Abraham Kuyper Quotes
There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'
At the time the Dutch Reformed Church was the official state religion of the Netherlands.
Abraham Kuijper, 1837–1920, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Theologian & Dutch Reformed Minister, Arguing against cries for separation of church and state, James D. Bratt, Abraham Kuyper, A Centennial Reader
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This proposal and others like it over the years have never even gotten out of Committee.
Note that in addition to getting rid of the authority of the King, New York—over a decade before the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment, provided for a ban on an established church or favoring one Christian sect over another. Even then New York was a multi religious and multi ethnic society with its strong Dutch tradition along with the English tradition. New York did not go as far as the First Amendment would do later in terms of freedom of religion. NY only mentioned Christian sects. However they did implement separation of church and state and an establishment clause. See {621429} for another clause that ensures separation of church and state.
The wording was rejected and the delegates insisted upon the original proposed language: “Well aware that Almighty God hath created the mind free …” This is a very important historical quotation because it shows that Henry and a few others wanted to make the society Christian centric, However, the majority insisted that it be non-sectarian. Many of the delegates rejecting the “Jesus Christ” language were themselves practicing Christians, but they were aware of the terrible religious wars and strife in Europe and between Christians and Muslims as well as the persecution of Jews, Quakers, and other sects; they did not want that in America so they rejected the idea of an established Christian Church or culture.
Jefferson was a deist but had little love for the organized religions and did not consider the Bible as the revealed word of God.
Some of the founding fathers were deeply religious men while others were not so. Some varied in their believes at different times of their lives, and a number were not very favorable towards orthodox religion. At the time, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches were persecuting other religions throughout Europe and people were still being killed for their “heretical” beliefs. Most important to some of them, kings and other monarchs whom they abhorred, all at the time claimed the Divine Right of Kings and the established churches were the most important support for monarchs. At the time most organized religions were opposed to freedom of conscience and certainly opponents of separation of church and state. American churches tended to take on American values but were never given the chance to dominate the American government they way many religions had in Europe and the rest of the world.
His positions presaged some of those of Protestants in the Reformation. In the great struggle of the time between the Pope and the Emperor, Marsilius was the leading advocate for the emperor’s superiority of authority. The Pope wrote a condemnation of these ideas.
This passage was one of those used by Christian apologists for slavery. Critics of some Christian churches point to this passage as illustrating the lack of morality in traditional Christianity when it same to fundamentals such as human slavery. In this particular quotation, the slave master is likened to Christ. Ironically, it was Christian abolitionists in England and the United States who saw other passages of the New Testament and the Gospel of Christ as disapproving of slavery and those Christians where among the most effective of the abolitionists.
First Published American Indian Author
This was the first major political broadcast on the new national radio station.
Abraham Kuyper, was Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist theologian and also a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which upon its foundation became the second largest Reformed denomination in the country behind the state-supported Dutch Reformed Church.
