"America is a Christian nation."I've already established a convincing argument why any concept of America being a 'Christian' nation is a bunch of rubbish - you can read it here, but if you want the Cliffsnotes, it comes down to the Founding Fathers declaring:
"The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion."Funnily enough, I discovered something new today that throws even more water onto the smoldering embers of evangelical indignation.
The next time somebody arrogantly sneers: "It's 'One Nation Under God', remember?" you can throw right back at them with: "No, it ain't."
"One Nation Under God" comes from the American 'Pledge of Allegiance', a ditty familiar to any American schoolkid, as they recite it under their nation's flag every morning in the classroom (a practice I thoroughly approve of.)
Most people will know the pledge as:
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."This is the phrase that gives all those evangelicals their ammunition. "See, it reads 'One Nation Under God," they argue.
Well, the fact is it doesn't.
The original Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892, by Francis Bellamy. Bellamy was a queer fish - an unrepentant Socialist (although also a devout Christian) he deliberately left out any mention of religion (he also left out references to 'equality' and 'fraternity' as that suggested that blacks and women should be included in the 'all men are created equal' bit in the Declaration of Independence.)
Bellamy's Pledge of Allegiance - which was our nation's pledge for over fifty years, was a short, sweet and secular:
"I Pledge Allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."The words 'flag of the United States of America' were added in 1924, ostensibly to give the in-rush of Italian, German and Jewish immigrants a clear reference that it was the American flag they were pledging allegiance to, not their own.
President Eisenhower only signed an act adding 'under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 - under intense pressure from the Catholic Knights of Columbus (and, according to some, in order to appease the McCarthyites, who were quick to remind people that only 'evil' Socialists were non-religious.)
And ever since Eisenhower signed that alteration into law, there's been controversy surrounding the addition of the words 'under God' to the Pledge - with good reason. It doesn't take a Supreme Court Justice to realize that it violates the First Amendment clause (banning establishment of Religion.)
But even then, Christians laying claim to a 'Christian America' just because of a cynical addition to the Pledge of Allegiance is a bankrupt endeavor. America isn't - and has never been - a truly 'Christian' nation.
It was founded by Deists, Atheists and bickering Christians of every denomination - and almost every article of American law gives broad mention to an all-encompassing, monotheistic spirituality - but not one reference to 'Jesus Christ.'
In fact, America's 'religion' could reference practically any spiritual belief: There are mentions of the 'Laws of Nature' and 'Nature's God' and a reference to 'the Creator' - but all that's closer to paganism than Christianity. I challenge anybody to find a single mention of 'Jesus Christ' in any significant Government documentation...
...at least, one that wasn't scrawled in the margins by Donald Rumsfeld.
