A Christian Nation

I posted this on my per­sonal web­site sev­eral years ago. I am putting it here for consistency.

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Many Christians believe that this coun­try was founded on god. Nothing sup­ports this belief how­ever. As a mat­ter of fact, many things show evi­dence to the con­trary. Follow along gen­tle reader.

The Constitution of the United States makes no men­tion of God. There are only two ref­er­ences to reli­gion in the entire document.

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 free­dom of press; or the right of the peo­ple peace­ably to assem­ble, and to peti­tion the gov­ern­ment for a redress of griev­ances. (Amendment 1,The Constitution of the United States.)

The sen­a­tors and rep­re­sen­ta­tives before men­tioned, and the mem­bers of the sev­eral state leg­is­la­tures, and all exec­u­tive and judi­cial offi­cers, both of the United States and of the sev­eral states, shall be bound by oath or affir­ma­tion, to sup­port this Constitution; but no reli­gious test shall ever be required as a qual­i­fi­ca­tion to any office or pub­lic trust under the United States. (Article VI, Section 3, The Constitution of the United States.)

One of the embar­rass­ing prob­lems for the early nineteenth-​century cham­pi­ons of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an ortho­dox Christian. [Mortimer Adler, 1902– , American philoso­pher and edu­ca­tor, ed. “Chapter 22: Religion and Religious Groups in America,” The Annals of America: Great Issues in American Life, Vol. II, Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968, p. 420.]

In 1784, when ask­ing Tench Tilghman to secure a car­pen­ter and a brick­layer for his Mount Vernon estate, President George Washington remarked: “If they are good work­men, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe. They may be Mahometans, Jews or Christians of any Sect, or they may be Atheists.” As he told a Mennonite min­is­ter who sought refuge in the United States after the Revolution, “I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agree­able Asylum to the vir­tu­ous and per­se­cuted part of mankind, to what­ever nation they might belong.…” He was, as John Bell pointed out in 1779, “a total stranger to reli­gious prej­u­dices, which have so often excited Christians of one denom­i­na­tion to cut the throats of those of another.” [Paul F. Boller, George Washington & Religion, Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1963, p. 118. According to Boller, Washington wrote his remarks to Tilghman in a let­ter dated March 24, 1784; his remarks to the Mennonite – Francis Adrian Van der Kemp – were in a let­ter dated May 28, 1788.]

The name of Christ, in any cor­re­spon­dence what­so­ever, does not appear any­where in his many let­ters to friends and asso­ciates through­out his life.[Paul F. Boller, George Washington & Religion, Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1963, pp. 74 – 75.]

George Washington’s con­duct con­vinced most Americans that he was a good Christian, but those pos­sess­ing first-​hand knowl­edge of his reli­gious con­vic­tions had rea­sons for doubt. [Barry Schwartz, George Washington: The Making of an American Symbol, New York: The Free Press, 1987, p. 170.], and he was friendly in his atti­tude toward Christian val­ues. However, he repeat­edly declined the church’s sacra­ments. Never did he take com­mu­nion, and when his wife, Martha, did, he waited for her out­side the sanc­tu­ary.… Even on his deathbed, Washington asked for no rit­ual, uttered no prayer to Christ, and expressed no wish to be attended by His rep­re­sen­ta­tive. George Washington’s prac­tice of Christianity was lim­ited and super­fi­cial because he was not him­self a Christian. In the enlight­ened tra­di­tion of his day, he was a devout Deist — just as many of the cler­gy­men who knew him suspected.[Barry Schwartz, George Washington: The Making of an American Symbol, New York: The Free Press, 1987, pp. 174 – 175.]

President Thomas Jefferson, con­vinced that reli­gious lib­erty must, most assuredly, be built into the struc­tural frame of the new [state] gov­ern­ment, Jefferson pro­posed this lan­guage [for the new Virginia con­sti­tu­tion]: “All per­sons shall have full and free lib­erty of reli­gious opin­ion; nor shall any be com­pelled to fre­quent or main­tain any reli­gious insti­tu­tion”: free­dom for reli­gion, but also free­dom from reli­gion. Jefferson pro­posed his lan­guage in 1776. [Edwin S. Gaustad, Faith of Our Fathers: Religion and the New Nation, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987, p. 38.]

In 1802, in a let­ter to the Danbury Baptists of Connecticut, he wrote, “I con­tem­plate with solemn rev­er­ence that act of the whole American peo­ple which declared that their leg­is­la­ture should ‘make no law respect­ing an estab­lish­ment of reli­gion, or pro­hibit­ing the free exer­cise thereof,’ thus build­ing a wall of sep­a­ra­tion between Church and State.”

President James Madison wrote “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.“[James Madison, let­ter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822; pub­lished in The Complete Madison: His Basic Writings, ed. by Saul K. Padover, New York: Harper & Bros., 1953.]

Herndon [William H., Abraham Lincoln’s law part­ner] tells us that as a young man Lincoln was a skep­tic and asso­ci­ated with fel­low skep­tics in New Salem. In 1834 he sup­pos­edly wrote an essay show­ing that the Bible was not God’s inspired word nor Jesus God’s divine son. An employer, either scan­dal­ized or fear­ing its effects on Lincoln’s future, threw it into the stove. Lincoln’s first law part­ner told Herndon that Lincoln was “an avowed and open infi­del, and bor­dered on athe­ism.” Herndon did not believe that Lincoln’s skep­ti­cal opin­ions ever changed. As he put it: “Lincoln was very politic, and a very shrewd man in some par­tic­u­lars. When he was talk­ing to a Christian, he adapted him­self to the Christian … he was at moments, as it were, a Christian, through polite­ness, cour­tesy, or good breed­ing toward the del­i­cate, tender-​nerved man, the Christian, and in two min­utes after, in the absence of such men, and among his own kind, the same old unbe­liever.” Lincoln never belonged to a church, although he some­times attended with his wife. [Glen E. Thurow, Abraham Lincoln and American Political Religion, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1976, p. 12.] (It should be noted that Thurow goes on to show that he finds evi­dence of gen­uine reli­gious belief in Lincoln’s elo­quent reli­gious ref­er­ences, although he views them as an exam­ple more of “polit­i­cal reli­gion” than of church religion).

Abraham Lincoln was quoted as say­ing “When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my reli­gion.” [Abraham Lincoln, 16^th U.S. President [1861 – 1865]. From Henry O. Dormann, com­piler, The Speaker’s Book of Quotations, New York: Ballantine Books, 1987, p. 127.]

And President Grant? “Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dol­lar of money shall be appro­pri­ated to the sup­port of any sec­tar­ian school. Resolve that nei­ther the state nor nation, or both com­bined, shall sup­port insti­tu­tions of learn­ing other than those suf­fi­cient to afford every child grow­ing up in the land the oppor­tu­nity of a good com­mon school edu­ca­tion, unmixed with sec­tar­ian, pagan, or athe­is­ti­cal tenets. Leave the mat­ter of reli­gion to the fam­ily altar, the church, and the pri­vate schools, sup­ported entirely by pri­vate con­tri­bu­tions. Keep the church and state for­ever sep­a­rated.” [Ulysses S. Grant, 18^th U.S. President [1869 – 1877], speech before the Army of the Tennessee, Des Moines, Iowa, 1875; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1983, p. 288]

President Garfield under­stood. “The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church prop­erty any­where, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal tax­a­tion; for if you exempt the prop­erty of any church orga­ni­za­tion, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole com­mu­nity.” [James A. Garfield, 20^th U.S. President [1881]; as a Congressman in 1874; Congressional Record, vol. 2, part 6, p. 5384; from Gene Garman, America’s Real Religion: Separation Between Religion and Government in the United States of America, Pittsburg, Kansas: America’s Real Religion Publishing, 1991, p. 104]

Even Robert E. Lee got it. “Is it not strange that the descen­dants of those Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic to pre­serve their own free­dom of opin­ion have always proved them­selves intol­er­ant of the spir­i­tual lib­erty of oth­ers?” [Robert E. Lee, 1807 – 1870, Confederate gen­eral, let­ter to his wife, December 27, 1856. From Gorton Carruth and Eugene Ehrlich, eds., The Harper Book of American Quotations, New York: Harper & Row, 1988, p. 498.]

Surely President Kennedy, being a good Irish Catholic lad­die? “It is my firm belief that there should be sep­a­ra­tion of church and state in the United States – that is, that both church and state should be free to oper­ate, with­out inter­fer­ence from each other in their respec­tive areas of juris­dic­tion. We live in a lib­eral, demo­c­ra­tic soci­ety which embraces wide vari­eties of belief and dis­be­lief. There is no doubt in my mind that the plu­ral­ism which has devel­oped under our Constitution, pro­vid­ing as it does a frame­work within which diverse opin­ions can exist side by side and by their inter­ac­tion enrich the whole, is the most ideal sys­tem yet devised by man. I can­not con­ceive of a set of cir­cum­stances which would lead me to a dif­fer­ent con­clu­sion.” [John F. Kennedy, 35^th U.S. President [1961 – 1963]; let­ter to Glenn L. Archer, February 23, 1959, accord­ing to Albert Menendez and Edd Doerr, com­pil­ers, The Great Quotations on Religious Liberty, Long Beach, CA: Centerline Press, 1991, p. 54.]

“Whatever one’s reli­gion in his pri­vate life may be, for the office­holder, noth­ing takes prece­dence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts — includ­ing the First Amendment and the strict sep­a­ra­tion of church and state.” [Interview, Look, 3 March 1959]

“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.

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.

I would not look with favor upon a President work­ing to sub­vert the first amendment’s guar­an­tees of reli­gious lib­erty. Nor would our sys­tem of checks and bal­ances per­mit him to do so – and nei­ther do I look with favor upon those who would work to sub­vert Article VI of the Constitution by requir­ing a reli­gious test – even by indi­rec­tion – for it. If they dis­agree with that safe­guard they should be out openly work­ing to repeal it.” [address to the Ministerial Association of Greater Houston, 12 September 1960]

President Johnson?
“I believe in the American tra­di­tion of sep­a­ra­tion of church and state which is expressed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. By my office – and by my per­sonal con­vic­tion – I am sworn to uphold that tra­di­tion.” [Lyndon B. Johnson, 36^th U. S. President [1963 – 1969]; inter­view, Baptist Standard, October, 1964, accord­ing to Albert Menendez and Edd Doerr, com­pil­ers, The Great Quotations on Religious Liberty, Long Beach, CA: Centerline Press, 1991, p. 50.]

President Ford?
“I believe that prayer in pub­lic schools should be vol­un­tary. It is dif­fi­cult for me to see how reli­gious exer­cises can be a require­ment in pub­lic schools, given our Constitutional require­ment of sep­a­ra­tion of church and state. I feel that the highly desir­able goal of reli­gious edu­ca­tion must be prin­ci­pally the respon­si­bil­ity of church and home. I do not believe that pub­lic edu­ca­tion should show any hos­til­ity toward reli­gion, and nei­ther should it inhibit vol­un­tary par­tic­i­pa­tion, if it does not inter­fere with the edu­ca­tional process.” [Gerald R. Ford, 38^th President [1974 – 1977], in an inter­view with Los Angeles Herald-​Examiner, October 9, 1976 [p. A-​8], accord­ing to Alan F. Pater and Jason R. Pater, com­pil­ers and edi­tors, What They Said in 1976: The Yearbook of Spoken Opinion, Beverly Hills, CA: Monitor Book Co., 1977, p. 522.]

President Carter?
“We believe in sep­a­ra­tion of church and state, that there should be no unwar­ranted influ­ence on the church or reli­gion by the state, and vice versa.” [Jimmy Carter, 39^th President [1977 – 1981], in a news con­fer­ence in Warsaw, Poland, reported by New York Times, December 31, 1977 [p. 2], accord­ing to Alan F. Pater and Jason R. Pater, com­pil­ers and edi­tors, What They Said in 1977: The Yearbook of Spoken Opinion, Beverly Hills, CA: Monitor Book Co., 1978, p. 479.]

The offi­cial motto was “E Pluribus Enum”, which actu­ally means “From many, one”. This motto was a tes­ta­ment that the coun­try was and is united as one peo­ple. If it wasn’t for sev­eral reli­gious peo­ple, it prob­a­bly would still be the motto today. A law passed by Congress, in 1955, to have all cur­rency minted with the words “In God We Trust”. In 1956, Congress retired this motto for “In God We Trust, dur­ing the McCarthy era to dis­pel Communistic thoughts.

The Pledge of Allegiance was writ­ten in August of 1892 by Frank Bellamy, a Baptist min­is­ter. The words “under God” were later added in 1954 by Congress after a cam­paign led by Knights of Columbus. To find out more, please read The Pledge of Allegiance — A Short History

In 1797, the U.S Senate voted unan­i­mously to pass the Treaty of Tripoli. This treaty was signed by President John Adams.

As the gov­ern­ment of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion – as it has itself no char­ac­ter of enmity against the law, reli­gion or tran­quil­ity of Musselmen [Muslims], … [“Article 11, Treaty of Peace and Friendship between The United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary,” 1796 – 1797. The treaty was writ­ten by Joel Barlow, nego­ti­ated dur­ing Washington’s admin­is­tra­tion, con­cluded on November 4, 1796, rat­i­fied by the Senate in June, 1797, and signed [see below] by John Adams [2^nd U.S. President] on June 10, 1797.]

Many other politi­cians and great minds of the coun­try agree with the pres­i­dents quoted here, but for lack of space I’ll not put it all here. My point is that it is quite clear through the writ­ings and speeches of these peo­ple what the Framers of the Constitution had in mind. While many believed in some form of god, they all knew that reli­gion should be kept out of gov­ern­ment and pol­i­tics. You can­not have a melt­ing pot of diverse cul­tures if you insist that the coun­try is a nation built on one reli­gion. That is the rea­son that our founders fled England in the first place. They were fear­ful of being told what reli­gion they had to belong.