Is America a Christian Nation?
On this day of celebrating the National Day of Prayer, I wanted to begin a new (respectful!) thread on the subject of whether or not America is / was intended to be a Christian nation.
For the sake of context, I am an evangelical Christian. But I believe that many times when “proof” is offered that the founding fathers were Christian (in the same we want to understand the term), their respective quotes are taken out of context.
So I’ll start the discussion with this statement. While I’m not so sure that many of the founding fathers were “Christian” in the same way I might parse that term, I clearly believe that they intended this country to be founded upon Christian principle and reliance upon God (Jehovah). And I think we have grounds to believe that religious liberty was at the top of their list of priorities in making a break from mother England.
Your turn.
May 1, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I always wonder what are the Christian principles the country was founded on? A republic form of government is Greek.
May 1, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Welcome to the blog, Bob.
The point I was making, maybe not very well, is that from the myriad of quotes from the founding fathers that I’ve read (and there are LOTS of these available), they intended for the country to be founded upon Christian principles. These men unapologetically encouraged prayer to the Judeo-Christian God and affirmed Christianity as a religion superior to any other. That’s all I was saying.
May 1, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I think people cherry pick quotes of the founding fathers to get the results they want. Some of the founding fathers definitely wanted a Christian Nation most notably Patrick Henry. He wrote and spoke against the constitution because he thought the constitution was doomed because the constitution did not acknowledging God. The majority wanted to keep religion out of the government because of the many religious views and did not want one group to be able to dominate and persecute the other groups as they had seen done Europe. Our constitution was written at the height of the Age of Reason by some of our best read citizens of the day. I think if they wanted to create a Christian Nation they would have at least mentioned God, The Creator, or Jesus in the preamble but they didn’t.
I am still curious about the Christian principals our government is based on.
May 4, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Sorry I’m late in replying, Bob. Got out of town for a couple days.
Yeah, I agree with you that the quotes are taken out of context often (as far as building a CHRISTIAN nation is concerned). In fact, if you look at my original post, I concede that point.
But there’s no way that you can read these quotes and not believe that it was the intention of the founders to build the nation on Christian principle. Our government is not based on these principles. But it’s clear from these quotes (in whatever context you take them) that prayer, the fear of God, and seeking God’s plan / God’s will were VERY important to those who built the foundation of this nation.
May 5, 2008 at 7:32 am
The Pilgrims were a group of people that placed God at the very top of there priority list. The Mayflower Compact is a document that sets up a government that was to be governed by Christian Principles. At the time our constitution was written all government documents such as treaties had extensive language calling up on God. Leaving any mention of God out of the constitution had to have been done to make a political statement. I think most of the founding fathers had a take it of leave it attitude toward God. To many of the founding Fathers are like politicians today. They don’t necessarily believe what they say as long as it pushes there cause along.
May 21, 2008 at 10:54 am
That’s a very thought provoking question. Certainly not all of the founding fathers were born-again believers, but some were and their influence can’t be denied. They were salt and light in our government’s formation. When I first read this blog title, I thought of the question in terms of ‘Are we a Christian Nation right now?’ That would make an interesting discussion as well. Many theologians believe we are a post-Christian nation - and have been for quite some time. The implications of that are heavy - for the church, and for the society.