First, I need to apologize for not posting for a little bit. It was the weekend and then I had some dental work on Monday. Needless to say, I haven’t really been in the mood to type or even think of anything to write.

I must start by saying that this is a heavily debated topic, and I kn ow that it will either come under critical praise or criticism. To me, though, it is evidently clear that the United States is in fact a secular country. Obviously, that does not mean the United States doesn’t have religion. Quite frankly, it has more than it should. What I mean by saying the United States is a secular country is that our country is not founded on a specific set of religious values. Within the last few years, there seems to have been a resurrection of the idea that the United States is a Christian nation.There has been an unfortunate wave of Christian conservatism that has been embraced by a lot of people in this country and although it may be a minority, the people who are of this Christian conservative school of thought are in high and important places. The most recent controversy in the news is the CEO and owner of “Chick-fil-a” Dan Cathy making this statement: “The biblical definition of the family unit” and that he prays “God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is about.” Now, obviously I am not calling the CEO of “Chick-fil-a” a powerful and influential person, but it’s controversies like this, that bring the issue of religion and faith in the United States into the public domain. I have already touched on some of the issues regarding gay rights and marriage in a post and can be found here, http://itdoesnttakecommonsensetoknow.blogspot.com/2012/07/it-doesnt-take-common-sense-to_17.html. That’s not what this post is about. Although the issues regarding gay rights and the religious and political oppression are important, this post’s focus is about emphasizing the fact the United States is not a Christian nation founded on Christian values, nor in any way intends to represent the values of Christianity.

Lets start with a pretty popular argument that seeks to prove the United States is a Christian nation. “The founding fathers were all Christian and founded this country and wrote our constitution using Christian values.” Now I can’t overstate how wrong that statement actually is. If you think that statement sounds wrong or made up here is a quote from Sarah Palin “Lest anyone try to convince you that God should be separated from the state, our founding fathers, they were believers”. How about Rick Perry: “America is going to be guided by some set of values…The question is going to be, ‘Whose values?'” He said it should be “those Christian values that this country was based upon.” Now I guess those aren’t the fairest examples of politicians who think the United States is founded on Christian values but the fact is one was a front-runner for the GOP nomination and the other was an ex-vice presidential candidate. Those quotes just highlight the people who persist in delusion and hold positions of power. The problem with the statement about the founding fathers and the Constitution is that they are simply not true. They are misguided and ignorant of the truth.

If we can focus just on the Constitution, it is evident to anyone who has actually read the document that it is in no way shape or form a religious document. I think that this is more than clearly evident by the wording and implementation of the first amendment of the Constitution. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The key part is obviously, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. These are the first words of the Bill of Rights. In fact, that is the only time religion is even mentioned in the Constitution. The words God and Christianity are never mentioned. You would think that if the framers of the Constitution felt that Christian values were important to the establishment of this country and the Constitution itself, they might have mentioned something about it within the document. The truth is that the United States Constitution is one of the most truly secular founding documents ever written. I find it insulting when anyone claims that the Constitution is based on Christian values because it is just simply ignorant to even believe that. The best way to prove to me that you have not read the Constitution is to say that it was written using Christian values.

Moving on to the next part of the argument which is: “Our founding fathers were religious men”. Now, I will concede that many of our founding fathers were religious men. Yes, some of them were very Christian, but all of them, being children of the Enlightenment, knew that separating religious values and ideas from government was paramount. They knew that power based on religious tyranny and oppression has not worked and will never work. They saw religion as an important expression of freedom, but that means all religions not just the Christian sort. Below is a list of quotes from the “highly religious” founding fathers and you be the judge about their faith, and if they wanted the United States to be a christian nation. “The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs.” –Letter to James Smith, Thomas Jefferson

-The religion-builders have so distorted and deformed the doctrines of Jesus, so muffled them in mysticism’s, fancies and falsehoods, have caricatured them into forms so monstrous and inconceivable, as to shock reasonable thinkers, to revolt them against the whole, and drive them rashly to pronounce its Founder an imposter. Had there never been a commentator, there never would have been an infidel.” — Jefferson’s Letter to Timothy Pickering, Thomas Jefferson

-“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” -in Poor Richard’s Almanac, Benjamin Franklin “When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, ’tis a sign, I apprehend, of it’s being a bad one.” Benjamin Franklin

-“In the affairs of the world, men are saved not by faith, but by the lack of it.” Benjamin Franklin

-“Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?” -letter to Thomas Jefferson, By John Adams “I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved– the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!”-letter to Thomas Jefferson, By John Adams -“God is an essence that we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there will never be any liberal science in the world.” John Adams -“Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.” Thomas Paine -“We do not admit the authority of the church with respect to its pretended infallibility, its manufactured miracles, its setting itself up to forgive sins. It was by propagating that belief and supporting it with fire that she kept up her temporal power.” Thomas Paine -“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.” John Adams -“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.” Thomas Paine I would like to be fair on this issue, but the evidence is glaring. There is nothing you can show me that would prove that the founding fathers weren’t atheists, deists, and agnostics. These men understood religious oppression and tyranny and sought to ensure that the country they founded would not have that. They were children of the Enlightenment, and understood the importance of having a secular document that ensured religious freedom without the document itself perpetuating a religious agenda. The Constitution of the United States is crafted so beautifully that it infuriates me when people, who have never read it, try to manipulate it to suit their religious ignorance, and seek to use it for their own political gain. Now, many people have become alarmists about conservative Christians and religious extremists. These people are simply crazy. They will have their fifteen minutes, express their ignorance and get lost in shuffle with everyone else. Many atheists and agnostics look down at people who have faith because of the few extreme and crazy, and that is wrong. It is not a religion’s fault for the actions and words of a few. Unfortunately, it is the loudest and most extreme who get the publicity. Not every Christian in this country thinks that America was founded on Christian values or should be based on Christian values. The United States is a great nation not because of its faith, but its lack of faith. Because we are one of the few countries in the world whose founding document seeks to ensure the freedom of all religions and does not establish a specific faith to be its own. People can have whatever opinions they want, but that doesn’t mean they are right and that certainly doesn’t mean they should be law.

Written by: Salvatore Pezzino Jr.

Edited by: Julius Motal