The article also notes that “55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation” (no cite given in the article).
Note that he isn’t saying that “most Americans then and now are Christian, so we are a de-facto Christian nation”, he’s saying the Constitution actually establishes the US as a Christian nation, in a legal sense.
I’ll admit I’m not a Constitutional scholar, but Lordy…I don’t see how anyone can state this as a matter-of-fact. Did I miss an Article?
I don’t see where you’re getting that interpretation. When I read the quote, it seems to me that he was saying that since the US was founded by men with - mostly - Christian values and that influenced how they decided the nation should be governed.
shrug. To each his own; I’m not a big McCain fan in either case. But my first read of his original comments was consistent with his later explanations.
It’s hard to see where the Constitution actually establishes the nation as Christian. However, there are indications that Christian norms were used as its basis.
Article I, Section 7.2:
“…If any bill shall not be returned to the President within ten days (Sundays excepted)…”
Article VII: “Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth.”
The exception of Sunday indicates a recognition that this is the Christian day of rest, and of course the use of the phrase “year of our Lord” explicitly refers to Christ. These, to me anyway, pretty clearly demonstrate the Christian heritage of the framers and signers of the Constitution, but that’s not nearly the same thing as establishing the nation as Christian. There are at least two points in the Constitution that are explicit about separating religion from government - Article V, Section 2: “…no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States” and the First Amendment (in fact the first words of any amendment to the Constitution): “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…”
It’s one of the new amendments. It’s either after the one declaring the flag to be made of pure congealed holiness, or the one making English as Jesus spoke it our official language. Can’t remember which.
What upsets me is when candidates stake out controversial positions, then backpeddle with all sorts of finger-pointing at the media as if it is the fault of the media that they said something controversial in the first place.
I am sure John McCain thinks that the United States is now, and has always been, primarily a Christian nation. That is the truth of the matter. Of course, the Constitution doesn’t establish any such thing, so that part of his statement is wrong. A worthwhile person would have said, “I blew it about the Constitution, but I still believe we are a Christian nation by tradition and by demographics.”
Well, that isn’t actually a quote from John McCain. He said he agreed with that statement, according to the article, and that might not make much difference. But it isn’t his quote, contrary to what the OP wrote.
McCain is grasping at straws, trying to pacify the Christian right. It’s not a pretty sight.
Well, there were a fair number of moderate Democrats and independents who in 2000 thought that McCain was a palatable candidate. Snuggling up to Robertson and Dodson is going to lose him a lot more than it gains. IMO, of course.
One would think that if the Constitution established the United States as a Christian nation that it would mention God or Jesus Christ at least once in the text of the document. Instead of, you know, not at all.
The founders were mostly non-Christian, but aside from that, McCain said the Constitution establshed the US as a “Christian nation.” There isn’t a single word in the Constitution which reflects or codifies any uniquely Christian belief into law. As a matter of fact, it goes out of its way in the very first amendment to say it’s doing no such thing.