Recently in History Category

It didn't hit me until just now that yesterday was Columbus day. Allow me to belatedly take advantage of this yearly opportunity to remind you that the stories you were probably taught in school were wrong: the people of Christopher Columbus' time did not believe the world was flat.

See, when I was in school I was taught, as I imagine you probably were, that Columbus' journey was looked down upon by ignorant flat-earthers who were much less visionary than our intrepid explorer.

It's a nice story, except for one thing: there were no flat-earthers in Columbus' time. At least, none that were prominent enough to matter. Columbus did not have difficulty securing money for his voyage because he believed the earth was round, but rather because his calculations were off and everyone knew it.

The lesson? Even the most mistaken public figures can make up for it in time with a good PR campaign... and don't believe everything you were taught in middle school.

What were the religious beliefs of the founding fathers? Although it might appear to be an issue of only minor historical curiosity, that question is at the heart of many of the most contentious debates in the blogosphere. Countless arguments are centered on claims that the founders were either God-fearing Christians or Deistically-inclined secularists. But while historical documents are often mined for justifying quotes, few people bother to muster historical evidence to shore up their claims.

In his new book, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers, historian David Holmes fills that void by providing a useful methodology for examining the relevant evidence. Holmes outlines four areas that can help us laymen determine whether the founding father was a Deist, an orthodox Christian, or somewhere in between:

1. Examine the actions of the founding father in the area of religion (e.g., Did they attend church regularly?).

2. Examine the participation of the founding father in a church’s ordinances or sacraments (e.g., Did they have their children baptized? Did they take Holy Communion?).

3. Comparison of inactivity versus activity in regards to religious involvement.

4. Examine the religious language used by the founding father.

Using these criteria, Holmes claims that the religious beliefs of the founding fathers can be broadly classified as:

Non-Christian Deists: Deists who rejected all sacraments and rarely attended church services.

Deistic Christians/Unitarians: Held Deistic beliefs, attended church regularly, but rejected the Lord’s Supper and confirmation.

Orthodox Christians: Accepted orthodox Christian beliefs, attended church regularly, participated in the sacraments and ordinances.

Let us apply the four areas to the pre-eminent founding father, George Washington:

Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history?

This time-lapse map shows in 90 seconds all of the empires and nations that have controlled this section of the world from 3000 B.C. to 2006 A.D. (HT: kottke.org)