Founded on Christianity? I don't think so.

Evangelical Christians love to tout that the United States of America was founded on Christianity. I beg to differ.

I am not going to get into a huge debate on this. I am merely going to put forth my opinion.

If you look on the internet, you will read various quotes from America's founding fathers. As a matter of fact, you will probably see the same quotes attributed to different men, like this one: "The United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion."  It is attributed to both George Washington and John Adams.

This is an excerpt from the Treaty of Tripoli, signed in 1796, to promote peace between the United States and Tripolitania (today's Libya). Here is the exact paragraph:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Mohammedan] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

As you can imagine, when presented with the facts, Christian zealots vehemently deny that these words were in the original Arabic version. How convenient. Let me point out, however, that the English version, which contains this paragraph, was read aloud in its entirety to the Senate, who then passed it unanimously.

I have watched numerous biographies on Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and George Washington. It would be very difficult to argue that any of these men were active Christians. Jefferson even wrote The Jefferson Bible, where he deleted all of Jesus' miracles and any mention of being divine.

No, rather, I believe that the founding fathers were more interested in freedom from and freedom of religion. You can believe what you want to believe. If you choose to believe nothing, you can do that, too. No one will tell you what you can or can't do regarding religion. If Jerry Falwell had tried to pin a label of religion on them, I feel that they would have been very offended.

What about all of the references to God? I am not saying that America was founded by a bunch of atheists, for goodness sakes. They had just come from England, where the Church of England was the only game in town. There is no better moral compass that Christianity, with the turn-the-other-cheek, when-I-was-hungry-you-fed-me, take-care-of-widows-and-orphans among the teaching. Of course there are references to God. But not Jesus Christ. Isn't that a bit odd to people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson?

It's not a bad thing that the country was founded on freedom, and that that freedom includes religion. It's not a bad thing that I don't think it was founded on Christian beliefs. It was founded on the blood of many young men who believed in their cause and were willing to fight to realize it. If prayer helped them get through a battle, great. If they lit fires and burned sage while chanting to their ancestors, all the better for them. If they wanted to survive just so they could see their families again, instead of so they could spread the gospel, then that's what worked.

Just because you believe one way doesn't mean that everyone else has to believe that way, too. Truly, we will probably never know for sure. There are compelling documents and arguments for both sides, which makes neither side correct. We will have to agree to disagree, which is really what our founding fathers had in mind, I think.