The United States As A Christian Nation

In 1639, the founding fathers who were puritans held two views which they wanted to establish in colonial America. They wanted to establish America as a haven of religious freedom as well as a Christian Nation. But in the centuries that followed there was a shift in the wording of the constitution. 150 years later George Washington swore to preserve the constitution which had been amended and there was no mention of God or divine Providence. America does not want to tell the world that it is Christian Republic but that it is a secular nation. (http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i7500.html)

Church and State were set apart by the founding fathers for the sole reason that North America was colonized, by the English, to escape religious persecution. Consequently, America was a melting pot of people practicing their different faiths and beliefs. In the 1800’s, after the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the first amendment supported the idea of this separation by stating “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This acknowledged the religious freedom that the United States government bestowed on American citizens.

This paper is a book critique of The Godless Constitution. The first chapter of the book is titled “Is America a Christian Nation?” and it is an introduction for the rest of the book. In this chapter, the main idea is to open the reader’s mind about that the constitution was created with the idea that religious believes will not influence in the politics of the nation. The authors state that “The principal framers of the American political system wanted no religious parties in national politics” (Kramnick and Moore, 23). Actually, the creation of a constitution without influence of religion was not an act of irreverence. The authors believe that the creation of the constitution was a support to the idea that religion can preserve the civil morality necessary for democracy, without an influence on any political party. The end of the chapter is the description of the following chapters and with a disguise warning that both authors were raise in religious families and they wrote the book with high respect for America’s religious traditions (Kramnick and Moore, 25). The second chapter, called “The Godless Constitution” explains how the different terms to talk about God were taken out and a “no religious test” clause was adopted with little discussion. This clause was a “veritable firestorm” during the ratification debates in several states (Kramnick and Moore, 32). For many people the “no religious test” clause was considered as the gravest defect of the Constitution (Kramnick

Secondly, when supporters of the Christian nation idea point to the Declaration as proof they fail to realize something. The Declaration is not law. Nothing in the Declaration legally guides the way American government or its people function. Even though it set up the foundation for this new nation, it cannot be regarded as any type of legal document that would give evidence of a Christian based nation. However, even if someone were to look at the Declaration as proof, there are more misconceptions. The idea in the Declaration of a government that derives its power from the people is radically different from the theory of divine rights that is seen in the Christian kingdoms of the past. The founder’s idea of a government by and for the people completely rejects the idea of a government where man derives the right to maintain power from a divine being. Moreover, if the founders had wanted to remain in that type of society than they could have used much simpler terms, rather than using the confusing, vague terms such as “Creator.”

All throughout the United States, people recite the pledge of allegiance but what they do not see is that the nation was not exactly built on religion itself. American Evangelicals hold a strong belief that the United States was formed through traditional Christian ideals and look to the invocation of God's words in pieces of government. After all, with words like "God and "our creator," one may assume that traditional Christian values were upheld in the creation of the United States political system. However, because of the Enlightenment movement, roughly most of the founding fathers were not practicing Christians. The founding fathers often dabbled in skepticism of theocratic dogma and stood for religious toleration. America's founding fathers were influenced by a kind of

There is no doubt that the founding fathers were deeply religious. George Washington once wrote, “You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.” John Adams said, “Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited…. What a Eutopia – what a Paradise would this region be!” Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.” So, how do we know that they wanted their new nation to follow their personal beliefs,

To begin with the role of religion in America’s founding, let us start with the first amendment. It is written thusly:

Most people believe that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. After all, our money is emblazoned with “In God We Trust,” our Pledge of Allegiance declares that we are “one nation under God,” and in court we swear to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” It’s true that the Founders were heavily influenced by Christian ideals. And while the U.S. Constitution prohibits any religious test or requirement for public office, the majority of U.S. presidents have been openly Christian. Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, two of our most famous presidents, however had no formal religious affiliations. Jefferson shunned orthodox Christianity at an early age and cut and pasted together a condensed version of the New Testament, removing most miracles and all references to Jesus’s divinity. He did, however, continue to believe in God as a precise, impersonal creator of the universe and its laws. Lincoln, on the other hand, spoke frequently of God during his presidency but never formally joined a church. Today, academics remain uncertain about whether or not he was a Christian as some aspects of his faith remain a mystery.

First, a short recap on American history. During the 17th century, in England the official religion was Anglican, there were few who opposed his majesty and practiced other religions as there were punishments to these actions. Later on, these religious groups were given the opportunity to practice their faith in the New World as colonies of England. Finally, the pilgrims, puritans, Lutherans, and even Catholics had escaped religious persecution they faced in England; in the new found land they could freely practice their beliefs. Therefore, when declaring independence from England, the founding fathers wrote “freedom of religion” in the Bill of Rights and implemented a separation of church and state in order to avoid the government to influence the country based on religious convictions. In an article by Doug Weaver, Weaver references a book by Frank Lambert entitled “Separation of Church and State:

America was founded on July 4th, 1776, by the Second Continental Congress when they declared America’s independence from Great Britain. When America was founded it was not founded upon the Christian religion or any religion as many people would have you believe. Many of the founders blatantly say that America has a complete separation of church and state. From a young age, people are taught inadvertently that America is a Christian nation, and until they do the research they believe that America is a Christian nation. The founding documents have no mention of America being a Christian nation. Through the record of American history, the people can learn why America is not a Christian nation such as; many of the founding fathers themselves weren’t

Since before the United States was founded, the ideals of Christianity have been integrated into the government in some way, shape, or form. In the early days of the Colonies, Christianity was the centerfold for all government affairs; however, after the constitution was ratified and deemed effective in the United States, the First Amendment was born. The first amendment states that, “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” (source). In the early life of the United States, the

If America was founded as a Christian nation, why did the government set the policy that there should be no national religion? America was not founded on Christianity not only because US government should not involve itself in the matters of religion but also the major belief of the Founding Fathers was Deism. “The right to freedom of religion is so central to American democracy that it was enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” Even if the Founding Fathers were religious, it still would not indicate a Christian foundation. Besides, they were deists after all. For instance, Benjamin Franklin declared himself as a thorough Deist in his autobiography. “It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a

Initially, America did not have a Christian foundation in the sense of creating a theocracy. However, it was shaped by Christian moral truths, and the forefathers created a hospitable environment that supported this religion. The relationship linking the state and religion grew strong as most of the people in the nation became Christians. This research paper outlines how Christianity came to be one of the major religions in the United States of America.

The religion of Christianity is a practice that has been apart of the American nation since it’s early founding, but what is the United States relationship to Christianity? In this class we have discussed three very different versions of the “Christian Nation” dialogue in the books that we have read throughout the semester. These books include John Fea’s Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?, Matthew Sutton’s American Apocalypse: A History of Evangelicalism, and Kevin Kruse’s One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America. Each book gives a different interpretation of the relationship between the United States and the religion Christianity, and how this relationship shaped the United States to the country that it

“American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us,” by Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, and “America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity,” by Robert Wuthnow, give different thoughts to religion and politics in the United States. Putnam and Campbell utilize the concepts of shocks and aftershocks to highlight religious changes in the United States. On the other hand, Wuthnow uses observations to focus on the encounters of religious diversity in the United States. Wuthnow compares American Christianity with other popular religions in America and how Christianity has affected the perception of religion. Putnam and Campbell’s “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us” is a more persuasive assessment of American religion and politics.