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America is not now, and never was, a legally 'Christian' nation

Date published: 2/13/2003

IN WRITING ABOUT Justice Scalia's speech at the Religious Freedom Monument, Gloria Whitley ["Scalia's remarks were consistent with our heritage," Jan. 31] assumes that Thomas Jefferson and other founders of this nation were Christian like her, that they had no intention of taking religion out of government, and that there had somehow been a "misinterpretation" of the Constitution. She ignores facts, replacing them with unfounded statements of belief.

Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, which is not a governing document. Its stated purpose was to "dissolve the political bands"--not to set up a religious nation. It deals with laws, taxation, representation, war, immigration, etc. Contrary to the biblical concept of "rule by divine authority," it bases its authority on the idea that "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Its use of terms like "Nature's God," "Creator," and "Divine Providence" does not endorse Christianity.

Founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Franklin, although all deeply religious deists, were opposed to institutionalized religion and the supernatural. An Internet search using the phrase "not a Christian" will bear this out, much to the surprise of many readers. Yet to build herself up, Christianity claims all great men as her own, even though great men of all nations have mostly rejected her.

Exempli gratia: Washington attended church only to retain the good will of the clergy, as did Jefferson, who spoke and wrote against Christianity, while Franklin avowed disbelief in the most amicable manner. Paine, who did more than any other man to create this nation, was libeled as an irreligious man because of his antagonistic writing against institutionalized religion, titled "The Age of Reason." Paine was actually the most religious of the Founders, a zealous advocate of deism. People disbelieving his piety should be ashamed of their ignorance. His contribution to this nation is still ignored by religiously biased historians.

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Date published: 2/13/2003