NATION: Christian argument continues

In the December 28 editorial, “Let’s Not Quibble Over Christian Nation,” an anonymous editorialist urged readers to consider historian David Holmes’ book “The Faiths of the Founding Fathers.” While this in itself is an “appeal to authority” logical fallacy, it’s worth pointing out the flawed assumption Holmes uses to categorize the “largest group” of Founders as “non-Christian” deists. It’s an assumption based on the presence of “deist” buzzwords within selected quotations. Words such as “Creator” or “Nature’s God” are the “postulations of deists” as Holmes put it. Therefore they must be deists he incorrectly concludes. Conveniently forgotten are quote after quote from these same individuals containing irrefutable Christian principles.

But this is just an argument over semantics, as the few true deists among the Founders repeatedly acknowledged the miraculous interventions of a “Creator” in the Revolution, and the necessity of a new Rule of Law established on this Creator’s authority. In a nutshell, even they believed in God and acknowledged His authority. It’s in their own writings and it’s in our founding documents. This is at the heart of the debate and the Left will never accept it. Why? The Left refuses to acknowledge the authority of God over their own lives and our country. For them, the State is god and there can only be one. So, they are doing all they can to revise documented history, rejecting or in this case diminishing God’s role in it. So while they insist on revising history, it’s still worth quibbling over.

JOHN TAPPERO

Hayden