Source: http://kypolitics2010.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/who-is-rand-paul-and-why-does-he-deserve-my-vote/
I. Activating Prior Knowledge
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, along with several others are often referred to as the “Founding Fathers of the United States of America.” It was under their leadership that the foundation for our country was laid.
Over the last couple of hundred years, there has been a great deal of dispute by historians as to the religious/philosophical beliefs of these “Founding Fathers.” It is upon these religious/philosophical beliefs that a great deal of conflict has arisen over the interpretation of the Constitution of the United States of America.
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
As you read the following quotes by the “Founding Fathers,” try to identify their religious/philosophical beliefs. Think about how these beliefs shaped our country and created what has come to be known as the “American ideals.”
III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-read, and Read Again)
George Washington
1. “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”
2. “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”
3. “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
4. “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
5. “I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
6. “If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.”
7. "The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."
8. "(T)he foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; ...the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained..." George Washington, First Inaugural, April 30 1789
Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. Was George Washington a humanist, deist, atheist, or Christian? What values did George Washington see as important to American culture? Be sure to be able to give evidence to support your opinion.
Thomas Jefferson
1. "... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." - Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)
2. "Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are a gift from God?
3. “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity.” - Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address.
4. “Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.” - Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom
5. “I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789
6. “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802
7. “No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.”
8. “To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”
Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. Was Thomas Jefferson a humanist, deist, atheist, or Christian? What values did Thomas Jefferson see as important to American culture? Be sure to be able to give evidence to support your opinion.
Benjamin Franklin
1. "Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety."
2. "We must all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately." - Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
3. "You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But I cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His providence. That He ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render Him is doing good to His other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.”
"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the Truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in His government of the world with any particular marks of His displeasure.” - [Benjamin Franklin, letter to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale, shortly before his death; from "Benjamin Franklin" by Carl Van Doren, the October, 1938 Viking Press edition pages 777-778 Also see Alice J. Hall, "Philosopher of Dissent: Benj. Franklin," National Geographic, Vol. 148, No. 1, July, 1975, p. 94]
4. “God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country.”
5. "This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.”
6. “Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”
7. “The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”
Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. Was Benjamin Franklin a humanist, deist, atheist, or Christian? What values did Benjamin Franklin see as important to American culture? Be sure to be able to give evidence to support your opinion.
IV. Personal Reflection - Respond to the following questions in your blog. Be sure to include quotes from the text to support your response.
Part 1 Response - Select one of the three (Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin) and identify their philosophical and/or religious beliefs (Humanism, Deism, Atheism, Christianity). Provide evidence from the quotes above to support your response. You may want to consider doing a little internet research on the person to aid in your decision. Finding an additional quote to support your response will receive additional credit.
Part 2 Response – Select one of the three (Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin) and identify a value or belief that has become a part of the “American Ideals.” Provide evidence from the quotes above to support your response. You may want to consider doing a little internet research on the person to aid in your decision. Finding an additional quote to support your response will receive additional credit.
Part 3 Response – Select one of the three (Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin), do you agree or disagree with either the philosophical/religious beliefs or values espoused by the person you selected? Be sure to explain yourself clearly.
V. Peer Reflection – Read one classmates’ reflections and respond to what they have written. You may choose to agree or disagree with their response. However, you must give sufficient and supported reasons for your opinion.
I. Activating Prior Knowledge
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, along with several others are often referred to as the “Founding Fathers of the United States of America.” It was under their leadership that the foundation for our country was laid.
Over the last couple of hundred years, there has been a great deal of dispute by historians as to the religious/philosophical beliefs of these “Founding Fathers.” It is upon these religious/philosophical beliefs that a great deal of conflict has arisen over the interpretation of the Constitution of the United States of America.
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
As you read the following quotes by the “Founding Fathers,” try to identify their religious/philosophical beliefs. Think about how these beliefs shaped our country and created what has come to be known as the “American ideals.”
III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-read, and Read Again)
George Washington
1. “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”
2. “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”
3. “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
4. “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
5. “I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
6. “If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.”
7. "The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."
8. "(T)he foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; ...the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained..." George Washington, First Inaugural, April 30 1789
Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. Was George Washington a humanist, deist, atheist, or Christian? What values did George Washington see as important to American culture? Be sure to be able to give evidence to support your opinion.
Thomas Jefferson
1. "... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." - Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)
2. "Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are a gift from God?
3. “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity.” - Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address.
4. “Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.” - Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom
5. “I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789
6. “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802
7. “No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.”
8. “To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”
Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. Was Thomas Jefferson a humanist, deist, atheist, or Christian? What values did Thomas Jefferson see as important to American culture? Be sure to be able to give evidence to support your opinion.
Benjamin Franklin
1. "Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety."
2. "We must all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately." - Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
3. "You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But I cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His providence. That He ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render Him is doing good to His other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.”
"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the Truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in His government of the world with any particular marks of His displeasure.” - [Benjamin Franklin, letter to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale, shortly before his death; from "Benjamin Franklin" by Carl Van Doren, the October, 1938 Viking Press edition pages 777-778 Also see Alice J. Hall, "Philosopher of Dissent: Benj. Franklin," National Geographic, Vol. 148, No. 1, July, 1975, p. 94]
4. “God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country.”
5. "This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.”
6. “Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”
7. “The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”
Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. Was Benjamin Franklin a humanist, deist, atheist, or Christian? What values did Benjamin Franklin see as important to American culture? Be sure to be able to give evidence to support your opinion.
IV. Personal Reflection - Respond to the following questions in your blog. Be sure to include quotes from the text to support your response.
Part 1 Response - Select one of the three (Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin) and identify their philosophical and/or religious beliefs (Humanism, Deism, Atheism, Christianity). Provide evidence from the quotes above to support your response. You may want to consider doing a little internet research on the person to aid in your decision. Finding an additional quote to support your response will receive additional credit.
Part 2 Response – Select one of the three (Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin) and identify a value or belief that has become a part of the “American Ideals.” Provide evidence from the quotes above to support your response. You may want to consider doing a little internet research on the person to aid in your decision. Finding an additional quote to support your response will receive additional credit.
Part 3 Response – Select one of the three (Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin), do you agree or disagree with either the philosophical/religious beliefs or values espoused by the person you selected? Be sure to explain yourself clearly.
V. Peer Reflection – Read one classmates’ reflections and respond to what they have written. You may choose to agree or disagree with their response. However, you must give sufficient and supported reasons for your opinion.
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