{"id":31213,"date":"2016-02-25T00:54:46","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T07:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=31213"},"modified":"2016-02-25T00:54:46","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T07:54:46","slug":"the-constitution-divinely-inspired-ben-franklin-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/the-constitution-divinely-inspired-ben-franklin-answers.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Constitution ‘Divinely Inspired’? Ben Franklin Answers”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"From — This ISN\u2019T a scene from Philadelphia\u2019s Constitutional Convention.
(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Baylor history professor Tom Kidd critiques a claim recently made by Glenn Beck \u2014 a claim that presumably reflects Beck\u2019s Mormon faith<\/a> (although Professor Kidd neither\u00a0mentions that fact nor alludes to Mormonism at all):<\/p>\n
The Constitution \u201cDivinely Inspired\u201d? Ben Franklin Answers<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>However \u2014 whatever Brother Beck may or may not hold, precisely \u2014 Professor Kidd\u2019s discussion of Benjamin Franklin\u2019s attitude toward the Constitution conforms quite nicely (in at least <em>this<\/em> Mormon\u2019s judgment) to what Latter-day Saint leaders have actually taught about the American national charter. \u00a0Certainly it fits the understanding that <em>I\u2019ve<\/em> always had of what it means to say that the Constitution is \u201cinspired.\u201d \u00a0I\u2019ve never believed, and have never heard any significant Church leader or teacher claim, that the Constitution was given by revelation in the manner of, say, a section of the Doctrine and Covenants or in the way that, according to the Bible, Moses received revelation on Sinai.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For an important 1989 film about the Constitutional Convention that was produced by Brigham Young University and that, presumably, reflects a Latter-day Saint understanding of both the document and the event \u2014 and that is altogether lacking in theophanies \u2014 see here:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/A_More_Perfect_Union_(film)\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/A_More_Perfect_Union_(film)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 Baylor history professor Tom Kidd critiques a claim recently made by Glenn Beck \u2014 a claim that presumably reflects Beck\u2019s Mormon faith (although Professor Kidd neither\u00a0mentions that fact nor alludes to Mormonism at all): The Constitution \u201cDivinely Inspired\u201d? Ben Franklin Answers However \u2014 whatever Brother Beck may or may not hold, precisely \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>"The Constitution 'Divinely Inspired'? 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Ben Franklin Answers"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    Baylor history professor Tom Kidd critiques a claim recently made by Glenn Beck -- a claim that presumably reflects Beck's Mormon faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/the-constitution-divinely-inspired-ben-franklin-answers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-25T07:54:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/02\/Moses_Pluchart.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/the-constitution-divinely-inspired-ben-franklin-answers.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/the-constitution-divinely-inspired-ben-franklin-answers.html\",\"name\":\"\\\"The Constitution 'Divinely Inspired'? 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Ben Franklin Answers”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"The Constitution 'Divinely Inspired'? Ben Franklin Answers\"","description":"    Baylor history professor Tom Kidd critiques a claim recently made by Glenn Beck -- a claim that presumably reflects Beck's Mormon faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/the-constitution-divinely-inspired-ben-franklin-answers.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"The Constitution 'Divinely Inspired'? Ben Franklin Answers\"","og_description":"    Baylor history professor Tom Kidd critiques a claim recently made by Glenn Beck -- a claim that presumably reflects Beck's Mormon faith","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/the-constitution-divinely-inspired-ben-franklin-answers.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2016-02-25T07:54:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/02\/Moses_Pluchart.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/the-constitution-divinely-inspired-ben-franklin-answers.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/the-constitution-divinely-inspired-ben-franklin-answers.html","name":"\"The Constitution 'Divinely Inspired'? 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