Displaying all 5 Forum Posts for the Thread:

The United States not a 'Christian Nation'

11-14-2008, 02:54 AM

Agnostica
Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 10

I wanted to express my opinion here as I think Christianity is an important part of the United States and a lot of the citizens. But the US was founded on the concept of the separation of church and state. Our founding fathers for the most part were considered Deists and not Christians.

12-21-2008, 11:16 PM

NeilM
Dallas, TX
Posts: 2

Exactly. There is no part of the United States Constitution which references Christianity. The Declaration of Independence makes a reference to God.
The framers of the Constitution only intended for the federal government to not have the power to favor one religion over another. However, the Supereme Court, interpreting one of the amendments (I can't remember which one) later ruled that states must abide by that policy too.

05-07-2010, 08:56 AM

MrWonder
Medium City, TX
Posts: 204

Not favoring one "religion" over another meant not favoring Presbyterians over Baptists. It had nothing to do with Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism. If you read The Federalist Papers you can get a better idea of the Founding Fathers meaning of the words they used. By the way, some, like Jefferson and Franklin, were likely Deists but the majority were Christians.

Also, there is no wall of separation between church and state in our Constitution. There is one in communist Russia's constitution.

The idea of this imaginary "wall" is found in Jefferson's private letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, which was concerned not about the church being involved in government but was concerned about the government getting involved in the church. Jefferson's letter was meant to assure them that would not happen. "Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Christians have the same right to be involved in government as anyone else. In fact, if you will read the early writings of our forefathers and the LAWS from that time, you will discover any candidate for political office in those days HAD TO BE A CHRISTIAN. They did not, however, have to hold the Baptist "religion" over the Presbyterian "religion" or any other denominational affiliation, but they had to make a statement of personal belief in Christianity. That has changed now, but it has not changed to allow Christians to hold office - they always could - it has changed to allow non-Christians to hold office, so let's just remember that our original government embraced the Christian religion; they did not shun it as they do today.

MrWonder

05-07-2010, 06:02 PM

ChristyR
Denton, TX
Posts: 151

I believe that anyone has the right to hold office.

But, bringing your personal beliefs into the work place is never a good idea.

Particularly when you are in a position to potentially affect other's freedom with your decisions.

This guy is an example of taking it too far:

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/400564/mark-woods/2010-04-17/councilman-takes-turn-answering-questions

05-07-2010, 07:21 PM

MrWonder
Medium City, TX
Posts: 204

Hi Christy,

The thing is, everybody feels like they do have the right to bring their beliefs, pro, con, negative, positive, whatever - into the workplace.

Everyone should try to respect everyone else and do the job they were hired to do and not force themselves on others. My employer hired me to work on computers, not convert his workforce. If I want to talk to someone about Christ, I invite them to dinner and buy their dinner.

On the other hand, if everyone is standing in a group drinking coffee and talking about a football game or a knitting circle and an opportunity arises me for me to interject my favorite subject (the Lord Jesus) then I feel the liberty to do so as long as I not exceeding what anyone else is doing with their subject. Balance, you see? I wouldn't try to force feed a co-worker concerning my favorite football team and neither should I do so on religion, but I do stand for my team and I can stand for my God equally well and not have to be offensive about either.

Some well-meaning Christians I have known in my past were offensive to ME in the manner they conducted themselves as so-called "witnesses" for Christ. The Bible teaches that the Cross is an offense but it never tells me that I have to be offensive. That's a turn-off to anyone and I think rightly so.

Thanks for listening. I got too long-winded there.

MrWonder