I don't believe it is only Bush that has said "Christian nation," (and BTW I agree that it shouldn't be called that) ....BUT you will find that Jimmy Carter, who was one of our most Evangelical Presidents, did say that, and that our last President did, and still does, make a point to be photographed going in, or coming out of, any number of Evangelical Churches, be they black, white, or green or whatever.
Our country was colonized by people wishing to escape the religion of England, and wishing to worship as they wished. America was founded upon those very principals, and freedom OF religion is one of the Rights that many people have died to protect for EVERY American.
You may find this an interesting site...I did. Library of Congress-Religion and the Founding of the American Republic
loc.gov
INTRODUCTION
This exhibition demonstrates that many of the colonies that in 1776 became the United States of America were settled by men and women of deep religious convictions who in the seventeenth century crossed the Atlantic Ocean to practice their faith freely. That the religious intensity of the original settlers would diminish to some extent over time was perhaps to be expected, but new waves of eighteenth century immigrants brought their own religious fervor across the Atlantic and the nation’s first major religious revival in the middle of the eighteenth century injected new vigor into American religion. The result was that a religious people rose in rebellion against Great Britain in 1776, and that most American statesmen, when they began to form new governments at the state and national levels, shared the convictions of most of their constituents that religion was, to quote Alexis de Tocqueville’s observation, indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. The efforts of the Founders of the American nation to define the role of religious faith in public life and the degree to which it could be supported by public officials that was not inconsistent with the revolutionary imperatives of the equality and freedom of all citizens is the central question which this exhibition explores.
OTOH, I'm offended every time Bush calls us a Christian nation in a major address to the country, or even a religious one. There aren't many religious people who understand how offensive that is, either. This is a tough area. Most seculars don't go around attacking people's beliefs, but many do attack the behavior of believers when they are hostile to or dismissive of non-believers, in other words, the majority of the US population. |
