I've heard this said often on this forum, but I'm not sure what it means. I'm not interesting in the "Appeal to Tradition" fallacy that says, "If that's how it was, it's how it should be." I'm wondering if the nation was Christian or the founders were?
2006-12-21 05:54:29 · 33 answers · asked by Eleventy 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Many of the founders were Christians, and many were not.
The nation has never been Christian, and the Constitution makes that crystal clear. To claim otherwise is both dishonest and anti-American - it reduces the U.S. to the level of the Taliban.
The United States has freedom of religion. The founding fathers were very explicit in their guarantee of that freedom.
2006-12-21 05:57:29 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 0⤋
Some of the founders were Christian, some were not. One thing that was very important to all of them was that the United States be a country were All religious views be tolerated and that the government stay out of religion. The religions of the individuals who founded this country is irrelevant! The was no intent for it to be a Christian (or any other religion) country.)
2006-12-21 06:04:47 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
The founders were Deists, meaning they believed in God but fled to America to escape religious persecution. So, like contemporary America, some were Christian and some were not. I expect that the founders who were Christians brought their Christian traditions to the table when it came to making laws. People of other faiths and cultures brought their experiences with them. So the answer to your question of whether America was founded on Christianity depends on your point of view. I believe it was founded on many things, of which Christianity was an important part.
2006-12-21 06:05:34 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Nope. I took an American Religion class a year ago, and the information was surprising! While some of the states were strictly religious, not all of them were.
You will find some documents that have the word "God" in them and such, but you should keep in mind the writing styles and rhetoric of the time. Everything must be kept in context.
Some people try to use the George Washington prayer book as evidence for the Christian founding of our country, but that book was fabricated later. Also, Thomas Jefferson was most likely a Deist, and he even redacted his own Bible by taking the "magical" elements out of the text.
As for the "In God we Trust" on the money, and "one nation under God" in the Pledge, those were both added during the 1950s! They were added to insult Communists and Atheist. Before that, the money was secular because the National Motto was something in Latin that had nothing to do with God.
2006-12-21 06:00:17 · answer #4 · answered by Mrs. Pears 5 · 4⤊ 2⤋
Most of the founders were men of faith (though certainly not all orthodox Christians, as the Religious Right would have us believe), but they also clearly believed that one's faith is a very personal matter, something that should be left to each individual and his conscience. Acting on this belief, they constructed specific protections within the framework of the Constitution to insure that each person remains free to choose his own method of worship.
It is patently false to say that the U.S. Constitution was based on the Ten Commandments. It was a deliberately secular document that names "We the People" as the basis of all authority, not God. Wise men, those founding fathers.
Chieromancer: "The Declaration of Indecency speaks of God."
Interesting parapraxis--"Declaration of Indecency." Actually, the Declaration of Independence speaks "Nature's God" and "Divine Providence."
Chieromancer: "Yes, many where Deists, that does not make them not Christian."
That's correct. Some deists also considered themselves Christians, just as many Freemasons did. Thomas Jefferson, for example, considered himself a Christian but rejected the divinity of Jesus. It was his view that Jesus himself never claimed to be God or even the Son of God and that his followers had misrepresented his message and embellished the events of his life with magical feats.
2006-12-21 05:59:04 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Some were, but most were not. In fact, the majority were Deists. However, that does not mean that they did not have a basic respect for the rights of people to choose for themselves. Regardless of how Xians try to spin it, god was never intended to be part of public policy.
President Thomas Jefferson from a letter to President John Adams dated April 11, 1823:
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."
I could go on, but what would be the point? The truth is obvious to anyone who wants to see it. Too bad some people would rather stick their heads in the sand.
2006-12-21 05:57:54 · answer #6 · answered by jaden404 4 · 4⤊ 2⤋
The founders were Christians.I think the majority of them were.I think that was all there was at the time besides what the Indians believed.They were here first.You might be surprised how much the stories of the end times seem so similar.Those folks didn't have the resources for information like we do now.
I haven't really studied into that question very much,so it's merely speculation.
2006-12-21 06:01:28 · answer #7 · answered by Derek B 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Our founding people WERE a religious Christian people. I can't believe some of the posters in here say differently. They should study history.
Our people came here to escape religious oppression. They wanted to be able to worship God as they chose.
Many of our monument in Washington have scription chisled into the stome somewhere on the structures
They came to have freedom OF religion
not freedom FROM religion
Our leaders the past 40 years have turned this all around and we have let them............shame on us.
It's time to take back our country
We've were a great nation for 200 years, I believe because we followed God.
WQe've gone down as a country tremdously the past 40 years and I believe will continue to decline unless we allow Him back into our lives.....
2006-12-21 06:11:57 · answer #8 · answered by kenny p 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The pilgrims came to this country for religious reasons and their religion being Christianity there seems to be a misconception that America was founded on Christianity. America is founded on dollar.
2006-12-21 06:01:39 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
The Founding Fathers (including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin) were Deists, not Christians. Both Jefferson and Franklin made it very explicit in letters that they denied the divinity of Jesus. Washington attended (Episcopalian I think) church, but refused communion because he did not believe in it.
Some of the early colonies were established to provide havens for religious groups (Massachusetts for the Puritans, Rhode Island for the Baptists, Maryland for the Catholics), so in that respect, that could be true.
Edit: Note to below, I am a Deist. Deists are NOT Christians.
2006-12-21 05:58:25 · answer #10 · answered by The Doctor 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋