Christianity Simply Unreasonable | Benham Companies

Today, as Americans across our nation pray as part of the National Day of Prayer, a small group of atheists are petitioning Americans to set aside a National Day of Reason. Of course, the title to their event suggests that Christians lack reason, which, in fact, is simply unreasonable.

Although history clearly shows that the Christian faith helped establish and support this country, I understand this small group’s concern. Here’s why I understand: they are ignorant of our true history. One of their signs proclaims, “The Constitution is a secular document.” Obviously, the have never read this bit of history in the Library of Congress: James Madison declared that he saw the finished Constitution as a product of “the finger of that Almighty Hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the Revolution,” and George Washington viewed it as “little short of a miracle,” and Benjamin Franklin believed that its writing had been “influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler, in Whom all inferior spirits live, and move, and have their being” (HR 888).

The above quote came from the 110th Congress, which did an excellent job describing our history in a Resolution titled HR 888. In this resolution Congress called for the first week in May to be titled “American Religious History Week.” The most interesting aspect of this resolution is the overwhelming historical evidence that Christianity was both at the center of the heart and the head of liberty in America. I’ve linked the resolution below, but here are a few excerpts:

• Whereas religious faith was not only important in official American life during the periods of discovery, exploration, colonization, and growth but has also been acknowledged and incorporated into all three branches of American federal government from their very beginning;

• Whereas the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed this self-evident fact in a unanimous ruling declaring “This is a religious people. . . . From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation”;

• Whereas political scientists have documented that the most frequently cited source in the political period known as The Founding Era was the Bible;

• Whereas the first act of America’s first Congress in 1774 was to ask a minister to open with prayer and to lead Congress in the reading of four chapters of the Bible;

• Whereas Congress regularly attended church and Divine service together en mass;

• Whereas throughout the American Founding, Congress frequently appropriated money for missionaries and for religious instruction – a practice that Congress repeated for decades after the passage of the Constitution and the First Amendment;

• Whereas the Library Bell was named for the Biblical inscription from Leviticus 25:10 emblazoned around it: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof”;

• Whereas in 1777, Congress, facing a national shortage of “Bibles for our schools, and families, and for the public worship of God in our churches,” announced that they “desired to have a Bible printed under their care & by their encouragement” and therefore ordered 20,000 copies of the Bible to be imported “into the different ports of the States of the Union”;

To me it is irrational to think that after 235 years of prosperity we would turn to man’s own reason instead of God for wisdom. Our nation was indeed founded, “One Nation Under God”. While revisionist work to discard and re-write our nation’s history it is essential for us to remember why the signers of the declaration literally signed their death wish and were willing to give up everything to establish our nation. Their sacrifices in 1776 have been followed up by generations of men who prayed daily for for this nation and then, as believers, went about their business to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. You can read the entire HR-888 Resolution to see more historical evidence that Christianity was both at the center of the heart and the head of liberty in America.