The Five Thousand Year Leap
Encyclopedia
The Five Thousand Year Leap: Twenty-Eight Great Ideas That Are Changing the World is a book that was published in 1981 by the anti-communist and conservative Mormon
author Cleon Skousen
. The book asserts that the United States prospered because it was established upon universal natural law principles passed down from Common Law
and traditional Judeo-Christian
morality, as many of the Founding Fathers
were guided by the Bible
among others, and consequently that the U.S. Constitution incorporates enlightened ideas.
In Ronald Mann's introduction to the 10th-anniversary edition, he praises Skousen for grasping America's choice of "Christ or chaos" and for acknowledging that America's future depends on "accepting and demonstrating God's government."
used 28 fundamental beliefs to create a society based on morality, faith, and ethics, which Skousen asserts resulted in more progress having been achieved in the last 200 years than in the previous 5,000 years of every other civilization combined.
Those beliefs are:
as being the most influential in the development of Beck's political views, so much so he wrote the foreword for the newer edition of Skousen's book in 2009. The book became No. 1 on the Amazon.com
website.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center
, The 5,000 Year Leap is "an illustrated recipe for turning the United States into 50 little theocracies, each dictating morality according to its own religious ethics." These ethics, argues Skousen, should be transmitted through "extensive Bible reading" in public schools.
historian
Sean Wilentz
has criticized the accuracy of the book, disputing its claims on taxes, the redistribution of wealth, the separation of church and state, and the "In God We Trust" motto. Wilentz describes The 5,000 Year Leap as "a treatise that assembles selective quotations and groundless assertions to claim that the U.S. Constitution is rooted not in the Enlightenment but in the Bible, and that the framers believed in minimal central government." He continues:
Disputing Skousen's claim that the Founders opposed the redistribution of wealth, Wilentz writes that:
Skousen claims that the Founders adopted "In God We Trust" as the national motto of the United States. Wilentz notes that "In reality, the motto that came out of the Constitutional Convention was 'E Pluribus Unum': out of many, one. 'In God We Trust' came much later". Notably, The Star-Spangled Banner, written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key (and later adopted as the U.S. national anthem), contains an early reference to a variation of the phrase: "...And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust'." The phrase began to appear on U.S. currency in 1864. "In God We Trust" became the national motto in 1956.
However, the Bible is only one source of inspiration of the founders according to Skousen. Also used was the existing tradition of Anglo-Saxon Common Law as well as the Roman Republican Senator Cicero. Skousen claims the Bible had its most influence not on federal government structure but local governments and the people, to support his claim that a nation can only be free when its people are virtous.
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
author Cleon Skousen
Cleon Skousen
Willard Cleon Skousen was an American author, conservative American Constitutionalist and faith-based political theorist. He was also a prolific popularizer among Latter-day Saints of their theology...
. The book asserts that the United States prospered because it was established upon universal natural law principles passed down from Common Law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
and traditional Judeo-Christian
Judeo-Christian
Judeo-Christian is a term used in the United States since the 1940s to refer to standards of ethics said to be held in common by Judaism and Christianity, for example the Ten Commandments...
morality, as many of the Founding Fathers
Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some...
were guided by the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
among others, and consequently that the U.S. Constitution incorporates enlightened ideas.
In Ronald Mann's introduction to the 10th-anniversary edition, he praises Skousen for grasping America's choice of "Christ or chaos" and for acknowledging that America's future depends on "accepting and demonstrating God's government."
Premise
The book lists how the Founding Fathers of the United StatesFounding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some...
used 28 fundamental beliefs to create a society based on morality, faith, and ethics, which Skousen asserts resulted in more progress having been achieved in the last 200 years than in the previous 5,000 years of every other civilization combined.
Those beliefs are:
- The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is natural law.
- A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.
- The most promising method of securing a virtuous and a morally stable people is to elect virtuous leaders.
- Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.
- All things were created by God, therefore upon Him all mankind are equally dependent, and to Him they are equally responsible.
- All men are created equal.
- The proper role of government is to provide equal rights, not equal things.
- Men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.
- To protect man's rights, God has revealed certain principles of divine law.
- The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.
- The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.
- The United States of America shall be a republicRepublicA republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
. - A constitution should be structured to permanently protect the people from the human frailties of their rulers.
- Life and liberty is secure so long as the right to property is secure.
- The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free market economy and minimum of government regulations.
- The government should be separated into three branches—legislative, executive and judicial.
- A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power.
- The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written constitution.
- Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to the government, all others being retained by the people.
- Efficiency and dispatch require government to operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.
- Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.
- A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of man.
- A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.
- A free people will not survive unless they remain strong.
- Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none.
- The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore, the government should foster and protect its integrity.
- The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom as subjugation by conquest.
- The United States has a manifest destiny to be an example and a blessing to the entire human race.
Cultural influence
The 5,000 Year Leap is frequently cited by political commentator Glenn BeckGlenn Beck
Glenn Edward Lee Beck is an American conservative radio host, vlogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator and former television host. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks...
as being the most influential in the development of Beck's political views, so much so he wrote the foreword for the newer edition of Skousen's book in 2009. The book became No. 1 on the Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
website.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
, The 5,000 Year Leap is "an illustrated recipe for turning the United States into 50 little theocracies, each dictating morality according to its own religious ethics." These ethics, argues Skousen, should be transmitted through "extensive Bible reading" in public schools.
Historical accuracy
Princeton UniversityPrinceton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Sean Wilentz
Sean Wilentz
Robert Sean Wilentz is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor of History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979.-Background:Born in 1951 in New York City, where his father Eli and uncle Ted owned a well-known Greenwich Village bookstore, the Eighth Street Bookshop, Wilentz earned...
has criticized the accuracy of the book, disputing its claims on taxes, the redistribution of wealth, the separation of church and state, and the "In God We Trust" motto. Wilentz describes The 5,000 Year Leap as "a treatise that assembles selective quotations and groundless assertions to claim that the U.S. Constitution is rooted not in the Enlightenment but in the Bible, and that the framers believed in minimal central government." He continues:
Disputing Skousen's claim that the Founders opposed the redistribution of wealth, Wilentz writes that:
Skousen claims that the Founders adopted "In God We Trust" as the national motto of the United States. Wilentz notes that "In reality, the motto that came out of the Constitutional Convention was 'E Pluribus Unum': out of many, one. 'In God We Trust' came much later". Notably, The Star-Spangled Banner, written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key (and later adopted as the U.S. national anthem), contains an early reference to a variation of the phrase: "...And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust'." The phrase began to appear on U.S. currency in 1864. "In God We Trust" became the national motto in 1956.
However, the Bible is only one source of inspiration of the founders according to Skousen. Also used was the existing tradition of Anglo-Saxon Common Law as well as the Roman Republican Senator Cicero. Skousen claims the Bible had its most influence not on federal government structure but local governments and the people, to support his claim that a nation can only be free when its people are virtous.
External links
- Excerpts from The Five Thousand Year Leap – The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...