Is the US Supposed to be a Christian Nation?
By Dr. Glenn Cope, Tonkawa Church of Christ
It is common to hear that our country, the United States of America, is not supposed to be a “Christian” nation. Many follow the line of reasoning that has been around for the past 50 years or more that the framers of the Constitution were “irreligious” and did not want to retain any attachment to the Christian religion. Such statements are monstrous perversions of historical facts.
The founding fathers wanted the specifics of religion be left up to the discretion of either the states or the individuals themselves. They did not try to keep religion out of the Constitution, in fact, they specifically mentioned the God of the Bible and Jesus Christ. Their use of “religion” specifically referred to Christianity, not to all world religions.
In the First Amendment, we are told that the government shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof....” So, we are told that our government should not endorse or “establish” any religion. However, that was not the meaning of this amendment. All you have to do is to read the Annals of Congress, 1789, pp. 440 ff, where the meaning of “religion” is discussed. What they meant was the various denominations of the Christian groups.
They wanted to avoid the problems of the Thirteen Colonies where each colony endorsed a specific Christian group and supported one denomination by taxation. In an early draft of the First Amendment the wording was: “no particular sect or society of Christians,” which was shortened to “religion.” By “prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” the authors intended to convey the fact that government was not to interfere with the free and public practice of the Christian religion, which is the very thing that our courts have been doing for over 50 years.
Forty-six state constitutions have preambles and 45 of these contain specific references to and endorse the God of the Bible. By the thinking of many people, 45 of our states’ constitutions are “unconstitutional.”
There was a time in our country when the Bible was important in our schools and important in every aspect of life. If the Bible is correct, which the Founders of American civilization believed it to be, the future of our country is linked with the extent to which we Americans are willing to believe in and support the Bible.
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