Monday, February 4, 2008

The USA: A Christian Nation or A Nation Rooted in Judeo-Christian Values?

The Episcopal church has posted a fascinating commentary by Richard Hughes giving conservative Christians a hard time for claiming that our nation was founded as a Christian nation. Clarity on this point IS important. Our Constitution does endorse religious freedom, separation of church and state, and does not provide for a state religion. However, this complaint also obscures an important fact. The roots of our culture at its founding were deeply influenced by Judeo-Christian values. For citizens to consider such values as important as they vote is part of their right as citizens–and this view dates back to the time of our nation's founders. This means one should and can distinguish between a religious test for President (best not applied) and a role for values (inevitable). In fact, all of us probably seek a candidate who we believe will govern with values that serve our nation's interests. So let's keep this additional distinction in mind as we discuss our country and the role of the influence of religion on people's politics. (We have blogged on Romney and the issues his run for office raises before. Nothing we are raising here changes anything we said there, see Romney Speech on USA and Religious Liberty and Tolerance Dec 6)
For the Hughes piece, see http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_94466_ENG_HTM.htm

From http://blog.bible.org/bock/node/342:

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