Wikkid's blog: "Religion and Government"

Is The United States a Christian Nation?

The United States was never a Christian nation and was never founded on Christianity or Christian principles. Although many early colonies were made up of Christian sects, they were all of different denominations and all were leaving England and other parts of Europe to escape persecution by the Christian governed British Parliament and Catholic/Vatican ruled Roman government. The colonies had Puritans in Massachusetts and Virginia, Jews in New York and Rhode Island, Quakers in New Jersey, Roman Catholics in Maryland, Germans and other Europeans in Pennsylvania which had a diversity of religious sects, etc.

However, there were also atheists and deists in America's colonies. Deism was very popular during the birth of the United Colonies, most of the Founding Fathers were deists. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine, among many others, held Deist, rather than Christian, religious beliefs. Some Founding Fathers were Christians, but some were also agnostics and atheists.

Deism was a popular system of thought in the 18^th century; the belief that a supernatural Power originally created the universe but does not currently manage its day-to-day operation or intervene personally into human affairs. They often found the bible to be ridiculous and absurd, because of it's incredible claims and because of the hundreds of thousands of people that God ordered to be murdered or killed himself because of ridiculous reasons in the Bible. They believed in a Creator God, but did not belief in the Bible or Jesus' divinity.

The VERY reason different Christians, Deists and atheists came to America was to escape persecution by the Christian controlled government over religious beliefs. The United States was not founded on Christian principles but partly with the intention of RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE, the free right to practice religion or the free right to NOT BELIEVE.

Ministers and TV Evangelists today often claim that Christians are under persecution for many things and that the Christian Nation is under threat. When, in fact, it is non-believers, science, evolution and real history that is under persecution and the Christian Right which is presenting revisionist history to promote their own political agenda.

It is often claimed that prayer and the reading of the Bible have been outlawed in schools and debate continues to have the 10 Commandments posted in schools and public places. But the Christian Right is ignoring the two documents that the U.S. was founded on.

If one dismisses all preconceived historical inaccuracies and Christian propaganda, then an extraordinary and very revealing fact emerges:

The two documents upon which our country was actually founded—i.e., the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States—contain not a single word about Christianity, Christian principles, the Bible or Jesus Christ. Nor is there any mention at all of the Ten Commandments, Heaven, Hell or being saved. Not a word! The phrase “they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights” was a reference to the Deist Creator, rather than the God of Christianity.

The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The birthday of the United States of America—Independence Day—is celebrated on July 4, the day the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress.

The Christian clergy of the Revolutionary period tried again and again to have references to Christianity inserted directly into the U.S. Constitution, but they were refused every time by the Founders. It is no coincidence therefore that there is no reference at all to Christianity or to the bible in the two documents which founded the United States of America. It is historically incorrect to claim that America was “founded upon Christianity.”

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech and infringing on the freedom of the press.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances “

It is against the law for Congress to prohibit an individual from reading the Bible or praying in school. MANDATORY Bible reading and prayer, however, has been banned, because in the past little children were terrified by having teachers explain to them that if they didn't behave they were going to burn in Hell, and because of the First Amendment, no one can be forced to practice a religion that do not wish to. Reading of the Bible was only practiced in school many decades ago, only as a reading tool, never as a religious teaching, or history book.

It is a false statement that is circulating that prayer and reading of the Bible has been banned in schools and when “persecuted” for actions that are actually hate/prejudice crimes, Religious Right people always use freedom of speech as an excuse. Freedom of religion, speech and expression does not validate hate crimes, even for the religious. Clearly any so-called Christian who cannot treat others with love and compassion is judging them and is not following the religion that Christ taught, is violating the New Commandment and the New Covenant He gave.

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a national religion by the Congress or the preference of one religion over another, non-religion over religion, or religion over non-religion. Originally, the First Amendment only applied to the federal government. Subsequently, under the incorporation doctrine, certain selected provisions were applied to states. However, it was not until the middle and later years of the twentieth century that the Supreme Court began to interpret the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses in such a manner as to restrict the promotion of religion by state governments. For example, in the Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet, 512 U.S. 687 (1994), Justice David Souter, writing for the majority, concluded that "government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion."

The Christian Right often tries to violate the First Amendment and Establishment Clause by trying to have the 10 Commandments put into public places, to pass laws promotion mandatory praying and reading of the Bible in schools, by making claims of the United States being an established Christian Nation and by having creationism and Intelligent Design taught in schools.

In 1797 the United States ratified the Treaty of Tripoli, which was negotiated by George Washington and signed by his successor, John Adams.

Article 11 of the Treaty of Triploi has been a point of contention in disputes on the doctrine of separation of church and state as it applies to the founding principles of the United States.

Article 11 of the Treaty of Triploi reads:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Advocates of the separation of church and state claim that this text constitutes evidence that the United States Government was not founded on the Christian religion. The Senate's ratification was only the third recorded unanimous vote of 339 votes taken. The treaty was printed in the Philadelphia Gazette and two New York papers, with no evidence of any public dissent.

During the Presidential campaign of 1800, Jefferson was labeled “a howling atheist” by his pollitical opponents. Thomas Paine—author of the Revolution-inspiring pamphlet Common Sense and craftsman of the immortal phrase “These are the time that try men's souls”-- wrote an entire book while he was awaiting the guillotine (but was later released) called The Age of Reason (still in print), which directly attacked and rejected the bible as being the Word of God.

Two “Christian principles” may indeed have influenced the Founding Fathers as they wrote the Declaration and Constitution. One “Christian principle” all too fresh in mind was the Puritan's practice (in Massachusetts and Virginia) of executing “witches.” Jefferson wrote in Autobiography that “Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined or imprisoned.” From the early days of the Roman Catholic's Crusades, through the Inquisitions and Reformations throughout Europe, the Colonial witch hunts, millions of people had been judged, persecuted, tortured, fined and murdered in the name of God.

The second “Christian” influence over the Founding Fathers was King George III's absolute mandate that his subjects worship in a manner approved by the Church of England. Witch burning and mandatory church affiliation, among other factors, led the Founding Fathers to establish a “Wall of Separation of Church and State,” allowing, at each citizen's discretion, the freedom of religion or freedom of religion.

So whom shall we believe? Pulpit-pounding TV evangelists who claim America was founded upon Christianity? Or should we give the benefit of the doubt to George Washington and a unanimous Congress at the time our nation began? Let's carefully reread their legal affirmation: “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” (The original text of the Treaty of Tripoli is available for your personal examination at almost any public library and is easily found on the Internet.)

The national motto didn't mention the words “In God We Trust” until 1956, 180 years after the founding of our nation. Likewise, the phrase “under God” was not added to the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954. These are also not evidence that this nation was founded on Christianity, but as with the mention of a “Creator” in the Declaration, Christian Fundamentalists try to use these as “evidence” that the United States was founded on Christianity. These claims, however, are also, untrue.

Modern-day conservative propaganda about the “Christian birth of our nation” is therefore just as erroneous and self-serving as Christian pronouncements of the birth of the universe. In both cases, “men of God” completely ignore the actual evidence at hand and conjure up a fictitious tale. They then spread the myth, along with fabricated evidence, and repeat the myth so frequently that it is soon accepted uncritically by the citizenry.

Fortunately, the United States has historically chosen its leaders democratically. To be elected, a political candidate must give lip service to the prevailing religious view at the moment, regardless of his own true opinions. We may therefore easily dig up Scripture-laced quotations from almost any political figured in American history, pandering for votes from Christian believers. So it si only through looking behind the scenes-- at private correspondence or statements uttered after leaving office-- that an accurate historical picture may be drawn.