The Christian Misconception

Every day, people of all ages, genders, and intelligences fool themselves into believing all sorts of false truths. These false truths or misconceptions usually help a person explain something about the world in which we live. The misconception I observe the most explains why the United States is suffering from such economic hardship. The believers of this misconception genuinely believe that the root cause of every issue we are facing in America including job loss, foreclosures, bankruptcy, and high gas prices is morality. Of course when people begin speaking of morality, they really mean religion and by religion they mean Christianity. The misconception that seems to be existing in abundance is that America is a Christian nation, founded on Christianity, and has just recently gone astray.

I do not wish to argue the point of America going astray, any sort of morality issues we may or may not be facing, or the causes or solutions of the issues we are dealing with. While those are certainly issues of merit, I simple want to focus on Christianity and our nation.

Our nation is not now and never has been a Christian nation. Certainly, a large number of our citizens identify themselves as Christian of some variety. It is important to remember that a nation with Christians does not equate a Christian nation. Our Founding Fathers were careful to ensure that this country was formed without a national religion. They did this deliberately, not because Christianity or any other religion is bad, but because things really do work best when the government is kept out of religion. For those who argue that we were founded on religion, I'd like to specifically know where the evidence for this is. The Constitution makes reference to "we the people" not "God" or "Christians". There are no religious references and nothing indicating that this country is of any religious persuasion.

In our constitution, the only references to religion are those that show that our nation does not have an official religion. It specifically states that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust" (Article VI). Even more clearly, the First Amendment of our constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Could it be any clearer? We should be able to stop here; even from the very beginning our Founding Fathers established that we would not establish a religion and anyone could practice whatever religion happens to make their possum say "awesome"!

Additionally, Thomas Jefferson used the phrase, "a wall of separation between church and state," when writing a letter to the Danbury Baptists explaining the First Amendment. This phrase has been coined by many great leaders and used in many Supreme Court cases, upholding the original intent of our founders to keep government and religion separate. I could quote many Supreme Court Justices and Presidents , but for our purposes, I'll stick with our Founding Fathers.

Speaking of our Founding Fathers, many were not the Christian men they are credited to being. While there certainly were many devout Christians, some of the "Big Kahuna" men like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and John Adams were in fact Deists and not Christian. While the personal beliefs of these men have no real bearing on whether this nation was founded on Christianity, I thought it was important to include as those who helped shape this nation would certainly not shape it into something they did not believe in. I could expand on their person views, but will save that for a later time if the need arises.

As far as Christianity and our country, there's blatant evidence in The Treaty of Tripoli (signed in 1797 by John Adams) that we are, in fact, not ruled by religion. Article 11 specifically states;

"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

I cannot possibly see how the intentions cannot be any clearer. Some may ask, "Why do we say 'under God' in our Pledge?" The answer is simple; we didn't until 1954 when it was added under McCarthyism. Others may ask, "What about our money, doesn't it say 'In God we trust'?" The answer to that question is yes it does, but that was only added to paper money in 1956. Our original motto, chosen by our Founding Fathers, is E Pluribus Unum, meaning 'Of Many, One'.

Does all this really matter? Yes and no. In this capacity, I am putting into words some thoughts I have that always seem to surface at the wrong times in discussions. In the grand scheme of things, it is important to maintain the integrity of our country as intended by our Founding Fathers. In doing this, it is of the upmost importance that we keep this in mind when considering new and old laws. For this reason, I firmly believe that morality and religion cannot be a factor in determining these laws. This opens the gates to some of the reasons why I fundamentally may disagree with something on a personal level but would vote "for" it on a political one. Of course, that is a whole new bag of worms for another night.