Posted on 09/14/2007 2:48:36 PM PDT by wagglebee
A majority of Americans believe the nation's founders intended the United States to be a Christian nation, a new national survey revealed.
In the First Amendment Center’s annual survey measuring attitudes toward freedom of religion, speech and press, 55 percent of Americans said they believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. Furthermore, three out of four people who identify themselves as evangelical or Republican agree while about half of Democrats and independents do.
Compared to previous years, more Americans were found to support Christian activities in public schools. Most respondents (58 percent) say teachers in public schools should be allowed to lead prayers, up from 52 percent in 2005. Moreover, 43 percent say public schools should be allowed to put on Nativity re-enactments with Christian music while only 36 percent said so in 2005, according to the survey released Wednesday and titled "State of the First Amendment 2007."
Only 50 percent, however, said they would allow schools to teach the Bible as a factual text in history class, down from 56 percent in 2000.
"While the survey shows Americans highly value religious freedom, a significant number support privileging the religion of the majority, especially in public schools," said First Amendment Center senior scholar Charles Haynes.
Amid concerns from conservative Christians about the secularism of public schools, bestselling author Stephen Prothero, who wrote Religious Literacy, has expressed support for teaching the Bible in schools, saying that it plays a major part in the nation's culture and politics.
"The strong support for official recognition of the majority faith appears to be grounded in a belief that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, in spite of the fact that the Constitution nowhere mentions God or Christianity," Haynes argued in the survey report. "Of course, people define 'Christian nation' in various ways – ranging from a nation that reflects Christian values to a nation where the government favors the Christian faith."
In April, some 4,000 Christians, ranging from evangelicals to Pentecostals and mainline groups, assembled in Virginia Beach, Va., on the 400th anniversary of the first landing of English settlers in America to rededicate the nation to Christ. Christians nationwide believe the nation was founded on Christian roots and pray to revive the land from what they see as moral decay.
Nevertheless, the latest poll doesn't mean a majority favors a "theocracy," said Rick Green of WallBuilders, an advocacy group that believes the nation was built on Christian principles, according to USA Today. Rather, the poll shows that most believe the Constitution reflects Christian values, including religious freedom.
"I would call it a Christian document, just like the Declaration of Independence," he says.
Nearly all Americans (97 percent) say the right to practice one's own religion is "essential" or "important." The right to "speak freely about whatever you want" and the right to "assemble, march, protest or petition the government" are also highly valued by 98 percent and 94 percent of Americans, respectively.
In other findings, 56 percent believe that the freedom to worship as one chooses extends to all religious groups, regardless of how extreme, down from 72 percent in 2000. Twenty-five percent say "the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees," a rebound from the 49 percent recorded the year after 9/11, but up from 18 percent in 2006.
Also, 74 percent would prevent public school students from wearing a T-shirt with a slogan that might offend others; 34 percent think the press "has too much freedom" – the lowest since the survey was first conducted in 1997; and 64 percent could name freedom of speech as one of the five freedoms included in the First Amendment while only 19 percent was able to name religion.
The 2007 survey of 1,003 respondents was conducted by telephone between Aug. 16 and Aug. 26 by New England Survey Research Associates.
And so would every one of the Founding Fathers.
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They did. They also probably intended it to be a Protestant nation.
Maybe Christian-influenced documents (maybe), and they do seem to refer to the Christian God, but calling them Christian documents goes to far--opinion.
I would think that most of them were Protestant and probably favored Protestantism, though there were two Catholics. For certain, none of them opposed the fact that Maryland had a very large Catholic population.
Good points.
bookmark
Where does the Constitution refer to the Christian God?
“A majority of Americans believe the nation’s founders intended the United States to be a Christian nation”
A rare instance where the majority of Americans have it right.
If they were Christian documents, you’d expect them to use the term Christ or Jesus. Rather, they use the term Creator.I believe the documents were based on Judeo-Christian principles, but do not call us a Christian nation, per se.
The founding fathers absolutely built this nation on JUDEO/Christian principles.
It is discouraging in the article that freedom of religion wasn’t one of the First Amendment rights that could be remembered! :(
I agree, but it could also be said that ALL Christian principles are Judeo-Christian principles (though not necessarily Jewish principles for obvious reasons).
There's zero reference to Christianity, with the sole mention of any sort of deity of "In the Year of Our Lord 1787" at the end above the signatures, which is pretty much standard document boilerplate for the times.
When I was in school, Catholic High School, we were taught Biblical History. Not the Bible, in that class, but the history of Biblical times. The reason being is to teach why things were done as professed in the Bible. Good education and helped us understand a lot of things.
Why do people do polls to ask what people’s opinion about a historical fact? It is a fact, not something to ask a bunch of public school educated knuckleheads about.
(Deuteronomy 32:39) 'See now that I, I am He,
And there is no god besides Me;
It is I who put to death and give life
I have wounded and it is I who heal,
And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
(Isaiah 44:6) "Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
'I am the first and I am the last,
And there is no God besides Me.
(Isaiah 44:8) 'Do not tremble and do not be afraid;
Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it?
And you are My witnesses
Is there any God besides Me,
Or is there any other Rock?
I know of none.'"
(Isaiah 45:5) "I am the LORD, and there is no other;
Besides Me there is no God
I will gird you, though you have not known Me;
(Isaiah 45:6) That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun
That there is no one besides Me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other,
(Isaiah 45:21) "Declare and set forth your case;
Indeed, let them consult together
Who has announced this from of old?
Who has long since declared it?
Is it not I, the LORD?
And there is no other God besides Me,
A righteous God and a Savior;
There is none except Me.
They founded a Federal Republic founded on Christian principles. Moreover, it was the states, not the federal government, that were the important part of the early Republic. The federal government was established as an agent of the states to perform a few functions, and the last thing the states wanted was for the federal government to create a national church like the Church of England. The states already had established churches or other religious settlements and didn’t want the federal government interfering. For example, the Congregational Church was the established church in Massachusetts until 1833.
And which of the Founding Fathers would you say was opposed to Christian principles and sought to keep them out of the Constitution?
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