The Founders lived in a world dominated by state-sponsored religion. They intentionally built something different.
America is not a “Christian nation.”
That statement is not anti-Christian.
It is historically and constitutionally accurate.
The Founders lived in a world dominated by state-sponsored religion – monarchies, churches tied to governments, religious coercion, sectarian conflict, and persecution.
They intentionally built something different.
The Constitution makes no mention of Christianity.
It prohibits religious tests for office.
The First Amendment bars the establishment of a national religion.
And under President John Adams, the United States Senate unanimously approved the Treaty of Tripoli declaring:
“The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
That was not an accident.
It was by design.
It was policy.
Many Founders personally valued religion and believed moral societies mattered. Some were Christians. Others were deists, theistic rationalists, skeptics, or men deeply critical of organized religion.
What united them was not theology.
It was the belief that freedom of conscience required separation between church and state.
To protect both it and the government from corruption by the other.
Christianity was never outlawed in America.
Christian dominance over the state was.
There is a difference.
A government that favors one religion can eventually suppress all others. Including different forms of Christianity itself. The Founders understood this. That is why liberty of conscience became foundational.
Christian Nationalism is not a restoration of the Founders’ vision.
It is a rejection of it.
