Thread: America: Founded as Christian Nation?

I have recently watched Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity (who has done it a bunch) argue on their shows that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation, and their entire argument hinges on the fact that the Declaration of Independence says that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were "endowed" by the "creator". They take those words and leap to the conclusion that Christianity is supposed to be all over the law. They are way off.

First of all, the "creator" is not said in there to be the God in Christianity or any other god. The Tao, nature, or the fundamental field of physics could be the creator as far as that vague word goes. Plus, saying that whatever the creator might be is the basis for our rights does not automatically imply that imposing the creator on the public should be in the laws themselves. So there is no real basis for the idea that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation.

On top of that, the Constitution flat out forbids government sanctioned religion (as Xox quoted), at least on the federal level. Most importantly, the reason the U.S. was established in the first place was for people to GET AWAY FROM the imposition of Christianity by the monarchy of England. The founders did not believe the government has any business telling its people what religion to follow (and because of the "taxation without representation" of the British colonies in North America). That is why the country exists!

So no, emphatically no, the United States was not founded as a Christian nation. Christians today (not all) are trying to retroactively found the United States as a Christian nation. Fortunately, they are part of a dying religion that will soon be widely referred to as a mythology and will never get their way.