When one surveys America’s history, she has been a faith-based initiative from when the first Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts Bay in 1620. The pursuit of becoming the “city on a hill” lighting the way for the Old World captured the imagination, will, and purpose of what became the American Experiment.
The Puritan vision so captured the essence of the American Experiment that the wonderfully observant British author G.K. Chesterton described America as a nation “with the soul of a church!”
The deeply engrained belief that America was a cause, as well as a country is deeply engrained in the American DNA. Alexis de Tocqueville noticed this as part of the American experience in his Democracy in America in the 1830s.
During the colonial era of the original 13 colonies (later states) nine developed tax-supported, official “state” churches.
One of the lesser-known stories of America’s colonial history is that both England and her American colonies were seriously challenged by Enlightenment rationalism in the 18th Century which, in turn, produced the Great Awakening in Britain and Colonial America in response. In the mid-18th century, many Englishmen and Americans feared Christianity’s demise as a dominant societal influence. Wilberforce’s attempts at moral reform were also part of the faith-based response to this serious threat.
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Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.
Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” and in his weekly column for CP.
