On 7/25/2015 12:55 PM, Julie Bove wrote:
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> > wrote in message
One of the many attacks on our country from the Religious Right is the
claim that our country is a Christian Nation...not just that the
majority of people are Christians, but that the country itself was
founded by Christians, for Christians. However, a little research into
American history will show that this statement is a lie. Those people
who spread this lie are known as Christian Revisionists. They are
attempting to rewrite history, in much the same way as holocaust deniers
are. The men responsible for building the foundation of the United
States were men of The Enlightenment, not men of Christianity. They were
Deists who did not believe the bible was true. They were Freethinkers
who relied on their reason, not their faith.

If the U.S. was founded on the Christian religion, the Constitution
would clearly say so--but it does not. Nowhere does the Constitution
say: "The United States is a Christian Nation", or anything even close
to that. In fact, the words "Jesus Christ, Christianity, Bible, Creator,
Divine, and God" are never mentioned in the Constitution-- not even
once. Nowhere in the Constitution is religion mentioned, except in
exclusionary terms. When the Founders wrote the nation's Constitution,
they specified that "no religious test shall ever be required as a
qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
(Article 6, section 3) This provision was radical in its day-- giving
equal citizenship to believers and non-believers alike. They wanted to
ensure that no religion could make the claim of being the official,
national religion, such as England had.

The Declaration of Independence gives us important insight into the
opinions of the Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the power
of the government is derived from the governed. Up until that time, it
was claimed that kings ruled nations by the authority of God. The
Declaration was a radical departure from the idea that the power to rule
over other people comes from god. It was a letter from the Colonies to
the English King, stating their intentions to seperate themselves. The
Declaration is not a governing document. It mentions "Nature's God" and
"Divine Providence"-- but as you will soon see, that's the language of
Deism, not Christianity.