For our second Bonus Episode, I am returning to a historical point that I made in Episode 8. In that episode, I first introduced my concept of “Four Founding Themes” that emerge from an examination of English colonization. When I cover European colonization in my college classes on early US History, one thing that I do with my students is to look for larger patterns to help us understand what is going on. I do this with them as we look at Spanish, French, and Dutch colonization, and then go into even more depth on English colonization. With the English colonies, we spend more time here is because the British won the geopolitical struggle for dominance in Europe, and that played out in the New World. So, what clues can we discover that helps us understand how those colonies developed into a new nation called the United States? For me, then, there are four dominant themes that one can uncover with these early colonies: Capitalism, Christianity, Risk, and Rebellion. In this bonus episode, I explore this in-depth with you to help explain what I had briefly described in the earlier episode.

If you want to read more about some of the historical moments that I mentioned, here you go:

• Bacon's Rebellion
• Paxton Boys or you can read more in this Brittanica article
• Shays Rebellion
• Frederick Turner's "Frontier Thesis" about the impact of the closing of the US Frontier, paper given in 1893
• About the concept of "Frontier Thesis"

Episode 10 considers the creation of our second set of governing documents, what we today call “The Constitution,” in 1787, ratified in 1788, provides us our last bit of evidence to the larger point of the podcast–what did the Founders want to do with Christianity?

We have been examining what was necessary to sustain our unique foundation for the USA civic society. We’ve been seeking what was lost, prior to this time we described in episode 1, where the data is overwhelming that something massive has shifted to where all metrics point in a downward trend, with multiple crises clearly evidence throughout society.

If the Founders wanted to create a “Christian Nation” as our Conservative Christian character proposes today, they could have. If they wanted to create a nation with no religion, no Christianity even acknowledged, banished to private concerns or even fully banished from society, they could have.

They did neither thing.

The podcast seeks to find evidence in our history to help us regain safe harbor, the very structure that had allowed for our great national success, a success that was obvious until things began to unravel over the decades after WW2, especially in the last 30-40 years. The US Constitution is the last governing document produced in our national history, and so is the last thing to consider in seeking to grasp the mind of the Founders.

We also examine the state constitutions created in the years immediately after 1776. You can go read them yourself at the links below. Note that Rhode Island did not write a new constitution until 1842.

• South Carolina in 1776 and in 1778
• Delaware in 1776
• Georgia in 1777
• Maryland in 1777
• New Hampshire in 1776
• New Jersey in 1776
• New York in 1777
• North Carolina in 1776
• Pennsylvania in 1776
• Vermont in 1777
• Massachusetts in 1780
• Virginia in 1776
• also the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom

In trying to understand the unique concepts of the USA, we need to start with two key documents written in the heady days of the Second Continental Congress: The Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation.

We saw in the last episode, Christianity was one of the four core themes we can glean from the colonization efforts that formed the USA. In case you missed it, the other three are Capitalism, Risk, and Rebellion. There's a larger point here about that hypothesis regarding understanding the USA, but that's not this podcast. Perhaps I will add a bonus episode going into depth about this to help people better understand the nation called "the USA."

Does that fact that the colonists were intentionally bringing Christianity with them, asserting its importance to their future success, mean that decades later, at the founding of the nation, that they were expecting a “Christian Nation” to follow? What about decades later, as national leaders gathered in Philadelphia in the crucial days leading to the American Revolution…did they perceived themselves creating a “Christian Nation”?

You can read the Declaration of Independence and also the Articles of Confederation for yourself. In the Declaration we focus on the opening explanation, noting editorial changes that were made by Franklin and Adams ("hold these truths to be self-evident") and a few other parts there. Then, we shift focus to the concluding paragraph to two key editorial changes made that inserted the general consensus of the group about the involvement of the Christian God in their effort. With the Articles, we specifically noted Article III and the conclusion that starts, at the end, with "And, whereas...."

We’ve seen that Christianity is vital to the type of society that everyone seems to want—individual rights, protections in liberty, etc… This vital need is both in acknowledging how Christianity brought these concepts to the West (and then others through “the West”) and how Christianity as guiding structure provided US culture the means for its success (that others strive to move here for).

So, we NEED Christianity…but WE ALSO HAVE SEEN that the “Christendom” concept (“Christian Nationalism”) is ruinous to the faith and also how the faith is expressed, especially in a civic structure. So, what did our first colonists believe?

Were the first colonists trying to establish a “Christendom,” a “Christian nation”…a nation only for Christians where there would be religious faith requirements before holding office or opening a business, as was true in the nations from which these colonists came? Or, were they somehow trying to escape religion altogether, eager to create a nation on some broad concept of “Natural Law” in which formal religions would be either absent, or at worst, only something for the individual, something kept quiet and private? To find these answers, we must examine the first English-speaking colonies to see what lessons they can provide.

We will read The Mayflower Compact and also excerpts from the Sermon of John Winthrop. Both documents are crucial to understanding the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. We will also examine Jamestown and St. Mary's. For St. Mary's we will read excerpts from their revolutionary Maryland Toleration Act of 1649.

In our first Bonus Episode, Dr. Sandy Shugart joins me for an indepth examination of the Enlightenment Project and my contention that the promises of such were really a myth, one that has left society disillusioned and bordering on cynicism due to discovery that they were misled. The humans are not improving, not really changing at all from what our species has been all along, certainly not changing when the only agency of change is human will. But why? Dr. Shugart, one of my most important mentors, currently serving as a Senior Fellow at The Aspen Institute and also Quo Vadis Institute (based in Salzburg, Austria), stopped by to help me understand this tension within our modern secular society.

In the early episodes, particularly 1 and 3, I spoke about the Enlightenment and its impact on how we view the world. Starting at some point in the 1600s and building steam in the 1700s, a new way of thinking and considering life, both individually and corporately in civic structures, was emerging. With the American and French Revolutions, the Enlightenment took full form and was soon being elevated to a high plane, perhaps a mystical plane, and in that growing sense of a new way of thinking, the sense of "promises" from this Enlightenment emerged.

And yet, by the late 20th century, it has been manifestly apparent that those promises never arrived, particularly the myth that the human as species could and would improve. Some "Enlightenment Prophets" seemed to believe that a utopia would be soon achieved, but the horrendous 20th century, a century often held up as the triumph of the Enlightenment, was evidence enough to the failure of this concept.

So, as the 21st century has emerged, disillusionment has set in, particularly among the young (say, 40-under crowd). Since faith or even simply “the transcendent” has been marginalized, many have moved into cynicism, depression, and a general sense that life is not worth living. Of course this is part of my raison d'être for the podcast, and we needed to take a deeper dive in order to see the complexities of this topic.

Episode 7 is a continuation from the last episode in which we were examining the deep impact of the Christian faith on Western society. We started at the broad level of trends and concepts that were noted about the Christians, things that stood out to contemporary non-Christians, so much so, they wrote about these odd behaviors.

We noted in episode 6 the Christian contribution saying 'the human had worth' is the central, most vital concept that this faith added to the world. But how? In this episode, we look at the myriad of new ideas that, while today common or assumed, were introduced with the coming of this new faith.

Why this matters is that as we are seeking safe harbor, we suddenly become aware that we not only shouldn't get rid or exclude Christianity, but that we NEED it. The very things the Progressive is fighting for (voting rights, rights of individuals to for personal expression, economic equity rights, rights for freedom to do whatever with one’s body, etc…) ARE ONLY DUE to the influence and impact of Christianity. Those ideas or concepts are unknown in the ancient world, especially when broadly considered (for everyone, not just the only people of my tribe).

If we lose the foundational faith that gave these ideas to the world, especially if we lean further into the post-modern idea that "there is no truth, especially any truths that govern all." In that world, then if the only thing that is true is whatever I deem to be true, regardless of evidence or logic, then we end up in a "might makes right" world. There, if someone wants to deny these contributions provided by Christianity, then they could and there's no reason or way, other than force, that we can suggest the idea remains true. If, though, we see how Christianity is a "net positive," and then we embrace, maybe even celebrate, its inclusion in our culture and society, then this concepts can remain sustained deep into the 21st century.

After laying out the failures and challenges of "Christianity" (especially being critical of the idea of “Christian Nationalism”) as seen in history through the changes to the faith post-Constantine (the eventual Christendom), one could assume the next step is to admit Christianity is bad for society.

However, upon examination, though, the evidence is abundantly clear that Christianity is a massive net-positive for society. Going further, we can argue that the world is now a “Western world” in that the entire globe, all peoples, races, ethnicities, tribes, etc… all pursue societal values that emerged in the West first.

Issues like “human rights” or that governments should be “of the people” including “voting for most/all citizens” or various concerns about “economic equity” all are concepts that emerged in the West, a break away from the historical norm in all societies. Those “Western concepts” are nearly all things that emerge due to the Christian foundation, ideas about the human as a “special creation” by the Christian/Jewish God.

So, as we look at the tension in our current 21st century culture, where one side seems to be openly post-Christian, if not anti-Christian, and often expresses ideas that would suggest they believe it to be far better for society to be freed from the Christian faith, INSTEAD---it becomes clear that we all NEED Christianity, not only for what it gave as these new ideas that we now all champion, but also to sustain those ideas. This links back to the foundation conversation in episode 1 & 2, that there is a unique foundation upon which our style of society (“of the people” without a dominating force from the top imposing) stands.

We will read and examine Pliny's letter to Emperor Trajan. You can also read a copy at this PBS site. We will also study and read excerpts from The Letter to Diognetus. A slightly deeper examination of this can be read at this site.

A key pressure point from Conservative Christians is a seeming call for “Christian Nationalism.” That idea suggests some version of domination and control by Christianity and Christian concepts. I understand that not everyone who is a Conservative politically feels this way, and even some who are Christians who are Conservatives would argue they don't mean "Christian Nationalism." However, as I have explained in the podcast episodes so far, when we look at the general idea typically expressed (at least as how I have heard it or read it), they do mean some level of governing and cultural control, even dominion (hint, hint) over society. So, another way to say what is being asked for is to say they want a version of “Christendom.”

The concept of Christendom emerges in the years after the Roman Empire collapsed in the West. So…we can say “its been done before" and there are lessons for us in the early 21st century. I urge us not to try this again. In a careful examination of what Christendom was, the evidence from history demonstrates that the Christian faith became a warped or devolved version of the faith that Jesus described and was lived out by adherents in the first 300 years after Jesus.

To figure out what happened, we need to do some examination of Roman Empire history, looking at the impact of the Emperors Diocletian and Constantine. It is with Constantine that everything shifts, one of those major moments in world history where a single individual makes a decision upon which the story changes. His decision relative to Christianity will impact both the Empire and the Christian faith itself.

I hope that you are enjoying the podcast so far. Please send any questions to carl@carlcreasman.com if you'd like Matthew and I to answer. We are thinking there might be interest in a Q&A episode, and we'd love to oblige.