Jonathan, Thank you for your comments. We are not a Christian nation or a Theocratic society, but we are a Biblical principle centered nation. Just look at the Bible the President is sworn in on and the oath on the Bible that was originally how you were sworn in - in court cases. Our judicial system could have no absolutes were it not for the Bible. Don't take my word on it, read the founders themselves. Don't buy in to everything you have heard, but read from the people who made the history. People with the facts on their side always encourage people to go back and read the great men and women who made the facts. People who propagandize tell great stories and insist on interpreting for you - refusing to let you read the letters, documents, etc without their censorship. I encourage all to read the originals materials and you decide. How can you make an educated opinion if you have not read all the documents? Were the founders deeply engrossed in a Christian World View? Here is just on case in point - Read these quotes from George Washington: "Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides in the council of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States.." "...Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency" From President George Washington's Inaugural Address, April 30th, 1789, addressed to both Houses of Congress. President Washington's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1789 "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible" President George Washington, September 17th, 1796 "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports . . . And let us indulge with caution the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion . . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle." "...The Smiles of Heaven can never be expected On a Nation that disregards the eternal rules of Order and Right, which Heaven Itself Ordained." "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God." Address to the Constitutional Convention 1787 "Without a humble imitation of the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, we can never hope to be a happy nation." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Washington A Deist? NOT!!! The Following letter was written by George Washington's adopted daughter Eleanor (Nelly) Park Custis Lewis. She wrote this letter in 1833 in response to author Jared Sparks request for info on Washington's religious beliefs, for a book he was writing that was published under the title; "The Life of Washington". "Woodlawn, 26 February, 1833. "Sir, "I received your favor of the 20th instant last evening, and hasten to give you the information, which you desire. "Truro Parish is the one in which Mount Vernon, Pohick Church, and Woodlawn are situated. Fairfax Parish is now Alexandria . Before the Federal District was ceded to Congress, Alexandria was in Fairfax County. General Washington had a pew in Pohick Church, and one in Christ Church at Alexandria. He was very instrumental in establishing Pohick Church, and I believe subscribed largely. His pew was near the pulpit. I have a perfect recollection of being there, before his election to the presidency, with him and my grandmother. It was a beautiful church, and had a large, respectable, and wealthy congregation, who were regular attendants. "He attended the church at Alexandria, when the weather and roads permitted a ride of ten miles. In New York and Philadelphia he never omitted attendance at church in the morning, unless detained by indisposition. The afternoon was spent in his own room at home; the evening with his family, and without company. Sometimes an old and intimate friend called to see us for an hour or two; but visiting and visitors were prohibited for that day. No one in church attended to the services with more reverential respect. My grandmother, who was eminently pious, never deviated from her early habits. She always knelt. The General, as was then the custom, stood during the devotional parts of the service. On communion Sundays, he left the church with me, after the blessing, and returned home, and we sent the carriage back for my grandmother. "It was his custom to retire to his library at nine or ten o'clock, where he remained an hour before he went to his chamber. He always rose before the sun, and remained in his library until called to breakfast. I never witnessed his private devotions. In never inquired about them. I should have thought it the greatest heresy to doubt his firm belief in Christianity. His life, his writings, prove that he was a Christian. He was not one of those who act or pray, 'that they may be seen of men.' He communed with his God in secret. "My mother resided two years at mount Vernon, after her marriage with John Park Custis, the only son of Mrs. Washington. I have heard her say, that General Washington always received the sacrament with my grandmother before the revolution. When my aunt, Miss Custis, died suddenly at Mount Vernon, before they could realize the event, he knelt by her and prayed most fervently, most affectingly, for her recovery. Of this I was assured by Judge Washington's mother, and other witnesses. "He was a silent, thoughtful man. He spoke little generally; never of himself. I never heard him relate a single act of his life during the war I have often seen him perfectly abstracted, his lips moving, but no sound was perceptible. I have sometimes made him laugh most heartily from sympathy with my joyous and extravagant spirits. I was probably, one of the last persons on earth to whom he would have addressed serious conversation, particularly when he knew that I had the most perfect model of female excellence ever with me as my monitress, who acted the part of a tender and devoted parent, loving me as only a mother can love, and never extenuating or approving in me what she disapproved in others. She never omitted her private devotions, or her public duties; and she and her husband were so perfectly united and happy, that he must have been a Christian. She had no doubts, no fears for him. After forty years of devoted affection and uninterrupted happiness, she resigned him without a murmur into the arms of his Savior and his God, with the assured hope of his eternal felicity. Is it necessary that any one should certify, 'General Washington avowed himself to me a believer in Christianity?' As well may we question his patriotism, his heroic, disinterested devotion to his country. His mottos were, 'Deeds, not Words'; and, 'For God and my Country.' "With sentiments of esteem, I am, & c."