The United States is a Christian Nation

Pro, you have posted an argument in comments, please repost that in the actual debate, or your argument will be disregards. I was also re-reading your statements from Round 1. Please understand I am NOT an American, I simply have interest in the nation. Whilst Pro is right in stating that America led a very conservative beginning in some respects, with a couple of statements on a large influence of Locke, Pro is wrong if he said that my statements in Round 2 weren't important in determining the state of American theology. Yes, it is a given that many of the New World's atrocities were done in the name of the Christian God, but I'd like to make an argument that Jefferson was anticlerical: "Jefferson was firmly anticlerical, writing in "every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty " they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon."[269] The full letter to Horatio Spatford can be read at the National Archives.[270] Jefferson once supported banning clergy from public office but later relented.[271] In 1777, he drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Ratified in 1786, it made compelling attendance or contributions to any state-sanctioned religious establishment illegal and declared that men "shall be free to profess " their opinions in matters of religion."[272] The Statute is one of only three accomplishments he chose to have inscribed in the epitaph on his gravestone.[273][274] Early in 1802, Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Connecticut Baptist Association, "that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God." He interpreted the First Amendment as having built "a wall of separation between Church and State."[275] The phrase 'Separation of Church and State' has been cited several times by the Supreme Court in its interpretation of the Establishment Clause." (1) Thus, Jefferson, described as the Principal Author of the US Constitution, once again reiterated as the governing document of the United States, was largely deist and AGAINST increasing the power of the clergy, making Pro's citings of Locke, irrelevant of how important Jefferson found on a moral and physical scale, irrelevant on a theological scale. Yes, that means that Jefferson would believe in the Creation Story and in following the moral ethics set out by the New Testament and Jesus, but that disregards the heavily theist beliefs of Locke. Furthermore, more evidence comes from the same Wikipedia entry, where it is stated, "Jefferson's unorthodox religious beliefs became an important issue in the 1800 presidential election.[280] Federalists attacked him as an atheist." (1) To be attacked by federalists and labelled as an atheist, and have your unorthodox religious beliefs scrutinised in an election to HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE proves that it is a big deal that Jefferson clearly ignored Locke's religious beliefs. Pro puts the question, "Tell me when these religious 'givens' were removed from the early fathers interpretations of what a Federation of States should be." "A 2001 survey directed by Dr. Ariela Keysar for the City University of New York indicated that, amongst the more than 100 categories of response, "no religious identification" had the greatest increase in population in both absolute and percentage terms. This category included atheists, agnostics, humanists, and others with no stated religious preferences. Figures are up from 14.3 million in 1990 to 34.2 million in 2008, representing an increase from 8% of the total population in 1990 to 15% in 2008.[37] A nationwide Pew Research study published in 2008 put the figure of unaffiliated persons at 16.1%,[72] while another Pew study published in 2012 was described as placing the proportion at about 20% overall and roughly 33% for the 18"29-year-old demographic.[82]" (2) That survey proves the rise in no religious ID, and the rise from 14.3 million to 34.2 million in 18 years proves rising numbers.