Rare American Bible and founders’ letters trace faith’s role in birth of the nation
By: Kelly McGreal (Fox News)
There is no denying that the United States of America was founded by Christians.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
June 28, 2026 -- A rare collection of original letters, family Bibles and founding-era artifacts is offering new insight into the role Scripture played during the nation's founding.
The artifacts are on display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., where a new collection marking America's 250th anniversary examines how Scripture influenced the country's earliest years through original documents and historical objects.
Among the featured items are the first Bible printed in English in America, family Bibles belonging to several founding fathers and other prominent Americans, and an original Thomas Jefferson letter on religious freedom.
Together, the documents trace how biblical language appeared throughout the founding era, influencing conversations about liberty, education and public life.
Anthony Schmidt, the museum's director of collections and curatorial, told Fox News Digital that the collection uses primary sources to examine the Bible's role in early American history.
A newly revealed collection of original letters, family Bibles, and founding-era artifacts offers fresh insight into how Scripture shaped the nation's founding.(iStock)
"The Bible has been an integral part of this nation's founding and history," Schmidt said.
"That's not a theological claim; it's what the documents show. The founding fathers referenced Scripture, argued from it, and built political frameworks on its language about human dignity and liberty."
One section explores how Scripture was part of everyday life during the nation's earliest years, displaying the first Bible printed in English in America alongside family Bibles owned by several founding fathers and other historical figures.
Schmidt said the objects were intentionally selected to tell what he described as the fullest story possible about the Bible's influence on America's founding generation.
A painting by John Trumbull from 1818 depicts the Committee of Five—Adams, Livingston, Sherman, Jefferson, and Franklin—presenting their draft of the Declaration of Independence.(iStock)
"These objects show the Bible's impact not only on religious life, but on early American art, education and politics."
Another section examines the relationship between faith and government through Jefferson's writings on religious liberty and one of the nation's earliest published arguments for resisting tyranny.
Visitors can also view Revolutionary-era printed materials that helped unify the colonies, documents tracing early Jewish civic life in America, portraits of George Washington and other colonial-era figures, a hand-colored lithograph memorializing Abraham Lincoln, and busts of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
Schmidt said one of the collection's central goals is to encourage visitors to engage directly with original historical documents.
A vintage illustration shows Betsy Ross sewing an early American flag in the presence of George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross during the Revolutionary War era.(Keith Lance)
"We want visitors to encounter the history of this country and see, in the primary documents, what impact the Bible actually had on the people who built it," he said.
He noted that while the founding fathers often disagreed on matters of religion, the historical record shows many were still influenced by the Bible's language and ideas.
"Many of the founders disagreed about religion, and disagreed sharply, but they were still shaped by the Bible's language and arguments," Schmidt said. "We want people to engage with that evidence and come to their own conclusions."
Kelly McGreal is a production assistant with the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital.
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The Bible and Protestant Christian beliefs played much larger role in the founding of the United States than modern politics admits. Protestant Christianity was interwoven into the colonial society and inseparable from that society. Thomas Jefferson's most quoted passage from the Declaration of Independence, ""We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", was directly and indirectly influenced by Protestant beliefs.
The 'black robed regiment' of protestant ministers in the colonies were preaching that "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God".
Our government by the consent of the governed traces its roots to Protest belief in the authority of the congregation and right of conscience.
The founders were guided by Protestant conventions and traditions to protect the church from the government but they did not intend to banish Christianity from public life.
So what? Three things changed the world more than anything else, and none of them happened before 1776.
Darwin demonstrated the unlikelihood of literal Biblical truth about the origin of life, Sigmund Freud developed theories of subconscious motivation, and Einstein revolutionized our concepts of time and space. These were all profound developments that ended the sanctity of 18th century beliefs. We live in a very different world than 1776.
Emperor Constantine's elevation of Christianity in the 4th century completely changed western civilization. The Renaissance of the 14th century created a prosperity that reshaped the social and political make up of Europe. The Columbus expedition in 1492 opened the New World to westward expansion and exploration. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century fundamentally changed the power structure in Europe. The Age of Enlightenment during the 17th & 18th century reshaped the idea of progress through observation and rational explanation.
Darwin, Freud, and Einstein are small potatoes.
While I accept those facts, the founders also put in the preamble of the constitution:
What do you think the 'Blessing of Liberty' means?
Protestant Christianity was established in the 16th century.
Because those Protestant ideas are the bedrock of the American principles that the United States was founded upon. The United States is a nation of principles guided by Protestant sensibility despite the attempts by immigrants to hijack that history.
We would be an Emirate similar to The First Saudi State (Arabia) founded in 1744 or the Emirate of Umm Al Quwain (UAE) founded in 1775 or the Emirate of Sharjah (UAE) founded in 1803. There have never been any Islamic state founded by a democratic revolution.
There is no denying that the United States of America was founded by Christians. The founding principles of the United States emerged from a Protestant Christian society. All the founding documents of the United States were influenced by Protestant Christian beliefs and practices. No amount of hyperbole can change that history.
I'm sure you know what I meant when I said 'established', as the religion of our nation.
They drew ideas from many sources, not just of Protestant origin, even the Magna Carta, while written by professed Christians, wasn't founded in the religion. That's an extremely important difference. Those men and our founders were writing laws not based on biblical law but on what was best for a nation. They were laws that said do not steal because if you get caught the punishment is "X" under this nation's laws. Not, "Don't steal because God said so and you'll burn in hell if you do". That's what a separation of powers really means, that's what not establishing a religion meant, that the laws stand on their own by the will of the governed, no God or Gods required.
Not if our founders had done the same thing they did with Christianity, which was to keep it separate and not base their right to rule or the laws justice on the musings of a deity. As to whether they would have been able to make it stick would have been another question, just as it's still in question with Christianity.
So were many nations around the world, does that mean we must bend the knee to Christians? Are they somehow superior because our founders were mostly white Christian males living here 250 years ago? Should we also consider men superior since "There is no denying that the United States of America was founded by males" as well? Of course, they couldn't have done it without the women or the slaves or the immigrants, but hey, why ever mention those 'hangers on' when it was the manly white Christian males that carved this nation out of nothing! Right? /s
The deliberate exaggeration is that white Christian males did everything and should take all the credit or our nation's founding and that they're now somehow getting a bad rap from anyone daring to mention people of color or women or tell any of the other inclusive stories of that time which obviously exist, they've just been shit on by white male Christians too busy patting themselves on the back to notice.
fuck that! I bend the knee to NO ONE!