Was the United States founded as a Christian Nation or under the Principles of Religious Freedom?

John Baiamonte, Ph.D.

Grace Memorial Parishioner, Vestry Member, and Christian Education Leader

If you remember my two recent blogs, you will recall there were 10 Christian denominations, Anglicans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, Methodists, Dutch, German Lutherans, Reformed, and Catholics, and a Jewish synagogue operating in the colonies at the time of the Revolution.  So, if we were created as a Christian nation under which of the ten denominations would it be? I have never seen any historical evidence that the issue was ever discussed. Why? I am sure the Revolutionists knew it was impossible to create a new nation whereby the colonists would agree to fight as a Christian nation against the British monarchy.

However, under blogs one and two it was noted that the principles of Christian theology were some of the driving forces if not the main driving force. If you recall, Calvinism and the Great Awakening argued that the colonists had “religious freedom” to oppose the British monarchy under Romans 13 and the Book of Galatians.  Church leaders argued that the Bible gave the colonists the power and religious freedom to oppose the British. It was the principle of religious freedom that drove the War for Independence because the colonists were too busy fighting against the British to be contemplating founding a new Christian nation.  The colonists desired freedom from the British and based their arguments on Christian principles. This is not to say America was therefore created as an official Christian nation. This was not on the agenda of the Revolutionists.

Before examining various declarations, constitutions, or acts of Congress, one needs to examine the general religious philosophy of leaders of the American Revolution. The Founding Fathers came from general Protestant backgrounds.  Some held orthodox Christian beliefs, but many were Deists or Theistic Rationalists who supported reason and morality over the traditional religious dogma and miracles. The religious beliefs of the Founders fell into four categories:

• Practicing Orthodox Christians: who supported traditional denominations like Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, and Congregationalism. They believed in the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and Biblical miracles.  This group included well-known historical figures such as John Jay, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry.
• Christian Deism:  This included the largest group of Founders and the most influential—George Washington, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin.  Although they were raised as Christians, they were heavily influenced by the Enlightenment, which in the 18th century was an intellectual and cultural movement in Europe that stressed reason, empiricism and science, natural rights and liberty, social contract, tolerance and separation of church and state.  They attended church and believed in Christian morality, but they rejected supernatural elements of Christianity like the divinity of Christ and the resurrection.
• Deists:  This was a smaller group which included Thomas Jefferson and  Thomas Paine. They completely rejected traditional religious doctrines. They believed in a “Creator” (“Nature’s God”) who set the world in motion, but it was not a personal God. Deists did not believe in the Bible, miracles, and prophecies.
• Theistic Rationalists:  Some historians argue that there was a hybrid belief system in the colonies that combined natural religion, Christianity, and rationalism. It maintained that God exists and actively interacts with the world, but it maintained that human reason was the ultimate judge for determining which religious and biblical teachings were valid.

This mixture of orthodox Christianity, Deism, and Theistic rationalism among the powers of the Founding Fathers discouraged the creation of a Christian nation. The first collective action of the Founding Fathers was the creation of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Historians generally agree that the Declaration of Independence was strongly influenced by Deism and the Enlightenment-era rationalism. The document appeals to the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.”  It further stated that men are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”  The “Creator” mentioned in the document was not the Christian God of the Bible as understood by the colonists. 

The final paragraph of the document mentions the “protection of Divine Providence,” which was a Deist-friendly term favored by major Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Divine Providence was not a Biblical God that was involved in the daily human affairs of the colonists. The rights declared by a secular government were justified by reason and nature and not by divine right or religious Christian doctrines espoused by the colonists.

The creation of the U.S. Constitution in 1787 was also influenced by Deism and Enlightenment rationalism. It is not a Christian document because it is most clearly seen that it is secular in nature and deliberately separates the church and state.  A key deistic influence can be seen in Article VI that explicitly prohibits any religious requirement for holding public office. The First Amendment establishes religious freedom and bars the government from establishing a state religion.

Key architects and prominent thinkers of the Constitution like James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin relied on deism to craft a system of government where freedom of religion was protected but separate from civil authorities. As a result, there is no mention of a Biblical God in the Constitution. After the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Alexander Hamilton was asked why God had not been mentioned in the Constitution. His reply was “We forgot.”  The drafters of the Constitution were being driven mainly by the principles of  Christian Deism, Deism, and Theistic rationalism. That is why God is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution.

 Although there were many differences in the ideas of orthodox Christians, Christian Deism, Deism, and Theistic Rationalism during the formation of the United States, secular pluralism was a common philosophy of all entities that advocated for the strict separation of church and state thereby guaranteeing the government does not favor any specific religion or non-religion.  Secular pluralism also promotes the concepts of religious equality and inclusivity. It advocates for keeping faith and partisan politics separate, and that is why a Christian nation was never in the plans of the Founding Fathers.

PERSONAL NOTE:  These last three blogs have been about the coming of the American Revolution and the creation of our nation. As I have stated earlier, I have used AI, some books from my library, and old graduate school notes.  However, these last three blogs are based especially on my expertise in American colonial history that I gained in graduate school.  I must admit that I failed my oral exam for my doctorate at Mississippi State University on the portion for colonial history.  I don’t know what happened that night in answering the questions on colonial history, only to say I crashed and burned.  It meant I had to take and pass a written examination on colonial history in order to move on and write my dissertation.

I was told by my colonial professor that I had to read and master the findings on all books on his reading list—150 books!!!  I thought he was joking.  He was not.  He said I was too young to be getting a PhD.  To fast forward this story let me say I went back home with a method given to me by my major professor on how to read and master 150 books.  I buried myself in a cubicle at SLU and prepared for an upcoming written exam back at MSU.  It consisted of five essay questions, and I was allowed to go into the library on my honor.  From 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM I filled a legal pad, the long one, to the last page.  Turned it in and drove to my friend’s where I was staying.  When I got there, Jimmy had a beer waiting for me with a napkin on which he had printed “ABD” which meant I had passed the exam and could start writing my dissertation.  There is no way Dr. Lowery read my response to his exam questions.  My anger quickly dissipated when I kept looking at the ABD napkin.

I went home and wrote my dissertation and graduated in August 1972 at the age of 26. If  you are wondering, yes I used some of those books to write these last blogs on colonial history.