Christian Nation?

I think there has been some confusion on whether the United States began as a Christian nation or not. The issue becomes muddled as people try to take one position or the other in some polarized version of an answer to this question. This nation was founded by men who were both Christian and not Christian. They were men who had an understanding of history and wanted to develop a country based on strong principles and foundations, learned from the lessons of history. And, yes, some wanted this nation to honor God. But even though all were not Christian, both non-Christian and Christian men drew many of their morals and principles from Christian and Biblical ideas. And there was a strong Christian influence in their thinking. So, despite the fact that both non-Christian and Christian men founded this nation, Christian principles had a huge part in developing our nation. That cannot be denied. So even though you might say that this nation was not founded as a Christian nation, it is very clear that it had a very strong Christian influence in its development. Our nation was not found in perfection and deep and dreadful sins of our past plague us. And we are a mixture of both good and bad. I don’t know that we are a Christian nation, though it has influenced us.

We do know this – the scripture is very clear that a nation is greater, when their laws are based on Christian principles. The Constitution is set up not to deter this, but to allow for those in government to make decisions based on principles, as long as they are not unconstitutional. So as Christians it is important that we bring our Christian principles into the way we make decisions in government. I think this is safe, because the scriptures tell us to honor the ruler of the land. In our nation, that is not a man, but the Constitution. So, a Christian will try to honor the Constitution in the decisions they make and also respecting those constitutionally elected to offices.

My point is we cannot deny that Christian principles had a part in the founding of our nation, whether or not it was founded as a Christian nation. And, today, whether or not our nation is a Christian nation, we cannot separate our Christian principles from the decisions we make for our nation, nor do we need to be ashamed of our wanting to bring Christian principles into governmental decisions.