By John Kubal | The Brookings Register
“We’re doing our part … and we’re going to win because we’re on God’s side.” So said a bayonet brandishing Pvt. Joe Lewis, United States Army, in a 1942 sort of win-the-war poster. And we did win: in 1945 with the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and then Japan a few months later.
Thank God. But did America’s overwhelming military superiority and industrial power play a big role? And we have to acknowledge that the godless Soviet Union played a big role in the defeat of Germany.
As I read more American history on the way to our nation’s 250th birthday, I find that God has always been given a big role in the years since July 4, 1776 –– indeed, even as long as more than 150 years earlier, when English colonists settled in and celebrated freedom of religion to worship their particular Protestant Christian God. Catholics and Jews need not apply.
Come time for the Declaration of Independence and dissolving “the. political bands” that bound the colonies to Great Britain, the drafters considered “the laws of nature and of nature’s God … .” In conclusion, the representatives of the United States of America were “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions … . And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
Following the Declaration of Independence came the Articles of Confederation which would govern the united colonies until the Articles were superseded by the Constitution which governs America today. Article 13 references “the Great Governor of the world … .”
In my most recent column, I mentioned that a change to the Pledge of Allegiance during the Eisenhower presidency made the United States “one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.”
All of the above God-and-religion talk got me to thinking about how the role of God in the United States of America has evolved over 250 years. From my small home library I pulled out a book I’ve perused over the years but never read from cover to cover: “Founding Faith: Providence, Politics and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America,” by Steven Waldman.
He looks at the “religious development of five Founding Fathers:Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. However, for now I’m more interested in the religious affiliation (some had more than one) of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.
With the exception of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (Maryland), a Roman Catholic, they were all Protestants: 32 Anglicans (later Episcopalians; 13 Congregationalists; and 12 Presbyterians. At least a few were Deists (belief in a sort of clockwork God who put the universe in movement and then got out of the way and let it go); more than a few had an Enlightenment philosophy which advocated those ideas in the Declaration as: all men being created equal with their created endowment to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The more I looked into the religious beliefs of the Declaration signers the more I came to the conclusion that God only knows what they really believed. Somewhere in the mix were there some strong hints of antisemitism; anticatholicism; agnosticism; and –– God forbid –– atheism? At the very least some of the signers had some unconventional views of Jesus. Franklin and Jefferson, for sure, did not see Jesus as the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Jefferson went so far as to make his own Bible –– literally. He carefully cut out all references to the supernatural and the miraculous and in turn wrote “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,” often referred to as “The Jefferson Bible.” Franklin in turn believed in Jesus Christ as a great philosopher and a just and moral man, but not God.
About the only signer whose religious beliefs I might feel able to note with some certainty is Charles Carroll. As I continued to study American history during 12 years attending Catholic schools, I encountered a lot of references to Carroll. He was a devout practicing Catholic and a well-known resident of Maryland, a colony founded by Catholics; they were also welcome in Rhode Island and Pennysylvania. But some of the other original 13 colonies were openly anti-Catholic.
As we continue to celebrate our 250 years of independence, have we become a truly Judean-Christian nation? That’s a question I’d like to discuss in future corners.
As I cobbled this column together, I learned that the 2026 South Dakota Legislature has had a real come-to-Jesus meeting that includes God the Father and God the Holy Spirit: Concurrent Resolution 604 is “urging the people of the state of South Dakota to seek the Lord Most High for His healing presence and mercy upon South Dakota.” Following that brief opening statement are four pages of 21 “whereases” and six resolutions. No way I can cover them all but I would urge reading this document in its entirety. Let me just paraphrase a few whereases that got my attention: the United States was founded “upon the Judeo-Christian values articulated by Sacred Scripture.”
“(T)he South Dakota Constitution affirms that the health of a state depends on the virtue of its people; and the motto of the State is ‘under God, the People Rule.’”
“(d)ivorce rates … reveal a fundamental brokenness in our society; and the foundation of a strong community begins with a commitment to strong loving families … .”
The first resolution calls for July to be “a time of prayer and fasting in South Dakota … .” By whom? Just those proponents of a Judeo-Christian belief system? What about Muslims, Hindus, Latter-Day Saints, non-believers and agnostics?
Incidentally, many Christians around the world will begin 40 days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving on Ash Wednesday this week. Wiil they be ready for more fasting come July?
At any rate, the resolution is symbolic and non-binding, even though it passed handily: the Senate, 22-11, followed by the House of Representatives, 42-23 a couple days later. If you’d like to personally adopt it, your call.
Have a nice day.
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