Whether they were Congregational, Baptist, Lutheran, or other, they were all Christian. Every single State.
Both houses of our Congress open every session with prayer from a Chaplain. Always have. Since their inception.
For centuries, every Court in our nation had every person giving testimony at trial only after having sworn an oath on the Bible.
Our very curreny tells us "IN GOD WE TRUST." Not Buddah. Not Allah. Not Krishna.
GOD. As found where? In the Bible.
And, George Washington (you know, the "Father of America") created the Holiday (Holy Day) of Thanksgiving at the joint request of both the House and the Senate, saying this:
George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation.
"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"
"Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted' for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us."
"And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have show kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best."
Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d dy of October, A.D. 1789.
(signed) G. Washington
The longest-living Founding Father was John Quincy Adams. As such, he was a much sought after speaker for patriotic events. On July 4, 1837, he made a very astute observation. He said:
"Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the Progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth?"
"That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets 600 years before?"
Sound 'Christian' to you? Yeah, me too.
Tilt at windmills 'til you're blue in the face, it won't change the fact that America was founded as a Christian Nation.
I have no need to tilt at windmills as I have the ability to read.
"In God We Trust" was added to paper currency in the 1950s.
"under God" was added to the pledge of allegiance in the 1950s.
During debate over the wording of the Declaration of Independence, a motion was made to add the words "Our Lord Jesus Christ" after the word "Creator". It was defeated.
Franklin was a Deist. Paine was a Deist. Jefferson was a Deist.
Our Founders created a free nation, where people were free to practice Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, or no religion at all.
If you are saying America is a "Christian nation" because most of the people who live here are Christian, of one denomination or another, then you're right.
If you're saying America is a "Christian nation" because you think it's some kind of theocracy invented to propagate Christianity, you couldn't be further from the truth.
Whether they were Congregational, Baptist, Lutheran, or other, they were all Christian. Every single State.
Ha. You pretend as if everyone back then was in complete agreement regarding what it meant to be a "Christian" and that all were welcomed.
If that's the case, it certainly doesn't explain state laws -- written and passed by others claiming to be true Christians -- that unfairly targeted everyone from Catholics to Baptists to Presbyterians to Quakers.
If we were such a lovey-dovey "Christian" nation than how do you explain:
* Laws by many states that forbade various Christians from holding office?
* Laws requiring that tax monies and/or goods be used to fund churches & clergy of only one or two Christian denominations but excluding all others?
* Laws that forbade people of certain Christian denominations from holding certain jobs (i.e. attorneys, etc)
and any of the other countless laws that punished many Christians for not being adherents of the majority Christian denomination.
To say that we were founded as a "Christian" nation is to conveniently ignore the fact that "Christian" is only what the powers-that-be said it was, much to the chagrin of many other denominations who, in 2003, we would never dream of saying "aren't Christian".