Now that everyone is busy celebrating Christmas, I’ve had time to think about the multitude of people who continue to claim that America was founded as a Christian nation and remains one to this day. These claims are heard more often this time of year, as many people believe that there is a war on Christmas and that too many people are ruining our Christian nation, founded 230 years ago. While it’s true that nearly seventy-seven percent of Americans consider themselves Christian, it was not the desire of the founding fathers to create a Christian nation.

The 1979 Treaty of Tripoli happens to disagree with those that make the claim of a Christian nation. Article 11 of the treaty states that,

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

The Treaty of Tripoli was signed in 1796, with the US Senate ratifying it unanimously in 1797. It was signed shortly thereafter by President John Adams. The Treaty only existed for a few years and has no legal status today, however, it is a true representation of the new American government and the feelings and ideas that the founding fathers had for the new country.

Avoiding the stigma of being a country that is tied to a single religion is precisely what the founding fathers wanted to avoid. That is why they designed the separation of church and state. They wanted to free the new government from religious disagreements and make distinctions that all religions were welcome.

The United States of America was something totally new and never tried before. Some considered its ideas crazy, but America was out to prove that there was a new way of running a country and that it was possible to fuse many different ideas into one.

It is assumed that, because the founding fathers were raised in Christian homes and primarily British that they must have been observant to those beliefs. Revisionism has turned the actual facts into a myth that fits the current understanding of the founding of the United States and has been stating the myth as fact for many years.

However, a thorough examination of the times reveals that the founding fathers were men of radical ideas. They were thinkers who openly embraced the ideas of the Enlightenment.

Many of the founding fathers were deists. While some of the teachings of Christianity clearly influenced them, most did not ascribe to the tenets of Christianity itself.

They were far from their image of stodgy old men who held tight to Christian beliefs. Thomas Jefferson was busy having an affair with his slave, Sally Hemings, which produced at least one child. Benjamin Franklin spent a lot of time in “decadent” France. Both were deists, although Jefferson was moreso than Franklin. Franklin, however, was extremely tolerant of all religions.

In his autobiography, Franklin identified himself as deist, stating that,

My parents had early given me religious impressions, and brought me through my childhood piously in the Dissenting [Puritan] way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns of several points, as I found them disputed in the different books I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle’s Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough deist.

During the Constitutional Convention, Franklin wanted the delegates to pray but the idea was not passed due to the shortness of time and heated debate. The delegates did not want prayer of any kind to be suggestive of an endorsement of religion. Essentially, it did not pass and it did not fail. The delegates simply let it die. There was clearly a belief from Franklin that God governed the affairs of men. Franklin stated later that, aside from three or four men, most felt prayer to be unnecessary. In the end, two chaplains of different denominations were appointed, one for the House and one for the Senate, a tradition that continues to this day.

Until just before his death, Franklin continued to believe that Jesus left a remarkable system of morals and a new religion. Franklin believed that Jesus was probably the best that the world will ever know but he seemed appalled at the way man had twisted Jesus’ original teachings. He had doubts about the divinity of Christ but didn’t like to discuss it because he had not done enough research and study to make a proper conclusion.

He expressed this in a letter to a friend just before he died, adding, with his sly wit, that he suspected he would know soon enough the answer to Christ’s divinity.

Thomas Paine, James Madison and George Washington are also often described as deists. While Washington was nowhere near the deist Jefferson was, and he identified himself as a Christian, the examples from his life show us that he wasn’t particularly religious and leaned more towards deism than Christianity.

While more Americans claim to be Christian today, it is important to remember that America was founded with a belief that tolerance and respect were vital for the new nation to grow, regardless of what a person believed.  We no longer seem to believe that this is necessary.

Christmas is a holiday that celebrates a man who advocated tolerance and died because his views conflicted with the majority of people of his time. Many of founding fathers admired this man, even though some questioned his divinity.

If we could just remember this, we’d be able to forget the nonsense of a “war” against Christmas, end the idea that the United States was founded solely on Christian ideals, and enjoy the holidays as a peaceful time of family gatherings, reflection, and tolerance towards others.