I've just finished another book (number 15, I think), and I started one more, which I should finish in just a couple of days. I have tried to read not only books by historians, but also by Christian authors who are indicating that the US is a Christian nation and needs to get back to its origins. In the next couple of days, I will start writing, trying to indicate what I have learned about the Founding Fathers and Christian faith and the Constitution.

It has been a fascinating study, and I sure know a whole lot more than I did 2 months ago. I also realize that there is a lot more I have yet to learn. Still, I think I have a decent understanding of some of what was going on, and I'm starting to get some ideas as to what I'm going to write.

One thing I have noticed about the Christian authors is that they all tend to have a kind of conspiracy theory approach to their writing. Much of what is wrong with the country is because the secular humanists have taken over the courts and the educational system. In the video "America's Godly Heritage," David Barton seems to indicate that the basic cause for all the ills in our society is that the Supreme Court in 1962 and 1963 took Bible reading and prayer out of our schools. That has led to all the social problems we face today. I tend to think there were other factors involved - whether they be all the civil rights issues of that time, the Vietnam War, Watergate - to say nothing about sin. Sin doesn't seem to have much to do with those ills. Interesting.

The issues I'll be looking at, and writing about, include the time from the Pilgrims and Puritans (two different and distinct groups) in Massachusetts in 1620 and 1630, as well as the Jamestown settlement, through the time of the Great Awakening, and what happened to those communities and their understanding of "religious freedom." There will be issues of the establishment of churches, and, I think, how the establishment of those state churches were a major factor in the Revolution and the Constitution. I'll look at some of the things we believe about our Founding Fathers, and how we have elevated some of them to god-like status. In fact, on the ceiling in the Rotunda of the US Capitol, is a painting called "The Apotheosis of George Washington," which is essentially about making him a god. There are some myths that we have about the founders, and some authors indicating some things about them that maybe didn't happen the way they say they did. Were Washington and Adams really evangelistic Christians? Was Jefferson an atheist, as so many in the election of 1800, and many today, were and are saying? What does the First Amendment mean? And what does it mean (in words that Jefferson first said in 1801) to have this "wall of separation between church and state"?

I really thought this study would deal more with the faith of the founders, and be more of a study in history - and it has been that. But as I proceed, I think it will be far more about theology, especially as it deals with such questions as "what kind of God do we have?" Does God simply want us to live moral lives, or is there more to it than that?

It's been challenging; it's been fun - and now I get to do the hard part, which is trying to indicate on paper what I have learned.