The U.S.A. is not a Christian Nation
I was a part of a larger conversation when someone spoke up and said that America was a Christian nation and should behave as such, or some such nonsense. Normally I wouldn’t say anything, but recently I had read something that was pretty damning towards this sort of sentiment (beyond, you know, the constitution), so I decided to add my two cents.
“So you would disagree with the person who said, ‘the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion?’” I asked, knowing the answer would be ‘yes.’ When I recieved that answer, I pointed out that it was written by John Adams in our treaty with Tripoli, under the presidency of George Washington. There was some mumbling, and the conversation moved on to other topics.
The fact of the matter is that people who claim that the U.S. is a ‘Christian’ nation is ignorant of not only American History, but Christianity as well. The founding fathers were overwhelmingly non-christian, and they specifically structured the government to reflect religious neutrality, which is a staple of any truly free country. There is talk that ‘freedom of religion’ doesn’t mean ‘freedom from religion,’ which is a really odd way of making the statement, but never-the-less is used to say that atheists don’t have rights in the U.S., something I’m sure would have pissed off most of the founding fathers if said in their time. Using such an arguement betrays not only their ignorance in American History and Christianity, but the English Language as well.
The Ten Commandments are usually given as an example of how Christian Law is a basis for our current law. While the idiocy of calling the Ten Commandments a set of Christian Laws is quite great, I will not address that here. Instead, I want to actually examine each of them and really see if they hold up:
- No gods but the Christian God – nope this isn’t a part of our legal system.
- No Idols – Nope not a part of our legal system. Actually americans tend to like idols in all forms, especially the 10 commandments themselves, which is truly ironic.
- Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain – Nope, not a part of our goddamned legal system. Besides, when was the last time you heard someone swear by ‘Yahweh?’
- Keep the Sabbath – Nope, not a law. I’d like to see them try that…
- Honor your parents – While this is a good idea no matter what religion you are a part of (and if they deserve it), this is definitely not a part of our legal system.
- Don’t Murder – Yes! Finally, after going through the first half of the commandments, we hit one that is indeed part of our legal system.
- Don’t Commit Adultry – Nope, not illegal. It can be brought before a civil court, but not because it’s immoral, but because it represents the breakage of contract.
- Don’t Steal - Yes, part of the legal system.
- Don’t Lie – Unless you’re under oath, you can legally lie as much as you want to. So this counts as a no.
- Don’t Covet – Definitely legal. It sort of drives our entire economy…
Ok, the final tally is… TWO! Two of the ten commandments actually match laws that are currently in the U.S. legal books. But there is something else. Both of those two – don’t murder or steal – predate the ten commandments in other, pagan religions. Indeed, our entire system of government has it’s basis not in Christianity or Judaism, which has a history of tyranny, but in pagan democracies!
There is only one way in which the U.S. might be considered a Christian Nation, and that is in the fact that most of our citizens are Christian. In fact, a very large majority of us are citizens. I suppose that counts for something. Well, something besides the massive amount if ignorance it represents. I don’t know what that something is. Perhaps some christian will be so kind as to explain it to me.
In the mean time, however, please stop all this nonsense about the U.S. being a Christian Nation. It’s not true, and you will only embarass yourself.
UPDATE: This popped up on pharyngula this afternoon and seemed very appropriate. The title of this photo is “Irody is Dead.”
