Religious Education Amongst Our Founding Fathers

A bit of history--much of this is unknown today--that is purposely forgotten by secularists who seek to removed religion from the public square as well as from our early history.

America's Founders at College

Too many indisputable facts from American history are ignored today because they impede the direction many progressives want to move culture. For example, while they claim that the Founders were largely secularists, few today know that most of them were graduates of colleges or universities that specialized in training ministers of the Gospel.
Princeton was founded in 1746, and John Witherspoon, a Gospel minister and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was the college's president from 1768-1794. He trained scores of individuals who became national and state leaders. Princeton required that "every student shall attend worship in the college hall morning and evening."
Yale University, founded in 1701, had Thomas Clap as its president from 1740-1766, when many of the Founders attended school there. Clap affirmed:

"The original end and design of colleges was to instruct, educate, and train up persons for the work of the ministry."

Harvard University was founded in 1636. (Pictured on the right is the original 1650 Harvard incorporation charter from the WallBuilders library.) Josiah Quincy, Harvard's president from 1829 to 1845, noted:

"[T]he College was conducted as a theological institution. . . having religion for its basis and chief object."

Altogether, 29 signers of the Declaration graduated from religiously-founded universities. But to acknowledge this today would certainly contradict the common educational assertion that our Founders were largely atheists, agnostics, and deists who wanted a secular country. But those assertions are not true.
Gouverneur Morris, a signer of the Constitution and the most active member of the Constitutional Convention, openly asserted:

"Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore, education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God."

In fact, he warned:

"There must be religion. What that ligament is torn, society is disjointed and its members perish. . . . The most important of all lessons is the denunciation of ruin to every state that rejects the precepts of religion."

Take note, America! This is a good warning to remember today.