concepts, thought Christianity had originally been revelatory, but
was being misinterpreted and misused in the service of superstition, fraud,
and unscrupulous power, rejected orthodox Christian doctrines of the trinity.
Thomas Jefferson; Deist, Slave Owner of over 700, Fornicator,
Adulterer
- inclined toward Unitarianism and the religious philosophy of Deism,
converted to the deist philosophy, believed in one God, in divine providence,
in the divine moral law, and in rewards and punishments after death, but did
not believe in supernatural revelation, saw Christianity as the highest
expression of natural religion and Jesus as an incomparably great moral
teacher. He was not an orthodox Christian because he rejected, among other
things, the doctrines that Jesus was the promised Messiah and the incarnate
Son of God."
-regarded Negroes as inferior, childlike, untrustworthy and, of course, as
property, believed they were inferior to whites in reasoning, mathematical
comprehension, and imagination. Jefferson thought these "differences" were
"fixed in nature" and was not dependent on their freedom or education. He
thought such differences that created the "innate inferiority of Blacks
compared to Whites"
-had a 38-year intimate relationship with his mixed-race slave Sally Hemings,
and had six children by her.
Alexander Hamilton; Hypocrite, Infidel, Fornicator, Adulterer,
Counterfeiter, suspected Homosexual
-From 1777 to 1792, Hamilton appears to have been completely indifferent,
and made jokes about God at the Constitutional Convention, During the
French Revolution, he had an "opportunistic religiosity", using Christianity for

political ends and insisting that Christianity and Jefferson's democracy were
incompatible.
1791, an affair with Maria Reynolds a married woman.
-arrested for counterfeiting.
James Madison; Unitarian, moderate Christian Deist
DIESM is the standpoint that reason and observation of the natural world,
without the need for organized religion, can determine that a supreme being
created the universe. Further the term often implies that this Supreme Being
does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the natural laws of the
universe. Deists typically reject supernatural events such as prophecy and
miracles, tending to assert that God (or "The Supreme Architect") has a plan
for the universe that is not to be altered by intervention in the affairs of
human life. Deists believe in the existence of God without any reliance on
revealed religion, religious authority or holy books.
American Founding Fathers, or Framers of the Constitution, who were
especially noted for being influenced by such philosophy include Thomas
Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Cornelius Hartnett, Governor Morris, and Hugh
Williamson. Their political speeches show distinct deistic influence.
Other notable Founding Fathers may have been more directly deist. These
include James Madison, possibly Alexander Hamilton, Ethan Allen, [42] and
Thomas Paine