Christianity certainly has had a rich history and influence on American history, culture and politics. But is America a ‘Christian Nation?’ Or more specifically, was our country founded strictly ‘by Christians for Christians’? The short answer is no.
Quite a few of the founding fathers were deists, skeptics and freethinkers. Even the ones that were religious were deeply skeptical of the abuses of religion throughout history. In this day and age, one can scarcely imagine the uproar of a president coming out as a skeptic of Christianity as fiercely as Thomas Paine — or even Jefferson or Franklin.
Thomas Paine — whose writings rationalized and energized the independence struggle – -had some interesting things to say about religion. In his pamphlet “The Age of Reason,” he wrote that the Bible is “a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize… mankind.” If this is not enough for you, also in the “Age of Reason,” Paine wrote this: “What is it the New Testament teaches us? To believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.” So why exactly is Glenn Beck a fan of Paine?
To even be a deist at that time — before evolution and cosmology — was probably equivalent to being a radical atheist now. Pre-Darwinian deists didn’t have the luxury of actual physical evidence and well-supported theories to turn to. They doubted the Christian religion based on textual disagreements alone. I find it likely that if they had access to the science and archaeological history that we do nowadays that they would have been — if not Atheistic — at least Agnostic.
This skepticism of religion was built directly into the Constitution. Not only does the Bill of Rights guarantee freedom of religion, it also guarantees freedom from religion — which includes the freedom to believe that all religions are just fictional stories attempting to describe the mysterious nature of the universe. Also Article 6, section 3 of the Constitution, states that “;no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” To follow this rule would be radical in today’s time considering the public’s desire for devout politicians. It is still almost unheard of for someone to be elected to national office without expressing a mainstream religious viewpoint.
Even common sayings about America and God are misleading. According to the Treasury Department’s website, the phrase “In god we trust” was only added to certain coins during the civil war era and was not adopted on all coinage until the 20th century. Also, the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was added in the 1950s during an outbreak of right-wing hysteria –that time it was against communists.
One of the most interesting examples of America’s religion was stated in the Treaty of Tripoli of 1796, a document written in regards to an outbreak of piracy on the Barbary Coast. The treaty specifically addressed America’s relationship to Muslim nations, and in Article 11, stated that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” Not only was the treaty unanimously ratified by the Senate, it was fully endorsed and signed by President John Adams with no public backlash.
