Fickle McCain’s Faith
June 10th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics | 5 Comments »Was America founded on Christian principles? For the most part, a lot of the research you will find with a quick Google search will yield a yes. There are some dissenting voices but I will not give my opinion because I don’t remember enough of my American history classes to adequately argue the point. Jim Walker does come close to expressing what I believe:
The United States Constitution serves as the law of the land for America and indicates the intent of our Founding Fathers. The Constitution forms a secular document, and nowhere does it appeal to God, Christianity, Jesus, or any supreme being. (For those who think the date of the Constitution contradicts the last sentence, see note 1 at the end.) The U.S. government derives from people (not God), as it clearly states in the preamble: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union….” The omission of God in the Constitution did not come out of forgetfulness, but rather out of the Founding Fathers purposeful intentions to keep government separate from religion.
The problem with history is that you can only understand so much from old documents and handed-down stories but to truly establish a past event as fact, you need to have been there. Tex Browning at Citizens for a better Government argues the opposing view:
When we read articles such as “What’s God got to do with it?” (Primack, 5/4) and “The wall between state and church must not be breached” (Tager, 5/7) it just reaffirms how little, even intelligent people, understand about the founding of our great Republic. To say that this nation was not founded as a Christian nation or that the Constitution was not founded on Christian principles is totally at odds with the facts of history.
I personally believe the way things currently exist is perfect and I hope that the religious right will stop trying push religion into schools. I am a firm believer in evolution and find no shame in admitting that the monkeys in the backyard of my house in South Africa were probably my distant cousins. That being said I don’t disagree with creationism but believe it belongs in Churches, Bible Study groups or other religious meetings. John McCain was recently called out on an interview he gave with Beliefnet where he stated that America was founded on Judeo Christian principles:
Has the candidates’ personal faith become too big an issue in the presidential race?
Questions about that are very legitimate…. And it’s also appropriate for me at certain points in the conversation to say, look, that’s sort of a private matter between me and my Creator…. But I think the number one issue people should make [in the] selection of the President of the United States is, ‘Will this person carry on in the Judeo Christian principled tradition that has made this nation the greatest experiment in the history of mankind?’”
The funny thing out of all of this is that Senator McCain is actually scored lower when it comes to religion compared to Senator Obama on Beliefnet’s “God-o-Meter“. My point in all of this is that Senator Obama actually benefits (despite Rev. Wright) by not actively pandering to the religious segment of the American population. In that same interview, Senator McCain says voters should choose the President who is going to preserve the “Christian tradition” of the United States but I contend that voters should choose the President that has the broadest beliefs and understanding of all religions, and that is Senator Obama.
