Thread by @PhilipDerrida

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸
Time for another living, slow drip #PresbyAmericana #ChristianAmericana thread🧵

This time it’s from the sections of Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge (1797 – 1878) in which Hodge argues that America is a Christian and Protestant nation.

Hope you enjoy!

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For some quick background info: Charles Hodge was born in Philadelphia to a family of Scotch-Irish descent on December 27, 1797 in the aftermath of two Yellow Fever epidemics which claimed the lives of several of his older siblings.

While Charles was still a baby, his father, Hugh, a prominent physician in Philadelphia, died from complications from the 1795 Yellow Fever epidemic, and he was raised by his godly mother, Mary.

In his youth, Mary took Charles to Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia where he was catechized under Ashbel Green before moving to Somerville, NJ for Charles' classical education. They moved to Princeton, NJ several years later in hopes of enrolling in the college.

After graduating from Princeton college in 1815, Archibald Alexander encouraged young Charles to attend Princeton Theological Seminary. Charles obliged and graduated PTS in 1819 and was ordained by the Presbytery of New Brunswick in 1821 as an “Old School” Presbyterian.

A year later he would become a Professor of Oriental and Biblical Literature at Princeton where he would gain a foothold into becoming one of the great American Presbyterian theologians of the 19th century.

I’ll be posting excerpts from the third volume of his Systematic Theology (1873). You can read along by going to Chapter 19 (The Law), §8. The Fourth Commandment, pages 340-348. library.logcollegepress.com/Hodge%2C+Charl…

"It is very common, especially for foreign-born citizens, to object to all laws made by the civil governments in this country to prevent the public violation of the Lord's Day."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It is urged that as there is in the United States an entire separation of the Church and State, it is contrary to the genius of our institutions, that the observance of any religious institution should be enforced by civil laws."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It is... objected that as all citizens have equal rights irrespective of their religious opinions, it is an infringement of those rights if one class of the people are required to conform their conduct to the religious opinions of another class."

Charles Hodge, ST, 3.19.8🇺🇸

"[It is asked:] Why should Jews, Mohammedans, or infidels be required to respect the Christian Sabbath?"

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"[It is asked:] Why should any man, who has no faith in the Sabbath as a divine institution, be prevented from doing on that day whatever is lawful on other days?"

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"[It is asked:] if the State may require the people to respect Sunday as a day of rest, why may it not require the people to obey any or all other precepts of the Bible?"

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It is conceded, (1.) That in every free country every man has equal rights with his fellow-citizens, and stands on the same ground in the eye of the law."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It is conceded... (2.) That in the United States no form of religion can be established; that no religious test for the exercise of the elective franchise or for holding of office can be imposed."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It is conceded... and that no preference can be given to the members of one religious denomination above those of another."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It is conceded... (3.) that no man can be forced to contribute to the support of any church, or of any religious institution."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It is conceded... (4.) That every man is at liberty to regulate his conduct and life according to his convictions or conscience, provided he does not violate the law of the land."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

“That a nation is not a mere conglomeration of individuals. It is an organized body."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"A nation is not a mere conglomeration of individuals. It is an organized body. It has of necessity its national life, its national organs, national principles of action, national character, and national responsibility."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"In every free country the government must, in its organization and mode of action, be an expression of the mind and will of the people."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"As men are rational creatures, the government cannot banish all sense and reason from their action, because there may be idiots among the people."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"As men are moral beings, it is impossible that the government should act as though there were no distinction between right and wrong."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It [the government] cannot legalize theft and murder."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"No matter how much it might enrich itself by rapine or by the extermination of other nations, it would deserve and receive universal condemnation and execration, should it thus set at nought the bonds of moral obligation."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"This necessity of obedience to the moral law on the part of civil governments, does not arise from the fact that they are instituted for the protection of the lives, rights, and property of the people."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"Why have our own and other Christian nations pronounced the slave-trade piracy and punishable with death? Not because it interferes with the rights or liberty of their citizens but because it is wicked."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"Cruelty to animals is visited with civil penalties, not on the principle of profit and loss, but because it is a violation of the moral law."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"As it is impossible for the individual man to disregard all moral obligations, it is no less impossible on the part of civil governments."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"Men moreover are religious beings. They can no more ignore that element of their nature than their reason or their conscience."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It is no matter what they may say, or may pretend to think, the law which binds them to allegiance to God, is just as inexorable as the law of gravitation."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"They can no more emancipate themselves from the one [God's moral law] than they can from the other [gravity]."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"Morality concerns their duty to their fellow-men; religion concerns their duty to God. The latter binds the conscience as much as the former. It attends the man everywhere."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It [morality and religion] must influence his conduct as an individual, as the head of a family, as a man of business, as a legislator, and as an executive officer."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It is absurd to say that civil governments have nothing to do with religion. That is not true even of a fire company, or of a manufactory, or of a banking-house."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"The religion embraced by the individuals composing these associations must influence their corporate action, as well as their individual conduct."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"If a man may not blaspheme, a publishing firm may not print and disseminate a blasphemous book."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"A civil government cannot ignore religion any more than physiology. It was not constituted to teach either the one or the other, but it must, by a like necessity, conform its action to the laws of both."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It would be far safer for a government to pass an act violating the laws of health, than one violating the religious convictions of its citizens. The one would be unwise, the other would be tyrannical."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"Men put up with folly, with more patience than they do with injustice. It is vain for the potsherds of the earth to contend with their Maker. They must submit to the laws of their nature not only as sentient, but also as moral and religious beings."

Charles Hodge, ST, 3.19.8🇺🇸

"And it is time that blatant atheists, whether communists, scientists, or philosophers, should know that they are as much and as justly the objects of pity and contempt, as of indignation to all right-minded men."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"By right-minded men, is meant men who think, feel, and act according to the laws of their nature. Those laws are ordained, administered, and enforced by God, and there is no escape from their obligation, or from the penalties attached to their violation."

Hodge, ST, 3.19.8🇺🇸

"The people of this country being rational, moral, and religious beings, the government must be administered on the principles of reason, morality, and religion."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"By a like necessity of right, the people being Christians and Protestants, the government must be administered according to the principles of Protestant Christianity."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"By this [i.e., a Protestant principled government] is not meant that the government should teach Christianity, or make the profession of it a condition of citizenship, or a test for office."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"Nor does it mean that the [Protestant principled] government is called upon to punish every violation of Christian principle or precept."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It [the US government] is not called upon to punish every violation of the moral law."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"But as it [the US government] cannot violate the moral law in its own action, or require the people to violate it, so neither can it ignore Christianity in its official action."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It [the US government] cannot require the people or any of its own officers to do what Christianity forbids, nor forbid their doing anything which Christianity enjoins."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It [the US government] has no more right to forbid that the Bible should be taught in the public schools, than it has to enjoin that the Koran should be taught in them."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"If Christianity requires that one day in seven should be a day of rest from all worldly avocations, the government of a Christian people cannot require any class of the community or its own officers to labour on that day."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"Should it [the gov't]... disregard that [Sun]day, & direct that the custom-houses, the courts of law, & the legislative halls should be open... & public business be transacted as on other days, it would be an act of tyranny, which WOULD JUSTIFY REBELLION."

Hodge, ST, 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It [getting rid of Sabbath laws] would be tantamount to enacting that no Christian should hold any office under the government, or have any share in making or administering the laws of the country."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"The nation would be in complete subjection to a handful of imported atheists and infidels [if Sabbath laws were done away with]."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"The proposition that the United States of America are a Christian and Protestant nation, is not so much the assertion of a principle as the statement of a fact."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"That fact [that the US is a Christian and Protestant nation] is not simply that the great majority of the people are Christians and Protestants, but that the organic life, the institutions, laws, and official action of the government…

"whether that action be legislative, judicial, or executive, is, and of right should be, and in fact must be, in accordance with the principles of Protestant Christianity."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"This is a Christian and Protestant nation in the sense stated in virtue of a universal and necessary law."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"If you plant an acorn, you get an oak. If you plant a cedar, you get a cedar. If a country be settled by Pagans or Mohammedans, it develops into a Pagan or Mohammedan (Muslim) community."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"If a country be taken possession of and settled by Protestant Christians, the nation which they come to constitute must be Protestant and Christian. This country was settled by Protestants."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"For the first hundred years of our history they [Protestants] constituted almost the only element of our population."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"As a matter of course, they [Protestants] were governed by their religion as individuals, in their families, and in all the associations for business, and for municipal, state and national government."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"This [the Protestant-ness of the US] was just as much a matter of necessity as that they should act morally in all these different relations."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"It is a historical fact that Protestant Christianity is the law of the land, and has been from the beginning."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"As the great majority of the early settlers of the country were from Great Britain, they declared that the common law of England should be the law here."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"But Christianity is the basis of the common law of England, and is therefore of the law of this country; and so our courts have repeatedly decided. It is so not merely because of such decisions. Courts cannot reverse facts."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"Protestant Christianity has been, is, and must be the law of the land."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"Christianity forbids polygamy and arbitrary divorce, so does the civil law. Romanism forbids divorce even on the ground of adultery; Protestantism admits it on that ground. The laws of all the states conform in this matter to the Protestant rule."

Charles Hodge, ST, 3.19.8🇺🇸

"Christianity forbids all unnecessary labour, or the transaction of worldly business, on the Lord’s Day; that day accordingly is a dies non, throughout the land."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"No contract is binding, made on that day. No debt can be collected on the Christian Sabbath. If a man hires himself for any service by the month or year, he cannot be required to labor on that day."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"All public offices are closed [on Sunday], and all official business is suspended. From Maine to Georgia, from ocean to ocean, one day in the week, by the law of God and by the law of the land, the people rest."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"If a man goes to China, he expects to find the government administered according to the religion of the country. If he goes to Turkey, he expects to find the Koran supreme and regulating all public action."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"If he goes to a Protestant country, he has no right to complain, should he find the Bible in the ascendancy and exerting its benign influence, not only on the people but also on the government."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"The principle that the religion of a people rightfully controls the action of the government, has of course its limitation."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"If the religion itself be evil and require what is morally wrong, then as men cannot have the right to act wickedly, it is plain that it would be wrong for the government to conform to its requirements."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"If a religion should enjoin infanticide, or the murder of the aged or infirm, neither the people nor the government should conform their conduct to its laws."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"But where the religion of a people requires nothing unjust or cruel or in any way immoral, then those who come to live where it prevails are bound to submit quietly to its controlling the laws and institutions of the country."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1873), 3.19.8🇺🇸

"[Christian businesses could] admit unbelievers... into their association... But it would be utterly unreasonable for such unbelievers to... cry of religious persecution... because all the business... was suspended upon the Lord’s Day."

Charles Hodge, ST, 3.19.8🇺🇸

"These new members knew the character and principles of those with whom they sought to be associated. They knew that Christians would assert their right to act as Christians. To require them to renounce their religion would be simply preposterous."

Charles Hodge, ST, 3.19.8🇺🇸