Quotes: America and Christianity

"I don't believe there are any new objections to be

discovered to the truth of Christianity, though there

may be some art in presenting old ones in a new dress.

My faith has been greatly confirmed by the infidel

writers I have read. Men may argue ingeniously ainst

our faith, as indeed they may against anything

-- but what can they say in defense of their own -

- I would carry the war

into their own territories,

I would ask them what

they believe -- if they

said they believed

anything, I think that

they might be shown to

be more full of difficulties and liable to infinitely

greater objections than the system they oppose and

they were credulous and unreasonable for believing it.

If they said they did not believe anything, you could

not, to be sure, have anything further to say to them.

In that case they would be insane, or at best ill

qualified to teach others what they ought to believe or

disbelieve."

- Francis Scott Key, writer of the

Star Spangled Banner

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in

her commodious harbors and her ample rivers – and

it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless

forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and

her vast world commerce – and it was not there . . . in

her democratic Congress and her matchless

Constitution – and it was not there.

Not until I went into the churches of America and

heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I

understand the secret of her genius and power.

America is great because she is good, and if America

ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America