"Beyond debate," Michael?
Here are just a few quotations for you:
Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity in exclusion of all other religions may establish, with the same ease, any particular sect of Christians in exclusion to all other sects?
-- James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance addressed to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1785
As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion ....
-- Article 11, Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary, signed by President John Adams
Many -- perhaps even most -- of the Founding Fathers were deists, not theists. (Including Benjamin Franklin, by the way.) After all, they were children of the Age of Reason, not of the Age of Faith. Their God was the God of "natural religion," not of "revealed religion." In other words, they believed that God should be apprehended through Human Reason, not through the Revelations of one faith or another, which, in true 18th century style, they tended to regard as collections of "superstitions" and "fables." Even those that professed to admire Jesus (Jefferson, for example), did not believe in his divinity.
As for Madison, who probably was a Christian, please note his argument. Give "Christianity" primacy today, you will have to give some sub-variety of Christianity -- Presbyterianism, say -- primacy tomorrow. The conclusion to be drawn? No special status for ANY religion.
Madison's remark also illuminates a very important point, one that you did not address. Christianity is not a single entity today, any more than it was in Madison's day. Christians have differed so much on matters of faith that they have gone to war over them.
If you succeed in turning "One Nation under God" into "One Nation under a Christian God" you may risk ending up with a "One Nation under a Baptist God" or a "One Nation under a Moonie God", and so forth and so on.
jbe
P.S. I submit that Sunday was "special" because of the common-sense recognition that almost all church-goers were Christian. Interestingly enough, some historians maintain that only about 10% of Americans of the time actually attended church. If that is true, it would mean that Americans are more religious today than they were then. So maybe you should stop worrying. :-)
jbe |
