America: God's Nation?

Hi there,
A lot has been said recently about Christianity in America from the religious right. Those of us who wish to see religion kept out of politics are alarmed by the growing influence of Evangelicals in our politics. To be a viable candidate, it is all but essential that you be a Protestant Christian of some sort; in the Republican world, it is imperative. We lead Congress with prayer; the Bible is cited as the source for many political opinions. Rational people, anti-religionists, find this scary.

The other side sees it the opposite way: that this was meant to be a Christian nation, and that we are being led down a dark road to destruction as we "reject God" (note: separation of  Church and State is just that: separation. It is not a rejection of "God" on a personal basis, as over 80% of Americans identify themselves as Christian!). We hear this argument from the grumbly Ben Stein:

"Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

Here are some quotes that show the "Founding Fathers" were NOT Christians and that this country was NOT meant to be a "Christian Nation."

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"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it." - John Adams

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes." -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec. 6, 1813.

"The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. And ever since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate A FREE INQUIRY? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality, is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your eyes and hand, and fly into your face and eyes." -John Adams, letter to John Taylor

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter." -Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." - Ben 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 its being a bad one." - Franklin

"It is much to be lamented that a man of Franklin's general good character and great influence should have been an unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done as much as he did to make others unbelievers" (Priestley's Autobiography)

"Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself." -Thomas Jefferson, in his private journal, Feb. 1800

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries." - James Madison in an 1803 letter objecting use of gov. land for churches

"The question before the human race is, whether the God of Nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?" - 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!" -John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson