More Newport

Katie Garland hard at work in her office space at the Newport Historical Society

It helps to have friends in high places.  My former student and trusted research assistant Katie Garland, a student in the University of Massachusetts Public History Program and currently interning at the Newport Historical Society in Rhode Island, has been writing some excellent blog posts on “How Christian an Understanding,” and event, sponsored by the Newport Historical Society, on the early history of religious freedom in Rhode Island and the nation.

In her post “What Was George Washington’s View on Abortion?” she reflects on some of my thoughts at the event.  Here is a taste:

Cracking a few jokes to open his portion of the program, John Fea listed a few questions which he has been asked about religion and history such as “What was George Washington’s view on abortion?” and  “Would Thomas Jefferson have voted for Barack Obama?”  While these may seem like silly questions, they remind us, in an extreme way, of the problems that we encounter when we do not think historically.  Fea suggested that the discipline of history is limited and we must be careful about jumping from the eighteenth century (or any other time in the past) to the present.  Abortion was not an issue in Washington’s time, and Jefferson never had an opportunity to vote for Obama, so we should not make leaps from their ideological commitments to our political controversies today.

In encouraging the audience to think historically about the past, Fea was referencing the Preface of his book, in which he admits that the titular question (Was America founded as a Christian nation?) is quite complicated.  In order to answer it, we must first decide on the definitions of “founded,” “Christian,” and “nation.”  Does “founding” refer to 1607 when Jamestown was settled, or 1620 when the Pilgrims arrived, or the American Revolution in the 1770s and 1780s?  Would a “Christian” nation write Christian doctrine into its founding documents or only allow Christians to participate in government?  Or does “Christian” refer to the beliefs of the founders or the people at large?  Did America become a nation in 1776 with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, or 1789 with the ratification of the United States Constitution, or even later?  Does “nation” refer to the national government, the state governments, or the people themselves? Just as when we used the 5 Cs of historical thinking to understand Mary Dyer’s execution, thinking historically about this topic provides us with a number of questions to answer!

Thanks, Katie.  And here are some more pics from the event, compliments of the Rhode Island ACLU Facebook page:

Panelists included Daniel Cowdin (Salve Regina University), John Barry (author), and Michael Feldberg (George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom)

The event was held in the Great Quaker Meeting House in Newport

Ruth Taylor of the Newport Historical Society introduced the panel

RECOMMENDED READING

From Whore to Helpmate FORUM: The End of Roe, Day Three What If Pro-Choice Politicians Acknowledged That Abortion Is a Moral Problem? Anyone who wants to believe that Independence Day is a Christian holiday should read Frederick Douglass’s “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?” David Barton speaks at First Baptist-Dallas.