1) We all know that polls can often be designed/skewed to give whatever poll results the pollster wants. We’ve seen this in other polls (one whose results are generaly disagreeable to indivuduals here). So lets not overhype the results of this poll.
2) The results of some poll, even if accurate, don’t and shouldn’t have any bearing on what the Constition actualy says and means .... we are a Constitutional Republic....not a direct democracy..... and that’s a good thing.
3) I (and I’m agnostic) would tend to agree with the poll depending upon how they actualy interpert the question.
- Almost all of the Founders and citizens of this nation when it was formed were Christians of one flavor or another, even if only loosely so in some cases. No doubt, that thier faith helped shape PART of the beliefs and values they intended to imbue in thier new nation....and they expected that both the heritage and culture of this nation would reflect the values of it’s inhabitants.
Note, that I stressed PART. Remember that the monarchies back in Europe that our Founders rejected were ALSO thoroughly christian nations... and thier values, laws and customs also thoroughly reflected that faith.
- It is also abundantly clear that our Founders and early citizens had a VERY healthy distrust for the excercize of government power over the individual and the excesses that could result for it, this included ESPECIALY the religious sphere. One has only to look at the religious turmoil that gripped Europe in the years leading up to the Revolution.... and the violance and repression that it gave rise to in order to understand the sound basis for such distrust. Don’t forget that many colonies were origionaly founded by refugees from Europe fleeing religious repression.
- It is abundantly clear that the Founders never intended Christianity (of any dinomination) to become an official religion of the State. They pretty much intended, government avoid interfereing (either positively or negatively) to any great extent with the religious practice and beliefs of individuals..... as they intended it to refrain from interfering to any great extent in so many other aspects of the private lives of it’s citizens. Thus I don’t think, they intended America to be a “Christian Nation” in the same vein that many here would wish it to be..... and for that I am profoundly thankfull.
“Thus I don’t think, they intended America to be a “Christian Nation” in the same vein that many here would wish it to be..... and for that I am profoundly thankfull.”
Why do you think that for the first 200 or so years of this nation, there was prayer in schools, the Bible used to teach reading in earlier days, Christmas plays, Nativity scenes all over, and the commandment to keep the sabbath holy recognized in law in most every state?
All those things were practiced until the 1970s or so, until atheists and others found judges who’d rule them unconstitutional. What do you think the practices on such matters were while the founders still lived, your being so certain of what the intended? Maybe the practices of their day is the best reflection of what they intended.
Actually, the first amendment reads “Congress shall pass no law...”, and there is a reason for this wording. At the time of ratification, some states had official religions. For example, Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers, Maryland by Catholics. What the first amendment did was to bar the federal government from imposing one strain of Christianity on all the states.
The plain meaning of the first amendment became corrupted by activist courts in the 20th century. They decided to use the language of the 14th amendment (written for the protection of former slaves) to apply the restrictions the bill of rights placed on the federal government against the states as well. This is called “incorporation”. The first amendment, which protected the states’ right to have state religions, became re-interpreted to deny states any right to recognize religion at all - especially Christianity.