Aug 27th, 2008
Posted by Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 4:03pm	Free Speech, Religion & Belief

Repeat After Us: America Is Not a Christian Nation

Last September, the First Amendment Center released a poll with a truly scary finding: they found that 55 percent of Americans believe that the Founding Fathers established the United States as a Christian nation, and that Christianity is somehow established in the Constitution.

Noooooo! It is absolutely nowhere in the Constitution that Christianity, or indeed any religion, is the official religion of the United States. In fact, the sole mention of "religion" in the Constitution is in the First Amendment, which states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (emphasis ours)

Translation: Congress can't establish a religion or stop you from practicing yours. 'Nuff said.

Obviously, we need to keep bringing lawsuits like the one we filed today against the officials on the Santa Rosa County School Board in Pensacola, Fla. They must be a part of that 55 percent who believe the U.S. is a Christian nation, and take it as an excuse to force their religion on others: promoting and endorsing prayers at graduation ceremonies and other school events, sponsoring religious ceremonies and holding official school events at churches.

In fact, teachers and staff at Pace High School preach about "judgment day with the Lord" and offer Bible readings and biblical interpretations during student meetings. That kind of stuff is constitutionally protected—that's, right, by the First Amendment—at private schools, in religious communities and, of course, at home, but that's where it ends. Any government- or publicly funded school should never endorse, promote or espouse any religion.

Don't even get us started on the pledge of allegiance.

Permalink |	Free Speech, Religion & Belief

1. Kathy Says:
   Sep 14th, 2009 at 10:25am

   Sam Crutsinger Says: You say it was WRONG for them to say a prayer???!!!!
   Gee, I guess you don't realize that when we allowed prayer and discipline out of the school system, it got harder and harder to control the students. This is still a free country....how hard would it have been for the children not wanting to participate or whose parents didn't want the to participate in the prayer to just not participate?
   Red Skelton was right a long time ago, when he sited the pledge without GOD in it. He said it would happen and it has happened and so much more.
   You might not be a Christian, but you have no right taking the privilege to pray away from me. If you don't like it, then leave or don't participate. We were all allowed to pray and say the pledge with GOD in it. Nobody was worse for it. I work in the juvenile justice system, and have seen the consequences of NO GOD in the kids lives. No direction of any sort much less morals and discipline

2. DeeDee Gonzalez Says:
   Oct 3rd, 2009 at 11:44am

   The ACLU is wrong you claim to defend the rights of the people. Well we have the right to express our faith in God because God is the one who put us here to begin with. We as Catholics and Christians have a lawful and spiritual right to express our faith by prayer and The Pledge of Alligence and in any other way we want to. Our ancestors and the founding fathers of the U.S.A. were Christians! And if we want to have public prayer or have crosses in our cemeteries we have that right! I will praye for you that you will see what is the real truth. The truth is in the Bible try reading it!

3. DAVE Says:
   Oct 15th, 2009 at 5:50am

   I am currently serving in the Middle East, and I just received an email about the ACLU wanting to do away with prayer in the military and crosses as tombstones. I have never been so upset in my life. I am a part of the younger generation who wants to take a stand, but we don't know where to start! I will continue to pray to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I WILL DIE FOR That RIGHT! The ACLU is Satan! We have a choice in the military of what kind of funeral we want, and if where we want to be buried. Have any of the blood sucking lawyers that make up the ACLU ever even served in the military? I DOUBT IT!

4. boo aclu Says:
   Nov 7th, 2009 at 5:56pm

   its ok to display a cross and we are a christian country and what happend to freedom of speech we are allowed to show crosses and 1 nation under god is ok cause most people believe in a god reread the constitution morons

5. Anonymous Says:
   Nov 20th, 2009 at 11:07pm

   No wonder they are scared.More people know the truth than the ACLU expected...

• 
• 1
• 2
• 

Name

E-mail

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Homepage

• Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
• Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

What code is in the image? *

Enter the characters shown in the image. Ignore spaces and be careful about upper and lower case.