The USA was founded upon Christianity.

Often times, to support the idea that the United States was founded on secular principals, the fact that Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and several others were Deists and Freemasons is brought up. While this is true, it is hardly the full picture. Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence so what he says is of some importance, however others did have input as well. In the Declaration, it asserts that we are granted our rights by our creator. Although Jefferson was a deist, this line suggests that the belief in a creator God is essential to understanding the origin of our basic rights. We do have freedom of religion as the founders did not intend it to be a theocracy, but that doesn't negate the fact that we were founded on Christian principals. In fact the founders promoted Christian beliefs. Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin did have deistic tendies, they also promoted ideas that they had learned from Christianity. So even though Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferspn had doubts, they still promoted the ideas of Christianity publicly. [1] Yes according to the treaty of Tripoli the US was not founded as a Christian Nation, but that was Adams' opinion. Adams also believed he should have a title of nobility, which pretty much everyone else strongly opposed. Next my opponent makes a common but damaging mistake "Thomas Jefferson—author of the constitution", that is not true, he in fact wrote the Declaration, not the Constitution. James Madison was the primary author of the Constitution, and himself an Episcopalian, had a cousin who was a member of the clergy who was also name James Madison. [2] At that time freedom of religion meant allowing people to have beliefs different than the church of England if they desired. People will also often claim that the 1st Amendment grants us "separation of church and state". The meaning is often misrepresented. First of all no such phrase appears in the 1st Amendment. Where people get this idea is from the establishment clause wich states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". However if you keep going it goes on to say "or prohibit the free exercise thereof". The establishment clause is referring to the Government staying out of the Church's business and the church not being allowed to create a state religion. It does not mean that churches are not allowed to speak on political matters as the IRS now claims. In fact in early America it was the clergy who promoted the political beliefs. The IRS's current policy infringes on a church's right to freely exercise their religious beliefs. The truth is that almost half the signers of the Constitution were members of the clergy. [3] In those days being a patriot and being religious went hand in hand. George Washington said, "While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian. " So clearly Washington felt that the US was fundamentally Christian and people say Washington was the father of the country so then his view would also be very important in determining what principals the US was founded on. When we are children we are taught the story of the pilgrims. What is a pilgrim but a religious journeyer? They wanted to practice their Christian faith apart from the Church of England. So from the very begining there was religious freedom, but they also didn't tolerate pagan beliefs such as many of the native American religions. All that being said; the Constitution does guarantee freedom of religion but even that has limits. We are not allowed to perform human sacrifice for religious reasons. In fact even though the federal government could not interfere with what religion an individual believed, there were state religions and it each state's Constitution could determine what religion and what affect it had on the state. [4] I await my opponent's rebuttal and response. 1 . http://www.torenewamerica.com... 2 . http://research.history.org... 3 . http://www.cwfa.org... 4 . http://www.loc.gov...