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There is a new professionally produced documentary film out on DVD which makes it crystal clear America was never intended to be a Christian nation and that the U.S. Constitution calls for separation of religion and government. And what gives this new documentary film unique clout is that it is written and produced by an evangelical Christian!
The Hidden Faith of the Founding Fathers is a three hour documentary film by Christian Pinto, an evangelical Christian and founder and owner of Adullam Films. Mr. Pinto is more interested in religion than he is in politics. That is a major reason he produced this film.
The film covers one of America's forgotten heroes, Thomas Paine. Although Thomas Paine has done more than any person in history to promote Deism, the film does not mention that he was an active Deist. However, it quotes from Paine's important and outstanding book on God, Deism, religion, etc., The Age of Reason. And the quotes give Paine's true beliefs on these topics, which are Deistic beliefs. Paine's influence in drafting the Declaration of Independence is also covered. However, Pinto's Christian biases against Paine show themselves when he engages in mere gossip about Paine by giving time to speculation that Thomas Paine was involved in a menage ma trois with Mrs. and Mr. Bonneville.
Rather than Deism, Pinto focuses more on Freemasonry. Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson were Deists and never Freemasons but that doesn't stop Pinto from speculating that they may have been Freemasons. George Washington and Ben Franklin were known Freemasons and this film covers this extensively. Not only does it cover their Freemasonry, it also documents Washington's Deism. However, the producer's Christian bias again shows itself when, for example, he presents the idea that Ben Franklin may have been involved in Satanic sacrifices when he lived in London. The source for this is the article, Ben Franklin and his Membership in the Hell Fire Club: Founding Father or Satanic Killer? by "MF" of Yahoo's Associated Content site. "MF" doesn't sound like a reliable source! Another myth promoted in this DVD is the myth that the Declaration of Independence was written on a Mason's apron. This is not true.
You wouldn't expect an evangelical Christian to produce a film which does not attempt to proselytize for Christianity, and you'd be right. However, the proselytizing is done in a way that seems to fit in with the documentary. As a Deist, I'm not concerned about it. I believe it will have the effect that the anti-Deism writings Ben Franklin read had on him. He wrote in his autobiography, "Some volumes against Deism, fell into my hands. They were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's lectures. It happened that they produced on me an effect precisely the reverse of what was intended by the writers; for the arguments of the Deists, which were cited in order to be refuted, appeared to me more forcible than the refutation itself. In a word I soon became a perfect Deist."
Another point is that the type of Christianity Mr. Pinto believes in is salvation through faith in Jesus. However, the Bible itself is not clear whether salvation comes from faith alone or whether it requires faith plus good deeds or whether it requires faith plus good deeds plus the right words. In short, the Christian Bible is very ambiguous on what is actually required for eternal salvation in Christianity.
The last part of this film in particular is a great asset to those who want to prevent the religious right from destroying the U.S. Constitution and from creating a Judeo-Christian theocracy. In this part of the film Mr. Pinto does a great job of pointing out the false teachings of David Barton, the founder of WallBuilders. Barton works hard to distort American history and to mislead sincere people into believing America's Founders were Christians who created the United States of America to be a Christian Bible-based nation. This neoconservative lie is a real danger if enough people are mislead to believe it as a fact. This DVD tears apart this lie. This is one of the main reasons the World Union of Deists is offering this documentary film, The Hidden Faith of the Founding Fathers .
