Still more on the second segment of David Barton’s appearance on The Daily Show last week. This segment is loaded with stuff that needs to be addressed. In case you want to follow along, I have, once again, posted the segment below.
9:41: On the issue of the John Adams quote, I would direct you to Chris Rodda’s critique of how Barton uses an 1809 letter from Adams to argue that Adams believed the Holy Ghost was the foundation of American government. As Rodda shows, Barton manipulates this letter, especially when he speaks in churches. The first nine minutes or so of Rodda’s video addresses this issue. Here it is:
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/12478762 w=400&h=225]No, Mr. Beck, John Adams Did Not Think Governments Must be Administered by the Holy Ghost from Chris Rodda on Vimeo.11:10: Did John Adams believe in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity? Barton says he did. I beg to differ. The mature John Adams did not believe in the deity of Christ. Here is a passage from my book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction:
…Adams had much respect and reverence for the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. By studying the words of Jesus one could learn much about the nature of God and the “future state” of rewards and punishments. Adams described the ethical teaching of Jesus as the “most benevolent and sublime, probably that has been ever taught and more perfect than those of any of the ancient Philosophers.” Yet he could not accept the historic Christian belief that Jesus Christ was God, or that his death atoned for the sins of the world: “An incarnate God!!! An eternal, self-existent omnipresent omniscient Author of this stupendous Universe suffering on a Cross!!! My Soul starts with horror at the Idea.” Adams thought the notion of a “mere creature, or finite Being,” making “Satisfaction to infinite justice for the sins of the world” was a “convenient Cover for absurdity….’
In denying the deity of Jesus Christ, Adams was also casting aside the traditional Christian belief in the Trinity. Indeed, he thought that anyone who believed in the Trinity violated the First Commandment, which “forbids the worship of but one God.” His son, John Quincy Adams, was considerably more conservative and orthodox in his Christian beliefs, a fact that often drove his father crazy. John Adams could not fathom how his son could possibly embrace the teaching of the Athanasian Creed, the first ancient Christian confession to affirm the deity and equality of the three persons of the Trinity.
Now Barton would probably chide me here for not including references to primary sources and merely quoting from my book, which is a secondary treatment of the subject. Fair enough. The two paragraphs I quoted above are drawn from these primary sources:
John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 16, 1813
John Adams to John Quincy Adams, March 28, 1816
John Adams Diary, February 13, 1756
Adams rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. I wish Stewart would have pushed him on this a bit more. Instead he jumped to the Treaty of Tripoli. We will pick that up next. Stay tuned.
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Trinity College in Deerfield, IL ends residential, in-person undergraduate education.
Well, Adams-as-trinitarian is one of Barton's howlers.
But Martin Marty writes:
Barton’s cause: to show from eighteenth-century documents that Founding Fathers determinedly and explicitly established a Christian state, which leaves all non-Christians as second-class citizens.
I admit I dunno about the “second-class citizen” argument and whether Barton makes it. However, Barton simply doesn't say they “explicitly established a Christian state.”
Just doesn't say it. His argument is more modest.
http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=23909
Who watches the watchers?
Who watches the watchers? You do Tom! Thanks for the post.
John Fea wrote: Indeed, he thought that anyone who believed in the Trinity violated the First Commandment, which “forbids the worship of but one God.”
Do you have a text where John Adams wrote this?