A recent poll shows that 55% of Americans believe that “The Constitution establishes a Christian nation.”
The Constitution established a nation in which religious liberty is to be protected by way, at least in part, of defining the republic's government as non-religious--a government of secular laws. The only place religion is mentioned in the Constitution is by way of prohibiting religious tests for office holders, that is, to determine a citizen's eligibility to hold public office.
Chris Rodda has done a lot of research on notion that America was founded as a Christian nation.
Many of the founding fathers were influenced by deism, including Thomas Jefferson, who was sometimes attacked for this.
John McCain just said in an interview with beliefnet.com that he believes the Constitution established the U.S. as a Christian nation. I'm not sure where he's getting this from, either, but now knowing that 55% of this country agrees with him makes me think there's a lot of people who don't know what the hell the Constitution says.
Posted by: jonesofthenile | October 02, 2007 at 06:46 PM