The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American

by Andrew L. Seidel

Together, Washington, Knox, Allen, and the rest of the colonial irregulars had lifted the British Empire’s siege of Boston. Shortly after the Ticonderoga victory, the Reverend Jedediah Dewey preached a long sermon thanking God and giving him credit for the victory. Ethan Allen rose and shouted, “Don’t forget, Parson, that I was there!” But Dewey refused to recognize the human side of the accomplishment. He harangued Allen as a “bold blasphemer” for daring to take credit.6 But other founders agreed with Allen. Franklin touched on the idea in Poor Richard’s Almanack: “God helps those who help themselves.”7 (Though not original to Franklin,8 this advice does not, as three-quarters of Americans believe, come from the bible.9) John Jay wrote, “Providence seldom interposes in human affairs but through the agency of human means.”10 And John Adams thought, “Miracles will not be wrought for us…. If we will have government, we must use the human and natural means.”11