Were the Founding Fathers Good or Evil?

I received some comments on my last post regarding the number 13 and the founding of the USA.  The commenter pointed out that some of the founding fathers were not Christians but were deists and masons.  He went on to say that Christians tend to assume that the founding fathers were comprised of God’s people.  As usual, things are always more complex than people like to think.  We tend to see things in black and white which results in oversimplified conclusions.  Was our country founded by righteous or evil men?  I believe it was founded by both.  The evidence is clear that there were elements of both good and evil in the original founding fathers.  However, that does not diminish the notion that God intended our founding for His purposes and that His name be glorified. 

I am reminded of the parable of the sower in the New Testament in Matthew 13 where Jesus noted that both good seed and evil seed had been sown in the same field.  Matthew 13:24-30 states - Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.  But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.  But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.  The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?  How then does it have tares?’  And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’  But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.  Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” (NASB)

In the founding of our country, there were righteous men that sowed good seed like George Duffield and John Adams, but there were evil men who sowed tares among the wheat as well.  Don’t make the mistake of seeing it either as black or white when both were present from the beginning just as the serpent was present in the Garden of Eden from the beginning.  God created the Garden for man and for good.  The serpent came into the Garden and introduced rebellion to corrupt it.