The document provides an overview of the Great Awakening in colonial America during the 1700s. It discusses how evangelical Protestantism grew during this period through the preaching of figures like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. This religious revival led to the emergence of new denominations like Baptists and Methodists and challenged the authority of established churches. However, the document notes that most of the Founding Fathers were not evangelical Christians but rather deists who believed in rationalism over religious doctrine. It analyzes whether the US was founded as a Christian nation based on the text of the Constitution and concludes it was founded on secular rather than religious principles.

1. Learning Unit #09 Lecture:
“Was the USA Founded as a
Christian Nation-State?”

2. The Great Awakening
If you were an average
colonist in the 1700s, your
intellectual stimulation
came from the minister’s
sermon. In a series of
enthusiastic revivals
spanning the middle
decades of the 1700s, the
message of many
preachers bore the
imprint of
evangelicalism--which
emphasized an emotional
George Whitefield’s conversion experience as
preaching was the sign of individual
aimed at the heart salvation.
not the head.

3. The impact of the Great Awakening was
felt in both the coastal regions & the
backcountry--that land across the Fall
Line spilling into and across the
Appalachian Mountains. Many people
here did not go to church. Some
because they engaged in folk practices
that today would be labeled ‘magic’ or
. ‘occultism.’ Others because they did not
have regular ministers; the pattern &
growth of white settlement had outpaced
the abilities of churches to supply
preachers. During the 1700s, the largest
European immigrant group arriving in the
colonies was Scots-Irish. They were
most likely to settle in the backcountry &
identify with either Presbyterians or
Baptists. Backcountry settlers & their
colonial governments clashed often over
Indian policy. Until about 1820, the
The Geography of the Great major divisions in white America were
-- A shortage to a
Awakeningbackcountry ledof trained between Easterners and Westerners,
ministers in the not Northerners and Southerners!
reliance on circuit riders and lay
preachers.

4. What changes occurred in Protestant
Christianity during the Great Awakening?
• The “born again” Christian appears. If you had asked
an Anglican in 1725 what being “born again” meant he/
she would have told you, “That will happen at the
Second Coming.” Prior to the rise of Methodism,
Anglicans had no expectation of an emotional
conversion experience so profound it would cause one to
give up dancing, drinking, gambling, etc.
• There was a reaction against educated clergy and a
turning to lay preachers or “exhorters,” especially among
the Baptists. If the established clergymen (“Old Lights”)
were educated but NOT “born again,” evangelicals (“New
Lights”) believed they must split off and form new
congregations of the like-minded.
• New denominations like the Baptists and Methodists
emerged as the evangelical sects most likely to survive,
though they existed largely on the fringe of American
religion until the 1830s.

5. Edwards’ sermons are credited
with kicking off the G.A. He
believed that God should be
placed at the center of human
Existence; his New England
Calvinist listeners heard
ambiguous messages that
seemed to say they could play a
part in their salvations. This
was earth-shaking news to
Puritan ears! Their response Jonathan Edwards,
was enthusiastic, literally. 1703-1758
• “Pressing into the Kingdom is Edwards was the grandfather of
not a thing impossible.” another famous American, Aaron
• “You can’t control salvation,” Burr, the Vice-President who killed
Alexander Hamilton in 1804.
BUT “If you try, God will aid
your salvation.”

6. Evangelist George Whitefield
The Great Awakening was also
occurring among Protestants
in England and Germany.
George Whitefield, the English
‘rock star preacher’ of that era,
toured the colonies and
preached outside in a portable
pulpit to tens of thousands.
Ben Franklin was so moved he
even contributed money and
became Whitefield’s American
publisher--although Franklin
was a Deist, the polar
opposite of an Evangelical!

7. George Whitefield Preaching
by John Collet

8. George Whitefield’s portable pulpit
Whitefield’s message emphasized
the emotional conversion experience
complete with all its physical
manifestations--a pricking sensation in
the heart, fainting, shouting, dancing,
testifying, trance, etc., etc. He called
on people to become the instruments
of their own salvation, attacking
traditional sources of church authority
and the belief of the upper classes that
‘simple folk’ had no minds of their own.
He produced thousands of conversions
and influenced countless imitators of
both his speaking style and sermon
content.

9. The Baptists
Adult baptism by immersion was not the norm in the 1700s; infant
baptism was. Early Baptists in America insisted on adult baptism;
the autonomy of each congregation; and relied on lay preachers.

10. During the Great
Awakening, the
Methodists still
considered themselves
part of the Church of
England. They became
the “born again”
evangelical wing of the
Anglicans prior to
splitting off after the
American Revolution
(which Wesley
opposed). Unlike the
Baptists, Methodists
had a church hierarchy;
practiced infant
John Wesley, baptism; and only
founder of the ordained (i.e.,
Methodists
educated) ministers
could offer Communion.

11. English
cartoon
lampooning
Whitefield
and religious
revival
fanatics.
Although the early Baptist and Methodists had real differences over methods and
church government, they both placed emphasis on the all-important emotional
conversion experience. In the 1700s, worship services for both denominations
bore more resemblance to the emotional, ecstatic, expressive religious practices
associated nowadays with various Pentecostal or Holiness sects than to modern
Baptists and Methodists. Both denominations started out opposing slavery.

12. Results of the Great Awakening
• Significant numbers of Americans North and
South (about 1 in 20) came to share a common
understanding of basic Christian faith and an
evangelical worldview; Post-millennialism.
• Americans became more sharply polarized--
not so much among rival denominations as
between traditionalists and the “born again”
evangelicals within each denomination.
• Education – Colleges and schools started (U. of
Penn; UNC; Princeton) to train (mainly
Presbyterian) ministers.
• Women’s participation.
• Conversion of enslaved Africans; early
evangelical movement was anti-slavery but later
changed to pro-slavery in 1800s.

13. • Humans do play a part and take responsibility
for their salvation; Calvinism receives a death
blow but will still take some time to wither away.
• The old religious establishment falls apart in the
North and South; revivalists vs. orthodoxy;
religious life had been made democratic; it would
take only one more step to go from questioning
religious authority to questioning political
authority.
• With all their religious fervor, it became easy for
people to believe there was some greater
purpose to the revivals; something BIG (like the
Millennium) was about to happen. Of course,
the American Revolution occurred instead.

14. Ironically, the characteristic emotionalism of the Great
Awakening revivals sparked an opposing reaction in the form
of a rational humanist alternative called Deism (which also
appeared in Europe).
Deism is defined not only
as the belief that God, the
“Supreme Architect,”
reveals himself in his
“handiwork,” i.e. the
created world humans
experience as reality, but
also that God could only
be understood through “a
rational study of nature.”
Deists deny the Resurrection, the divinity of Christ, and the Triune
Godhead. They believe in a “clockwork universe” in which the
Creator no longer intervenes, and that Jesus was a philosopher.

15. Most Founders Were Either Deists or High-
Church Anglicans, NOT Evangelicals
Washington, Jefferson,
Franklin, Thomas Paine,
Ethan Allen--all held
deistic beliefs; none were
Christians. Patrick Henry,
son of a Presbyterian
Allen
minister, was the only well-
known evangelical in the
group. The United States is
today the most religious
country in the West, but it’s Paine
because of diversity and A Gallery of American Deists (above) and--
sectarianism--both within and
outside of Christianity--NOT Patrick
because our “Founding Henry,
who was an
Fathers” were Christians! evangelical

16. What Does ‘Founded’ Mean?
The majority of Americans in 1789 were
probably Christian in varying degrees. BUT
(and this is critical) to “found a nation” on a
religion requires MUCH more than the fact
that a majority of the public and its officials
practices a particular religion and is
accommodated in those practices by the
government. To found a nation on a religion
means that the principles of a particular
religion are the primary if not sole basis
upon which the national government exists
and is structured.

17. In a nation founded as a secular nation (that is, not founded on any religion
In a nation founded as a Christian nation one would expect to see the but instead on a religiously neutral basis) one would expect to see the
following occur. Did any of these in fact happen? following occur. Did any of these in fact happen?
1. Declare in the Constitution that the nation is founded on Christianity NO 1. Make no declaration in the Constitution that the nation is founded on any
religion such as Christianity. YES
2. Declare in the Constitution that the government is ordained by God, as a
covenant between God and the people (following Romans 13:1-2) NO 2. Declare in the Constitution that government is ordained by humans, as a social
contract between humans (thus rejecting Romans 13:1-2) YES
3. Declare in the Constitution rulers rule by the will of God NO
3. Declare in the Constitution that rulers rule by the will of the people YES
4. Declare in the Constitution that God’s law is supreme NO
4. Declare in the Constitution that human-made law is supreme [***Note that for
5. Require in the Constitution that all rulers take an oath to uphold God’s law as a Christian, this is idolatry] YES
highest law. NO
5. Require in the Constitution that all rulers take an oath to uphold human-made
6. Require in the Constitution that rulers must profess to be Christians. NO law as the highest law. [***Note again, this is idolatry] YES
7. Declare in the Constitution that Christianity is established as the official 6. Prohibit any religious tests for the rulers of the nation. YES
religion of the nation NO
7. Declare in the Constitution that government may not establish any religion as
8. Require in the Constitution that citizens profess Christianity or be punished for the official religion. YES
heresy/blasphemy NO 8. Declare in the Constitution that all citizens are free to profess any religion or no
religion whatsoever [***Note again, this is idolatry] YES
9. In drafting the Constitution, its writers would frequently appeal to Biblical
scripture, Biblical principles, and God’s commandments NO 9. In drafting the Constitution, the debaters would make almost no mention of the
Bible, Biblical principles, or God’s commandment YES
10. Upon release of the proposed Constitution, its writers would declare they had
founded the nation on Christianity and its principles. NO 10. Upon release of the proposed Constitution, its writers would declare they had
founded a nation designed using human reason. YES
11. In arguing for the adoption of the proposed Constitution, its writers would
appeal to Biblical scripture and godly principles for support. NO 11. In arguing for the adoption of the proposed Constitution, its writers would
appeal to human rationality and reason for support. YES
12. In arguing for the adoption of the proposed Constitution, its writers would say
the nation is like other Christian nations in world history. NO 12. In arguing for the adoption of the proposed Constitution, its writers would say
the nation is like other non-Christian nations in history YES
13. In arguing against the adoption of the Constitution, non-Christians would
attack it for being based on Christianity NO 13. In arguing against the adoption of the Constitution, Christians would attack it
for not being based on Christianity YES
14. The new government would adopt Christian mottos and symbols. NO
14. The new government would adopt non-Christian mottos/symbols. YES
15. Once the Constitution was adopted, the new rulers would be only professed,
generally mainstream orthodox Christians. NO 15. Once the Constitution was adopted, the new rulers would by chance be of any
religion, including non-Christian religions. YES
16. Once the Constitution was adopted, when the question arises in the highest
court of the nation, it would declare that god’s law is highest. NO 16. Once the Constitution was adopted, when the question arises in the highest
court of the nation, it would declare that human law is highest. YES
17. Once the Constitution was adopted, in relations with foreign nations, the
government would formally declare it is a Christian nation. NO 17. Once the Constitution was adopted, in relations with foreign nations, the
government would declare it is not a Christian nation. YES
18. Once the nation was created, foreign observers would recognize the fact that
the nation was founded on Christianity. NO 18. Once the nation was created, foreign observers would recognize that the
nation was not founded on any religion. YES