Politics v. Religiosity

Jon Meacham, Newsweek editor and author of “American Gospel” and “Franklin and Winston,” has a timely op-ed in yesterday's NY Times.

Provocatively titled, "A Nation of Christians Is Not a Christian Nation," Meachem tackles a contentious issue that is once again playing itself out, front and center, in the current exhaustive presidential campaign.

In an interview with Beliefnet.com last weekend, Sen. John McCain repeated what is an article of faith among many American evangelicals: “the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.”

I cringe every time I see such words or hear such thought. And while I am far from being a constitutional scholar, even I can recognize the error and danger of such thinking. I think the op-ed should get as much distribution as is possible. Money quote:

The founders were not anti-religion. Many of them were faithful in their personal lives, and in their public language they evoked God. They grounded the founding principle of the nation — that all men are created equal — in the divine. But they wanted faith to be one thread in the country’s tapestry, not the whole tapestry.

Thank you, Mr. Meachem, for pointing out some of the historical realities surrounding the myth of a Christian America.