That the founding fathers intended the Constitution to be secular is beyond question; motions to include religious references at the Constitutional Convention were voted down. We know this from the 1788 pamphlet written by NJ-born Luther Martin, who was a delegate for Maryland.
The Constitution's secularism was decried by colonial clergy. John M. Mason, D.D. complained in a 1793 sermon that the "very Constitution which the singular goodness of God enabled us to establish, does not so much as recognize his being! ... From the Constitution of the United States, it is impossible to ascertain what God we worship; or whether we own a God at all ."
Thomas Jefferson said it even more directly in an 1814 letter to Dr, Thomas Cooper, stating that " Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. "
Anyone who claims the intention of the founding fathers was to establish a Christian nation should review Article 11 of the Treaty with Tripoli declared in part that "the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion..." This treaty was negotiated during the administration of George Washington and ratified by the Senate under President Adams. (The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution says the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Treaties, and laws made pursuant to the U.S. Constitution, shall be "the supreme law of the land."
"E Pluribus Unum" was the original U.S. motto put forth by a committee consisting of Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Pierre Eugene du Simitiere. It appears on the Great Seal of the United States but was never codified into law. "In God We Trust" is a recent invention, put into law in 1956. No one remembers the names of the congressmen who sponsored that bill.
Our Founding Fathers were wise men and had a healthy skepticism about the role of religion in government. Anyone who claims to respect the traditions of the United States should recognize that fact and stop trying to rewrite history to suit their personal beliefs.
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