Letter: The last word on church-state debate

Saturday, April 25, 1998 | 3:59 a.m.

Karen Frehner's letter of April 17 attempts to show that the United States is a Christian nation by quoting some of our founding fathers.

Although a significant number of representatives at the Constitutional Convention were deists rather than Christians, some of the representatives at the convention did indeed want to establish the United States as a Christian nation. The foremost advocate of that position was Patrick Henry.

But the fact is that he was on the losing side of that debate. Madison, Jefferson, John Adams and Thomas Paine successfully argued for a secular government.

The omission of God from our Constitution was not an oversight. At the Constitutional Convention, Madison insisted upon the omission, stating that there should not be even "a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion."

The First Amendment to the Constitution states very clearly, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." This is a clear command to all levels of government to keep their hands off religion to the fullest extent possible, neither aiding nor hindering it.

While no official historical document shows that we were founded as a "Christian nation," there is historical proof showing that the founders of our country did (ital) not (end ital) intend our government to be Christian. That proof is found in the Treaty of Tripoli, an agreement between the United States and the Muslim region of North Africa in 1797 after negotiations were conducted by George Washington.

During the negotiations, the Muslims expressed concern that the laws in the United States would discriminate against Muslims because of their religion. To provide assurance to the Muslims, the final document, which was approved by the Senate under John Adams, specifically states, "The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."

Those asserting that the United States is a Christian nation should learn all the facts about our history rather than relying solely on selected out-of-context quotations.

Mel Lipman