Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 2 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
In God We Don't Trust  /  Chapter 17: The Stamp That Tested the Colonists' Trust  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 2
The chapter calls the thirteen colonies “a nation of lawbreakers” because tariffs yielded only about 1,800 pounds due to smuggling—what does that accusation imply about the colonists’ spiritual condition when “nearly all…professed to be Christians,” and what kinds of rationalizations do you think made lawbreaking feel compatible with faith?
Another way to ask: If the colonies were called “a nation of lawbreakers” because of smuggling, what does that say about their spiritual life if most claimed to be Christians? What excuses might have helped them think lawbreaking still fit with faith?

Direct Answer The transcript suggests a serious disconnect between the colonists’ Christian profession and their actual obedience, implying spiritual compromise—especially in how they treated civil law. Bercot frames smuggling and tax evasion as disobedience to “Caesar” and, therefore, disobedience to God.

Support from Transcript:

  • Grenville discovered “the thirteen colonies were a nation of lawbreakers,” since Britain received only “about 1,800 British pounds a year” from tariffs.
  • The chapter states that under the Molasses Act the colonists “hadn’t trusted God… and had disobeyed Caesar as a result,” connecting illegal smuggling to a lack of faith.
  • It notes the tension: “nearly all the colonists professed to be Christians,” yet Romans 13:7 commands believers to render “taxes…customs…fear…honor.”
  • Bercot contrasts what they claimed with what they did: the colonists did not “finally trust in God, or at least grudgingly obey Him.”
  • The transcript doesn’t list specific rationalizations, but it implies they treated tax laws as optional when enforcement was weak (“relatively easy to violate through smuggling”).
Discussion Follow-ups What kinds of religious language today can make disobedience sound “faithful,” especially when the law seems inconvenient or costly?

Jumpstarter 2 of 10
Back Questions Next