Self Government in America

The US, in no way was ever intended, by most of the founders, to be a government which was bound to or controlled by any one religion, including Christianity!

This was the very meaning of self-government I believe, in the eyes of the founders. However, I don't believe they ever meant for society itself to be secular. I am also certain that even Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine never thought that a belief in God should not have a great influence on the way we live or govern ourselves.

Paine quoted Old Testament scripture in Common Sense and Jefferson said often that the teachings of Christ were essential to the preservation of American character.

I see the founding fathers as endeavoring to make sure self government meant that the people had the right to self determination in government as well as in religion. The whole purpose of the First Amendment was to ensure that no organization, including the federal government, could use religion as a way to control that right to self determination!

Saying that America was founded on Christian principles, per se, does not mean that our government is Christian. It just means that much of the basis for it was a foundation in a moral character shaped very close to prevailing Christian beliefs of that era.

I think the issue becomes muddied when we try to draw absolute lines. Yes, America was founded on Christian principles but that was not the only foundation. Many "unbelievers" also contributed ideas that may have been based solely on the enlightenment (of course the enlightenment inspired "believers" as well). America was founded upon a conglomeration of ideas and beliefs. We cannot dogmatically make a choice between whether America was or was not founded on either Christian principles or Enlightenment philosophy.

Self government was not the sole possession of either Christianity or the Enlightenment. Both contributed, more often than not in concert and RARELY to the exclusion of each other, to the Greatest Experiment in Political Science!