Disbelief in Founders' Religious Core

This blog has discussed the concept that most of our founders were Christian. But there are those who claim the founders were mostly deists. In a current argument over the curriculum of the Texas public schools, both sides are strong in their feelings.

One argument from the "deist" side is that the founders believed in a God that created things and then left them to run their course. That type of god did not answer prayers. If this were true, why then did the founders allow their first meeting as the Congress of the United States to open with a 3-hour prayer?

Let us not forget that more than half of our first states had official Christian state religions at the time our Constitution was ratified. Then there are the three times that the U.S. Supreme Court has said we were a Christian nation. And let's not forget that several of our states' constitutions had clauses that said people could not hold office unless they believed in a system of future rewards and punishments. Or look at some of the posts on this page:

http://churchvstate.blogspot.com/2009/05/americas-christian-roots.html

This is not to say I am for or against the particular program being proposed in Texas. I don't know enough about the details, even if they are all ironed out at this point, to have a personal opinion. But I certainly would not want the idea thrown out because they think the so-called "separation of church and state" would not allow it.

Religious beliefs of founders debated