I think there is a distinct difference between “Christian-nation” and “nation founded on Christian ideals”. The founders of this country, while many being strong in their faith, had seen the strife and often tragic happens of the strict theocracies that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. The idea that a nation can operate autonomously from a omnipotent church was, at the time, new and novel but today has been accepted as a way of life. However, that being said, to make the contention that this country does not exhibit any of the religious under-pinnings as directly by the founders this nation is to be intellectually dishonest.

I would definitely say the country was founded by a nation of Christians, but at the same time, our fore fathers wanted a country of freedom, thus opening to door to various beliefs and practices.

Marcus:
What religious under-pinnings do you mean specifically?

… 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,…

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,…

Source = Declaration of Independence.

Or, simply turn over a dollar bill.

Marcus:
The passages you quoted from the Declaration of Independence are incredibly vague.Those terms are all inclusive for any God a person chooses to serve, not just a Christian one.Didn’t “in god we trust” pop up on money in1955?That’s irrelevant with regards to the founding principles of the country.

Ah, but I said religious, not Christian.

And the term “In God We Trust” first appeared on a two-cent coin in 1864.

In 1787, the same year that the Constitution was written by the Convention, Congress passed The Northwest Ordnance of 1787. Found in Article three of this Ordnance is the following; “Art. 3. Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged….”
Washington’s farewell address; “And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion…. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle.”
Franklin’s position, taken from a letter to Ezra Stiles (yes, I had to look the name up);”Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion.”
“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.” –Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. ME 1:211, Papers 1:135
And there are plenty more examples.

If this country was a Christian nation, the constitution would not legalize slavery.

miked:
Whatever.  The bible justifies slavery and says that it is just.To say otherwise is denying a LARGE portion of it.