Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?
Let’s consider what it means to be a democracy.
Let’s consider what it means to be a Christian.
Let’s consider what the founding fathers said.
“Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.” (James Madison)
1. What is a Democracy?
If America is a Christian Nation governed by its democratic will, then it must be so because of the will of the people rather than the people’s gods. If one day, the will of the people shifts to Sharia Law, then are Christians saying that is ok? We can’t interpret the constitution to mean one thing regarding OUR religion and then interpret it differently in regards to the religion of OTHERS. In this scenario, the matter is left totally up to the vote of the voters, the will of the people, no matter what the outcome unless the constitution guards our democracy from unhealthy outcomes that mix religion with government. What I am saying is that it is just as unconstitutional for America to be a Christian nation as it is for America to be ruled by Islam’s Sharia Law. There are constitutional safeguard to protect us from either of these or any other religion because not only was American founded with freedom OF religion but in order for it to remain free and democratic, it must include guarantee “freedom FROM religion” or more familiar, separation of church and state.
What if the will of the people chooses communism? Or totalitarianism? Or fascism? Or naziism? Is that ok? Christians say that America is a Christian Nation even though America was not founded as such. See below for what our founding fathers wisely said. So then Christians must want America to be a Christian Nation because Christianity is the majority religion in America. But even that does not hold up to our founding principles. Consider these facts.
Did you know: “Muslims will grow more than twice as fast as the overall world population between 2015 and 2060 and, in the second half of this century, will likely surpass Christians as the world’s largest religious group. While the world’s population is projected to grow 32% in the coming decades, the number of Muslims is expected to increase by 70% – from 1.8 billion in 2015 to nearly 3 billion in 2060. In 2015, Muslims made up 24.1% of the global population.”
Did you know: “The religiously unaffiliated, called "nones," are growing significantly. They’re the second largest religious group in North America and most of Europe. In the United States, nones make up almost a quarter of the population. In the past decade, U.S. nones have overtaken Catholics, mainline protestants, and all followers of non-Christian faiths.” And this is largely underestimated. “The demographics of nones don’t accurately reflect the number and diversity of nonbelievers; it just shows who is comfortable enough to say they don’t believe out loud... There are many more people of color, there are many more women who identify as atheists,” she says. “There are many people who attend church who are still atheists.” https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/160422-atheism-agnostic-secular-nones-rising-religion
Here are some more statistics about American Christianity. In 2015, the country was 75% professing Christians. By 2019, it dropped to 65%. You may say, only 10% during Trump’s presidency? And I say, yes, over 30,000,000 people have left Christianity in America in four years. These are people that can decidedly no longer identify as Christian. https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/
Did you know? As of 2021, the Clergy Project has supported over 1000 ministers in all fields of ministry so they know there are others out there that have lost their faith and helps them to connect with those that have gone through similar experiences. The in-group community in Christianity is great support for the average person that is comfortable and wants to stay that way. But the out-group experience once you are no longer a Christian can be incredibly lonely and isolating.
My point is this: America is designed to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We the People means All people.
Not of the Christians, by the Christians, for the Christians.
Not of the white people, by the white people, for the white people.
Not of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations.
Not of the rich and powerful, by the rich and powerful, for the rich and powerful.
But of all Americans, by all Americans, for all Americans:
Rich and poor, abled or disabled, male and female, black, brown, and white, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, sexual identity and orientation, age, class, and every other form of diversity among Americans.
AND ALL MEANS ALL.
The founding fathers wisely created a society that would not exclude anyone, would welcome diversity, and that would not rule by power and domination, fascism and totalitarianism, dictators and tyrants. The constitution of the United States wisely sets our course as a secular, liberal democracy founded on the principles of Classical Liberalism. A Liberal Democracy includes "equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and political freedoms for all people." The word “liberal” is an example of a current common practice of politicizing and weaponizing words as a way of dividing We the People. See, Liberal - what does that even mean?
“The torch-bearing arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and in Madison Square Park in Manhattan from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, especially for the Americans, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened by lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York World, started a drive for donations to finish the project and attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar. The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island.”
“The other significant female icon in American culture was a representation of Liberty, derived from Libertas, the goddess of freedom widely worshipped in ancient Rome, especially among emancipated slaves. A Liberty figure adorned most American coins of the time,[22] and representations of Liberty appeared in popular and civic art, including Thomas Crawford's Statue of Freedom (1863) atop the dome of the United States Capitol Building.[22]
The Statue of Freedom is above and the inscription on the Statue of Liberty is below.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" November 2, 1883 This brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. |
“Our Constitution is deliberately godless. There are no references to gods, goddesses, or divine intervention. The omission was not an oversight. Supernatural power was rejected in favor of the natural power contained in the first three words: “We the People.” Civil War colonel, author, and orator Robert Ingersoll best captured the deliberate beauty of this omission:
“They (the founding fathers) knew that to put God in the constitution was to put man out. They knew that the recognition of a Deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought. They knew the terrible history too well to place in her keeping, or in the keeping of her God, the sacred rights of man. They intended that all should have the right to worship or not to worship; that our laws should make no distinction on account of creed. They intended to found and frame a government for man, and for man alone.They wished to preserve the individuality and liberty of all, to prevent the few from governing the many, and the many from persecuting and destroying the few.”
2. What is a Christian?
A Narrow Way or a Democratic Majority?
Jesus clearly states that the path to destruction and hell is wide but the path to life is narrow and many that want to follow that path will not be able to. Here it is:
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Also, it is stated in Luke 13:23-25
“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24
The point is, Christans that follow Jesus and the bible are told to expect that their Christianity will never put them in the majority. Never. A democracy demands a majority. But Christianity was never meant to be a majority. True Christianity is the narrow way. The result of that is that they will never have the majority required to dominate a democracy of majority rule.
Christianity is a narrow way because it is a very personal, individual decision. Not only that, but it is a matter of sacrificing oneself, giving up one’s own will and following God’s will. The message of the new testament precludes that the majority will make this decision. Over and over it says that it is not the many but the few. This is the opposite of democracy. The thing that democracy is designed for is so that it is the rule of the people, by the people, and for the people. It specifically stands against any sort of “rule of the few” or the powerful or those that think they are “right”.
Notice the total contradiction between America First and Christian Nationalism and the beginning of John 3:16. “For God so loved the world...” When asking about the final judgment, which is another way of asking, what does God care about most, Jesus responded by asking, did you feed me when I was hungry, did you clothe me when I was naked?
Matthew 25:43-45
43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
The message of Jesus is totally countercultural.
Matthew 20: 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”f
Matthew 23: 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
https://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/5.htm
Jesus goes on throughout the Sermon on the Mount to describe a kingdom of heaven that is very different from kingdoms here on earth. The kingdom of heaven is not empires, it is within each person. It seems to me that Christians have forgotten this and have gotten all caught up in power and control and preserving their own stuff rather than bringing peace to all people on earth by making sure it begins with each of us. America has not brought peace, but constant war.
America has brought to the world constant conflict and war. It expresses itself in culture through the extreme polarization, constant argumentation, and the vile vilification of the “other”. America has been in 93 - 134 wars depending on who is counting. We have been at war 222 years out of 239. It is as if we live on different planets. We can’t even talk anymore because our constant conflict has caused us to politicize words and weaponize them to destroy the “other” leaving us with no shared meaning or common understanding. And we do this in the name of politics and religion. This became much more extreme ever since Christians have tried to take over America over the past 5 years, talking more and more about Christian Nationalism and about America being a Christian Nation.
Besides the point that there is no such thing as a building that is Christian or a city or a state or a country. These are concepts that we have made up, boundaries that we have set, stories that we have told ourselves; things that we use as tools to organize ourselves to accomplish a good work. But tools are not Christian, they are not converted, they are not believers, and they have no reason to repent. I have been told all my life in Evangelical Churches that the church is not the building. The church is the people, the body of Christians inhabiting the church. And that brings us back to the fact that even if a majority of people voted on making America a Christian country, it cannot be a Christian nation anymore than some building somewhere can become a Christian.
As our Founding Fathers have said many times, whether Americans practice religion or no religion cannot be dictated by the government but rather it is dictated in the hearts of each person, for it is only that individual that is accountable.
Not only does Jesus’ teaching show how countercultural it is but it is also stated in other ways in the new testament. This shows how contradictory true Christianity is to power and control. The message of the bible stands against the wisdom of the wise, the power of the powerful, the strength of the strong. The bible says that Christianity is foolishness to the rest of the world. Considering that it is nearly impossible for the rich to enter heaven and that God will destroy the wisdom of the wise, it is apparent that Christianity was never meant to “rule the world.” We have seen the disasters this has brought when Christianity and the state empire joined forces throughout history, especially during the Roman Empire and the 5 Christian Crusades from the 11th century to the 13th century. It was a murderous mistake. https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/crusades
1 Corinthians 1: 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach[a] to save those who believe.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,[b] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being[c] might boast in the presence of God.
1 Corinthians 3:18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”[a]; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
Christian Fascism / Christian Dominionists
A movement that Trump tied into in order to get votes (political manipulation) is what some people call Christian Nationalism or Christian Fascism or Christian Dominionists. On Democracy Now, Amy Goodman was interviewing Chris Hedges (an ordained minister and foreign correspondent that reported on fascist regimes for 20 years) about his book back in 2007 called American Fascism: The Christian Right and the War on America. When Amy asked who these people are that have “completely perverted and distorted and manipulated the Christian message into something that is certainly the very antithesis of what Jesus preached in the gospels. He gave a very interesting answer that I hadn’t considered before.
CHRIS HEDGES: “We use terms like “evangelical” and “fundamentalist” to describe them, and I think that those are incorrect terms. Traditional fundamentalists always called on believers to remove themselves from the contaminants of secular society, shun involvement in politics. Evangelical leaders like Billy Graham always warned followers to keep their distance from political power. He, of course, was burned by Richard Nixon when he came to Nixon’s defense, and then when it publicly came out that Nixon lied, it taught a lesson to Graham.
“This is a new movement, as embodied by people like James Dobson or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, who call for the creation of a Christian state, who talk about attaining secular power. And they are more properly called dominionists or Christian reconstructionists, although it’s not a widespread term, but they’re certainly not traditional fundamentalists and not traditional evangelicals. They fused the language and iconography of the Christian religion with the worst forms of American nationalism and then created this sort of radical mutation, which has built alliances with powerful right-wing interests, including corporate interests, and made tremendous inroads over the last two decades into the corridors of power.”
AMY GOODMAN: Why the term ‘dominionist’?”
CHRIS HEDGES: “It comes out of Genesis, you know, where God gives humankind dominion over creation. It’s articulated by ideologues, such as Rousas Rushdoony, Francis Schaeffer and others, and essentially is a new concept within the radical Christian right, and it’s used sparingly. And some dominionists don’t like the term, but I think it denotes or is probably a better term for denoting those people who want to take political power.”
https://www.democracynow.org/2007/2/19/chris_hedges_on_american_fascists_the
For further reference:
America First = Me First... neither Christian nor American.
How a Plague Exposed the Christian Nation Myth.
Freedom of Religion?
And let’s consider this: the founding fathers fled the state religion of England in order for individuals to have the right and the freedom to choose their belief or lack thereof. They had no intention of allowing that state religion to follow them and continue to take from them their inalienable human rights and freedoms. There was no concept of forcing people to become Christians here in America. As you can see below, the founders were very clear that America is about We the People and not the people’s gods.
Sharia Law?
In order for America to be a Christian Nation, America would have to abolish “freedom of religion” and force all people to comply, not with Christianity, but with the interpretation and version of religion that the politicians in power decide. This is the same thing as the state religion from which the pilgrims and the founding fathers fled. Or this is the same thing as our representatives installing Sharia Law according to a majority vote. Is that what Christians really want??? We have forgotten who we are and why we are who we are! We have forgotten from whence America has come.
10 Commandments
Often Christians try to display the 10 Commandments on the walls of public buildings and courts to show how they are the foundation of America’s laws. But too often Christians do not read their own bible. Try reading the 10 Commandments with the open eyes of inquiry, objectivity, and seeking the truth. If you do read with an open mind and an open heart, you will clearly see that only 2 of the 10 commandments very loosely correlate to any of the laws on which American was founded.
Do not kill. And yet we kill in the name of war and in the name of justice (capital punishment).
Do not steal. And yet we steal the plunders of war (oil, land), Native American lands, slaves from Africa, clean water, clean air, and on and on.
The other 8 do not apply to the founding of any country or government.
For those that have not paid attention to what they say, here is a quick summary of the 10 commandments:
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy
Honour thy father and thy mother
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's
Which of these did we supposedly build this country on?
Which of these are in the constitution or any founding documents?
The 10 Commandments include sins of thought and words. Do you really think that the government should regulate our thoughts? (#1, 2, 10: Worshipping and coveting) and our words (#3, 5, 9: taking the Lord’s name in vain, honoring our father and mother, bearing false testimony like gossip or lying)
Jesus brings two more of the 10 commandments into the realm of thought. Adultery: “But I say if you look at a woman to lust after her, you have already committed adultery with her in your heart.” Murder: But I say that if you are angry at another person or insult them by calling them names outside their own names, you have committed murder in your heart. (Matthew 5:21-30)
For my detailed analysis of the 10 Commandments, please check this out.
Why did the 10 commandments leave out the most important laws according to both the old testament, the new testament, and Jesus’ teachings? If God is perfect, unchanging, and omniscient then he certainly had the foreknowlege of these basic rules:
THE GOLDEN RULE: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Even this needs an upgrade to be among the best rules of morality. I’ve heard it called THE PLATINUM RULE: Do unto others as THEY would have you do unto them. This is modified to be more other-centered than self-centered, which is the essence of the true morality of humanity.
THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT: Actually this includes two of them: Love the lord you god with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. It seems to me that the 10 commandments should have started with these. Did god forget or did he not know which is the Greatest Commandment? If it is the greatest, then why is it not the first commandment?
“I get my limits from a rational consideration of the consequences of my actions, that's how I determine what's moral. I get it from a foundation that says my actions have an effect on those people around me, and theirs have an effect on me, and if we're going to live cooperatively and share space, we have to recognize that impact. And my freedom to swing my arm ends at their nose, and that I have no right to impose my will over somebody else's will in that type of scenario. That's where I get them from. I get them from an understanding of reality, not an assertion of authority.”
― Matt Dillahunty
The Golden Rule
Sometimes Christians say that America is a Christian nation because it is founded on the Golden Rule. BUT the Golden Rule is not Christian. It did not originate in the bible or in Christ’s teaching. It is worldwide and found in all religions and cultures and throughout history thousands of years before Christianity.
The Golden Rule is not a Judeo-Christian principle. It is a universal human principle. This ‘interchangeability of perspectives’ is the ‘foundation of morality’ and can be seen in just as many secular, ethical traditions as religious traditions, according to Harvard neuroscientist Steven Pinker. The ethicist Peter Singer put it a bit differently: “the major ethical traditions all accept, in some form or other, a version of the golden rule that encourages equal consideration of Interest.” Therefore, Judeo-Christianity’s Golden Rule cannot be said to have had any unique impact on the nation's founding -- especially given that the influential Founders such as John Adams knew it was not unique to Christianity. One reflective Sunday, Adams wrote in his diary that Christianity included the rule but did not invent it: “one great advantage of the Christian religion is, that it rings the great principle of law of Nature and Nations, -- love your neighbor as yourself, and do to others as you would have you would that others should do to you,-- to the knowledge, beliefs, and veneration of the whole people.” According to Adams, the golden rule is not a Christian principle: it is a universal principle, a “principle of the law of Nature and Nations.” Christianity was one vehicle to disperse this Universal idea, not its origin. (Andrew Seidel, The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American)
Judeo-Christian is an Oxymoron
Newsweek 1992 on the oxymoron of Judeo-Christian: “the idea of a single ‘Judeo-Christian tradition is a made-in-America myth.” One Jewish theologian stated the problem plainly: “Judaism is Judaism because it rejects Christianity, and Christianity is Christianity because it rejects Judaism.”
Our Founding Fathers
“George Washington often emphasized that religious liberty was not just a blessing, but a right. He wrote to the United Baptist Churches of Virginia in May of 1789,
...no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution—For you, doubtless, remember that I have often expressed my sentiment, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.”
― Franklin T. Lambert, The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America
Statement from the Treaty of Tripoli: "[T]he government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…."
Regarding the Treaty of Tripoli, John Adams, while president, says this:
“Now be it known, That I John Adams, President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the said Treaty do, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, accept, ratify, and confirm the same, and every clause and article thereof. And to the End that the said Treaty may be observed, and performed with good Faith on the part of the United States, I have ordered the premises to be made public; And I do hereby enjoin and require all persons bearing office civil or military within the United States, and all other citizens or inhabitants thereof, faithfully to observe and fulfill the said Treaty and every clause and article thereof.”
― John Adams
“...the founders of our nation were nearly all Infidels, and that of the presidents who had thus far been elected {George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson}, not a one had professed a belief in Christianity...
“When the war was over and the victory over our enemies won, and the blessings and happiness of liberty and peace were secured, the Constitution was framed and God was neglected. He was not merely forgotten. He was absolutely voted out of the Constitution. The proceedings, as published by Thompson, the secretary, and the history of the day, show that the question was gravely debated whether God should be in the Constitution or not, and after a solemn debate he was deliberately voted out of it.... There is not only in the theory of our government no recognition of God's laws and sovereignty, but its practical operation, its administration, has been conformable to its theory. Those who have been called to administer the government have not been men making any public profession of Christianity... Washington was a man of valor and wisdom. He was esteemed by the whole world as a great and good man; but he was not a professing Christian...
[Sermon by Reverend Bill Wilson (Episcopal) in October 1831, as published in the Albany Daily Advertiser the same month it was made]”
― Bird Wilson
“During the nineteenth, twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries, certain politically active religious movements sought to have the United States declared—officially, if possible, but at least unofficially—a "Christian nation." This was an attempt to reverse the church-state separation principles and achievements of such great Founders as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Roger Williams, who was more religiously devout than just about anyone living in later centuries, opposed all attempts to call a particular nation "Christian," just as he opposed the terms "Christendom" and "Christian world." His arguments included a profound analysis of the importance of separation of church and state as well as a deep religious understanding of what Christianity is.”
― Alan E. Johnson, The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience
Note: it was not the founding fathers but it was during recent years mentioned above that we added these statements below:
According to the US Department of Treasury, the capitalized form "IN GOD WE TRUST" first appeared on the two-cent piece in 1864 and has appeared on paper currency since 1957.
June 14, 1954: One Nation “Under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance.
Is America Christian Nation?
The following was written by a group of religious leaders that are standing by the historical truth that America was not founded as a Christian nation and that separation of church and state is critical for the sustainability and success of this democratic experiment.
“The U.S. Constitution is a wholly secular document. It contains no mention of Christianity or Jesus Christ. In fact, the Constitution refers to religion only twice in the First Amendment, which bars laws "respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," and in Article VI, which prohibits "religious tests" for public office. Both of these provisions are evidence that the country was not founded as officially Christian.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
— First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1787)
“While some of the country's founders believed that the government should espouse Christianity, that viewpoint soon became a losing proposition. In Virginia, Patrick Henry argued in favor of tax support for Christian churches. But Henry and his cohorts were in the minority and lost that battle. Jefferson, James Madison and their allies among the state's religious groups ended Virginia's established church and helped pass the Virginia Statute for Religious Liberty, a 1786 law guaranteeing religious freedom to all.
We the General Assembly of Virginia do enact that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.
— Virginia Statute for Religious Liberty (1786)
Washington's administration even negotiated a treaty with the Muslim rulers of north Africa that stated explicitly that the United States was not founded on Christianity. The pact, known as the Treaty with Tripoli, was approved unanimously by the Senate in 1797, under the administration of John Adams. Article 11 of the treaty states, "[T]he government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…."
The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion...
— U.S. Treaty with Tripoli, 1797
Further references:
Separation of Church and State: click here for more quotes by the founding fathers and religious leaders on how critical separation of church and state is for democracy to survive and thrive.
Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American
“The Constitution is deliberately godless. There are no references to gods, goddesses, or divine intervention. The omission was not an oversight. Supernatural power was rejected in favor of the natural power contained in the first three words: “We the People." Civil War Colonel, author, and orator Robert Ingersoll best captured the deliberate beauty of this Omission:
“They knew that to put God in the Constitution was to put man out. They knew that the recognition of a deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought. They knew the terrible history of the church too well to place in her keeping or in the keeping of her God, the sacred Rights of Man. They intended that all should have the right to worship, or not to worship; that our laws should make no distinction on account of creed. They intended to found and frame a government for man, and for man alone. They wished to preserve the individuality and liberty of all, to prevent the few from governing the many, and the many from persecuting and destroying the few."
And as we can see today, this is exactly what the fanatics and zealots are doing in the Christian Nationalist movement in America virtually guaranteeing the usurpation of both church and state showing that we truly do not learn from history.
Thomas Jefferson in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786), which was the basis of the first amendment, said this, “the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others.” p. 36
The Early Divisiveness of Religion in America
As John Winthrop put it, America became a religious “refuge”. Wave after wave of religious groups sought sanctuary in North America. In 1620, a group of Puritans arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Roman Catholics founded Maryland in 1634 and twenty years later Jews arrived in New York City. However, many did not find the peace they had hoped and prayed for.
At first, these communities in colonial North America looked very similar to the religious states of the Old World. Each religious settlement was founded around the community’s beliefs. Laws were established and expectations set based upon religious ideals. Puritans in New England based laws on the Bible and only full church members were permitted to vote. Magistrates, considered “public ministers of God,” were expected to use the state to uphold the church’s agenda.
Catholicism thrived in Maryland in the 1630s, but by the 1640s, Protestants took control and deported many Catholics. By 1649, however, Catholics controlled the Maryland Assembly. A Toleration Act-one of the very first of its kind-passed which allowed both religions, but in 1654, the Protestants regained control. They repealed the act and outlawed the Roman Catholic religion.
Tensions were not just between Protestants and Catholics. Discrimination occurred throughout the colonies. The Quakers were expelled from Massachusetts. Presbyterians and Baptists were banished from New England. In Virginia, Puritans and Quakers were barred. However, during the Great Awakening in the 1740s, there was a growing tolerance of minority religions in some regions of the colonies.
After the Revolutionary War, many played a role in shaping the new government to ensure all religions had the right to practice, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams. However, it was under the leadership of George Washington that freedom of religion was established.
Separation of Church and State,
Religion and Empire,
Faith and Power
“In mixing religion and politics, the religious right subverts both.”
“Our founding fathers understood well the extraordinary danger of mixing religion and politics; we forget that lesson at our great peril. If we forget, just glance over to the Middle East. I tremble in fear for my country when the majority of conservatives believe we are a Christian nation; that frightening majority has forgotten our history, ignored our founding principles and abandoned our most cherished ideal of separating church and state. In mixing religion and politics, the religious right subverts both. And the world suffers.” from Founding Fathers: We Are Not a Christian Nation)
“Since its inception, the founding fathers have stressed the importance of keeping the affairs of the church separate from the affairs of the state. Without this we risk one usurping the other thereby tainting the purity of both.
“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
“The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.
[Letter objecting to the use of government land for churches, 1803]”
― James Madison
[Adams submitted and signed the Treaty of Tripoli, 1797]”
“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
― John Adams
“I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote - where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference - and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.
I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish - where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source - where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials - and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.
[Remarks to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, September 12 1960]”
― John F. Kennedy
“How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape.”
― Christopher Hitchens
“The next time believers tell you that 'separation of church and state' does not appear in our founding document, tell them to stop using the word 'trinity.' The word 'trinity' appears nowhere in the bible. Neither does Rapture, or Second Coming, or Original Sin. If they are still unfazed (or unphrased), by this, then add Omniscience, Omnipresence, Supernatural,Transcendence, Afterlife, Deity, Divinity, Theology, Monotheism, Missionary, Immaculate Conception, Christmas, Christianity, Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Methodist, Catholic, Pope, Cardinal, Catechism, Purgatory, Penance, Transubstantiation, Excommunication, Dogma, Chastity, Unpardonable Sin, Infallibility, Inerrancy, Incarnation, Epiphany, Sermon, Eucharist, the Lord's Prayer, Good Friday, Doubting Thomas, Advent, Sunday School, Dead Sea, Golden Rule, Moral, Morality, Ethics, Patriotism, Education, Atheism, Apostasy, Conservative (Liberal is in), Capital Punishment, Monogamy, Abortion, Pornography, Homosexual, Lesbian, Fairness, Logic, Republic, Democracy, Capitalism, Funeral, Decalogue, or Bible.”
― Dan Barker
“They knew that to put God in the constitution was to put man out. They knew that the recognition of a Deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought. They knew the terrible history of the church too well to place in her keeping or in the keeping of her God the sacred rights of man. They intended that all should have the right to worship or not to worship that our laws should make no distinction on account of creed. They intended to found and frame a government for man and for man alone. They wished to preserve the individuality of all to prevent the few from governing the many and the many from persecuting and destroying the few.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, (American Lawyer, 1833 - 1899)
“Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?”
― Sandra Day O'Connor
“For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew--or a Quaker--or a Unitarian--or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim- -but tomorrow it may be you--until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.
Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.
That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe--a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.
This is the kind of America I believe in--and this is the kind I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe. No one suggested then that we may have a "divided loyalty," that we did "not believe in liberty," or that we belonged to a disloyal group that threatened the "freedoms for which our forefathers died.”
― John F. Kennedy
“Every new & successful example therefore of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance. And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.
[Letter to Edward Livingston, 10 July 1822 - Writings 9:100--103]”
― James Madison, James Madison: Writings
“When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion it conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some.”
― Harry A. Blackmun
“Besides the danger of a direct mixture of religion and civil government, there is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by ecclesiastical corporations. The establishment of the chaplainship in Congress is a palpable violation of equal rights as well as of Constitutional principles. The danger of silent accumulations and encroachments by ecclesiastical bodies has not sufficiently engaged attention in the U.S.”
― James Madison
“The liberty of man is not safe in the hands of any church. Wherever the Bible and sword are in partnership, man is a slave.
All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same spirit that kindled the fires of the auto da fe, and lovingly built the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining and punishing blasphemy -- making it a crime to give your honest ideas about the Bible, or to laugh at the ignorance of the ancient Jews, or to enjoy yourself on the Sabbath, or to give your opinion of Jehovah, were passed by impudent bigots, and should be at once repealed by honest men. An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures. Certainly he ought not so to act that laws become necessary to keep him from being laughed at. No one thinks of protecting Shakespeare from ridicule, by the threat of fine and imprisonment. It strikes me that God might write a book that would not necessarily excite the laughter of his children. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that a real God could produce a work that would excite the admiration of mankind.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll
“But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. If it be said, his testimony in a court of justice cannot be relied on, reject it then, and be the stigma on him. Constraint may make him worse by making him a hypocrite, but it will never make him a truer man. It may fix him obstinately in his errors, but will not cure them. Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
“It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia & Confession of Nat Turner
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