Graham Glass, etc.

Was America founded as a Christian Nation?

There is a common misconception that the US was founded as a Christian Nation. For a clear and well-documented history of the truth, check out this article.

Highlights include:

• Many of the founding fathers, including Jefferson, Madison, Washington, Adams and Franklin were either deists or atheists.
• The US Constitution makes no reference whatsoever to Christianity.
• The Treaty of Tripoli, which was passed unanimously by Congress in 1796, includes the phrase "As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion..."

So I assume it's primarily for political purposes that John McCain believes otherwise:

Religion and the Founding Fathers

After getting involved a little in the recent debate about Intelligent Design, I decided to do some related research about the founding fathers and their views on religion.

I was quite surprised to read that many of the famous fathers, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin , were Deists and not Christians. In addition, the first six presidents of the US were either Deists or Unitarians.

The articles here, here, here and here provide evidence for this. In addition, there's an interesting debate here that provides points for and against the founding fathers being predominantly Christian.

This kind of information is particularly useful if you want to have an informed opinion on whether the Pledge of Allegiance is constitutional.