I’ve been listening to American Gospel by John Meacham and thoroughly enjoying it.

He makes the case that the relationship between church and state, religion and politics, and Christianity and the faith of the Founding Fathers is like most things in history: more complex and nuanced than most people want to believe.

He contends that the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation is actually a work of revisionist history by some conservative evangelicals who want to take back the country for God.

The Founding Fathers were aware of the the problems caused by state-run churches and vice versa and they sought to chart a middle way. The state and church were to be separate, but in no way could they be kept from influencing one another. In a Republic, the religious convictions of the people will always have political implications. In its initial conception, the separation of church and state was designed to protect religion from politics, not politics from religion.

The “God/Creator” spoken of in the foundational documents is a generic one, not necessarily the God of Abraham, Isasc, Jacob, and Jesus. This kept the religious tent broad enough to include those with a variety of religious beliefs and convictions.

One of the most interesting details so far is Article 11 from the Treaty with Tripoli (1796):

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.

Article 11 seems to be saying that America was not intended to be a “Christian nation.” It was approved by John Adams. It has also been contested and debated ad nauseam.

American Gospel, Church and State