Are We a Christian Nation?

          Where does the movement to make the United States a Christian country come from logically speaking? This country was founded on the freedom to practice religion, that is in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment wasn’t an accident, it was first, it was thought about. That means you as a citizen of this country have the freedom to be a Christian of whatever denomination or flavor you want. Without the First Amendment you couldn’t pick which church you go to. The current day Baptists might have to go to a Mormon church instead. The First Amendment is great, it even gives you the freedom of speech so you can tell other people about your great religion. But to try to impose that religion into your government and thereby giving the indication, either in fact or appearance, that the state has a specific associated religion, that strips away the freedom for all citizens to have the freedom that allowed those Christians to be Christians in the first place. I understand that this is just reinforcing what has already been determined by the US Supreme Court that there should be a separation between Church and State, but there are still many people in the nation who say “this is a Christian nation.” But that is an incorrect statement, this is a nation where you are free to practice your own religion of your choosing, and more have chosen Christianity than any other religion, but it is that freedom that allows the nation to have that ability to choose to be Christian if they want that makes it a great and free nation. So why would you try to take away that beautiful freedom and force everyone to conform, doesn't that oppose the values of our nation? Isn't that the oppression that the country’s founders were trying to avoid when they created the country?

          While religion itself has no place in government the morals which are included in the bible may be included in government, but that is not the same thing as imposing religion into government by, for example, making bible teaching mandatory in public school or making biblical law into societal law. Additionally, several Christian morals like ‘don’t kill’ and ‘don’t steal’ are pretty universal in any society, even Muslim and other non-Christian societies, believe it or not. For the bible or bible readers to take credit for these morals is presumptuous, inaccurate, and self-righteous. I’m sure the Egyptians and Sumerians had these morals in their culture before Christ or Moses came around. So while some of the morals in the bible are good for society, I don't think we can make the case that it's all of them, and they are morals that are not necessarily bible specific or derived. They are morals that are good for society and essentially stem from treating others as you would want to be treated.

           With that all said, there is a related debate about the use of the word “God” on our currency in our pledge of allegiance, etc. which makes it's way into the Christian Nation conversation. I don’t think that the intention of this use of God was to imply that this was a Christian God and that he is looking after our country. That again is presumptuous. First, let's not forget that all monotheistic religions, by definition, have a God who is worshiped and that includes again Islam, and Judaism so there isn't any evidence to say which one our government documents is relating to, or whether we even need to consider them separate Gods. Instead, I think it is the same vague general notion that Jefferson refers to in the Declaration of Independence when he uses “Nature’s God” and “Creator”:

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

           Brilliant stuff, especially for 1776. Jefferson is just trying to concisely explain where the right to exist comes from. And despite my preference for the laws of science in most scenarios, science has failed to come up with a good explanation or what gives us the right to exist and what created everything. Ok, you’ve got the big bang theory, great. Who created the big bang or all that matter which was involved in it? Did the matter just get bored and feel like creating itself one day? Hopefully science will explain this eventually, but currently we’re a long way off. I think the usage here, especially for the sake of writing a declarative document, that simply referring to God as our creator, because that is a general notion of creation and existence that most people can understand whether they believe it or not, is the most logical word choice. If someone else can come up with a better explanation of where they get their right to exist in less than three letters (because adding a cumbersome 20 page document to the DoI to explain that little part and bore the audience who is supposed to be focused on the inception a new nation wouldn’t be practical or good writing technique) I’d love to hear it. And I believe that it is this same general notion of God as a word that represents the creator of life and existence, which is not specific to Christianity or any other religion (in fact it is called Nature’s God, rather PC) that is represented in our declarative documents, on our money, and in our Pledge of Allegiance. And that’s totally ok by me to have the word God including, but I don't think it makes us a Christian nation.