I’m honored: Tuesday on “Mouthwash,” John Schmitz’s podcast, Hamilton County preacher Micah Beckwith called me an idiot. Beckwith says: “America was absolutely founded on Christian values. You have to be ignorant to think otherwise. The writings of our 1/7

Framers and the founding documents are very clear on that.” Beckwith does not identify values or how they are uniquely Christian. 1) In a 10/24/19 video, “The Church’s role in politics,” Beckwith says you can’t be moral if you are a “Hindu, an atheist or a Jew,” i.e.,“values” 2/7

only can be “uniquely Christian.” 2) If values include “faith” or “love” of a specific deity, no mention is made in The Constitution signed 09/17/1787. 3) “God” mentioned in founding documents is not Beckwith’s. Framers included Deists who “continued to respect the moral 3/7

teachings of Jesus without believing in his divine status.” Holmes, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers, 2006, p. 42. “If census takers trained in Christian theology had set up broad categories in 1790 [and] interviewed Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and 4/7

and Monroe, they would undoubtedly have placed every one of these six founding fathers in some way under the category of ‘Deism and Unitarianism.’” Id., pp. 50-51. Deists “postulated a distant deity” and used such terms as “Nature’s God,” “Creator,” “Supreme Judge,” and 5/7

“divine Providence,” the phrases used in The Declaration. Id., p. 47. The Declaration makes no mention of Jesus. However, values Beckwith has advanced on line are consistent w/white supremacy and Christo-fascism. A lot of non-Christians disagree w/Beckwith on many 6/7

points, especially that only Christians can be moral. I’m sure a lot of Christians disagree w/that view as well. I question whether Beckwith, so ignorant of our history and of religion, is capable of morality. Like I said, I’m honored he called me an idiot. 7/7