Do you think America is a christian nation?

Question

Do you think its good/bad that it is/isn't?

Answer 1

Is it founded as a Christian Nation FOR Christians?....ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Is it predominantly Christian?...yes


-Surely some Christian will come along and say something utterly ridiculous like "It says In God we Trust on our money", or "Our pledge says, One Nation Under God!".....which is truly sad. Neither of these things mention WHICH GOD!!!!! And they certainly do NOT make reference to the Christian God!!!!!

Answer 2

Here's what Thomas Jefferson had to say about that:

The 'Wall of Separation':
Believing that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign 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.
-- Thomas Jefferson, to Danbury Baptists, 1802 This was used again by Jefferson in his letter to the Virginia Baptsits, and was several times upheld by the Supreme Court as an accurate description of the Establishment Clause: Reynolds (98 US at 164, 1879); Everson (330 US at 59, 1947); McCollum (333 US at 232, 1948)

... the common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were yet pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard the name of Christ pronounced or knew that such a character existed.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Major John Cartwright, June 5, 1824

Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814, responding to the claim that Chritianity was part of the Common Law of England, as the United States Constitution defaults to the Common Law regarding matters that it does not address. This argument is still used today by "Christian Nation" revisionists who do not admit to having read Thomas Jefferson's thorough research of this matter.

Edit: Since Carson123 mentioned David Barton, I thought this might interest you:

What a lot of Atheists don't know is that many of these "great" quotes are fabricated and disseminated just like every other urban legend email you get about Big Foot, the godly banana, and the missing girl with leukemia.
David Barton is a Christian fundamentalist from the WallBuilders group. He wrote a book full of quotes from the Founding Fathers that really took the Atheist's take on the foundation of this country to task. Many people jumped to do the research to find out the validity of these quotes. Firms devoted to Madison and Jefferson became involved, universities got involved and ultimately the Library of Congress was the final resting place for these quotes.
David Barton was cornered and he admitted to fabricating the quotes, okay he actually called them "spurious," but we all know that means he made them up. He was ordered to create a pamphlet that listed all his bogus quotes. Unfortunate that pamphlet has had almost zero impact on those use the quotes daily in newspapers around the United States.

Answer 3

Maybe. Maybe not. Look at the work of Mark Noll. That may shed much light on the debate. He wrote a good called "The Search for Christian America" with a few other authors that look at this issue. The attempt to sort out all of the information with primary documents. It is very balanced writing.

Whether it is good or bad may, humanly speaking is up to the person who makes that judgment. For me, as a Christian, I would say good....if it is truly Christian. I would in that, if it seeks to bring others to an eternity that is secured in Christ in a non-forcible manner and seeks to help others, then yes. But there needs to be a balance and not the convert or die mentality of supposed "holy" nations of the past, both the Muslims and Christians that sought to convert in such a manner were wrong and did not get true, sincere converts in many cases. To analyze this aspect, I would recommend John MacArthur's "Can God Bless America?"

Answer 4

The United States Constitution does not mention "God", nor "Jesus", nor "Christ", nor "Christian, nor "creator", nor anything like that.

The topic of religion in general is raised twice. The first time is in Article VI, and reads "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States".

The second time is of course the First Amendment, which reads "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 press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances".

Therefore the USA is not a Christian nation in any official sense. I believe that to be a very good thing, of course.

Answer 5

I think America is basically a Christian nation but since people like Bush distort the true meaning of being a Christian, I don't think it's a good idea.

Answer 6

We started out as a Christian nation, back when our forefathers started it. I'm sad to say that through the last few centuries, our country has slipped into a heathen country by allowing so many bad things to happen, Prayer was taken out of school, thanks to an atheist and the ACLU; feminists stirred the pot in the 60's and basically told women they weren't complete by being wives and moms--a lie of the devil, so look what happened, women were no longer respected, protected, and divorces ran amok. All because women no longer thought that doing what God intended for us, being a help meet for our husbands wasn't enough. Then, we started allowing abortions, after all, a child is not a child until its born, right? Who cares if you rip a baby from his momma's womb and bash its head in, a woman has rights , remember? Let us not forget some states allow "gay marriages" now. How long will God be patient with us and shed his grace on us? America is no longer a Christian nation; she only is when something bad happens. That is appalling, America needs a revival and it needs to happen soon. It saddens me to see how far my country has fallen into sin.

Answer 7

No, it's not and it never will be, unless the higher-ups decided to ignore the Constitution.

Many Christians wish to turn this country into a Christian nation, which would violate what this country was founded upon: diversity.

It's a good thing that this country isn't dictated or dominated by any one religion because if that happened we would become another Middle East.

Answer 8

Most Americans used to be Christian, but that doesn't mean our nation is based on the Christian religion. I hope more of my fellow citizens become polytheists, and I would also resist the government if it decided to base our nation on polytheist values. Our government should not have any 'state church'. The religious views of the lawmakers will probably influence how they conduct the business of law-making, that's unavoidable, but any kind of obvious promotion of one theology over another is un-Constitutional and un-American. The majority of the American citizens are Christian. You could say this means we are a nation of Christians, mostly, and you would be right. I would like to see other religious and spiritual expressions become more common place among my fellow Americans.

Answer 9

No, it's not. It's just a nation with a lot of Christians.

If you disagree, tell me ONE thing this country has in it's laws (good ideas, not bad ones like slavery, racism, discrimination, or blue laws) that came ONLY from the Christian religion. Can't think of anything? So why is this a christian nation? It's not.

Answer 10

America is predominantly populated by christians. However, America is not a christian nation. America was founded on the principles of religious freedom, which include the freedom from religion.

There is a clear separation of church and state in the US constitution, and that is a good thing.

Answer 11

It was based on a Christian nation. But its not a Christian nation anymore.