Religion and the Founding of the American Republic
... as members of state legislatures, constitutional conventions and national congress. Some took up arms to lead troops in Battle. Many denominations were split because of the Revolution. The Church of England was bound to support the King and the Quakers. With the absence of ministers serving duties the Revolution caused some practices to suffer while other religions flourished. The Church of England experienced hardship during the Revolution because the King of England was head of the church. The King was against British to many clergymen felt it was approved by God. In 1776 Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams the first national government of the US believed the public affluence of a society depended on the vitality of its religion appointed a legend for the seal of the United States. In 1779 on March 20, Congress invented the Fast and Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. This was done to testify to God for His goodness and showing gratitude to him. Congress urged all people to confess and deplore multiple sins and transgressions and by a sincere repentance and Amendment of life, appease God’s righteous displeasure and through merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness. Massachusetts ordered many of these proclamations to ensure that every religious body in their colony can have a copy of the proclamation. The states had a need for religion as well as Congress. The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 declared, “the happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend on piety, religion and morality .” The Congregationalist and Anglicans knew state benefactors as “nursing fathers”. The Legislators began charging Religious taxes on all citizens. These laws took effect in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire. The laws were not implemented in Maryland and Georgia. Persecution begins in Virginia after the defeat of an assessment scheme. A religious persecution directed towards Baptist and at a lesser degree to Presbyterians. The Baptist started a petition against religious taxation. To survive the US needed a stronger federal government. In 1787 a convention met in Philadelphia. On September 17 the Constitution of the US was adopted. The constitution stated no religious test should be required as a qualification. Two American groups wanted the Constitution to give faith a wider role and many feared that it would do so. In September of 1789 the Congress adopted the First Amendment to the Constitution that forbade Congress to make any law “respecting an establishment of religion. Many American’s felt the Constitution slighted God. The Constitution was reserved about religion for two reasons, one many delegates were federalists who believed that the power to legislate on religion lays within the domain of the state not the national government and secondly the delegates believed it would be a huge mistake to introduce such a political contentious issue into the Constitution. Evangelicalism becomes the religion of the new American republic. Leaders and ordinary members of evangelicalism there was an association between Religion and Patriotism. To save souls and the republic preachers connected fellow citizens to Christianity. In 1809 the Methodists held a Camp Meeting Plan in Fairfax County Virginia. At the meeting the men and women’s seats were separated and the blacks were separated from the whites all together. This racial segregation prompted the blacks Methodists to stray aw...