Christianity and the US Constitution...

[Gunboat Diplomat]

While the US Constitution and the Founding Fathers often refer to God and Our Creator, I don't know if they ever refer to Jesus specifically...

Do they? Does anyone know, either way?
Thank you...

 

[RichardMNixon]

While the US Constitution and the Founding Fathers often refer to God and Our Creator, I don't know if they ever refer to Jesus specifically...

Do they? Does anyone know, either way?
Thank you...

The Constitution never refers to god. Really. Never mentions it. The only reference to religion is to say that it can't be a requirement for public office. It is an entirely secular document.

The Declaration of Independence, while not legally binding, is a statement of our principles. It refers once to our "Creator," (and again to it creating us, but that's really just one statement) and once to "Nature's God." That's it. No Jesus.

Jefferson did admire Jesus, but did not worship him as a god as evidenced by the book he wrote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson's_Bible

Thomas Paine was the Christopher Hitchens of the Founding Fathers, but was ostracized and eventually moved to France.

One of my favorites from them: "I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved--the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson

http://www.wa4dsy.net/skeptic/founding-fathers.html

 

[lrkun]

God

It has often been seen on the Internet that to find God in the Constitution, all one has to do is read it, and see how often the Framers used the words "God," or "Creator," "Jesus," or "Lord." Except for one notable instance, however, none of these words ever appears in the Constitution, neither the original nor in any of the Amendments. The notable exception is found in the Signatory section, where the date is written thusly: "Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven". The use of the word "Lord" here is not a religious reference, however. This was a common way of expressing the date, in both religious and secular contexts. This lack of any these words does not mean that the Framers were not spiritual people, any more than the use of the word Lord means that they were. What this lack of these words is expositive of is not a love for or disdain for religion, but the feeling that the new government should not involve itself in matters of religion. In fact, the original Constitution bars any religious test to hold any federal office in the United States.

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

God

It has often been seen on the Internet that to find God in the Constitution, all one has to do is read it, and see how often the Framers used the words "God," or "Creator," "Jesus," or "Lord." Except for one notable instance, however, none of these words ever appears in the Constitution, neither the original nor in any of the Amendments. The notable exception is found in the Signatory section, where the date is written thusly: "Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven". The use of the word "Lord" here is not a religious reference, however. This was a common way of expressing the date, in both religious and secular contexts. This lack of any these words does not mean that the Framers were not spiritual people, any more than the use of the word Lord means that they were. What this lack of these words is expositive of is not a love for or disdain for religion, but the feeling that the new government should not involve itself in matters of religion. In fact, the original Constitution bars any religious test to hold any federal office in the United States.

With that into account, and the following in review, it can be clearly conjected that our Founding Fathers didn't want any God in our government, and to not even be represented by any one divine entity.

Art. 11. 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 tranquility, 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.