(1888PressRelease)
July 24, 2009 - The Living Hour (LivingHour.org) has announced the launch of a new series: America’s Founding Fathers on Christianity, God, & Religion. The month-long series which began July 13th is part of the Living Hour’s larger SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) Motivational series for Progressive Christians and spiritual progressives of all faiths. The Founding Fathers series will include passages from such figures as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine, as well as lesser known statesmen such as John Dickinson, the former president of Pennsylvania who penned (along with Jefferson) penned the congressional declaration to England that the American people were resolved to die free men rather than live as slaves.
“The Founding Fathers brought a remarkable amount of common sense and enlightenment to their perspectives on religion and the spiritual life,” says Pastor David, founder and director of The Living Hour. “Many of them possessed all the traits and temperament that we associate today with the SBNR Progressive Christian. It is amazing, to this day, how relevant their comments remain on subjects pertaining to the spiritual life in America.” Pastor David states that he also hopes the series will erase some of the misconceptions that many Americans (both on the Right and the Left) hold regarding the Founding Fathers and their religious beliefs.
The following is a passage from Benjamin Franklin that was featured during the first week of the series. It was written toward the end of Franklin’s life to Ezra Stile, the President of Yale:
"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, to be the best the world has ever seen, or is likely to see. But I believe it has received various corrupting changes, and I am in accord with the present dissenters in England in having some doubts regarding Jesus’s divinity: although it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon the opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble."
To read more from the Founding Fathers series, please visit: http://www.livinghour.org
###
