Yes, I'm about to go there. If you don't want to get into it, just ignore this post; you have that right. Still with me? Good.

So much I hear people shouting about how this nation was founded on Christian ideals, as a Christian nation, that our nation's forefathers were Christian, and I hear people on the other side trying to say otherwise. What's amusing (in a way) is that on both sides of the argument, people will say, "Pick up a history book!" as if they both have their own version of the truth out there somewhere in the immutable word of their high school textbooks about the religious beliefs of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and the rest.

Now, I myself am not the huge history buff my father or other people I know are. There are parts of history about which I enjoy learning, but history was always my weakest core subject in school. And I haven't taken the time to do the in-depth research for writing this post, so I will openly admit that I do not know whether our nation's founders were Christian, Deist, or whatever else. The bottom line, though, is that I don't care, because whatever this nation once was is not what it is today, and today is what matters.

There are people who try to throw around our nation's Christian roots as if that should act as the dictum by which we establish our laws and collective social behavior today. These people are blind to change--often willingly blind, and that is disturbing on many levels. Are there morals found in Christianity that can be found in laws initially used to set up our country? I'm pretty sure there are. That does not mean that Christianity has a monopoly on moral truth. Admonitions against lying, stealing, and murdering can be found in the Bible, but I can also justify how those are all bad on a purely secular level. We are a social species--we rely on each other not just to survive, but to grow. Therefore, anything that harms an individual (such as lying, murdering, or stealing) for the gain of another individual is seen as being immoral, because when we harm each other, we are harming the efficacy of our ability to help each other and work as a group towards a collective goal. These types of morals can be found in a plethora of religions, not just Christianity.

Were many of the original settlers Christians? If my memory of my history classes serves me right, then I'm pretty sure they were indeed Christian. Does that mean that there is no room for other faiths? Whatever our forefathers were, they saw the necessity to include a protection for people of all faiths to live and believe as they wish without fear of persecution. That's why the very first amendment to our nation's constitution (an amendment without which would have meant our constitution would not even be ratified) declares that government shall pass no law respecting a specific religion. It doesn't matter if Washington or Adams were Deist or Christian or Muslim or Atheist or whatever--they saw fit to guarantee that all people of all faiths would be welcome in the USA, because they understand this one moral truth: people should be free to believe as they wish without fear of persecution from their fellow human being.

When I see people pushing the idea of a Christian nation, it's usually to justify some special privilege that would be granted to Christianity--and specifically, their interpretation of Christianity--above any other belief system, such as allowing a monument to the 10 Commandments outside a courthouse but barring a monument to Satanism standing right next to it, or using their own prejudicial interpretation of Biblical law to treat LGBTQ people as second-class citizens through established secular law in our country. These are people who have put up blinders--sometimes willingly--to anything other than a certain interpretation of the truth they wish to embrace, and who have invested so much of their own egos and sense of self-identity into their idea of truth that they have to justify it by stepping on everyone else's idea of what truth might be, because to allow any notion to the contrary would be to allow a potential shattering of their own ego.

There are some people whose egos need to be shattered. If you cannot understand that society has changed dramatically since our nation's founding over 200 years ago, then you have no place to talk about what's best for our nation. Now, I will be the first to admit that there is a lot wrong with our society's level of emotional intelligence, that a lot should be done to change the way we think and perceive the world in which we live, but these are all problems that I see that exist, can be explained, and cured all on a secular level. Part of the cure is to allow people to believe what they want, which often requires people to stop wearing their religion on their sleeve. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with finding your own answers through your own religious beliefs; by all means, do that if you earnestly feel it will make you a better person. Just don't try to claim that you have a monopoly on truth or morality, because the day you claim exclusivity of truth and knowledge is the day you close your mind to any further growth.

If you're in doubt about whether you've already begun to do this, ask others around you who don't share your beliefs, and be ready for some harsh truths. I personally see it as judgmental when anyone calls people "lost" just because they don't follow the same beliefs, despite how people behave. And behavior is really the crux of this argument--or at least, it should be. All the arguing I see is on dogma without action, on judging people for believing something different than what they do, even if these non-believers' actions would fall in line with the core teachings of their belief system. Is the God you worship so egotistical as well that he/she/it would need people to acknowledge and worship him/her/it as WELL as do the good deeds in life? Is the afterlife for which you feel you're preparing yourself one full of that type of judgment, where belief is weighed more heavily than behavior?

The bottom line is that no matter what you believe, no matter what you may think about the beginnings of our nation, today there exists a nation that has made room for people of all faiths and all walks of life, so your arguments of our nation's Christian roots are irrelevant; they simply do not apply to our country as it stands today. And if all you want to cry is "tradition! tradition!" then read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" for a look at the absurdity of following tradition for traditions' sake. I'm sorry if you feel that your religious beliefs have been sidelined or marginalized. Christianity still very much has a place in the USA, but you shouldn't need a monopoly of societal and governmental power just to make your own beliefs feel justified. The only thing that should be truly marginalized out of existence should be prejudice and a lack of compassion and equality for people who believe differently than you.