Ethics

John Calvin: Founding Father

By Ed Brayton

Jon Rowe already took some swipes at this silly essay from the folks at Worldview Weekend, but it deserves far more ridicule than he supplied. I think I'm up to the task. The author, Reed R. Heustis, describes himself as a "Christian constitutionalist." You should translate that as "power-hungry theocrat." And he's making the argument that John Calvin was huge influence on the founding fathers, without presenting any actual evidence for that claim.

One of the key presuppositions to which the founding fathers held at the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 was the fallen nature of Man. They presupposed that Man's entire capacity was intrinsically evil, and that outside of God's sovereign grace, Man could accomplish no good thing. The Bible makes it plain: "[T]he intent of man's heart is evil from his youth."

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on July 21, 2009 (boomark / email).