Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottyS
Hmmm, I don't think this is the case. Setting founding documents aside, which are full of references associated with western Christianity, literature written early in the country's history points to a population that, while they did not all participate in a single tradition, were largely governed and influenced by a social and legal system that was directly derived from centuries of European Christianity.
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The bottom line was that the US was not founded on some "general understanding" that Christianity should be the de facto religion of the citizens of the US. The design of the Constitution was purposely crafted such that as the base morality of the majority evolved, the Constitution itself would be modifiable via amendments to reflect the new morality of the people. The founding fathers, while basing the initial laws on their own (decidedly Christian) moral background, were very cognizant that people's belief structures would change over time, and that religious beliefs should not be the basis of government. The fundamentals of the Constitution are not specific to Christianity, and are intended to be more general and more fundamental than the rules of most Christian religions.
When people argue against gay marriage for example, they make the patently false argument that "even though the founders didn't explicitly say gay marriage is wrong in the Constitution, they were Christians, and therefore that's what they meant." When in fact, the founding fathers explicitly
didn't put that stuff in the Constitution because they explicitly intended for those sorts of religion based morals to be sorted out external to the government. It's not the government's place to dictate the personal choices of people as long as they don't affect the freedom of others, and that is one of the basic fundamentals of the Constitution.
It's really frustrating to hear crap like "this country was founded on Jesus" when it's not, and that people of other religions should "just go somewhere else" because they're "not welcome here". The US was founded on exactly the opposite principals... the country was founded on the idea that no matter your race, color, creed, background, etc you have the same exact inalienable rights as everyone else, and that people from everywhere are welcome since we're a nation of immigrants with mailable laws that are designed to change over time to reflect the belief of the greater majority.
The Constitution is a completely different document than the Bible. When was the last time an amendment to the Bible was ratified by all the Christian sects that believe in it?