they used the bible as we sometimes -- they used the bible as we sometimes use the bible today, first to enrich a common language and cultural vocabulary, phrases, figures of speech, proverbs and the like. in counseling a patient, john adams wrote to james warren in april of 1776, and i quote "the management of so complicated and mighty a machine as the you nighted colonies requires the meekness of moses, the patience of job, and the wisdom of solomon added to the valor of daniel." you have to know a little bit about your bible to appreciate what's being communicated. a fairly simple illustration of what i'm speaking here. let me give you a slightly more substantive example. and here i turn to a very familiar biblical metaphor, we're all familiar with abraham lincoln's 1858 invocation of the biblical metaphor of a house divided. he's drawing here on the gospels matthew chapter 12 and mark chapter 3. and this is a powerful metaphor in the sense in which lincoln uses it. it captures the nation's precarious political predicament on the threshold of a bitter civil war, more powerfully tha

in the bible. it is featured prominently in political culture, saving the founder's's political thoughts and rhetoric. the presentation will expand in scripture to answer fundamental political questions and form an emerging constitutional tradition. the professor and school of public affairs and american university here at washington dc where he earned the highest faculty award scholars teacher of the year. religion in american public life. his most recent book to reading founding fathers. i have it myself. i encourage you to get it in and enjoy. please welcome me. -- please join me in welcoming him. >> thank you. it is a pleasure and a joy to be here in this magnificent facility. inremendous resource we have the nation of the capital. it is a real joy for me to share from scholars whom i've learned a great deal over the years. i thank the team for organizing the day's event. i will be drawing on my book, read bible and founding father's current and i want to turn my intention to the contributions

so we're talking about the bible as used to wage war, the bible as used by patriots. but in so doing, in using the bible to wage any war, they had to overcome certain obstacles. because the bible wasn't just a militant, violent document. there's a lot in the bible that speaks against violence. so obstacles. i want to mention a few. one is pacifist texts seem to exist in scripture. there's the decalogue, thou shalt not kill. there's the sermon on the mount, matthew chapters 5 through 7, where jesus says turn the other cheek. love your neighbor as yourself, that kind of thing is later on. but so the idea that nonresistance to evil is part of scripture is true, too, so it's not just the bible, it's this militant text. there's also an obstacle in the sense that a lot of christians because of their faith, because of their love for neighbor, resisted going to war. one of the most prominent civil war historians, drew gillman faust, has argued that killing or trying to get christians to kill for their country was harder than trying to get them to die for their country. the ar

the draw swords bible exercise. using the citations i could find, i put together a database. and i printed them all out and said these are the big texts. i went through an analysis of this text and that is what the book turns out to be feared i want to talk about the texts and how they are represented and why they are important in revolutionary america, specifically dealing with the war. -- the next book is on the civil war and it involves a lot more in terms of the bible and how -- a lot more text to deal with. this one is more computer programming. i want to start by talking about thomas payne, he is an interesting character for all times. one of the most interesting insights he brings us on the bible come from common sense, most of you have probably read it, it was the most probably -- probably the most red pamphlet in american history, it was written for a particular reason in 1779. it was written -- 1776. it was written to argue that declaring independence was common sense. he was attempting to deal with argume

at the museum of the bible symposium on the bible and founding of america. up next is professor daniel dreisbach. dreisbach: -- >> during the american founding era, no book was more accessible or authoritative than the bible. infeatured prominently 18th-century political culture. this presentation will examine the founding generation's appeal to scripture to answer fundamental political questions, and to form an emerging constitutional tradition. daniel dries deck is with american university, where he earned american universities highest faculty award. his research interests include constitutional law and the intersection of politics, law, and religion in american life. book, i encourage you to get it and enjoy it. dreisdech.come dr. [applause] prof. dreisbach: thank you very much. it is a real pleasure and a joy to be here today in this magnificent facility in this tremendous resource that we have here in the nation's capital. let me also say it is a real joy for me to share the platform with two scholars from whom i have learned a great deal over the years

swords bible exercise. so i had general knowledge there. and just using the citations i could find to put together a database. then at the end of it, i just printed them all out and said, well, i guess these are the big texts. and then i went through an analysis of these texts and that's what the book turns out to be. so i want to talk about some of these texts today and how they were represented, why they were important in revolutionary america specifically dealing with the war. so the next one, the next book is on the civil war, and it involves a lot more in terms of like the bible and how -- and a lot more texts to deal with. and this one is kind of a -- it's involving a little more computer programming to get to. i want to start by talking about thomas payne. tom payne's an interesting character for all times. and one of the most interesting insights that he brings us on the bible comes from common sense. most of you probably read "common sense." it was the most -- probably the most read pam met in revo

so did the bible. one of the things that i find reading through especially into the 19th century, it really would have helped if i had written a civil war book first, then i would have understood the revolution a little better. but then i had to write the revolution book to understand the civil war better. it's a vicious cycle. we probably should have to go back and rewrite our books. but one of the things i see over and over through the civil war, from both sides, in honoring the patriots and honoring the revolution, honoring scripture goes hand in hand. and as part of that, there's this sense that the bible itself is the nation's book. that the bible -- that the nation itself has a biblical kind of aura around it. that it's a biblical nation, although they disagree radically over what that means. but it did -- when i say that the bible became patriotically american, in many cases people see it as a patriotic book. that the bible preaches patriotism. if the bible did preach patriotism or teach patriot

he knows his bible. john adams when he encountered payne and had a conversation about drawing on the old testament and common sense, payne just kind of brushed it aside and said i got that from milton. this is an argument against how the bible was influential in various ways regardless of whether or not the people quoting it actually believed that the bible was the revealed word of god in a specific way. this is a quote from gordon wood, one of the gordon wood, one of the most eminent historians specifically in the revolutionary era. he says, it was the clergy who made the revolutionary most common tr people because for every gentleman who devilled into ancient history for an explanation of events, there were dozens of ordinary people who read the bible and looked to ministers for interpretation of what the revolution meant. so the bible was part of the language. it was part of the symbolism. it was part of the narrative. if anyone owned the book in their families, it was probably if they only owned one

the bible now. when people read the bible then, they -- this was before a lot of higher criticism arguments over different ways of reading the bible, from historical perspectives and other perspectives. more or less when people read the bible, they read the bible as it was and pretty much took it as it was. that's not to say that there weren't skeptics on the bible. certainly some of the founders and others in the enlightenment area were skeptical about particular views on the bible. there was some biblical skepticism. from my study, i believe that biblical skepticism did in no way interfere with biblical patriotism. some of the same people who were rather skeptical about scripture as authoritative, as the word of god, as completely true, always used and understood scripture to make claims about patriotism, loyalty, sacrifice, morality. so regardless of any kind of skeptical views of scripture as revelation, scripture was still politically significant. so, through the revolution then colonists becam

so i do a little extensively with war and violence and the bible and how the bible has been part of our justifications for going to war and our protests against it. so i got interested in this a few years ago just curious in all of our projects begin with a certain kind of curiosity. curious about how the bible was included in the american revolution and being a computer be geek i decided to design a database and pick out biblical text and sort them and i would have the answer. that may have been a mistake. it took me a few years to do this before i could write the book. soy thought i will get the database together and write the book based on the database and that's what i did. that involved going to a lot of text, most of which are not in modern fonts let me tell you, or modern spelling. and going to each page and finding each bible verse and many times they site the verse and sometimes they don't. i had to scan and i grew up learning the bible a bit and in sunday school we did the draw swords bible exercise. so general knowledge there. and jewsii printed them out and i guess these are

bible asing about the it used to wage war, a bible used a patriots. in so doing, and it using the bible to wage anywhere, they had to overcome certain obstacles. the bible wasn't just a militant, violent document. there is a lot that speaks against violence. argument to take the bible, one had a few options. text, the pacifist there's the decalogue, thou shalt not kill. the sermon on the mount. the other turn cheek, love your neighbor. the idea that nonresistance to evil is part of the scripture is true. it is not just this militant text, it was also an obstacle in the sense that a lot of christians because of their faith, because of their love for neighbor, resisted going to war. one of the most prominent civil war historians has argued that killing, or trying to get christians to kill for their country was harder than trying to get them to die for their country. hadstians have all along this sense of self sacrifice. getting someone to actually take up arms and kill was the harder courage. that was the harder obstacle to overcome. that's the same cas

the bible itself comes to the smithsonian in the 1890's. it was purchased by the librarian of the smithsonian for an exhibition in atlanta. since then it has been in our fascinatings a document people have come to look to over time. janice will tell you a lot more about the condition. there is something about this piece, which is almost a scrapbook. looking at the original does something that is different than what you would expect. this is something he makes. we really wanted the bible to be notssible to the public only through digital means and reproduction, but by making it possible for people to see on exhibition. we decided it was important to undertake this very important conservation effort project. >> the first thing we did is really look. we did a survey of all the features that we thought were interesting to vulnerability. that survey turned out to be 20,000 data points, where every page we look at all the different clippings and all the different papers. sourcebooks and he needed two copies of each. every single page are looking

at museum of the bible, our mission is to engage people with the bible. the bible has made a powerful impact on world history and cultures. it has influenced nations, laws and political structures. it's guided debates, shaped political -- shaped pivotal events and inspired views of prominent individuals, both past and present. the bible is hidden in plain sight. in everyday life from common expressions that we all use to the music, the arts and literature. and today we'll explore a theme that expands on how the american colonies as they moved toward revolution and the founding of our nation, our founders turned to the bible as a source of inspiration and justification for their political actions. we have three prominent scholars with us today, dr. thomas kidd, dr. daniel dreisbeck and dr. james byrd who will talk with us about how the bible influenced the generation. the aenigma of benjamin franklin's faith with thomas kidd. benjamin franklin tells us in his autobiography he became a diest as a young man. franklin proposed that delegates open sessions wit

at museum of the bible, our mission is to engage people with the bible. the bible has made a powerful impact on world history and culture. it has influenced nations, laws, and political structures. it has guided debates and shaped pivotal events and inspired views of prominent individuals both past and present. the bible is hidden in plain sight in everyday life from common expressions we all use to the music, arts, and literature. today we explore a theme that expands on how the american colonies, as they moved toward revolution and the founding of our nation, our founders turned to the bible as a source of inspiration and justification for their political actions. we have three prominent scholars with us today. dr. kidd, dr. byrd, and dr. dreisbach talk to us about the bible and generations. the first session is the enigma with benjamin franklin with thomas. at the 1777 delegation, dr. kidd will explore the distinction between his faith and his skepticism and the enduring influence of his puritan upbringing and his familiarity with the bible. he is a di

at museum of the bible, our mission is to engage people with the bible. it has many powerful impact on world culture. it has influenced nations. it has guided debate and shaped pivotal events and inspired views of prominent individuals. the bible is hidden in plain sight. from common expressions that we all use to the music, the arts, and literature. we will explore themes of expand on how the colonies as they moved toward revolution and the founding of our nation, our founders turned to the bible as a source of justification for their political actions. we have three prominent scholars with us today. they will talk to us about how the bible influence the founding generation. our first session is ben franklin's faith with thomas kidd. benjamin franklin said he became a deist as a young man. at the constitutional convention, he propose the delegates open sessions with prayer. thomas kidd will explore the andma of franklin's faith his well-known skepticism and the influence of his puritan upbringing. thomas kidd is a distinguished professor of history at ba

so i think this is where the bible's history, as well as the history and interpretation of the bible, gives so much to us. in part, it gives us insight into the people that we are studying. i don't know how many times i would be reading, because i know a little bit about the bible, i would be reading a primary or secondary sorts, a historian's take on something. there were biblical references in the primary text that the historian doesn't recognize. they are just thinking, this is an interesting insight. maybe it was just genesis. so i think it gives us insight into the people that we are studying, because it was so much a part of their lives. it gives us insight into just scripture and how deep the text can be and how multi-faceted. >> very interesting. this question is addressed to all speakers. so please reflect on religion in masonry and the founders, including franklin, george washington and other founders. >> i get asked this a lot. so ben franklin was a free mason. a lot of the major founders were free masons. that has remained a controversial subject through present day. i thi

so did the bible. one of the things that i find reading through especially into the 19th century, it really would have helped if i had written a civil war book first, then i would have understood the revolution a little better. but then i had to write the revolution book to understand the civil war better. it's a vicious cycle. we probably should have to go back and rewrite our books. but one of the things i see over and over through the civil war, from both sides, in honoring the patriots and honoring the revolution, honoring scripture goes hand in hand. and as part of that, there's this sense that the bible itself is the nation's book. that the bible -- that the nation itself has a biblical kind of aura around it. that it's a biblical nation, although they disagree radically over what that means. but it did -- when i say that the bible became patriotically american, in many cases people see it as a patriotic book. that the bible preaches patriotism. if the bible did preach patriotism or teach patriot

you were talking about the bible showing up and not knowing it was the bible. that happened to me with franklin because it was so omnipresent that i would just not notice or even though i try to read the bible every day as a believer, there were just things that were going over my head. one of my favorite examples is a passage that franklin cited in his pamphlet, "plain truth," which was one of the very first political pamphlets in american history. i think in the 1750s. it is about the pennsylvania militia and the quakers are opposed to the militia. it is not important to get into the details. he is pushing for raising a pennsylvania militia. one of the arguments that he makes is based on get ready for this, the expedition of the danites in judges 18. >> i saw that one. >> anybody remember this very well? i didn't remember this very well. i had to bring this up and remind myself about the expedition of the danites. the basic point was not being prepared and being deceived and some of these kind of themes. he thought it was like pain and common sense. he though

i think this is where the bible's history and the history of the interpretation of the bible gives so much to us. in part, it gives us insight into the people we are studying. i don't know how many times i would be reading, i knew a little bit about the bible, i would read a primary or secondary source, a historian's take on something, there were biblically -- biblical references that historians did not recognize. this is an interesting insight. maybe it was genesis. i think it gives us insight into the people we are studying because it was important and a part of their lives. it gives us insight into just the scripture and how deep the text can be and how multifaceted . >> very interesting. this question is addressed to all speakers. please reflect on religion and masonry and of the founders including franklin, george washington, and other founders. >> i get asked this a lot. ben franklin was a freemason. many of the major founders were freemasons. that has remained a controversial subject through present day. i think for franklin, his membership in the masons was significant. he doe

. -- and stay up with the bible. they are so biblically literate that it goes over your head. that not only tells you how literate franklin is in the scripture, but also how literate the culture is. that is true in philadelphia, it is true in boston and parts of the south. >> we have just a few seconds left. would anyone like to make a closing remark or a comment about today? >> i will add to what was just said that let us not forget that this was a literate culture apart from biblical literacy. one of the reasons it was such a literate culture is that they read the bible and the bible was an ideal tool for teaching literacy. it was a useful tool in literacy education. this is ageneration that would've been raised learning how to read with a bible in front of them. that is how they would have known so much about the stories from scripture. >> thank you very much. please join me in thanking the panel. outstanding job. we have a few remarks. we would like to release our speakers to go sit at their table for their books

so this is where the bible's history as well as the history of the interpretation of the bible give so much to us in part, and it gives us insight into the people that we are studying. i don't know how many times i would be reading, you know, because i know a little bit about the bible, and i would be reading a a primary and secondary source that historians put on something, and the text that the historian does not recognize, and while this is an interesting insight, and maybe it is just genesis, and so, i think that it gives us insight into the people who are study, because it is so much a part of our lives and it is going to the give us insight into the scripture and the text can be and how multi faceted. >> it is interesting. >> this question is addressed to all speakers and so please reflect on religion and masonry and the founders including george washington and franklin and the other founders. >> yeah, i get asked this a lot. ben franklin was a free mason, and a lot of the major founders were free masons. thiskcontroversial subject through present day. for franklin, his membershi

university professor talks about the bible's influence on the u.s. judicial system, including due process and separation of powers. his remarks were part of a symposium hosted by the museum of the bible in washington, d.c. >>> hello, everyone. our second session today is the bible and the founding of the american constitutional republic with daniel dreisbach.

the bible is equally reliable on both matters. benjamin warfield's mentor at princeton, a theologian named charles hodge, had a great way of putting this. he said the bible is a storehouse of facts. think about that phrase. a storehouse of facts. and a theologian's job is to arrange and harmonize those facts just as a scientist must the laws ofnfers nature by classifying data from the natural world. he is really saying that a theologian is a kind of scientist. and this i think really drives home the point that the princeton thinkers followed that model of common sense realism that i told you about a couple of weeks ago and how they thought about science. science is about using your god-given common sense to make sense of the data in god's creation. very different view from the idea of science that we start to see emerge with charles darwin and the thinkers who come after him who develop more sophisticated methods for dealing with uncertainty in their scientific endeavors. now, warfield and his colleagues were not dummies. these gu

but this bible is a special bible. kevin's bible.bible, a great, big, beautiful bible. imagine what that must have cost the poor woman in harriet tubman time. they gave something about her faith and how she had a bible. in any event, and they gave us the bible when i was being sworn in and chief justice roberts chambers. as we were walking up in front of the supreme court to go into the building, as we walked past a couple of police officers, security police, i see one of them catch cornell sigh in the two of them, cornell and the officers stare at each other and give each other a little head nod and we continue walking in. i turned to brother cornell and i said what was that all about? he said this is the first time i've ever been to the supreme court when i wasn't here to get arrested. he handcuffed a little early. we went to jail. >> chief justice roberts was so gracious. >> that was a magnificent one. >> another one of my favorite stories as he was so fast, when he was the changing instrument, he would put them in his mouth. so t

symposium on the bible and its influence on the founding of america. historians explore references to the bible in 18th-century political discourse entering the american revolution, and examine benjamin franklin's much debated faith. our coverage begins at 9 a.m. eastern on february 10. >> our cox communications cables partners worked with c-span cities tour staff when we travel to fayetteville, arkansas. settlers established the town in 1828. learn more about fayetteville all weekend on american history tv. >> this is a house that belonged to a family that lived in fayetteville, arkansas in the 1850's to 1860. they were here during the civil war. they experienced the civil war. when the war came it changed everything. we are at headquarters house in fayetteville, arkansas. it is the home of the washington county historical society. they purchased the house in 1967. the house was built by jonas tebbit. he came to study law in van buren. when he was traveling the law circuit he came to fayetteville and met matilda. he and matilda winlock got married in

visit ncicap.org] announcer: american history television takes you live to the museum of the bible in washington dc next saturday for a symposium on the bible and its influence on the founding of america. historians explore references to the bible in 18th-century political discourse, entering the american revolution, and examine benjamin franklin's much debated faith. at 9 a.m.age begins eastern next saturday, february 10. >> in the early 1970's while teaching at the university of arkansas, bill and hillary clinton purchased this fayetteville home. join us inside as we look at the house and learn about their early years as a married couple. >> we're at the clinton house museum, a little south of the edge of the university of arkansas campus. this house was built in 1931 by a local man named scotty taylor. it would have been in the middle of the ozarks and the depression at that time. this would have seen fancy -- seemed fancy for that era. in 1975tons pop's house and did a little bit of remodeling. but this house is entirely original for the most part. the house became a nationally hi

went to baptist bible college in missouri, and after several years came back to lynchburg and founded the applied a lot of business principles in the church in the road to be church and started almost immediately into radio and television broadcast ministry. fundraising was a big part of it a k-12 school and later -- not much later, but 1971, the college, the university, and he was a pastor first, but he had inherited a lot of entrepreneurial traits. so he apply those to his ministry, to the school, and that was a big reason for the phenomenal growth. he just thought differently than most pastors do. my father founded thomas road baptist church in 1956. the growth of the church was astronomical. it started with 35 adults. former bottling company facility that still had syrup on the floors. it was a very humble beginning, but it grew so fast, in 10 years, there were over 1000 television ministry, started at that time, and it became national. he was one of the first national religious broadcasters, and so, his ministry had really skyrocketed and been super successful. and he started lib

symposium on the bible and its influence on the founding of america. historians explore references to the bible in 18th-century political discourse entering the american revolution, and examine benjamin franklin's much debated faith. our coverage begins at 9 a.m. eastern on february 10. >> our cox communications cables partners worked with c-span cities tour staff when we travel to fayetteville, arkansas.

after the lunch break we will continue the symposium on the bible and america. after that, travel with us on tours from our "american artifacts" series. a first, we will look at st. washington,h in d.c. >> located across lafayette square from the white house is st. john's episcopal church known as the church of the , presidents. built in 1816 and designed by architectapitol latrobe every president since , james madison has attended at least one service there. historian and church member richard grimmit gave american history tv a tour. >> this church was founded as a place for people to worship who had been forced to attend services on capitol hill near the navy yard and when they decided they had the means available, they came forward, put together a committee to form the church, and ultimately had the building built. the cornerstone was laid in september 1815, at the time that was done, it was done by the grand lodge of the masons of washington, d.c., the cornerstone was an elaborate ceremony, a parade took place downtown all the way to this space, led by the u

visit ncicap.org] announcer: american history television takes you live to the museum of the bible in washington dc next saturday for a symposium on the bible and its influence on the founding of america. historians explore references to the bible in 18th-century political discourse, entering the american revolution, and examine benjamin franklin's much debated faith. at 9 a.m.age begins eastern next saturday, february 10. >> in the early 1970's while teaching at the university of arkansas, bill and hillary clinton purchased this fayetteville home. join us inside as we look at the house and learn about their early years as a married couple. >>

with a symposium of historians exploring the bible and the founding of america. speakers include bale university history professor -- baylor university history professor, the author. american university public ffairs professor, an author. and vanderbilt university divinity professor, an author. watch live on saturday morning starting at 9:00 a.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. >> the how's house -- the u.s. house is currently in recess waiting on senate action on the continuing resolution and the budget agreement. house democrats meeting this hour on the budget agreement. no movement yet in the u.s. senate on that debate. stephen dennis of bloomberg tweeting that rand paul said he's offering to let the senate vote whenever they want on the budget deal. provided they give him a vote on an amendment keeping the existing spending caps. we will keep you posted. we'll have live house coverage here on c-span when they return. the senate's live over on c-span2.

the bible says the soul of the spiritual die. and the bible says we are all guilty.have spoken to our religious affairs editor martin bush era about him. i did think there will ever be a preacher with that kind of reach ever again. he evidently created a new form of christianity which has found deep roots in many parts of the world? i don't think so. this message was very simple, based on the new testament. when he's preached, it did not matter if he was preaching in zimbabwe, nigeria, london, northern ireland, his message was that god created us, we have fallen away from our creator and in order to get back to him we need a relationship with him that is only possible through the death of christ on the cross. he preached that message simply wherever he went. it was much is the simplicity of the message, it was the sincerity of the message, it was the sincerity of his life. many us breaches of high status with big crowds, television networks, have had terrible faults from grace. billy graham was not involved in a single financial or sexual scandal. i think thatis fina

i don't actually think we've had somebody who simply says — the bible says, the bible says, the bibleays and doesn't intrude his own ideas into the message. so he's being real on message and i don't think we've seen anybody of that character, apart from saint paul. in his hometown of charlotte, north carolina, there was shock and sadness. we just loved him and it feels like the world's going to fall apart a little with him gone. i thinkjust leaving a legacy of sharing the gospel, no matter what role you've been given, is the most important thing. his son franklin graham, who's also an evangelist, described a recent conversation. i said, "daddy, what do you want on your tombstone?" he thought, he said, "just preacher." that's it. god loves you. unlike so many american preachers, billy graham was never caught up in any kind of scandal and insisted that his financial affairs were transparent and audited by others. it was the simplicity of his message and the sincerity of his life that will be his legacy. the american preacher, billy graham, who's died at the age of 99. that's it. newsnig

who are no faiths would live the united kingdom version of the good old of europe is founded on the bible as as a the lord jesus christ as the absolute foundation of our way of life. and to bring in a foreign god such as the start of the god of islam is what this is really all about and it's about the. spread of islam over europe. and islams potential dominance in it and it always has been an expansionist religion for when it started the most noble so you know every religion is but it's not makes no bones about it and you know a valid point it has to be another way that islamophobia thinking mr green is doing and still celebrating the kickoff of muslims in spain you know in austria there and their faith they say stomach face was recognized since one thousand two hundred more than one hundred and and more than one hundred years it's nice but the empire as an official faithful and the idea of the religious freedom in muslim countries is complete rubbish will even allow to have a bible in saudi arabia for instance and christians are persecuted in egypt in pakistan in it in malaysia in maurit