Are LIBERALS and PROGRESSIVES trying to elimnate CHRISTIANITY?

Ok...If We aren't founded on Christian Beliefs,WHY is it that the first 2 Presidents say we were.While Several others thru-out HISTORY Have stated We Were?...The Writters oof those Two Great Documents created in the Begining of American History?The Mayflower Compact?Among others?...Here are a few links.With Quotes.
http://www.eadshome.com/Quote...
Founding Fathers Quotes
"The country's first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams,
were firm believers in the importance of religion for republican government." --official Library of Congress statement
"...both the legislators and the public considered it appropriate
for the national government to promote a nondenominational, nonpolemical Christianity."--official Library of Congress statement
Early Years
The First Charter of Virginia (granted by King James I, on April 10, 1606)
• We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God…
Instructions for the Virginia Colony (1606)
Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God the Giver of all Goodness, for every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out.

William Bradford
• wrote that they [the Pilgrims] were seeking:
• 1) "a better, and easier place of living”; and that “the children of the group were being drawn away by evil examples into extravagance and dangerous courses [in Holland]“
• 2) “The great hope, and for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world"
The Mayflower Compact (authored by William Bradford) 1620 | Signing of the Mayflower painting | Picture of Compact
“Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together…”
http://christianity.about.com...
Thomas Jefferson
3rd U.S. President, Drafter and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event."
--Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237.

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."
--The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 385.

John Hancock
1st Signer of the Declaration of Independence

"Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. ... Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us."
--History of the United States of America, Vol. II, p. 229.
James Madison
Belief - Episcopalian

"Religion is the basis and Foundation of Government." June 20, 1785

"It is not the talking but the walking and working person that is the true Christian." In a manuscript on the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, Madison makes this statement.

"We have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being, whose power regulates the destiny of nations." March 4, 1809 Inaugural Address

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” [1778 to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia]



...Read More in the links.

By David J. Brewer. Philadelphia, Penn.: John C. Winston, Co., 1905; reprint Atlanta, Ga. American Vision, 1996.

Few judicial utterances have provoked more controversy than Justice Brewer's famous declaration in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States (1892) that "this is a Christian nation." This passage has become a proof text for those who believe America was founded as a Christian commonwealth, and it has been the bane of those who advocate a strictly secular polity.

David Josiah Brewer (1837-1910), Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, elaborated on this dictum in a slender, almost forgotten volume entitled The United States: A Christian Nation (1905). American Vision has reprinted this hard-to-find tract. The new edition includes several informative addenda, including a biographical sketch of Justice Brewer, a reprint of his Holy Trinity opinion, and a case comment by Herbert W. Titus. Professor Titus's brief commentary on Holy Trinity, usefully places Justice Brewer's famous pronouncement in a legal context.

Referencing his own opinion in Holy Trinity, Brewer declared in the opening lines of the tract: "This republic is classified among the christian nations of the world" (p. 13). "But in what sense," he asked pertinently, "can it be called a Christian nation? Not in the sense that Christianity is the established religion or that the people are in any manner compelled to support it," Brewer conceded in a carefully qualified response. The First Amendment proscribes an official establishment. "Neither is it Christian in the sense that all its citizens are either in fact or name Christians," he continued. "On the contrary, all religions have free scope within our borders. Numbers of our people profess other religions, and many reject all. Nor is it Christian in the sense that a profession of Christianity is a condition of holding office or otherwise engaging in the public service, or essential to recognition either politically or socially" (p. 13). American citizens, in short, are under no obligation to conform to Christian institutions and ordinances (p. 38).

While acknowledging that the constitutional framers eschewed religious test oaths and a state church, Brewer argued that Christian principles were, nonetheless, woven tightly into the fabric of American legal, political, and social institutions and, indeed, were the source of law and liberty enjoyed by all Americans. "Christianity," he contended, "was a primary cause of the first settlement on our shores; that the organic instruments, charters and constitutions of the colonies were filled with abundant recognitions of it as a controlling factor in the life of the people. . ." (p. 33). He catalogued the many civil constitutions, organic laws, official declarations, and public customs that he maintained are imbued with the Christian religion and confirm the Christian character of the American republic. He further asserted that a christian ethic was the source of America's humanitarian commitment to, inter alia, civil liberties, education, social reform (such as the temperance movement), and public charity. Given Christianity's salutary influence, he concluded, every citizen and the nation as a whole has a duty to uphold and extend its influence (p. 44).

American Vision, publisher of this attractive reprint edition, is to be commended for retrieving this volume from obscurity. The importance of Brewer's book is not that it offers any deep, original analysis. Rather, it is a noteworthy literary artifact that reveals much about the intellectual culture of the late nineteenth century (although published in the early twentieth century, Brewer's book is clearly the product of an earlier age). He forcefully rebutted the notion that America was founded as strictly secular state. "By these and other evidences," Brewer wrote, "I claim to have shown that the calling of this republic a Christian nation is not a mere presence but a recognition of an historical, legal and social truth" (p. 33). This book can not be lightly dismissed as merely a quaint expression of a perspective long discounted by an enlightened, secular society. Written by the jurist who, speaking for a unanimous Supreme Court, proclaimed America to be a "Christian nation," this volume is an authoritative, concise statement of the Christian America thesis. The book's themes continue to resonate with many cultural conservatives and religious traditionalists.

This volume will add fuel to the long-standing debate over whether America is or ever was a Christian nation. Its republication will be celebrated by proponents of the Christian America thesis for whom the volume is an eloquent and authoritative synopsis of America's providential history. Opponents will dismiss it as an antiquated, intolerant brief for the controversial notion that Christianity is the source of much that is virtuous and civilized in the American experience. Students of religion in American history, in general, and the Christian nation debate, in particular, will find this volume a useful addition to their libraries.

COPYRIGHT 1997 J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State