Independence Day Reflection

Yesterday was July 4th, and I have noticed a large number of people trying to make the claim that our nation was created as a christian nation. This is blatantly false. Many of our founding fathers were essentially atheist, or deists at best. The notable in that group are Thomas Jefferson, who wrote a new New Testament without Jesus' miracles, Ben Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Paine. While it is hard to determine the religious leanings of each founding father, we can discern that the majority were not simply christians. We can further discern that they did not intend for us to determine morality or laws based on religion. This is first seen in our practice of separation of church and state. Our founding fathers understood the importance of keeping the two separate, as once religion influenced policy there would be issues, and vice versa. Further, this is clearly evident in the treaty of tripoli. I quote "The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion". This was passed unanimously by our senate and sign by our second president, John Adams. Furthermore, this treaty was first starting discussions under the Presidency of George Washington. 

In our current political climate, we have an issue with this. Religion has too much influcence in our current policy. Our churches don't pay taxes, but can receive the benefits from people that do. I would be fine with churches having some tax exempt status', if over 50% of their donations go to actually provide charity, but that doesn't currently happen in most churches. Further, policy is decided based on how churches stand on the issue, and people refuse to elect atheists. This is all a problem.