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Originally Posted by waitingtables  Most of our faunders were self labled Diests. It is different then fundamental Christianity. And yes, they were less orthodox then the ones today. |
I think that is too broad a stroke with too narrow a point. It is accurate to say that not all signers of our founding documents were specifically Christians. But I'm not so sure when it comes to saying most were Deists--in fact,it appears that most were Christians or at least promoted Christianity for the nation.
Here is link from "Christian" perspective: viewpoint:
Christianity and America
Here is one from the "Deist":
Little-Known U.S. Document Proclaims America's Government is Secular - The Early America Review, Summer 1997
It is quite interesting to compare the sources/quotes to prove the opposite conclusions for exactly the same persons like Hamilton, Washington or Jefferson.
However, while the % Deists to Christians may be debatable, we also have to broaden our scope:
The first settlers were Pilgrams then the Puritans. Fundamental sects by any measurement. All of our earliest colleges, now known as the Ivy League--Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Princeton, and so on--were founded as
Christian colleges. Add in the Quakers, Shakers, Mennonites etc who pretty much founded states (like PA), the Catholics in Maryland, and almost all original 13 colonies used tax dollars to build and sustain
Christian churches...
And it seems fairly obvious in the overall picture that America was founded as a Christian nation. And it seems that even many of the (alleged) Deists promoted Christian principles as the bedrock of our nation even if they did not themselves identify as Christians.