The Lord’s Preyer

There’s only one explanation why we’ve been a miraculous founding of 250 years and it’s because if you look at what we started on, we didn’t build it on sand. The 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence built the country on a solid bedrock of Jesus Christ.  That is why we’re here.

Congressman Aaron Bean, Calvary Baptist Church, January 18, 2026

As David Letterman would have responded, “Me, oh me, oh my!” Just think of it. This is how a member of the United States House of Representatives, who took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution, “entertained” the congregants at Calvary Baptist Church during the regularly scheduled 11:00am worship service. [I use the term “entertained” because it was a performance that would put “Oh, God” Reverend Willie Williams (Paul Sorvino) to shame. To view a clip of Bean’s speech CLICK HERE]

His basis for declaring the forefathers would not have created this “miracle” without Jesus Christ suggests the “honorable gentleman from Amelia Island” slept through his civics class at Fernandina Beach High School or has never read a biography of Jefferson, Adams, or Franklin, the most influential members of the Second Continental Congress that debated and approved the Declaration of Independence. If he had, Bean would have discovered:

• First, there were actually 56 signers.
• Second, a simple Google search of the religious makeup of the Second Continental Congress confirms Bean’s claim that most, if not all, identified as Christians but excludes some vital information.

Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were deists whose religious philosophy focused on natural law and a distant creator who does not intervene in human affairs. John Adams was a unitarian who rejected core Christian doctrines including the Trinity. This certainly explains why the Declaration contains no reference to Jesus or Christianity. And consistent with deism, only invokes a “divine creator.”

Adams and Jefferson both affirmed their belief in the separation of church and state during their respective presidencies. In 1797, Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli which includes the following clause in Article 11. “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..” For the record, the U.S. Senate approved the treaty unanimously prior to Adams’ affixing his signature.

Jefferson wasted no time explaining his position on the intersection of the federal government and religion. In a congratulatory letter from the Danbury Baptists in which the association hoped the new president would intervene to end Connecticut’s state-sponsored Congregational Church, Jefferson sympathized with their desire to practice their own religion without state interference. However, without the 14th Amendment (ratified in 1868) which requires state adherence to the Bill of Rights, the executive and judicial branches lacked constitutional authority to challenge the Connecticut law. One can only imagine the discipline and restraint it took for the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom to tell the Danbury Baptists, “I’m sorry, but this ain’t in my job description.”

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In his recent book Separation of Church and Hate, John Fugelsang focuses on the inconsistencies between Christian nationalism and Jesus’ message of love, compassion and care for the stranger and less fortunate. He reminds readers this anomaly is not new, dating back to 1776. Surely, strict adherence to the beatitudes would never have permitted the founding fathers to give slavery a pass for almost a century.

He has a similar message for politicians like Aaron Bean who relish opportunities to wave their religious credentials while ignoring their savior’s teachings by supporting the MAGA agenda and Project 2025. To make his point, he draws on scripture to warn his readers about these people.

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.

Matthew 6:5

Fugelsang concludes this alert, saying, “Prayer is a personal and humble communion with God, not one’s thirsty public audition for America’s Next Top Christian.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP