"It seems to me that every signer of our declaration of independance ... declared this a theocracy ... "We hold these truths to be self evident. ...It takes a theocracy to get its citizens rights from our crerator." ~ Common Tator
Wrong! Or government is NOT a "theocracy".
"There is a lot of confusion today about whether our history proves that we are a Christian nation.
It’s safe to say that we are not a nation that uses the Bible as our legal text. Otherwise, disbelief in God or sins such as greed and lust would be illegal and punishable by fines or imprisonment.
No, there is no civil law against such things in the United States.
However, it’s also safe to say that our country was founded by professed Christians. From the Pilgrims to the framers of our government, Judeo-Christian principles were not only used as a basis for our law and government, but also were openly proclaimed as necessary to the survival of the new nation.
What’s my proof? The Bible was the most cited book in this country during the late 1700s and early 1800s — in pamphlets, newspapers and political monographs. Scripture accounted for 34 percent of all citations.1 The Rev. John Witherspoon served six years in Congress, and he was, well, a reverend.
President George Washington issued the first proclamation of a national day of thanksgiving, in which he said “it is the duty of all to acknowledge Almighty God” and to “obey his will.” Thomas Jefferson allowed church services to be held in the House of Congress and in the Supreme Court’s chambers.2
Don’t forget about all those prayers prayed before sessions of Congress and the Supreme Court. Every president has included a reference in his inaugural speech a reference to his and our nation’s dependence upon God. “In God We Trust” every time we spend our money.
The Supreme Court in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States (1892) ruled, “No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, State or national, because this is a religious people. … This is a Christian nation.” The Court also said in Zorach v. Clauson (1952): “The First Amendment, however, does not say that in every and all respects there shall be a separation of Church and State. … Otherwise the State and religion would be aliens to each other — hostile, suspicious, and even unfriendly.” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story said, “One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. … There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity necessary to the support of civil society.”3 Inscribed on the Supreme Court’s walls are the Ten Commandments.
The framers of our government echoed French Catholic attorney Charles Secondat de Montesquieu’s recognition of the need for religion, namely Christianity, to be the basis for a legal framework.4 A virtuous republic and true happiness, they believed, came from obedience to God’s laws revealed in nature and Scripture, or the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” as stated in the Declaration of Independence. Our country’s heritage is replete with references to God and faith.
Yet that doesn’t mean that people of other faiths can’t live in the United States. In fact, the Founders believed that only a country founded upon the Christian religion could be tolerant of other religions. People had to tolerate other religions because the government wasn’t given the authority to judge peoples’ hearts and minds, but only our actions. Hence, there could be no law against being Jewish or Islamic or atheist. The judgment of one’s conscience is left up to God.
Are we a Christian nation? I’ll let the evidence speak for itself.
What Is a ‘Christian Nation’? by Rob Regier
Donald S. Lutz, “The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late Eighteenth-Century American Political Thought,” American Political Science Review 189 (1984): 189-97.
James H. Hutson, Religion and the Founding of the American Republic (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1998), pp. 84-92.
Joseph Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, Vol. II, William W. Story, ed. (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851), pp. 8, 92.
“The Christian religion, which ordains that men should love each other, would without doubt have every nation blest with the best civil, the best political laws; because these, next to this religion, are the greatest good that men can give and receive.” Montesquieu, Spirit of Laws, Vol. II (Philadelphia: Isaiah Thomas, 1802), pp. 125-6.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/620843/posts?page=122#122