A Christian Nation

By Fait

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 contains 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.)

If we glance back at our early history, the reasons for placing religious freedom in the First Amendment may become clearer. The quest for that freedom was one of the motives for emigration to America, but not just for those who wanted to be free to practice their own faith. A surprising majority of colonial Americans were not part of any religious community. Even in New England, research shows, not more than one person in seven was a church member. It was one in fifteen in the middle colonies and fewer still in the South, according to the historian Richard Hofstadter. (Milton Meltzer, The Bill of Rights: How We Got It and What It Means, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1990, p. 71.)

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 Brittanica, 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 Mohometans, 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.]
As President, Washington regularly attended Christian services, 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.[Edwin S. Gaustad, Faith of Our Fathers: Religion and the New Nation, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987, p. 38. Jefferson proposed his language in 1776.
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 indicate 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 quotes as saying "When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion." (Abraham Lincoln, 16th 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, 18th 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 got it. "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, 20th 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.)

President Kennedy?
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, 35th 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.)

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, 36th 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, 38th 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, 39th 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 was 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 [2nd U.S. President] on June 10, 1797.]


Many other politicians and great minds of the country concur with the presidents quoted here, but for lack of space I'll not put it all here. My point to all of this is that it is quite clear through the writings and speeches of these people what the Framers of the Constitution had in mind.