Is America Founded a Christian Nation?

Is America Founded a Christian Nation?
By Will Armstrong

It is exasperating to see a false idea continually promoted as truth, particularly one that insults the God we serve and the country we love. The idea that America liberty is tied to our supposed secular history used to be a fringe idea of liberal radicals but now has become mainstream.

This year the church state controversy was brought to the forefront during the Coons-O’Donnell debate, and the Christian Legal v. Martinez Supreme Court case. During a debate with Chris Coons, Christine O’Donnell asked an audience of law students and professors “where in the constitution is the separation of church and state?” The raucous laughter that broke out in response to the question is typical and sadly revealing of the attitudes and beliefs in our institutes of higher learning. Ms. O’Donnell was of course correct, because the Constitution has no reference to the phrase “separation of church and state”. Pondering the response, you might wonder, have they read the Constitution themselves and if they have, did they think it humorous that its plain meaning should be understood as written? Or did they find it amusing that someone still believes that the Constitution is the highest authority for our laws?

In the Christian legal v. Martinez case a student led Christian organization was denied use of a publicly funded college facility because they refused to accept unrepentant homosexuals as members. The ruling was 5 to 4 in favor of defendant Martinez who represented Hasting College. Justice Alito’s dissent was entirely accurate, he said; “I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that today’s decision is a serious setback for freedom of expression in this country. Our First Amendment reflects a “profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide- open.” What a travesty that the supreme court ruled in favor of the college and not the Christian legal organization. Do they really believe that they are following the founder’s vision by forcing a Christian organization to accept homosexuals as members?
The prevailing belief in our schools is that although there may have been many Christians at the time of our nation’s founding, America was founded a secular nation. Although according to a recent poll 55% of American’s believe that America’s was founded a Christian nation. When discussing America’s founding even a liberal columnist in the New York Times recently admitted that those advocating for a Christian nation “have a bit of history on their side.” This is an understatement!

Pre Revolutionary period

The original settlers didn’t come to this country so they could join a secular society or even primarily for freedom of religion, they came to spread the gospel and be free to practice a purer form of Christianity. They considered the Anglican Church in England to be backslidden and they already had freedom of religion in Holland. Holland had the greatest amount of religious toleration in Europe, what bothered the pilgrims about the Dutch was their lack of fervency toward God. Any questions about this can be answered by reading the Mayflower compact or real stories of the pilgrims. The 1620 Mayflower Compact as read from William Bradford’s personal account says this “Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid”. The Mayflower Compact was not a mere political formality but was considered a sacred covenant between the pilgrims and God. Their stated purpose was to plant a colony for glory of God and the advancement of the Christian Faith.

Nine years later in 1629 the first Charter of Massachusetts said this “For the directing, ruling, and disposeing of all other Matters and Thinges, whereby our said People may be soe religiously, peaceablie, and civilly governed, as their good life and orderlie Conversacon, maie ynn and incite the Natives of the Country to the Knowledg and Obedience of the onlie true God and Savior of Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth”. The clear purpose here was to have a Christian society and to advance the kingdom of God. Succeeding charters for The New Haven colony, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Harvard and Yale Universities all contain similar language”.

Despite the years of effort of liberal revisionists to omit, distort and mislead Americans about their true Christian heritage, the original quotes read in context, speak for themselves. The Christian heritage of this country just won’t go away, because it’s the truth.

Founders Quotes

The Founding Fathers vision was to have Christianity shape the nation and government but leaving the freedom to accept or reject Christ and Christianity with no coercion. The reason for this is biblical in that God wants us to come to Him by choice. They also wanted to avoid a state sponsored Christian denomination where others denominations were prohibited.

George Washington certainly didn’t want a secular nation, he said this in his 1797 farewell address “reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle…Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

John Jay, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court wrote, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers”. He calls America a Christian nation and clearly expects Christianity to play a central role in government.

Thomas Paine is considered to be one of the most unorthodox and radical of the founders in his religious beliefs would have had more in common with the so called religious right than with today’s liberals. When addressing a group of French intellectuals Paine argued that schools must teach science and philosophy with reference to the God who created them. Today the secular ACLU would want Paine’s head on a platter along with the rest of the Founders for daring to express such strong religious convictions in public

Fisher Ames, author of the First Amendment, wrote in 1801 about his concern was that by adding so many new books in schools, there would not be enough time for the Bible, he insisted that the Bible regain pre-eminence in the classroom. He saw no contradiction with his conviction and the first amendment establishment clause and neither did Thomas Jefferson and almost the entire federal government in Washington when they attended church services in the capital building with government paid chaplains presiding. These services continued in the same matter until about the time of the civil war. Jefferson also used federal funds to build churches and promote Christianity among the Indians.

It should seem strange and an outrage that today’s Supreme Court should deny the use of a federally funded college building to a Christian group when the founding Fathers used the capital building for church services. All this is due to a perverted understanding of the establishment clause that the founders certainly did not support. Isn’t it ironic that the liberals think of Jefferson as one of their own! Jefferson would have sickened by today’s liberals and their perverted notions.

Founding Documents

It is true that our founding documents, the declaration of Independence and The Constitution, avoided Christian language most likely to avoid quarrels between the various denominations that existed in the colonies. It was decided that religion was a matter best left to individuals and their local and state governments. The founding documents do contain language that is primarily biblical such as creator, judge, and providence. The Romans and Greeks didn’t have a single all powerful God who created all things. The God of the Deists was the watchmaker God who started things up in the beginning and then was uninvolved in the affairs of men. The Romans, Greeks and Deists had no concept of natural or inalienable rights, this is a Christian concept. The notion of servant leadership prescribed by our Constitution for those holding government offices would have been a foreign idea to the Greeks and Romans; this is primarily a Christian concept. Moreover, the Constitution ends with the citation “In the year of our Lord 1787”.

Some say that the Article V1 religious test ban implies a secular state. At the time when the Constitution was written, many feared that a federal religious test would nullify their existing state test oaths and religious establishments. The unchallenged assumption was that an oath of office itself was a non-sectarian acknowledgment of God, which was considered a religious test of sorts. Many state constitutions contain the language of the Article V1 religious test ban and also the requirement of believing the basic tenets of the Christian faith. The Tennessee Constitution adopted in 1796 had the language of article V1 and also stated that “no person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State." Other states had similar provisions written their constitutions and the Christian requirements implied in the oaths of office were often emphasized at the state ratifying conventions.

School textbook omissions

According to Mary Jones author of the website “Forsaken Roots”; our school textbooks have omitted the following facts; in 1782 Congress voted to have the bible used in all our schools, and that 106 of 108 of our first colleges were Christian.

Also says Jones, in 1963 the U.S. Supreme Court banned this prayer “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee. We beg Thy blessings upon us and our parents and our teachers and our country, Amen." The court offered this justification: "If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could and have been psychologically harmful to children." If this is true and I believe it is, this should be an outrage to every true American, firstly because we sat by and let it happen and secondly because our government appointed such Godless and foolish individuals to our highest courts.

A Christian Nation

Our presidents from George Washington to George Bush have referred to America as a Christian nation; Barack Obama is the first president to publicly to deny this.
Supreme court Justice Brewer declared “this is a Christian nation” in the majority opinion of the 1892 Holy Trinity vs. U.S. case. In 1952 Supreme Court Justice William Douglas wrote the majority opinion in Zorach v. Clauson stating that "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being”.

We as a nation need to reevaluate what America really is, a Christian nation! Moreover, we must understand that our constitution is designed only for a moral and Christian people.