Scott Tsao’s Reviews > Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction > Status Update

...In this sense, the US Constitution does not reflect the religious values, however we choose to define them, of the 18th century American people.

2) Thus, to the degree that the states made up the "nation" in the late 18th century, one could make a legitimate argument, based on the explicitly Christian statements in most state constitutions, that the people of the US did privilege Christianity over other religions. More states were clear about their desire to set up governments run by Christian and, in most cases, specifically Protestant Christians.

In conclusion:
1) It is important to remember that the framers of the Constitution did not exclude God because they wanted to establish a completely secular society devoid of any religion. Rather, they realized that the role of religion and the government should be decided locally, among the individuals who made up the states.

- The First Amendment also forbids the national government from inhibiting the "free exercise" of religion. It protects individuals from government intrusion into their religious practices.
- The First Amendment was written to secure the individual rights to worship according to one's conscience. It was not meant as a means of protecting government from the religious beliefs of its citizens.

- Most interpreters of the First Amendment agree that it forbids Congress from passing a law that privileges a particular religious group over any other.
- Unlike many of the British-American colonies and some of the states, the US government does not promote a specific religious group or use federal funds to support a particular sect.

...The amendment was part of ten amendments, known today as the "Bill of Rights," passed by the first US Congress in 1789 and ratified, as per the Constitution, by 3/4 of the states.
- The First Amendment stated that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

...or its failure to reference Almighty God, others opposed it for its failure to affirm liberty of conscience in matters of religion.
- Anti-Federalist demands for a formal statement defending the right to liberty of conscience in matters of religion came to fruition when the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect in 1791. …

... the Constitution does not mention God or delve deeper into church-state issues not because the framers were trying to create a secular nation, but because, as a point of federalism, they believed that religious matters should be left up to the states.
Religion and the First Amendment
- While some Anti-Federalists opposed the Constitution for its failure to affirm a religious test for national office...

- so-called "federalist argument"--the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution, "The powers not delegated to the US by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
- This amendment makes the Constitution a "federalist" document.
- Those who uphold a federalist view of the relationship between church and state argue convincingly that...

- While Anti-Federalist opposition was always more political than it was religious, many Anti-Federalists rejected the Constitution because it did not make any appeals to God.
- Anti-Federalists especially attacked Article VI because it placed no Christian qualifications on officeholders.
Religion and the States: The "Federalist" Interpretation of the Constitution