Christian Roots Of American Education

America didn’t stumble into Christian language in education by accident. When you read the founding purposes of early colleges and universities, you find direct, unapologetic goals: train ministers, form character, teach “good letters and manners,” and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. I walk through several non Ivy League schools that rarely come up in today’s debates, including the College of William and Mary, Rutgers (originally Queen’s College), Washington and Lee’s early academy roots, and Dickinson College’s faith and liberty symbolism.

Then I connect those institutional receipts to the ideas behind a republican form of government. I read Benjamin Rush on why religion anchors virtue and why virtue anchors liberty, and I share a quote from Fisher Ames, the man I reference as wording the Establishment Clause, arguing the Bible should regain its place as a school book, not only for morals but even for clear, elegant English. The point is not a denominational state church, but a serious look at how the founders and early educators understood Christianity’s role in public life.

Finally, I talk about the McGuffey Readers, a massive piece of American education history with over 125 million copies sold. McGuffey explicitly draws from Scripture and calls the United States a Christian country, challenging the modern assumption that biblical content in schools is some new invention. If you care about Christian education, American history, Bible literacy, or the ongoing fight over civic virtue and liberty, this conversation gives you concrete sources to think with.

Subscribe for more on America’s Christian heritage, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What school or topic should we dig into next?

#ChristianNation

#AmericanHeritage 

#FoundingFathers

The American Soul Podcast

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1791934/subscribe

Countryside Book Series

https://www.amazon.com/Countryside-Book-J-T-Cope-IV-ebook/dp/B00MPIXOB2 

America's Christian Heritage Podcast

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2622483

Transcript

Scripture Opening And Welcome

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Proverbs twenty two six train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Deuteronomy six seven. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope. Uh back with another episode, excuse me, of America's Christian Heritage Podcast. Sure do appreciate y'all joining me. I hope y'all are getting something out of it. For those of y'all that continue to share this podcast or the American Soul Podcast and join us there, thank you. For those of y'all that continue uh to tell others about it, to leave reviews, thank you very much. And for those of y'all that have checked out the countryside book series, I hope you're enjoying that. Thank you very much for that as well. For those of y'all that are supporting the podcast with the monthly donations, thank you. And most of all, for those of y'all that are praying for me and for the podcast, thank you very much. Very, very grateful for your prayers. Definitely need them and want them.

Prayer For Listeners And Leaders

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Father, thank you for today. Thank you for this day that you have made. Help us to rejoice and be glad in it.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Help us to remember that we each have our comms to carry.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

We each have the thorn in the side, and to not assume by looking at someone else's life, father, that they don't.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Help us to be kind. To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before you.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Across the nation and around the world, thank you for them. Be with their families, bless their marriages if they're married, their children if they haven't.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Bless their nation.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Be with those who are anxious, upset, scared, lonely, who feel abandoned, who are abused physically, emotionally. Help them to feel your presence, Father. Help us to remember that we're not alone, that your son suffered ultimate betrayal and abuse, who died for our sins so that we wouldn't have to, and that you were willing to sacrifice him. Please be with our leaders in the pulpit and in the state. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help them to rule and lead in fear of you, and be with our military, our law enforcement, firefighters, EMS. Protect them, comfort them, and their families. Help us to support and encourage them all. And guide my words here, Father, please. In your son's name we pray. Amen.

Why Education Shapes A Nation

SPEAKER_00 3:31

So we're gonna get back into, we're gonna spend one more podcast for now. It's a huge topic, folks, but we're gonna spend one more on education. And we talked on the last episode about some of the Ivy League colleges and universities and their foundings, how tied they were to God and Jesus Christ. And we're gonna talk today about just a handful, just a few uh non-Ivy League schools early on prior to our nation and on into the founding of our nation. And then if we have some time, we're gonna talk about uh a couple other things tied to education throughout the history of our country. Again, it's a huge topic. Uh we're just digging a little deeper than we have time to do typically on the American Soul Podcast. So don't forget, we talked about this on the last one. Out of the first 108 schools in America, 106 of them were founded on the principles of Jesus Christ. I mean, that in and of itself, folks, is a pretty condemning piece of evidence when you hear people say, we were founded as some kind of secular nation, and our education needs to be secular deist, right? Or we need to give equal opportunity to uh Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism or atheism like we do Christianity. None of that is true. We have no responsibility. In fact, we have a responsibility, a duty not to treat all of those impostors, those fakes, like we do Christianity.

Colleges Founded To Spread Christianity

SPEAKER_00 5:26

So, College of William and Mary, uh, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1693, the founding purpose. It was chartered by King William III and Queen Mary II with an Anglican Church of England, right? That was their bent. The purpose of its founding was that the Church of Virginia may be furnished with a seminary of ministers of the gospel, and that the youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners, and that the Christian religion may be propagated among the Western Indians to the glory of Almighty God. It's interesting here they talk about propagation of Christian religion among the Western Indians, Indians, Indians. When you go back, we we talk about Columbus for three or four days to a week each year around Columbus Day, because there's so much untruth, so many lies surrounding Columbus today. But you see in his charter is not the right word, but the instruction that he was given was also to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, right? Professors and students here, uh, William and Mary, were required uh to do a number of things. Uh they were required to focus on uh divinity, philosophy, but a big deal was to propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ, to spread Christianity. I've said this often, I'm gonna say it a few times probably today on the podcast. If you really want to save America or your nation wherever you are, we have people all over the world listening. If you really want your nation to have more liberty, more peace, more safety, more security, there's nothing better that you can do than to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's a number of ways to do it. Reading the Bible, sharing scripture, praying. And there's a number of ways to share scripture with others, right? But but that is the single most effective tool that we have in our toolbox to save our nations. Rutgers, man, this ought to. If you look at the stuff that comes out of these colleges today, next time you see a story, if you pay attention to this kind of stuff from Rutgers University, think about this. Originally Queen's College, 1766, New Jersey. Rutgers was established by Dutch Reformed ministers. The purpose was to train clergy and uphold Christianity, specifically Protestant Christianity in the colonies, right? There's a little nod there. They were very afraid of the Catholic and Anglican churches, uh, Church of England, to assert because of the persecution, but but really the the Catholic Church in Europe, the persecution that Christians had suffered under the church-state relationship in those nations. The motto for Rutgers was Son of Righteousness, shine also upon the West. And that's a referral to Malachi 4-2, a reference to Christ, right? But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. The point again, just like William and Mary, was to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ into the new world, into the colonies, to keep secularism or uh doctrinal dogma from taking over, where that became more important than the actual gospel of Jesus Christ. That's where you get into problems, you know. On the American Soul podcast, each day we talk about marriage briefly. And the point, so many of the marriages suffer today because we don't pay attention to scripture. We pay attention to the world over scripture or even the doctrine of certain denominations in the church, sadly. The point is to pay attention to scripture first and foremost. And the seal for Rutgers goes along with the motto, it's got a son motif, again, referring to son S-U-N of righteousness, Malachi 4.2, referring to Christ. Washington and Lee University began as Augusta, or at least has you can trace it back to Augusta Academy, 1749, Liberty Hall Academy, 1776. It was founded by Scots-Irish Presbyterians, emphasized Christian education, moral formation of students, upbringing of students, virtue, and very similar to Harvard's goal, commentary of laying Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. Washington supported it financially. Robert E. Lee served as president after the Civil War. Both of these individuals, Christian gentlemen, right? That was the ideal Christian gentleman to spread the gospel of Christ and to make sure that all learning had at the bottom Jesus Christ. Dickinson College, 1783, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The purpose of Dickinson was to defend liberty by having Christian principles, the teachings, the morality of Christ at the bottom, right? Benjamin Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. And he was the founder of Dickinson. Also, John Dickinson, that's who it was named after. We've talked about Benjamin Rush quite a bit. He made a lot of comments. He has some essays that we've read on the American Soul Podcast, which we probably ought to do here and kind of go through them in a little more detail, talking about the importance of the Bible as a textbook in schools. And if we get a chance, we're going to read a quote in just a minute from the man that actually worded the establishment clause. But we'll see if we get to that. The seal of Dickinson College had an open Bible alongside a liberty cap and a telescope, right, indicating the blending of faith, science, learning, Republican little R ideals, right? Our founders didn't think that you had to separate Christianity and the state. They didn't want a particular denomination married to the state, but they very much wanted and understood that Christianity and the state, that the state really needed Christianity in our Republican form of government. We've got a quote that kind of goes along with that in a minute. But you see these founding, whether we're talking about the Ivy League like we did last podcast or these non-Ivy League schools, the ideology of the founders, the values. And there's so many quotes that we've talked about over the years on the American Soul podcast that we'll start to dig into a little deeper here on America's Christian heritage. This is just one example.

Rush And Ames On Virtue

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Benjamin Rush, right? Dickinson College that we just talked about. I proceed in the next place to inquire what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all the advantages that are to be derived from the proper instruction of youth. And here I beg leave to remark that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this, there can be no virtue. And without virtue, there can be no liberty. And liberty is the object and life of all Republican governments. Republican little Oregon, right? Not talking about the modern-day party, but actually a Republican form of government like we have via our Constitution. It is foreign to my purpose to hint at the arguments which establish the truth of the Christian revelation. My only business is to declare that all its doctrines and precepts are calculated to promote the happiness of society and the safety and well-being of civil government. A Christian cannot fail of being a Republican. The history of the creation of man and of the relation of our species to each other by birth, which is recorded in the Old Testament, is the best refutation that can be given to the divine right of kings, and the strongest argument that can be used in favor of the original and natural equality of all mankind. A Christian, I say again, cannot fail of being a republican, for every precept of the gospel inculcates those degrees of humility, self-denial, and brotherly kindness, which are directly opposed to the pride of monarchy and the pageantry of a court. A Christian cannot fail of being useful to the republic, for his religion teacheth him that no man liveth to himself. I would add here today, it's important. It's not the monarchy that's so concerning today, although it would be if that were a threat. It's communism, Marxism, right, and all the things that go in that bucket, and Islam. You cannot fall into those categories. You can't support those ideologies and love, liberty, and America at the same time. They're mutually exclusive. Whereas Christianity, if you're a Christian, you automatically are going to strengthen the republic liberty, safety, peace, right? We just can't have America as a republic, as a nation which promotes liberty, if we don't have God and Jesus Christ and the Bible at the center of our education. It ignores history, it ignores experience to go down that path. There's not a single example of a nation that has gone towards socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism, leftism, Islam, where you have an increase in liberty. Or you teach your children those ideologies and you increase your liberty. We've been pushing God out of our nation and our classrooms, really since Everson v. Board of Education out of the Supreme Court that decision in 1947, more and more. If we have any hope of turning America around from the path we're on right now, this path headed toward chaos and destruction, we've got to recenter education like you see these old schools were. It's not even remotely the same, right? Uh and the other thing here is you go back and you look at Fisher Ames. We've talked about him often over on the American Soul podcast. We will probably talk about him often here on America's Christian Heritage podcast. But Fisher Ames was the man who actually worded the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which said, Congress shall make no law establishing religion, or to prevent the free exercise thereof, or to infringe the rights of conscience. Right? Okay. So that's this is the man, Fisher Ames, that came up with that. Well, he also said, should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book, its morals are pure, its examples are captivating and noble. In no book is there so good English, so pure, and so elegant, and by teaching all the same, they will speak alike, and the Bible will justly remain the standard of language as well as of faith. Right. He has another quote where he talks about the fact that the Bible should be the primary text in our schools. You have Benjamin Rush talking about the fact that you have to have the Bible in our schools, one of our arguably most influential founding fathers, right? Benjamin Rush. So I wanted to just kind of tag on to this today and talk to you about one book in particular, so that you can see where our where our education system really was for the majority of our nation, really up till about 80 years ago.

McGuffey Readers And Bible Literacy

SPEAKER_00 20:59

And then we've started to push God out over these last 80 years. So William Holmes McGuffey. He published the McGuffey Reader. The first edition was in 1836. His title, right, like a lot of these people have different specific titles, was he was considered the schoolmaster of the nation. President of Ohio University, professor at the University of Virginia, department chair, Miami University of Ohio, a number of accolades, right? So this McGuffey's reader went through a number of iterations. And between 1836 and 1963, which I think was when the last edition was published, there were 125 million. Copies that were sold as textbooks inside the United States, right? And I think it was it was pretty widely used until the 1920s. Interesting that, right? You st you start to take the Bible out before that Everson v. Board of Education decision that allows that decision to be made by the Supreme Court. And so I want to read a quote from him, a couple quotes. The first is a preface from his 1837 eclectic third reader, right? So I'm assuming that's readers for third graders, give or take, or at least, or maybe it's more advanced than that. I really don't know, folks. But this was one of the textbooks that was used in our schools. This is 1837, a lot closer to the Constitution than we are today, right? So you would think if there was really separation of church and state, you would see way more evidence in 1837, a much stronger resentment toward using the Bible, using scripture in education, if that was the intent of the founders in 1837 than you do today. In making my selections, I have drawn from the purest fountains of English literature. For the copious extracts made from the sacred scriptures, I make no apology. Indeed, upon a review of the work, I am not sure, but an apology may be due for my not having still more liberally transferred to my pages the chaste simplicity, the thrilling pathos, the living descriptions, and the matchless sublimity of the sacred writings. From no source has the author drawn more copiously than from the sacred scriptures. For this I certainly apprehend no censure. In a Christian country, that's us right there, folks, United States. In a Christian country, that man is to be pitied who at this day can honestly object to imbuing the minds of youth with the language and spirit of the Word of God. We get a chance, we'll go back. There's a lot more that we could read about McGuffey's readers. But here are a couple things there from this man that was considered the schoolmaster of the nation from the 1830s, again within 50 years, give or take, right? I guess it was a little over, closer to 60 almost, but to the Constitution. Oh, that's not right. It's less than that. Yeah. Less than 50 years. And if there was really this separation of church and state in the modern sense, people would have been up in arms about this, using scripture and texts in the schools. And just again, when you hear people say we're we're not a Christian nation, this is another great, great quote. In a Christian country, that man is to be pitied who at this day can honestly object to imbuing the minds of youth with a language and spirit with the word of God. I wish we had time today to also talk some about Noah Webster, because he also was one of our great early educators. But we don't. I'm going to read one more quote from McGuffey, Williams, William Holmes McGuffey. The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our prevalent notions of the character of God, the great moral governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions. That echoes Benjamin Rush. Also, we can't have our free institutions in the United States if we don't have Christianity. And you see that we're going to lose it. The more we have followers of leftism, socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, atheism, Satanism, you get the idea of anything other than Christianity, the more we dilute the population of that morality and that virtue, the less liberty we're going to have, the less stable our institutions are going to be, the less freedom we're going to have in those institutions. And this is just another great quote, folks, from somebody that is much brighter than the vast majority of talking heads that you see today, much closer to the founding of our nation. I'm not even remotely saying the man's perfect goodness, because I know that's going to come out. But the Christian religion is the religion of our country. It's not Islam, it's not Hinduism, Buddhism, it's not Judaism, folks. It's not the Jews, it's not the Buddhists, the Muslims, the atheists, communists. The religion of our country is general Christianity, not a particular, single particular denomination, right? That's what our founders were afraid of. But the general principles of Christ. Yeah.

Wrap Up, Listener Note, Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 27:38

I sure do appreciate y'all joining us on the new podcast. I hope you feel like you're getting something out of it. If you, if there's something you would like us to dig into on the podcast, drop us a note. We'll look into that to see how we can do that. Again, I hope y'all are enjoying it enough to share with others. Tell those you think might enjoy it, maybe their kids or their grandkids, something that some students would get a lot out of. We'll be back in a couple weeks. We're doing this every couple weeks on a on Thursdays typically. Hope y'all join us again. Hope you're able to join us over on the American Soul Podcast. It's a shorter podcast we do each day. It digs into scripture, our our relationship with Christ as a nation, Medal of Honor winners, a couple things like that. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the stay our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all, your families, your marriages, if you're married, the children, if you have them, your nation, wherever you are around the world, listening. Whether it's America or not, folks, if you really want to strengthen your nation, there's nothing better we can do than share the gospel of Jesus Christ, right? Much less to help save souls. God bless y'all. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.