America: A Christian Nation?

In 1783, after leading the American forces to victory, Gen. George Washington resigned his military commission. In a circular letter to the governors of the American states, he offered his “earnest prayer” for the new nation that God “would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of the mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion; without an humble imitation of whose example, in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”
Without doubt, the "Divine Author of our blessed religion," whose example we were to follow was none other than Jesus Christ, Who washed His disciples' feet {John 13} and asserted that He did not "come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" {Matthew 20:28}.  He commanded His followers to love, even their enemies {Matthew 5:44} and He prayed earnestly for unity in the human family {John 17}. Their is no other person in any religion that Washington could have been referring to. His admonishment to "do justice, love mercy and to demean ourselves with ...humility..." is an almost direct quote from the Bible: Micah 6:8.  And note that he labeled this Christianity as "our blessed religion". 
Despite the fact that then president Obama notoriously stated that America was not a Christian nation, the fact that America was founded by men who were overwhelmingly either devout Christians or had a deep respect for the principles of Christianity is abundantly established by any objective study of the men's' lives, personal letters, and religious habits. To obscure this fact in efforts to accommodate "pluralism" is not to move the nation ahead, but to open the door, as is already evident, to competing factions without a unifying underpinning, and, more ominously, without mature motivation. We have seen in history the devastating division and violence that has resulted from such de-spirited factioning. Those who hold forth for a government that makes ample space for and actually encourages Christianity are not vying for a theocracy; indeed, Christianity, rightly understood and deriving from the actual teachings of its central Personage, does not lend itself to authoritarianism or tyranny. We were founded by men who were escaping such tyranny; and they full well knew that such tyranny was not in accordance with the Christian faith that they devoutly adhered to--the faith from which derived the understanding that "all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights." To this day the Bible is illegal in nations run by tyrants and theocrats. The secular world has much more to fear from the suppression of Christianity, which leaves the innately religious national soul open to all manner of misguided zealotry fueled by hatred or the desire for power. Christianity is a protection against this, akin to the body's immune system.
The body's immune system is an apt example: It does not "tolerate" every organism; only those that benefit the body as a whole. Invading organisms [certain viruses and bacteria] are recognized by the wisdom God placed in the body as detrimental to the higher good--the ongoing survival of consciousness. These invading organisms are destroyed--not tolerated. In our nation, we have the unprecedented opportunity, and obligation, to non-violently "destroy" invading religions or philosophies that do not foster freedom and democracy. We do this by properly acknowledging the Love and supreme maturity of Christ as the life-giving Spirit and unifying fabric of our nation--by encouraging it and being very careful to foster Biblical understanding in upcoming generations. Otherwise we have repeatedly seen what the untethered ego, as well as theocratic religions and atheistic governments can wreak in the world. It's important to remember that the concept of separation of church and state was instituted to protect  religion [specifically Christianity} from the state; not to protect the state or its populace from religion. This would have been an absurd notion to our Founders who knew full well that government of, by and for the people could only prosper if those people were informed and motivated by the principles of love, justice and humility exemplified by the "Divine Author of our blessed religion."

It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.

-Patrick Henry

The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests

-Andrew Jackson