Ben Franklin v. Dennis Prager
Jonathan Rowe on Nov 29th 2006
Ben Franklin was friendly with George Whitefield of the “Great Awakening” fame. Franklin, though, didn’t share Whitefield’s orthodox Christian beliefs. As a theistic rationalist, Franklin supported “religion” in general (thought society was better off with it than without it), but thought most if not all world religious were valid ways to God. Franklin was involved in building a church in Philadelphia for public worship and offered Whitefield this venue to preach when others were not available. Here is how Franklin described the experience.
Both house and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia; the design in building not being to accommodate any particular sect, but the inhabitants in general; so that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service.
To Franklin, apparently, Whitefield’s orthodox Christianity was equivalent to the Mufti of Constantinople’s Mohammedanism.
Filed in The Belfry
I think your conclusion is disingenuous given the evidence above, I don’t think such wonderful thinkers as Franklin would want their tolerance and friendship to be mistaken as philosophical statement, especially so given this was done in the City of Brotherly Love.
The thing Franklin hated about religion, which he got from the Christianity he was exposed to, was the hypocrisy of some of the leaders — how they would focus on acts of praise and prayer and stigma rather than acts of friendship and charity and love. To Franklin, this is what the religions of Islam and Christianity had in common.
Your value and trust in men is a religion in and of itself. I will trust in Christ Jesus and His Word. The things of this world will pass away and we will all stand at the judgement seat of Christ.
What will merit your acceptance into His Kingdom?
“What will merit your acceptance into His Kingdom?”
I’m certainly not perfect if that’s what you are getting at. But I do know one thing for sure — whatever I’ve done wrong in this life and whatever punishment I may deserve, I don’t deserve to suffer for all of eternity. And if you believe in a God who would put me in a place where I suffer for eternity simply for flunking his theology test (using my own brain that He gave me), I can only use one word to describe such a Being: malevolent. Sorry but I have faith that if God exists, He is not malevolent, but as Adams, Jefferson, Franklin and company believed: benevolent.
[...] Washington and Franklin, on the other hand, seemed to have had no problems with orthodox doctrines, believing them harmless. The problem is, as unitarians, they didn’t believe in those doctrines and also had no problem with all sorts of non-Christian religions such that they drew an equivalence between these systems that make inconsistent claims of truth. As Ben Franklin put it: Both house and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia; the design in building not being to accommodate any particular sect, but the inhabitants in general; so that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service. [...]
[...] As I’ve shown in the past, Ben Franklin thought it appropriate for Muslims to preach Mohammedanism in Christian Churches. And Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, when they spoke to unconverted Native Americans used the term “The Great Spirit” for God, suggesting the Indians Pagan God was the same one they worshipped. [...]
[...] All of the Founders Sali invokes were syncretic universalists who believed all of the world religions were valid ways to God. Franklin and Adams both explicitly identified Islam as a sound religion. And I’ve noted Adams claimed Hinduism worshipped the same “Providence” Jews and Christians do. Washington and Madison, likewise, referred to God as “The Great Spirit” when speaking to unconverted Indians. [...]