Christopher Columbus, commissioned by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, set sail on August 3, 1492, determined to find a westerly passage to the riches of India. He navigated the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria on a new southern route to the Canary Islands before sailing westward. Reaching land on October 12, 1492, he christened the island San Salvador - Holy Savior, an island in the Bahamas, and, thinking he had reached India, named the inhabitants Indians.
The Spaniard Ponce de Leon, who had sailed with Columbus on his second voyage, was the first European to explore the mainland, discovering Florida in 1513 in his quest for the Fountain of Youth. St. Augustine, Florida became the first permanent European settlement in America in 1565, from which missionaries spread Christianity to the native American Indians. The first Mass of Thanksgiving on North American soil was actually celebrated by the Spanish with the Timucuan Indians from Seloy village in attendance on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine; so began the first parish in the United States.
Religious freedom and the lure of economic gain were the primary reasons for migration to America. Four of the original 13 English colonies were specifically chartered for religious freedom, as a refuge from religious persecution in England at the time - William Bradford and the Pilgrim Congregationalists at Plymouth in 1620 and the Calvinist John Winthrop and the Puritan Protestants in 1629 in Massachusetts; Lord Baltimore Cecil and his brother Leonard Calvert for the Catholics in Maryland in 1632; Roger Williams and the Baptists in Providence, Rhode Island in 1644; and William Penn and the Quakers in Pennsylvania in 1682. The Mennonites also moved to Pennsylvania in 1683 at the invitation of William Penn, for Pennsylvania was established for universal religious toleration.
Early American Writings reflected this belief in God, such as the Mayflower Compact, which allowed for the first time consent by the governed; A Model of Christian Charity, the premium expression of the covenant theology of the Puritans, which warned of the dangers of seeking pleasure and profits over virtue; and The Toleration Act of Maryland for toleration of all Christian religions.
Tragically, freedom of religion often meant one had freedom of religion as long as one practiced the religion of the majority! For example, Quakers suffered persecution at the hands of the Puritans in Massachusetts, exemplified by the hanging of the Quaker Mary Dyer on June 1, 1660. The theocracy, a society where the State is ruled by the Church, of the Puritans eventually gave way to religious excess, exemplified by the Salem witch trials of 1692; the Salem witch trials led to a tension between Church and State.
However, spirituality stayed ingrained in American culture, as evidenced by Christian churches built for religious worship throughout the colonies of the Eastern seaboard. The oldest church still standing in the United States is the Protestant Old Brick Church, now known as Historic St. Luke's Church on Isle of Wight near Smithfield, Virginia, originally built in 1632. The oldest Catholic Church with continuous service is St. Ignatius Church at Chapel Point in St. Mary's County, Maryland, originally built in 1641. The oldest Church in Boston, Massachusetts, Old North Church, known as Christ Episcopal Church, was built in 1723, and played an important role in American history. On the evening of April 18, 1775, the church sexton, Robert Newman, climbed the steeple and held high two lanterns as a signal to Paul Revere that the British were heading to Lexington and Concord by sea and not by land. The oldest Church with continuous service in Washington D. C. is Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Old Georgetown, founded by the Jesuits in 1794.
Our Founding Fathers were men of religious conviction. Thomas Jefferson was a Christian Deist and believed that God created the universe, but as a clockmaker - once set in motion, it would run itself on the rational laws of nature. He believed the highest moral code for man existed in the Ten Commandments of God and the Beatitudes of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson believed that man received natural rights from God our Creator. "All men are created equal with certain unalienable rights, among them Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
The Bible was a part of colonial life, and our Constitution was written with a Christian culture in place. James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, was the leading proponent of freedom of conscience and religion. He stated: "We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man's right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society, and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance." He also recognized that we needed to govern ourselves by the Ten Commandments of God if we were to survive as a nation. We see this in our public life through the continuance in our oaths of office including the Presidency of the phrase, "So help me God."
The architecture of the U. S. Supreme Court building reflects this biblical foundation. For example, at the center of the sculpture over the east portico of the Supreme Court Building, there is the image of Moses holding the two tablets of the Ten Commandments; these are also engraved over the chair of the Chief Justice and on the bronze doors of the Supreme Court. The Ten Commandments of God are the foundation of the moral code and legal system of justice for Western Christian civilization.
On one hand, our founding fathers wanted to prevent a state-controlled religion, as seen under the absolute monarchies of Europe, such as the Anglican Church in England or the Holy Roman Empire throughout Europe. On the other hand, they wanted to protect religious freedom and freedom of speech,
often the major reason for migration to America. This was one rationale for the First Amendment of the
Bill of Rights to be included in the Constitution of the United States:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The "Father" of our nation, George Washington, had a strong belief in God. When the Revolutionary War was finally won, he sent the following message to the Governors of the 13 colonies, that he would "make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection." President George Washington stated it was impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible. In his 1796 Farewell Speech following his second term as President, a speech noted for establishing and sustaining our great nation, he stated, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."
The idea that we place our trust in God has been integral to our heritage. It was during the British invasion of 1814 that Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner. Following the 25-hour British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore on September 14, 1814, he was so moved to see the American flag still flying that he wrote the song that would become our National Anthem. Here is the conclusion of the fourth and final stanza:
Religious currents streamed through the American continent with the expanding frontier. John Wesley of the newly-formed Methodists named Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke in 1784 as the first co-superintendents of the Methodist Church in America. Francis Asbury and the Methodist circuit-riders were effective missionaries in spreading the Christian faith in the South and expanding West during the Second Great Awakening of 1790-1835. Large numbers of African-Americans from Southern plantations began joining mainstream Christian churches, because they were allowed to attend outdoor revivals known as camp meetings, where Methodist circuit riders would arouse the religious passions of the audience. The plantation work songs of the Negro slaves became Spiritual Hymns infused with Christian themes, that often conveyed a longing for freedom and deliverance from their lives of hardship. The Revivalist Charles Finney mobilized the North in promoting abolition of slavery. Such Evangelical movements became the most influential religious activity in America, characterized by religious revivals which emphasized the need for a personal conversion to the way of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Second Great Awakening also dramatized the moral issue of slavery, which led to the American Civil War of 1861-1865.
Abraham Lincoln appointed Salmon Chase as Secretary of the Treasury. During the Civil War, Chase wrote the US Mint on November 20, 1861 that "the trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins." James Pollock, the Director of the Mint, first placed "God our Trust" and other phrases on coins from 1861 to 1863. The two-cent coin of 1864 was the first circulating US coin to bear the phrase In God We Trust. George T. Morgan designed the beautiful Liberty Silver Dollar series, produced from 1878 through 1904 and again in 1921; it was the first complete silver dollar set to include the inscription. Since that time, all of our coins and dollar bills have the inscription In God We Trust. In God We Trust became our national motto on July 30, 1956 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The early twentieth century saw the beginning of new religious movements. The Pentacostal movement originated in 1901 with Charles Fox Parham at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, and gained further momentum with his student W. J. Seymour, who founded the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906. Biblical Fundamentalism accepted the Bible as the only necessary source of teaching about Christ. Seeking to defend the Bible from modern liberalism, a group of Christian ministers published the twelve-volume The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth from 1910 to 1915. The term fundamentalist first appeared in 1920 in a Baptist weekly newspaper, the Watchman-Examiner.
The Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and the Evangelist Billy Graham were the first to successfully utilize the media of television to spread the Word of God in the middle of the twentieth century.
During and after the world war years, Americans generally were raised the same, and our families gave us the same value system. In school, we were taught a morality based on the Bible and the Ten Commandments, said the Lord's Prayer, recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and sang God Bless America.
The Bible guides us on the road of life, gives prophecy on the end times, and leads us to God in the afterlife. The Bible records salvation history and is composed of Hebrew Scripture, the Old Testament, which includes the Creation, the story of Adam and Eve, Moses and the Ten Commandments, and the awaiting of the Messiah. The New Testament includes the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of Paul, the Catholic or Universal Letters, and the Book of Revelation.
The civil rights movement of the 1960s was the most recent religious movement in the United States, which finally afforded racial equality for African-Americans, one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation! Led by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the movement was supported by President John F. Kennedy. African-Americans had begun to receive recognition in the fields of art, music, and sports, such as the international award-winning movie Black Orpheus; rhythm and blues singers such as the Penguins, Five Satins, and Drifters; and sports stars such as Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns. But it took an unknown lady in Montgomery, Alabama named Rosa Parks, who was arrested on December 1, 1955 for refusing to move to the back of the bus for a white person, that sparked the drive for civil rights. A young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church named Reverend King directed the Montgomery Bus boycott, which led to the end of segregation on city buses. Reverend King quoted Scripture and used non-violent means to turn the tide in favor of racial equality, a movement that culminated in his famous I Have A Dream speech on the Washington, D. C. National Mall on August 28, 1963.
