NoelSH {A Blog By Noel Herron

Short answer: No; but, I hope that you would expect me to delve deeper than that. Attempting to prove that America is not a Christian nation seems to carry with it the same feeling of trying to prove that the sky is blue. It is a flat out false statement.

The heaviest ammunition I can fire back with is the first line of our first amendment to our Bill of Rights, which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” That’s all I really need to say. At the top of the list on how this country will be ran, the first thing you read is “No official religion.” As a consolation for the religious, it also says that you cannot be restricted from believing whatever you want.

Even though you’re supposed to save the best for last, I still find it appropriate to place that argument on top. It seems that over the years the religious have disregarded that blunt passage from The First Amendment, and decided to push it aside in the name of being good Christians.

From the start, the United States functioned as a secular nation. 6 years after The Bill of Rights was signed into law, our second president, John Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli in 1791. This treaty attempted to established peace between the United States and the Muslim state of Tripoli. Barbary pirates were capturing passing ships including American ones and forcing its crew and passengers into slavery. The United States had no quarrel with any Muslim nation and the treaty tried to convey that the United States was not responsible for the crusades and was not built on the foundation that justified it. The article reads as follows:

Article 11: 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 tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan 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.

The entire history of the treaty is quite interesting; unfortunately, this treaty proved insufficient to establish peace and had to be followed up with the United States Navy and Marines. But notwithstanding, we have President John Adams reaffirming that we are not a Christian nation. Humorously, the paranoid Christians among us who think that President Obama is turning America into a Muslim nation might not want to disregard this little peace of history, because in the same breath that says we are not a Christian nation also says we’re also not a Muslim one either.

Thus far I have cited you two documents endorsed by two founding fathers who in their lifetime would go on to become president. So it’s not the case when President Obama mentions that we are not a Christian nation that he is starting a new trend. Indeed, he is reaffirming something that seems to have been neglected for some time. This entire issue has arisen because of at least three occasions when President Obama has cited that America is not as religious as some would like to believe.

The first instance where President Obama confessed our secular constitution was during his inauguration when he spoke that “We are a nation of Christians, and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.” It was amusing to hear that some were offended by his acknowledgment of 3.6 million people. Ironically, I did find it a little offensive when former presidential candidate and former governor Mike Huckabee agreed with President Obama by saying “I think its an honest assessment that there are certainly many people in this country that are not necessarily believers in anything other than themselves.” As Liberal Viewer articulated better than I can, “I really don’t think the only two choices are theism or narcissism.”

The next instance where President Obama quite bluntly stated that we are not a Christian nation was in Turkey during his visit to Europe in April of this year. He spelled out that, “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens….” It came as a surprise to me that some Christians took offense from that statement. Especially considering that the statement meant that he was not taking favorites. It was a little embarrassing to see people get upset over a statement that is such a simple truth.

Almost as a follow-up to the rang felt by Christians after President Obama made that statement in Turkey, Christians expressed even more distress when they heard that President Obama called America a Muslim nation. A statement like that was too outrageous to be true and it turned out it wasn’t, but that didn’t stop the Conservative media from propagating the misinterpretation. President Obama made this statement just before his trip to Cairo and reads thus:

And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.

Christians compounded his earlier statement “We are not a Christian nation,” with his new misinterpreted “We are one of the biggest Muslim nations,” and outrage insured. His Turkey statement was to tout America’s tolerance, and his pre-Cairo statement was to tell all rational Muslims that we don’t hate them. He was making the point that many Muslims live in America and that they are treated just as any other citizen.

Starting with the contributions of our presidents from the beginning of our country’s formation and continuing with our current President, they persist to reaffirm that our country is in no constitutional sense a religious one. We can add President Obama’s statements to the ones made by John Adams and James Madison and many other important American leaders. Not only should Christians cease in criticizing President Obama’s statements regarding our secular country, because not only in doing so they’re criticizing many other American leaders whom they might appreciate, but they are also demonstrating their ignorance that borders on the arrogant.

References:

A high resolution copy for the Treaty of Tripoli can be found at the Library of Congresses’ website here: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=002/llsp002.db&recNum=23

A high resolution copy of the Bill of Rights can also be found at the Library of Congresses’ website here: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=144

President Obama’s inauguration speech where he acknowledged the non-believers can be watched at approximately 14:24 on the White House’s YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PuHGKnboNY

Liberal Viewer’s YouTube video where he comments on Mike Huckabee’s statement regarding Presidet Obama acknowledging the non-believers, and the rest of his videos can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twoXZE9U0Io