Sunday, April 12, 2009

Is America a Christian nation?

As a commenter to Ari Armstrong's post, Giles's Guile, points out, America's Founding Fathers had every opportunity to create a theocracy in this country.

But they didn't.

This suggests to me that whether America is or is not a "Christian nation" is beside the point. America is not a theocracy.

That is the point.
Giles establishes that many of America's founders were Christian and promoted religion. But nobody doubts that fact. Nor does it make America a "Christian nation" in any non-trivial sense of the term. Like fellow columnist David Limbaugh, Giles makes no effort to show how the Bible supposedly laid the groundwork for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution -- because the Bible does no such thing.
The Founding Fathers could have chosen to base America's government on explicitly Christian principles. But they didn't. That is what's important.

Armstrong elaborates on the distinction between the principles of Christianity and the principles of American government in his post
Bill of Rights Versus Ten Commandments

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