Posted on 03/17/2015 4:43:54 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
Amendment Center showed that 55 percent of Americans believed it already was one.
The confusion is understandable. For all our talk about separation of church and state, religious language has been written into our political culture in countless ways. It is inscribed in our pledge of patriotism, marked on our money, carved into the walls of our courts and our Capitol. Perhaps because it is everywhere, we assume it has been from the beginning.
But the founding fathers didn’t create the ceremonies and slogans that come to mind when we consider whether this is a Christian nation. Our grandfathers did.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Of course, it has always been an athiest nation.
/s/
(brought to you by brilliant, intellectual, all-knowing, messianic humans who are all powerful and omniscient.)
IMHO
The Founding Fathers lived in a country that was overwhelmingly Christian. The Fathers decided not to try to choose a particular denomination -- they did not want any particular church to be a national, government-approved church. But they knew they lived in a Christian nation. It was all around them. It was so obvious, they didn't need to say anything about it.
But now it has almost all slipped away.
Well, officially since 1892, when the United States Supreme Court held we were a Christian nation.
Here’s the part of the beginning that got cut off:
AMERICA may be a nation of believers, but when it comes to this country’s identity as a “Christian nation,” our beliefs are all over the map.
Just a few weeks ago, Public Policy Polling reported that 57 percent of Republicans favored officially making the United States a Christian nation. But in 2007, a survey by the First Amendment Center showed that 55 percent of Americans believed it already was one.
Most of the founding stock were Christians. Most of the Founders were not.
And the Constitution is not a Christian document.
People weren't coming here for an easy life. They weren't coming here to get rich.
People came here in very large part because they wanted to worship God in accordance with their own beliefs, without having a King force them to do this or that. There were Quakers and Puritans and all sorts of people -- but they were overwhelmingly Christian. America was the land for Christians to worship God in freedom.
More than anything else, that is what America was founded upon.
Amen.
The man is a self hating libtard who thinks is smarter than everyone else in the room. His confusion comes from his hard hatred of the south. He tries to tie conservativism to the ‘white power structure’ of post war southern states. What a joke apparently the idiot forgot that the dems and the klan were tied at the hip during those years and accounted for the types of things he complains about
The first Pennsylvania State Constitution was in 1776 and was considered the basis for the U.S. Constitution and our Bill of Rights. It stated that we have freedom of religion to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of our own consciences, but it also required that our elected state representatives give the following oath in order to take office and this oath required they affirm belief in the Old and New Testaments:
“SECT. 10. A quorum of the house of representatives shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of members elected; and having met and chosen their speaker, shall each of them before they proceed to business take and subscribe, as well the oath or affirmation of fidelity and allegiance hereinafter directed, as the following oath or affirmation, viz:
I do swear (or affirm) that as a member of this assembly, I will not propose or assent to any bill, vote, or resolution, which stall appear to free injurious to the people; nor do or consent to any act or thing whatever, that shall have a tendency to lessen or abridge their rights and privileges, as declared in the constitution of this state; but will in all things conduct myself as a faithful honest representative and guardian of the people, according to the best of only judgment and abilities.
And each member, before he takes his seat, shall make and subscribe the following declaration, viz:
I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and the punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration.
And no further or other religious test shall ever hereafter be required of any civil officer or magistrate in this State.”
So you not only could not be an atheist, you HAD to be a CHRISTIAN. The constitution was passed in September, 28 1776 and was signed by Benjamin Franklin.
Here is a link: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/pa08.asp
Disingenuous.
The Government is not a Christian government. That is understood.
But when people say "nation", the traditional meaning of that word is "people". The people who lived in the 13 colonies were Christian. The nation was Christian. The government was established for reasons of liberty. The government was not focused on "being Christian". But the nation surely was.
Remember the movie, the Wizard of Oz (1939)? Remember Kansas, which was depicted as the heart of America in that movie?
Remember Auntie Em? Remember that SHE was a Christian? Why did they mention that? They mentioned it because it was something that pretty much all American audiences could relate to.
Even as a kid in the 1950s, I could relate to it, and my family was Jewish!
Auntie Em states the fact of her Christian faith.".
How well would it have connected with American movie audiences if she had said: "I'm an atheist." Or "I'm a Muslim?" OR even "I'm a Jew."
And don't even get me started on Elvis Crying in the Chapel.
It is impossible to read almost anything about America before 1990, or observe pretty much any expression of mainstream culture, and not draw the conclusion that America was fundamentally a Christian nation.
Not true that most founders were not Christian.
Yes, I think that's what I said.
Yes. If you emphasize the word "was", that is certainly true.
Well, it's KINDA true.
Calling New England Universalists and Deists "Christians" is really stretching the definition.
I am not going to go through the history manuals, but sure - you had Jefferson and Franklin who were Deists, but as you noted the vast majority of the people who founded this Country AND the people who we call the Founding Fathers (e.g., Patrick Henry, George Washington, John Adams, etc) were Christians.
they need to buy a history book.
Shortly after the Senate first convened in April 1789 in New York City, one of its “first orders of business” was to convene a committee to recommend a Chaplain, selecting the Right Reverend Samuel Provoost, Episcopal Bishop of New York.
The first prayer in Congress happened in 1774 - Continental Congress.
And, for those who actually look, Christianity is written into the assumptions of the US Constitution.
For example, it has “The Year of Our Lord” written out as the date.
It also includes “Sunday” as a day not to be counted when factoring days the President has to veto a bill.
Some don’t, but I also include the notion of “pardon” which is ingrained in Judeo-Christian ideology (”Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.)
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