The United States Is A Christian Nation

Thank you, Oxymoron. INTRODUCTION To say that the US is a Christian nation or to say that the values which our nation was founded are Christian is to say that these things are Christian to a much greater than they are of another religion or of a secular nature. If these things are not uniquely Christian in nature, then it is not as correct to say that they are Christian as it is to say that they are of a monotheistic religious nature, of a religious nature, or of a secular nature. As Pro has taken the position that this is a Christian nation, he must prove that is is uniquely Christian. I may challenge the accuracy of his arguments by arguing that the US and its values are anything other than uniquely Christian i.e. religious but not just Christian, secular, etc. I contend that Pro has not met his BoP to prove the uniquely Christian nature of the country and its founding values. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE The reference to an endowing creator in the Declaration of Independence is not the explicit affirmation of the Christian God that Pro claims it is. Judaism and Islam also include such a creator. Expanding farther: Seeing as Jefferson took the liberty to edit the New Testament himself, a process through which he removed supernatural occurrences and claims to Jesus' divinity [1], it is permissible to look outside of the literal reading of the word creator as a singular being, thus including polytheistic religions. In fact, given Jefferson's prior use of the phrase "Nature's God" in the Declaration, a more naturalistic interpretation is plausible. I doubt that Pro would claim that other religions do not have endowing creators, so he justifies his claim that the preamble is an affirmation of the Christian God by claiming that Jefferson's concession of Christianity confirms that it is a Christian reference:"Nevertheless, Jefferson's belief in Christ obviously affirms my point that the preamble of the Declaration is in direct reference to the Christian God." Pro provides no warrant to link the ideas that Jefferson's religion affects his use of the word creator to exclude other religions. Also, it is through equivocation that Pro is able to make his claim that Jefferson was not a deist. His support is a quote in which Jefferson says he is a true Christian, a true follower of the teachings of Christ. Yet, as evidenced by Jefferson's editing of the Bible, it is clear that Jefferson was not of the Christian religion in the same sense as most Christians, so the definitions that apply to most Christians such as their belief in a personal God, do not necessarily apply to Jefferson's beliefs. Jefferson's statement as quoted by Pro merely say that he admires Jesus as a moral teacher, not as a divine God, therefore, it is entirely possible and, based on other statements by the man, quite likely that Jefferson was a deist who admired the moral teachings of Christ. The most important point to be made here is that Jefferson did choose "creator," a word that is open to multiple faiths, perhaps even open to non-faith. If he'd wanted to invoke Christianity or its values over those of another religion, Jefferson most likely would have said God. In fact, the only time God is specifically mentioned is in another phrase open to interpretation, the previously mentioned "Nature's God" [2]. Because he chose phrases such as "Creator" and "Nature's God," this point actually works against Pro's claims and should be seen as an attempt to keep the new nation open to many religious views. THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE FOUNDERS WERE CHRISTIAN While the subject of the religious views of the founders is a fascinating one, it is irrelevant to this debate. The founder's choices in religion are no more important to the status of the nation than their choices on any other matter. A good analogy to illustrate this point is slavery: A good number of the founders owned slaves [3], but this has no bearing on whether the US is a slave nation or whether it is inspired by the values related to slavery. Jefferson's choice of religion no more affects the values of this country through the Declaration of Independence, than his choice to own slaves. IT WAS GENERALLY HELD BY THE FOUNDERS THAT THE US IS A CHRISTIAN NATION Here, Pro presents six quotes that he claims support the heading, and by extension the resolution. Yet, only two of these quotes actually come from Founders, the other four are modern reflections on the Founding (modern meaning since the time of the Founders). These modern opinions are from more than 50 years after the fact are not relevant to Pro's argument about the Founder's opinions, and therefore it is not necessary for me to respond to the two Congressional quotes of 1854 or the two Daniel Webster quotes which, according to Pro's source list, are from 1843. If in the next round Pro wishes to use these quotes to make a point about the Founding from a more recent, secondary perspective, there are numerous quotes that I can submit with a different viewpoint, removing any proving power from such quotes. Now: the Adams and Dickinson quotes. Like a great deal of Pro's R2 case, the quote by John Dickinson does not actually provide evidence for the point made in the heading under which it appears. In this case, as in the previous section, one Founder's personal beliefs regarding the nature of rights, happiness, and religion in no way show the general opinion of the Founders. In fact, this quote does not even make it clear that Dickinson himself felt that the US is a Christian nation. If Pro wishes to make this connection, further explanation is needed.. It appears that Pro has taken a lot of liberty with the quote by John Adams, both in accurately communicating the quote, and in providing the all-important context from which the quote was taken. The quote comes from a letter to Jefferson in which Adams uses the phrase "principles of Christianity" to refer to the principles that united the Founders, not the principles that the Founders used to create the nation. In the letter, Adams leaves what he means be "principles of Christianity" up to interpretation as he does not really expand upon the meaning of it. We can be fairly sure, however, that Adams did not consider the US to have been founded on principles of Christianity based on his approval of the Treaty of Tripoli, which in Article 11 states that the US was not "in any sense" founded on Christianity [5]. I plan to revisit the treaty in detail in future rounds. Not only is the context of the quote missing, but, and perhaps more importantly from an ethical point of view, Pro has taken several phrases from two paragraphs and put them together without an ellipsis or any other signifying marks. Due to space constraints, I am unable to present the full quote, but it can be viewed at my Source #4. THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION IN AMERICA Patrick Henry Quote: The Henry quote presented by Pro makes no mention of Christianity, only religion, and is therefore irrelevant. The Northwest Ordinance: Again, only general mentions of religion and a Creator, not Christianity, ergo not relevant. ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE AFFIRMS THE MOLDING POWER OF CHRISTIANITY Just as other outside opinions from the 19th century cannot be said to affirm the resolution through the standard laid out in the Pro's thesis, de Tocqueville's opinion is not an exception. While his viewpoint is interesting and worthy of discussion, it does not affirm the Christianity of the United States through the eyes of the Founder's or her founding values, Pro's standard. CONCLUSION I have shown how all of Pro's quotes and arguments are lacking in clarity and/or are irrelevant to the debate. Also, it should be noted that not once has Pro specified what uniquely Christian values he claims are involved in our founding and how they manifest themselves. I look forward to future rounds. Sources in comments.