Is America A Christian Nation Analysis

While America did not have a Christian Founding, it was deeply shaped by Christian moral truths and the Founders created a government that was welcoming to Christians as to practitioners of other religions. ---------

America is not and has never been a Christian nation. The reasons are that it does not state anywhere in the Constitution that we are a Christian Nation, the Founders’ political beliefs would never lead them to support that America was founded as a Christian Nation, and after the Constitution was approved, conservative Ministers attacked it.

The Text of the Constitution Does Not Say the United States Is a Christian Nation. If a Christian Nation had been the founder’s intention they would have put it in the Constitution. Yet in

the Constitution God, Jesus Christ, or Christianity is never mentioned. Not only does the Constitution not mention Christianity, but it also includes Article VI, which bans any religious tests for public office. Meaning non-Christians have the right to hold federal office. If the Nation were built on Christian Founding’s we would only allow Christians to hold a federal office. The Constitution does not declare that the United States is a Christian nation. This fact alone is fatal to the cause of Christian nation advocates.

James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, some of our key founders, were opposed to mixing both the church and the state.

Both Jefferson and Madison came to this disapproval in two different ways. Being well educated in history they both understood how the Christian governments in Europe had destroyed the freedom for the people. They knew of the continuous wars over different Christian religions. They also had both witnessed religious oppression firsthand. Madison fought for church-state separation and religious freedom because he had seen the jailing of ministers. Then Jefferson’s Virginia Statue for Religious Liberty guaranteed religious freedom for everyone. George Washington saw religion as a good and moral behavior but he didn’t necessarily accept all Christian doctrine. Washington is the author of The Letter to Touro Synagogue (1790). In the letter, Washington guarantees the Jews in America that they will enjoy religious liberty not just toleration in the new nation. He envisions a multi-faith society where everyone is free to practice what he or she believes. John Adams was a Unitarian. He rejected the Trinity and the theology of Jesus. He even states that “The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” - John Adams. Alexander Hamilton, writing in “Federalist No. 69,” he explains how the American president differs from the English king. He outlines several key differences between both. He writes “The one has no particle of

spiritual jurisdiction; the other is the supreme head and governor of the national church!” –Alexander Hamilton.
Soon after the Constitution was ratified, conservative ministers began to attack it because it lacked references to Christianity. During the Founding period Ministers knew that the Constitution didn’t announce that the United States as an official Christian nation, which upset them. In 1793, five years after the Constitution was ratified, The Reverend John M. Mason of New York attacked the Constitution. He thought that the lack of reference to God would anger him and that he would “overturn from its foundations the fabric we have been rearing and crush us to atoms in the wreck.” Conservative pastors continued to attack the constitution till the nineteenth century. These pastors knew that the Constitution granted no partiality to Christianity. They thought this to be a flaw.