Gary Varvel: Part 2 - Faith and the Founding Fathers

My essay on the Bible's historic impact on America's founding plus Humor Me winners

ARCHIVE: This 2014 cartoon proves that these problems are still with us today.

PART 2 - RELIGION AND MORALITY

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.” - Proverbs 29:2

America’s Founding Fathers believed in the power of prayer. At the Constitutional Convention on Thursday, June 28, 1787, delegates clashed, deliberations became divisive and tempers flared until elder statesman Benjamin Franklin rose and said, “I have lived, sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”

Franklin then asked that they enlist clergy to pray for God’s assistance each morning before their deliberations; a tradition that continues to this day.

Elias Boudinot was a President of Congress and signed the treaty ending the American Revolution. He said, “Let us enter on this important business under the idea that we are Christians on whom the eyes of the world are now turned…Therefore I move that some minister of the Gospel be requested to attend this Congress every morning . . . in order to open the meeting with prayer.”