Reply #206: Yes, but...

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

The precepts of Judeo-Christian belief systems were undoubtedly important among the Founding Fathers, but as far as the government itself was concerned, they unequivocally wanted it to be a secular organ. The US system of governance is a brainchild of the Enlightenment, and the Framers saw the country as a sort of Englightenment experiment. They were inspired by figures like Montesquieu, Newton, Locke, and others who mixed the idea of a secular government with the notions of human perfectibility that so defined the Enlightenment. In so doing, Jefferson, Madison, Washington, Franklin, et al. believed they were protecting both religion and government from the corrupting outcomes that emerge when they're mixed.

Jefferson himself explicity expressed his belief that the US government should serve as a working and inviting model for Muslims, Hindus, Deists, and many others alongsides traditional Judeo-Christians. Considering that this country now has about 10 million Muslims (and growing very fast), not to mention many Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, pagans, and whomever else, one has to be careful about shoving "in your face" demands against worshipers of diverse creeds. I'm a Presbyterian Christian myself, but I never claim to a non-Christian that mine is the exclusive path to divinity. This is precisely the path to all the madness of the religious wars that the Founders were most adamant to prevent. I'd hate to see their most cherished aspirations turned on their head.