Why do so many people maintain that the United States is or should be a Christian nation?

Question

John Adams wrote (and George Washington signed) a treaty proclaiming "As the Govt of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..."
Furthermore, many of our founding fathers were deists leaning agnostic.

And please don't retort with a quote from one of our founders including a simple appeal to God. Those quotes are so often misused by defenders of religious bigotry. Even today many outed atheists use the name of god in their work including Stephen Hawking. Also, Einstein invoked the name of god even though he did not believe in a personal god.

Think before you write.

Yes, he did write that--look up the treaty with tripoli, 1797. And before you call me a dummy--what is your educational background?

Answer 1

The government of the US is and should be non-religious, in the sense that religion should never be given the force of law.
Most of the early colonists (later US citizens) were Christians. Many of them came to America so that they COULD practice their religion as they thought right, not to avoid religion. But in order to have this freedom, religion could not be affiliated with the government.
The Constitution was approved mainly by people whose values had been formed by Christianity and the Bible. These values included the right to practice, or not practice, religion as one thought right.
In short, the majority of people were (and are) some kind of Christian, but the government is not religious at all.

Answer 2

Well said. While most people at the start of the US were Christians the Founding Fathers were all too aware of the dangers of theocracy and crafted the Constitution to keep religion out of the government and that the government was to be secular. It has worked out fabulously but most Christians "just don't get it" and never will. Fortunately most elected officials are smarter than the people they represent. The Bushies and neo-cons did their best to pack the supreme court with theocrats but it won't work; anyone remotely smart enough to be on the supreme court is too smart to be a theocrat.

Answer 3

Conservatives and the religious right want to destroy the real America and replace it with a Theocratic government based an Old Testament judgmental and violent God who desires to, as John Adams said, to "whip and crop, and pillory and roast" us.

This is not the first attempt by radical Christians to re-write American history, undermine the US Constitution, and redefine our Government into a theocracy. They tried, but failed, to pass Constitutional amendments towards this end in 1864, 1874, 1896 and 1911.

Today’s conservative Christians openly wish America harm. On 9/11 both Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said that God had brought down the trade towers and killed 3,000 innocent people because he was angry with America. They further stated that America ‘deserved’ what happened on that day.

Radical Islam and fundamentalist Christianity are exactly the same. They share the same history, culture, and beliefs. Even the characters in their Holy books are the same, and Jerusalem is their shared Holy city.

They both worship a brutal and judgmental humanity-hating rape-torture-kill God whose preferred method of dealing with non-believers is genocide, preferably by torture, the ripping apart of limbs, and the whacking-off of heads.

Conservative Christians only hate Islamic terrorists because they are jealous of them. They are jealous that they live under the theocratic rule of their murdering SOB God, while Christians remain frustrated by the civilized and more developed secular democracies of the western nations.

Conservative Christians and Muslims hate the west for exactly the same reason;, and they both want to see the west, and especially the United States, destroyed, and they both want to see the secularists punished via the wrath of their hateful God.

We will never know if JOHN ADAMS was right when he wrote,

•” This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!”

because we likely we never find out.

But we do know that if the Christian religious-right gains control of America, then only terrorists will control the world.

_________________________

Georgiegirl -

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary/bar1796t.htm

It is not a quote per-say, but is an accurate reflection of the Founding Father's beliefs and intentions.

There is a reason that the US Constitution does not contain a single mention of, or reference to, God, Jesus, Christianity, or religion.

__________________________

martha d -

America's government is based ONLY on the US Constitution, not some agreement with an imaginary supreme being living in some make-believe world.

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Gary -

Cut it out with those bogus quotes. You know as well as I do that the right-wing Christian butthead who made them up has admitted to it.

Is it part your faith to knowingly spread lies and falsehoods? It doesn't sound very Christian to me.

Answer 4

usa made of people who all came originaly from a place where they had a god and i guess they just thought they might keep the same one when they got here and that consisted of mainly christian god fearing people the first boats always got a blessing before leaving a harbour to go to america,of course this was all at a time when if you publicly said there is no god you would have been killed for blasthemy.so fear of god not fear of a god but rather the retribution of people who do or do not believe in your god

Answer 5

because they are Christians and we as peopel are egocentric and ethnocentric beings. People always use and misuse quotes, statistics, you name it, to support their side of whatever it is they believe in. Chances are, we would ALL be surprised on something if we could find out the exact truth to everything.

Also, values that are predominantly seen as Christian were the norm for that time. So whether or not the founders actually believed in Christianity, they were in a culture that supported Christian ideals and used those values to support what they were saying. Hence, probably why you have so many Christian quotes by people who didn't really even believe in God. They were as ostracized by the community for not believing in God during that time period as people who are homosexual are today.

Answer 6

The Pilgrims were Christians, they came over to get away from King James who was jailing them for wanting to worship God the way the Bible says. The writers of the Constitution may not have been born again believers but, something tells me (have no idea what) that if they were Agnostic or Atheist, they wouldnt want freedom of religion at all.

Answer 7

People say this because majority of the US is of christian faith. That doesn't mean the US should be declared a christian nation, but considering that this country was built on the belief that the people decide things by voting, then you have to realize regardless of how unfair it would be, majority always rules.

Answer 8

Please ask another question showing the web site you got this info from. There was a time in history when religious freedoms did not exist. The USA was built so religious freedoms could exist. Only problem is there were Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, etc. They came to the USA to be able to have their religious freedom not to have it trampled into the ground or slaughtered because of they way they worshiped. It seems to me Christians are being attacked from all sides, Atheists and Muslims alike.

Answer 9

thats a good question and i ask that all the time but this country isnt christian based never has never will be and i could go to a site right now and get a bunch of info on it if i wanted to but people will claim its a bias site so i wont. when i was in school we where taught that america was based on ideas and morals of all religions that where out there and that the american presidents where not christian not a single one of them where and if it was a christian nation it would be a theoracy nation or a nazi nation if you ask me

Answer 10

Our forefathers came from a country where they were not free to practice religion as they saw fit they wanted seperation between gov and religion to an extint they didn't want religion to be in government so much so that everyone could practice their own way but for the most part they still wanted religion they wanted God or else we wouldn't be one nation under God and we wouldn't In God we trust. our whole government is based around God we pledge allegience to God