The First Civil Government and Institution of Higher Learning
The first civil government in America was the Mayflower Compact (1620). Despite a difficult journey in which nearly half of the original 103 passengers died, they gave thanks to God and agreed to conform their colony to His principles. They covenanted with God and each other. This compact stated to the effect that they were loyal subjects of King James and had undertaken their voyage, “for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.”
Harvard University, the first institution of higher learning in the United States was founded in 1636 by the Puritans only 16 years after they arrived in Massachusetts. The Puritans considered education necessary so that their children could read the Bible and “work out their own salvation.” For about 200 years in America children were taught from the New England Primer. This book used Bible verses to teach the correct pronunciation of letters. In 1813, the American Tract Society published a collection of sermons also used to train children. This had many sermons written by several signers of the Declaration of Independence including Dr. Benjamin Rush and John Witherspoon. McGuffey’s Readers, also heavily laced with biblical doctrine and principles was also widely used. In other words, for the first 200 years of our nation children learned to read by studying the Bible, sermons, and other Christian literature. No other source of material affected the American mind as much as Christian teaching.
According to David Barton, a nationally recognized authority on Church-State relations, the University of Houston undertook a 10 year study on the sources of thought of the Framer’s of the Constitution. In other words by studying their writings they attempted to discern who they quoted and therefore who had the most influence upon their thinking. They isolated 3,154 direct quotes. Montesquieu accounted for 8.3%, the jurist Blackstone, 7.9%, and Locke 2.9%. The Bible was quoted 4 times more than either Montesquieu or Blackstone, and 12 times more than Locke. In fact 34% of the Founder’s quotes came from Scripture. Even if these persons were not what we might label evangelical Christians they certainly understood and utilized the Scripture as an authority. They may have argued about the interpretation of the Scripture but not its inspiration. This aspect of higher criticism would not come about until the end of the 19th century.
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That reminds me once again of the Northwest Ordinance, Article 3. Many of the same men who participated in the construction of the government through the drafting of the Constitution and other founding documents and laws, also framed and passed this ordinance for the governing of what were then known as the Northwest Territories. That article defines the purpose of American public schools to be religion, morality, and knowledge, in that order. Granted, "religion" does not specify Christianity alone. But only a gross ignorance or self-serving revisionist distortion of history would pretend anything else could have been meant. That is to say, not Christianity as preached and practiced within its many denominations; but Christianity in its most general form - which, according to the Apostle, was "to visit the widows and orphans", to care for the sick and the hungry, to love (without succumbing to) one's enemies and to do good to those who do you no good. Also, to "study the scriptures daily" and to "reason".