April FREEDOM WATCH Online

By Ben Landsman

From the opposition to gay marriage and abortion, to the support of teaching intelligent design, there is an underlying movement in America claiming that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian beliefs should be forefront in American law.

Numerous groups are lobbying heavily for a Christian-based government, such as the Family Resource Council, which states, "United States was founded, primarily, by Christians, and that our laws and government are rooted in a Judeo-Christian worldview. Citizens, churches, private organizations, and public officials have every right to proclaim their faith in public settings and to bring their religiously-informed moral values to bear in election campaigns and public policy decisions." Renew America states, "This is and always should be a Christian nation because true Christian principles protect everyone's rights, especially the right to disagree." The issue even made its way into the last Presidential election with John McCain stating that he believes "the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation."

Christianity certainly plays a powerful role in American society. Seventy-six percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians and the Pew Research Center finds that Americans say religion plays a "very important" role in their lives at more than twice the rate of those in other wealthy nations. Over a century ago, after observing American society, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, "There is no country in the world, where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America."

Yet despite this great influence, there is a profound difference between a nation of Christians and a Christian nation. There is little doubt that we are predominately a nation of Christians, but we are not a Christian nation. Instead, our founding fathers made the methodical, deliberate decision to create a secular nation with a wall between religion and the state.

The U.S. Constitution
The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. As our founding fathers drafted the Constitution they weighed their experiences with religion and government. They watched religion divide people, incite violence and create instability. The founders also witnessed many American colonial governments limit those who could serve in government office based on religious sect and saw the colonies establish official churches and tax all citizens to support them, whether they attended or held the same beliefs as the official church or not. Dissenting colonists faced humiliation, imprisonment, torture and death.

Church State

In order to both protect the government from the church and the church from the government, the founders created the United States as a secular nation based on the writings of British philosopher John Locke and his premise that liberty of conscience is a natural right not to be intruded upon by the government. Nowhere in the Constitution is there a single mention of the words Christianity, God, Jesus, or any Supreme Being. In fact, there are only two references to religion anywhere in the Constitution and both are exclusionary. The First Amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . . ," and Article VI, Section 3 states, ". . . no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." Our founding fathers did not merely forget to include religion in the Constitution. Instead they chose to create the United States of America as a land with religious freedom and a wall of separation between the church and the state.

Treaty of Tripoli
A look at other documents from the time the Constitution was drafted sheds further light on the founders' intent to create a nation not founded on Christianity. The most direct reference comes from an obscure 1797 treaty between the United States and Tripoli. The treaty states, in part, ". . .the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion. . ." While this treaty no longer has any legal ramifications, at the time of its signing it represented United States law and shows the intent of the founders to create a society with religious freedom.

Danbury Letter
The better known and often cited Danbury Letter further reflects the founders intent to create a secular nation. After Jefferson won the Presidency in 1800, the Danbury Baptists sent Jefferson a letter asking him to defend their religious freedom against religious taxation in Connecticut. Jefferson responded with the most clear and concise explanation of the first amendment on record. Jefferson wrote, ". . .the United States should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof' thus creating a wall of separation between church and state."

Founding

Americans are fortunate that our religious freedom is protected by this "wall of separation." In a recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study, researchers found that over a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion. While the majority of Americans are of the Christian faith, this does not mean the United States is or should be a Christian nation. Freedom of religion in the United States extends to all people of all faiths and protects the right of all people to pursue their individual forms of religion without coercion or endorsement by government.