Is the United States a Judeo-Christian Nation?
Reader Comments
from the very first president himself:
in the Treaty of Tripoli from George Washington:
"the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;"
and there are literally hundreds of other quotes I could cite from the more prominent founding fathers that support this as well (Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Jackson, Franklin, etc).
Is America a Christian Nation ...
You bet ... see for yourself ...
http://www.godthefatherslove.org
menu's # 15
The United States ethics are based on Christianity
From the days of President George Washington and the development of our Constitution, Christianity has been the guiding force of making this a nation that all our first immigrants waanted. They came from many parts of the world to live here and be a part of this wonderful place. This worked well until the early 1900's when the American Communist party decided that everyone , both rich and poor, should be made equaland religeon was standing in its way. Then the ACLU picked up on this and decided that the Christian religion and its beliefs
needed to be changed. So the ACLU has slowly been dismanteling our schools and public offices by removing the Ten Commandents and prayers from official functions. They have been using their own interpretation of the Constitution and trying to destroy what our forefathers had used as their guidelines. I believe the Constitution aught to be ammended so that those guidelines of almost 300 years be brought more in line with current world situations. Judges should not be punished for displaying the Ten Commandments in the courtrooms and the Right to bear arms should be controlled to reflect the difference between muzzle loading guns and AK-47 assault rifles. If the ACLU could be eliminated, that would be plus to the whole country.
majority of americans self identify as judeo-christian
i believe if you asked every American whether we were a judeo-christian nation or not the vast majority would say we are. Americans self identify as judeo-christians.
reaffirmation of history
I'm a Malaysian. Ever since I known America from my childhood days till now, I always perceived the USA as a Christian fouded country which has been trying her very best to accomadate and practise the freedom of speech and movement Please do not be sad or upset on what your President had said. Be assured that there are millions of people from other countries that will forver perceived the USA as a Christian country.
In God we trust.
LSR
Under God
what makes you think so, jeff?
P.S. you should have said 'pack his bags,' or even 'pack his or her bags.' wouldn't want to sound ignorant!
Judeo-Christian Nation
This country was founded on God. In God we trust. So help us God. One nation under God. Anyone who doesn't like it can pack their bags and leave for Iraq.
Happy To Try Again, Bro
bevans doesn't quite claim that article 11 doesn't exist; that is a misrepresentation. he claims it didn't exist in the treaty's original, arabic wording. no one disputes that congress ratified a treaty containing the english text i quoted. to be fair, we are no longer bound by that treaty. yet if we are a judeo-christian nation, as you say, then the senators who put their names behind that mistranslation did so in traitorous, willful defiance of their nation's spiritual heritage, no? why didn't such an egregious attack on america's core values bother anyone in the senate, not to mention the population at large?
maybe our senators were such devout christians that they saw no problem in blindly committing themselves and their nation to an apocryphal, mistranslated middle-eastern text. what's more likely, though, is that the wording of the treaty of tripoli didn't bug anyone because everyone agreed with it.
you are right, though, that we can only speculate about our founding fathers' true convictions. let's talk about christian neighbor-love, instead. i, for one, think the injunction to 'love thy neighbor' is terrific; i try to obey it, even though i have no strong opinion about its source. what's more, i view it as a pleasure, not a burden. here's the thing, though: every culture on earth, from the most eccentric tribe to the greatest empire, ostensibly believes in the wisdom of this idea. it is not unique to christianity; on the contrary, it's one of the few qualities that are cross-culturally regarded to be virtuous.
what about the ten commandments? are those not part of judeo-christian law? why do america's laws represent them so sparsely? think of mount rushmore, which stands in dramatic, arrogant defiance of god's second commandment. where are our laws against adultery and blasphemy?
how do you reconcile slavery with america's christian heritage?
ben franklin's autobigraphy may say anything about god at all; it doesn't bear on our nation. his main virtue -- america's main virtue, once -- was knowing what is appropriate in an autobiography and what is appropriate in a public, governmental document.
Please try again
The problem of Article 11, Adam, is that its debatable as to whether the is such a thing as Article 11. The book Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 177-1949, by Charles I. Bevans declares that it doesn't exist and it is relatively unknown as to why it is included in some translations and copies. The following point, Article 12, has been translated by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje of Leiden and it is found to contain four references to God. With this in mind, it is safe to say that the Treaty of Tripoli is not a reliable source when determining if America is a Judeo-Christian nation or not.
America has several heritages, I will acknowledge that, yet the President can not say we do not consider ourselves Judeo-Christian when many of us do. Also, it is the truth that this country has a Christian heritage as it was the largest influence on our Founding Fathers. Not Islam. Not Buddhism. Not evolution. Not Hinduism. Just the Christian religion.
How is loving your neighbor a burden? Yes, I know I am not perfect; but why do you despise it? The only Law of the Christian religion is this "the law of the Spirit of Life that has set [believers] free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). How is this terrible to you? How is the Judeo-Christian heritage trying to deny others the same? Is there not the ACLU and other groups trying to rid our country's history books of that heritage that first offered tolerance? Roger Williams understood what would happen if the church controlled the government and vice-versa. So he founded Rhode Island, but he did not forsake his faith and did not say the church had no voice in the government. For how does one separate God from a government He has allowed to exist and to excersize authority over people?
Also, it does say in Franklin's autobiography in the first paragraph that he thanked Providence for the way he was able to succeed in the world. Franklin again thanks God for man's vanity in paragraph three. He does it again in the fourth paragraph and I quote: "And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I attribute the mentioned happiness of my past life to His divine providence, which led me to the means I used and gave the success." If you don't believe me, read it for yourself.
Obviously there is no document that states that we are a Christian nation. However, there is no document stating we are not. Israel is a Jewish nation and yet it has Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others. Could it not be said that America is a Christian nation that tolerates the practices of other religions?
More Assumptions and Nit-Picking
No, you never said they were exactly the same. Rather, you used the goofy phrase "eerily similar," which is even more fraught.
I'm not as well-versed in Christian history as you are, I'll give you that.
Luckily, my argument doesn't hinge on a knowledge of Christian history. You said it yourself: the Puritans came to the United States for religious freedom. This perverse "Judeo-Christian heritage" argument is bent on denying others the same. (Th
I imagine that you are a political conservative. So tell me, how do you reconcile your staunch defense of the literal words of our nation's founding documents with your liberal, creative recollection of anecdotes about our founding fathers? (Ben Franklin's autobiography? Please.) Again, I'd compel you to offer some evidence in your defense from a national, not a personal, document. The Declaration of Independence does, indeed, use the phrase "...endowed by their Creator..." Luckily, it does not follow that phrase with anything to the effect of "... with the burden of following the rules of Christian law."
Here's some evidence in my defense, from our 1796 Treaty with Tripoli (isn't its wording delicious?):
Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
