We are not a christian nation....

We are not a Christian nation-

This is the Fourth of July, and I was reading the news when I came across a cartoon called "Hawk's Eye View." In the cartoon a couple sits in a graveyard watching fireworks amongst the graves of our founding fathers. The woman states "no-that's not fireworks-that's the framers of the Constitution raising a ruckus because fundamental Christians-and Texas textbooks-are at it again twisting the facts-rewriting history-"

They are sitting on the grave of one of the founding fathers with the date 1791. From the grave, the founding father speaks:

"Gosh darn-at issue is not whether we, the founders did or did not believe in God. There never was a problem with Americans being a religious people-but, confound it-the Constitutional convention created a secular central government seeking secular purposes so there would be no one side taking on religion-none."

We are not a Christian nation; we are a nation of religious freedom. The funders were escaping religious oppression. Our constitution, our form of government and our society stands for freedom of religion-we are the great melting pot of religions, free to believe in any religion--Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, or no religion at all.

To assert we are a Christian nation, a nation believing in one group of religions is contrary to what the founders believed. They believed in creating "a secular central government seeking secular purposes so there would be no one side taking on religion..." Therefore, to say that our founding fathers believed in God, that they had no problems with Americans being a religious people, and that they wanted religious freedom is acceptable--to state otherwise is a distortion of history.

On this Fourth of July I would hope everyone will remember we are a free nation, we are free to express our views, we are free to think how we choose, we are a secular nation made of people with distinctive beliefs-this is what is so great about our system of government, our Constitution and our society.

Happy Fourth of July.