Our Heritage

Our Founding Fathers

Much has been written about our founding fathers, the challenges they faced and the challenges they eventually overcame. After studying our heritage, it became clear to me that our founding fathers, with all of their flaws, were men of strong character, reasoning and purpose (which fits well with the Body, Mind and Spirit Approach to ROC). The combination of courage that they displayed breaking away from Britain and the wisdom they demonstrated in bringing thirteen strong-minded colonies together as a union, is unmatched in history. (See: “No God, No America”).

Judeo-Christian Values

Because of the enormity of the task, there are many Americans who believe that God uniquely inspired and blessed America as a place where freedom could take root. Whether you agree with the premise that God uniquely blessed America or not, it is hard to argue against the belief that most of our founding fathers were inspired by God and our founding values were as well. We refer to our nation’s founding values as Judeo-Christian values because the majority of them came straight from the Bible. (See: “Our Nation’s Founding Values”).

The Great Melting Pot

America has been known for many years as “The Great Melting Pot”. We have gotten that reputation because we assimilate people well from all ethnic backgrounds and compared to other countries, are very successful at it. This didn’t happen by accident. It happened because we placed unity as fellow Americans before diversity. Our economic systems and our system of government that were put into place at the very beginning were designed to encourage freedom, independence and hard work and offer opportunities to people regardless of their backgrounds or who their parents were, as often is the case throughout Europe.

All of these things about America are true, but what is also true is that at the time that our Constitution was written, our early founders couldn’t find a way to unite the country and end slavery at the same time. Slavery was a long-standing institution that went back over 3000 years. It would have been both good and wise if our founding fathers would have ended slavery right then, but sadly, they did not. What they did do is put into place a structure for ending it in the future. Those who were on the right side of the slavery issue knew that many more hearts had to be changed before they could get the laws changed and they weren’t going to give up until slavery was abolished. (See: “Why Slavery in America?”).

From the start of our union, our country fought over the issue of slavery and many people worked hard to end it, but for people who suffered under slavery, change came much too slow. Eventually it took a Civil War to bring the issue to a head and abolish slavery in America. In the history of the world, slavery had never been limited to a single ethnic group and in America, slavery was only associated with Africans because of the large African slave trade industry that was in existence throughout the world prior to the start of our Revolutionary War.

Sally Pitts
Centennial, Colorado