17 Dec America’s 250th Birthday: Appreciating John Quincy Adams—on America’s Founding, and on Islam
Founding father John Adams could fairly be called ‘spiritually intuitive’—he is the source of the famous warning:
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other…” (italics added)
Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams (or “JQA”)—who became the sixth President of the United States—seems also to have had a spiritual sense about America and its founding. Much like Benjamin Franklin—who felt an appropriate ‘great seal’ of the United States would commemorate Moses’ leading the children of Israel to freedom from Pharaoh (through Red Sea)—JQA clearly saw the divine hand at work in the formation of America.
Here are the words of John Quincy Adams at a July 4th celebration in 1837:
Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day (July 4th)? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity…?
JQA’s words lie at the heart of what so many American patriots intuitively believe about their country…and the reason why they unapologetically embrace the idea that America is ‘a Christian nation’. It’s not because they see it as, or want it to be, a theocracy. It’s not because they are bigoted against non-Christians. It’s because they sense that the Christian foundation of the country, and the divine hand that guided it into existence, make the country a blessing to themselves and to all mankind.
The ‘Gospel dispensation’ that JQA spoke about is, to them, an entirely good thing that sets the stage for human flourishing by right identification of men and women as ‘created equal’ by God and drawn to the exercise of God-endowed rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It captures a noble and wholesome view of the nation and its people…and of mankind.
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Another gem of JQA speaks with surprising clarity and power about a topic sweeping the nation and the world in 2025: what exactly is Islam and does it have a place in the Christian nation of America—or in western civilization as a whole?
Here are the words of John Quincy Adams in his “Essay on Turks” (paragraph breaks added for ease of reading):
In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, [ Editor’s Note: Mohammed] combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth.
Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle.
Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust, by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE [capitals in original].
Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. That war is yet flagrant; nor can it cease but by the extinction of that imposture, which has been permitted by Providence to prolong the degeneracy of man.
While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men. The hand of Ishmael will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. It is, indeed, amongst the mysterious dealings of God, that this delusion should have been suffered for so many ages, and during so many generations of human kind, to prevail over the doctrines of the meek and peaceful and benevolent Jesus…
The precept of the koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force.
The natural hatred of the Mussulmen towards the infidels is in just accordance with the precepts of the Koran.
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On the occasion of America’s 250th birthday, the nation would benefit greatly by pondering JQA’s insights on America’s Christian heritage, in contrast with the violence and lust and brutality of Islam.
Exalting ‘the brutal over the spiritual nature of man’ cannot lead to anything good for humanity; in JQA’s words, it can only ‘prolong the degeneracy of man’. And as uncomfortable as it may be to contemplate—especially by politicians—there is no way to ‘meet in the middle’ between Christianity and Islam. There is simply no way for such radically opposed views of the nature of God and man to be reconciled. As has been noted by many, Islam is incompatible with western civilization.
Americans’ DNA will not allow their government to tell anyone what to believe or that they must believe in a certain way. Yet Islam stands for exactly that: everyone must believe in Islam or be killed or massively and mercilessly marginalized from participating in their sharia-governed culture.
And so…America’s longstanding ‘live and let live’ ethos–which has no counterpart in Islam–will have to be adjusted to protect the country from the destruction that will surely follow if America is ‘Islamized’. Exactly how this adjustment is to be formulated and executed is the challenge of this age. All people of good faith would prefer and hope that it can be accomplished without violence and bloodshed. But a separation is going to have to take place. And soon.
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No other nation on earth was founded so intentionally to practice and grow Christianity; no other nation on earth has flourished like America. This is not a coincidence, and it is not luck. It is a reflection the grace of God in America’s founding. Cherishing this grace will be critical to extending America’s story for another 250 years.
Eric Georgatos