The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American

by Andrew L. Seidel

One’s personal theistic beliefs do not “own” the other ideas generated by one’s mind. By that same logic, blue jeans would be “Jewish Blue Jeans” because the inventors of the pants, Jacob W. Davis and Levi Straus, happened to be Jewish. If we follow this illogic—that a person’s religion informs all their other ideas—why limit it to religion? Why not argue that America is a nation of hair-powderers and wig-wearers? And why limit the logic to suggesting that religion informs the nation? Why not claim that the founders built a Christian outhouse or planted a Judeo-Christian vegetable garden? Of course, designing a nation is different from designing a pair of jeans, but religion cannot be assumed to influence either. Those religious beliefs must be examined and compared against the principles that informed the design. To argue that the founders were Christian is irrelevant because it does not answer the ultimate question about Christianity’s influence on America’s founding. And even if the founders were all Christian and this fallacious logic held, we know that they never cited biblical principles during the constitutional convention and ratifications, as we’ll see in Chapter Six.34