Christian Nation Myth Debunked

Via Pam's House Blend (http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3876), I found an interesting e-mail exchange between a Christianist wingnut and a west coast radio show host. Not surprisingly, in his e-mail to the station, the Christianist was putting out the same old tired myth about the USA being founded as a "Christian Nation." True to form the wingnuts never let accurate history get in the way of spinning untruths. Russ Belville had a great reply (http://radicalruss.net/showDiary.do;jsessionid=C4149C71C17C8D052F9966F266B5DF06?diaryId=196), highlights of which are as follows:

Oh, and before I forgot: You wrote "Also, this country is founded in God, just look at our at our pledge of allegiance and what is on all our money. Our founding fathers had it correct, a solid foundation on God."

The Pledge of Allegiance with "under God" and "In God We Trust" on our money didn't exist until the 1950's, when babbling Biblical literalists insisted we add those phrases to distinguish ourselves from the godless atheist Communist menace. Furthermore, our founding documents -- the Declaration and the Constitution -- nowhere do they mention "God", "Jesus", or "Bible". There are references to "Creator" and "Nature's God". This was not an accident. There were those among the delegates to the Constitutional convention that wanted it to very clearly mention Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, and Jefferson, Madison and the others shot that down. Jefferson himself didn't believe in the deity of Christ; he created the Jefferson Bible, where he keeps the words of Jesus but redacts all the mumbo-jumbo miracles and cruel God stuff. Thomas Paine was a flaming atheist, most of the Founding Fathers were Deists (God exists, but is so big we needn't bother worshipping Him) and Freemasons. Historians tell us that by 1800, only 10 percent of Americans attended any sort of church.

Then there is the 1791 Treaty of Tripoli. Our Constitution says that any treaty we are signatories to become the Supreme Law of the Land. In that Treaty, article eleven states, "As the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion..." This treaty was passed UNANIMOUSLY by the 4th US Congress and signed by President