Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
I too used to argue the position that America is a Christian nation. And I too used to quote the same sources. However, I sadly had to concede that my position was wrong. I still maintain that America was a nation of Christians. Some really messed up Christians. Afterall, our "Christian" nation was established at the expense of deplorable acts perpetrated on its true natives and enslaving and brutalizing a entire race of people. That is afterall, the Christian thing to do. (Sarcasm)
No matter how many founders were church members, or prayed, etc. doesn't change the fact that our country was not
established as a Christian nation. It was established as a free nation. Free from the tyranny of England. If you tried to prove otherwise in a court of law, you would lose. Did our founding fathers follow these verses?
Romans 13:1
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
Or,
1 Peter 2:13
Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority.
No, they rebelled. And they put it in writing and evoked God's name in doing so. Why? Because of religious persecution? No. TAXES!! History tends to romanticize things. And no question we've all been romanticized in our teaching.
A nation founded on Christian principles can rightly be called a Christian nation.
Just were are these principles?
The brutal truth is that socialism would closer representent Christian principles. Acts 2:45. Although it lacks the pure heart motive to do such. Does the Constitution seek to redistribute the wealth according to this verse? Does it seek to set up the teaching of Christianity? Does it seek to establish the worship of Christ as Lord and Savior? No
Does it seek to restrict divorce according to what Jesus espoused? No. In fact it left such matters up to the individual states. I have read through parts of many confessions of faith, and I can tell you first hand, that they do not resemble the Constitution or DOI at all.
I know what makes Iran an Islamic nation. It is not because Muslims make up the majority of the population. It is because the nation is actually founded in Islamic doctrine. Not that Muslim men wrote a constitution, but that the government derives its power from Islam itself. A theocracy.
Danny, I have made it clear in earlier post, for someone to post anything from the DOI or constitution that directly evokes the bible, specifically the NT. They can't, because it doesn't. A vague reference to nature's God, is far from this. The constitution, the document that actually establishes government, doesn't even do that much. No reference to God, the bible, Christ, etc. Nothing, zilch, nada. In fact our FFs were diligent to make sure that government played no role in the establishment of religion. How can a document that makes such claims, do the opposite. Simple, it doesn't.
"America is composed of Christians. Therefore America is a Christian nation." If this is your conclusion, I honestly have no probelme with that. That is perfectly fine. My problem is when posters attempt to falsely establish the founding documents as supporting such. They DO NOT. In a republic, the majority rules. So, if you want to use this premise to say that America is a Christian nation have at it. But keep in mind it doesn't carry much weight. Unelss you are defining a country by a census poll. If the majority of America is white, would you say, America is a white nation. All the FFs were white, and we are still composed of mainly white people? That is fine and well. It just isn't the same as saying our founding fathers established the USA as a Christian nation. This is false. If they did so, they failed to include it in the founding documents.
Perhaps, as Canuckster stated, we are differing on our symantics.
However, my experience is that many if not most are trying to argue that Christianity has some specific
establishment as the religion of the United States. When in fact the Constitution prohibits that very thing.
