It has been stated many times, especially during elections, that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Statements like these are usually followed by an admonishment to the voters to vote for people that will represent those Christian values. Having representatives that live by Christian values would be preferred to having representatives that live by some other moral code. For example, it would be preferable to have honest, compassionate, self sacrificing representatives (these being the admired general tenets of Christianity). It would not be desirable to have representatives that are dishonest and self serving. And it would also not be desirable to have representatives that live by a philosophy that is antithetical to Christianity, such as Nazism. Given the choice of Billy Graham or Al Capone as president, almost everyone would pick the former. However, the reasons for making such a choice are not because one person would better represent the original intent of the founding fathers. The reason for picking the candidate that represents a higher moral standard is because we feel his decisions would better represent the best interest of the country. We think that all citizens would be better served by representatives with high moral standards. However, consider for a moment if the United States was a nation completely and totally dedicated to capitalism over everything else. If, as a people, all we cared about was getting a piece of the action no matter what the costs to the general welfare of our people, and to our environment. Who would be the candidate of choice then? Fortunately, most U.S. citizens do care about a broad range of issues, and are not completely absorbed with capitalism or some other overriding philosophy. We find that during campaigns the evangelical Christian electorate express a desire for getting back to our roots as a nation, those roots being centered in Christianity. So, is the nation really rooted in Christianity?
How would one define a “Christian Nation”?
This question is at the heart of the issue of whether or not the founders intended the United States to be a Christian nation. How would one define a Muslim nation, or a Jewish nation? We see examples of these today. Iran is a Muslim nation. In Iran ’s constitution it states that Shi'a Islam is the official religion of Iran . The nation is called the Islamic Republic of Iran. The structure of the government is such that all candidates for office must be approved by the Assembly of Experts who are Islamic Scholars. All laws in Iran must follow Islamic law as stated in the Koran. It is pretty obvious that Iran is a Muslim nation. In Israel , the structure of the government is parliamentarian. The legislative body, called the Knesset, is elected in free elections. The “Basic Laws of Israel” define Israel to be a Jewish state. Five other religions are also officially recognized, but each of these are within the “Abrahamic family of religions”. The primary consideration that makes Israel a Jewish nation is that 75 percent of the population is Jewish. At the time of its inception that number was more like 98 percent. One other consideration that would define a nation as a nation of a particular religion is that if, within a nation’s constitution, a law existed which was specific to a particular religion. Or if the laws of that country implicitly assume the people are of a particular religion. For example; within the Basic Laws of Israel it is stated that certain parts of Jerusalem are considered holy sites. This would imply that the government assumes that the population is made up of people that, because of their Judaism, consider these sites holy. So, to define a nation as a nation of a particular religion requires one of the following:
1. That a nation explicitly state its religion in its constitution.
2. That a nation be comprised of a vast majority from a particular religion.
3. That within a nations laws, a particular religion is assumed
Using this standard, can it be stated that the United States was founded as a Christian nation?
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