CHRISTIAN NATION…A FUNDAMENTALIST MYTH

I was again today confronted with the notion that the Founding Fathers conceived the United States as a Christian Nation. Of course there’s nothing in the Constitution, nor the Federalist Papers, remotely linking Christianity to these United States. I was raised a Southern Baptist and still consider myself a Christian, and a true believer, although I don’t claim to be a Southern Baptist any longer. But, growing up, I was led to believe that Christianity and patriotism went hand in hand. This notion is, however, without any foundation outside the claim of evangelical fundamentalism.

Let’s start from the beginning…the United States Constitution, the First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”…

Brooke Allen is the author of two collections of essays, Twentieth-Century Attitudes and Artistic License: Three Centuries of Good Writing and Bad Behavior. Allen recently wrote in “The Nation” magazine the following regarding the linkage (or lack thereof) of Christianity and the notion the United States was created to be identified as a “Christian Nation.”

“Our Constitution makes no mention whatever of God. The omission was too obvious to have been anything but deliberate, in spite of Alexander Hamilton's flippant responses when asked about it: According to one account, he said that the new nation was not in need of "foreign aid"; according to another, he simply said "we forgot." But as Hamilton's biographer Ron Chernow points out, Hamilton never forgot anything important.

In the eighty-five essays that make up The Federalist, God is mentioned only twice (both times by Madison, who uses the word in the "only Heaven knows" sense). In the Declaration of Independence, He gets two brief nods: a reference to "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God," and the famous line about men being "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." More blatant official references to a deity date from long after the founding period: "In God We Trust" did not appear on our coinage until the Civil War, and "under God" was introduced into the Pledge of Allegiance during the McCarthy hysteria in 1954 [see Elisabeth Sifton, "The Battle Over the Pledge," April 5, 2004].”

Even if you believe the reference is to GOD (as I do)…there is absolutely no reference to being a “Christian nation.” GOD…could be, God as I perceive God…or God, as a Muslim perceives of God…or any other religion. We are a pluralist religious country (which would include those that don’t believe in God at all)!

Allen goes on to note…”In 1797 our government concluded a "Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli, or Barbary," now known simply as the Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 of the treaty contains these words:
As the Government of the United States...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.

This document was endorsed by Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and President John Adams. It was then sent to the Senate for ratification; the vote was unanimous. It is worth pointing out that although this was the 339th time a recorded vote had been required by the Senate, it was only the third unanimous vote in the Senate's history. There is no record of debate or dissent. The text of the treaty was printed in full in the Philadelphia Gazette and in two New York papers, but there were no screams of outrage, as one might expect today.

The Founding Fathers were not religious men, and they fought hard to erect, in Thomas Jefferson's words, "a wall of separation between church and state." John Adams opined that if they were not restrained by legal measures, Puritans--the fundamentalists of their day--would "whip and crop, and pillory and roast." The historical epoch had afforded these men ample opportunity to observe the corruption to which established priesthoods were liable, as well as "the impious presumption of legislators and rulers," as Jefferson wrote, "civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time."

Heavy stuff…don’t you think.

The Radical Right now asserts that among other abuses President Obama has committed against Man and God is that “we’re no longer a Christian Nation.” Well…WE NEVER WERE! Sure, he declined the invitation to the “National Prayer Breakfast” as if that is the defining of Christianity.

“By their fruits you shall know them.” Fruits…like love, compassion, providing for the “least” of these. This new evangelical fundamentalist brand of Christianity is known for loving war, complaining about providing “welfare” for the “least” in our society, neglecting “heath care” for those unable to afford it. But, I guess they are known for the “National Prayer Breakfast.”

If you’ve got to go to the “Prayer Breakfast” to be a good Christian…I’m wondering how many of my Christian brothers out there got their invitation.