It pains me to read letter after letter and post after post with the same outrageous and unfounded claims concerning our country being founded as a Christian one. Too many people are either misinformed or uneducated about the purposes and values that our founding fathers meant to purport with the writing of America's original documents; namely, the writing of The Constitution and subsequent Bill of Rights. I implore anyone taking the time to read this to do research of their own and to fact check any of the claims that I make below.
The Christian god, nor any other deity, is ever mentioned in the original Constitution. In fact the only mention of any religion in this document is under Article 6 which states "... no religious Test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." This statement clearly professes that no religious affiliation will ever be required of anyone seeking public office in the United States. This serves to separate government and religion altogether, and to guarantee the rights of the non-religious to hold public office. "God" "Creator" and "Providence" are mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, however after Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, this was not the document used to govern the newly established nation. Instead the founding fathers reconvened to draw up new documents to define American law. First, the Articles of Confederation, then the Constitution which is aforementioned. Furthermore, the founding fathers did not put "In God We Trust" on American coins, that was added during the time of the Civil War when Christianity had a massive upswing in light of the immense tragedies during the conflict. "In God We Trust" was not added to paper currency until 1957. The words "under God" were not part of the original Pledge of Allegiance, but instead were added by Congress in 1954.
In regards to the Bill of Rights: "Amendment I - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..". It is because of this amendment that United States citizens have the right to privately practice the religion of their choice, and to not practice one. It also solidifies the separation of church and state clearly and concisely. This ideology spills into debate in our schools, elections, and everyday affairs. It is twisted and contorted to fit the biases of the individuals screaming to invoke it. Given what I have discussed thus far it is clear that this was not the intent of our founders and should not be challenged today. The separation of our government from the church was done so stridently with the drafting of America's founding documents, furthermore it was done on the backs of those who were seeking to escape the tyrannical and totalitarian views of the catholic church. Many of the founding fathers themselves were either deists or ambivalent concerning the Christian god, these claims are laid out by many of their own works which can be found in the following references. Benjamin Franklin - "A Biography in his Own Words", p.404. James Madison - "The Madisons" p.43. John Adams - "The character of John Adams" pp. 17. Thomas Paine - "The Age of Reason" pp. 8,9. George Washington - "George Washington and Religion" pp. 16, 87, 88, 108, 113, 121, 127.
Further separating America from being founded as a Christian nation is The Treaty of Tripoli signed by John Adams in 1797 which stated clearly "... the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..". This was ratified unanimously and signed into law by the U.S. Senate in the same year.
In conclusion, if the founding fathers were not necessarily Christians, excluded god from the Constitution and U.S. currency, made no religious requirements to hold public office, and declared publicly that the United States was not founded as a Christian nation, is there really a case for the idea that America was founded as such? I ask you to question this widely spread idea, research it for yourself and form your own opinion rather than simply throwing your lot in with the masses. Ask yourself if you think those seeking public office while making claims of their own religious affiliation and the origins of our Nation's are really truthful, or are they simply appealing to the largely uneducated majority of the population. I believe it is clear that throughout the nation's history, religion and Christianity in particular has attempted to forcibly thrust itself into every facet of our lives through the indoctrination of our children and powerful lobbying groups. This was not the intent of our founding fathers, whose sole purpose was to create a free nation for it's people, supported by a Secular Government.
Brad Thomas
Newport
