I know this thread might be considered dead, as the last post was some time ago, but I'm posting to wind anyway.
There is quite a bit of misinformation on the web, as both sides of this argument will agree-the disagreement comes when we pick which tidbits to believe and which to discard.
For example, the Jefferson Bible:
In a letter to John Adams dated October 13, 1813, Jefferson discussed
the moral teachings of Jesus, and described what would need to be
done in order to extract the "pure principles which he taught." He then
goes on to say,
"I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse
by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is
evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a
dunghill. The result is an octavo of forty-six pages, of pure and
unsophisticated doctrines, such as were professed and acted on by the
*unlettered* Apostles, the Apostolic Fathers, and the Christians of the
first century." ME 13:390
Source of last two paragraphs: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7842/archives/jefbib04.htm
No mention of making it for the Indians as posted earlier; but it was not an anti-Christian act either.
The trouble is, researching what's being said from reliable sources can take hours, and then what is said is dismissed with a wave of the hand (cursor?). The fact is, Thomas Jefferson, the man who believed all men were endowed with certain rights, owned slaves (Jesus, by the way didn't have a problem with slave ownership either). Jefferson believed in God, but not the organized church (he had a deep mistrust for clergy). Don't ask me to support this, just read what he wrote - not just a quote page - it's out there. He, like all of us, was a complex human being, and sometimes he was contradictory (as we all can be).
Arguing over how many of our forefathers where Christians is not the point - that's the past. The question is: Where do we go from here? Otherwise, I could argue that many of our forefathers owned slaves, including the man who would not be king - George Washington - and that we are a nation founded on slavery, and we should return to that institution (some, of course, do believe this, but usually not out loud).
I know some of you think all liberals ought to be deported to a communist third world country, but that would be truly un-American, as we are supposed to be a nation capable of free-thought and expression. Also, liberals have done some good: human rights in this country has improved greatly because liberals (as well as some conservative Christians!) - in the good Christian south, 50 years ago, to be black was to be non-human by most white thinking (I lived through the civil rights movement - I saw the violence against blacks first hand, my wife was there when the National Guard desegregated her high school - the hate in the air was as think as cream). Intolerance breeds hatred.
Not all liberals take recreational drugs, or believe in communism, or are atheists, just as all Christians arent racists, arrogant, or overcome by a sense of persecution. To believe either of those things is prejudice. If you cant see past the label, youll never see the humanity. Let me live my life. Do not try to convert me, and I will let you worship your god(s), as long as that worship doesnt infringe on others rights. We dont have to have a label of Christian Nation to do that - we simply need to accept each other.
A note on McCarthy: With little if any proof of his charges, McCarthy relied on accusation, slander and innuendo to tarnish his opponents' reputations (a practice now known as "McCarthyism"). In 1954, televised hearings allowed millions to view McCarthy's methods for the first time, sparking a public backlash and official censure. He died at the age of 49 of complications related to alcoholism. [http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/bios/31.html]
The American public viewed the television broadcasts of this mans methods and stopped him from hurting more people. If our country is so great, if our form of government so desirable, why are some of you worried about communism taking over? The people will reject it if democracy is the better choice, just as the people will reject secularism if your religion is the better answer. What I sense is a fear of giving people a choice - and that is un-American.
I choose democracy (this Republic).
As a side note, crime is currently at a 40 year low, and life was never as good as you think it was.
Lastly, creating a Christian nation does not mean we are a good nation. I leave you with this quote (yeah, I know, but I told you, I can be contradictory, too):
My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before in the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.... When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom to-day this poor people is plundered and exploited.
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech on 12 April 1922
Even a religion of love can be corrupted into something evil when interpreted in the wrong mind.