My church has a fellowship hall, with an ample kitchen.  When our Sunday worship service concludes, people are encouraged to congregate and visit.   Members take turns in supplying refreshments, and each Sunday's repast brings about new and pleasant surprises. 

I remember sitting at a table with my wife and a couple of other church members.  I also remember starting to stuff my face with carrot cake, and some small finger sandwiches (filled with some sort of tasty mystery meat), when a man sitting next to me said: "Don't you think that our country should go back to its beginnings?  We started as a Christian Nation, and it's about time that we return…"

My wife squinted her eyes and looked across the table "A Christian Nation?"

"Yeah, a Christian Nation." Said the man.  "Our founding fathers were Christians, and our whole nation was founded on Christian principles. It's right there in the Constitution."

My wife Claudia is not a big person, but her eyes narrowed and she half rose from the table, giving her an appearance of size.  "No it isn't," she said.   "There is nothing in our Constitution that says that we are a Christian nation.  In fact, our Constitution makes no mention whatever of God."

"Sure it does." Said the man, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…"

"That's in the declaration of Independence, not our Constitution." Interjected my wife.
"Acknowledging a creator does not mean that these people were Christians."

"Yes, but they were," said the man.  "They weren't Hindus, Jews or Moslems."

"I don't know about Hindus or Moslems," replied Claudia, as she lifted a small cookie from her plate," but Jews did play a part in our American Revolution, and helped form our country.   Much of Europe had institutionalized anti-Semitism, and Jews came to our country seeking freedom.   The first man to sign his name in protest of the Stamp act was Mathias Bush, the Jewish President of Philadelphia's synagogue.  A Jew; Aaron Solomon, stood with Christians at the battle of Bunker Hill.  Another Jew, Francis Salvador, lost his life in 1776 after raising volunteers to repel Indian attacks." 

Claudia looked at the man and continued.  "The declaration of Independence that you started to quote was first sent to Amsterdam via the small Dutch island of St. Eustatius.  The British intercepted the Declaration at sea.  An accompanying letter with the Declaration was also intercepted and sent to London as being a secret code.  The letter was written in Yiddish.
Another Jew, Hayim Solomon bankrupted himself supporting the American Cause.   He arranged for arms to be shipped into the colonies from the Dutch island of St. Eustatius, and caused a lot of trouble for the British.  He is considered to be the financial hero of our American Revolution."

"So some Jews helped us," said the man.  "We're still a Christian Nation, and most of our founders were Christians."

"No they weren't," replied Claudia. "If we say that a Christian is a person who believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ, then it is safe to say that some of our key Founding Fathers were not Christians at all.  Benjamin Franklin, Ethan Allen, Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine were deists.  They believed in a God, but they rejected revelation and all the supernatural elements of our faith.   John Adams was a professed Unitarian, and he also appeared to be more a deist than a Christian. 

"How do you know so much?" asked the man.

Claudia replied: "I used to teach school, and I read."

"Let me continue," said Claudia;  "Our Founding fathers weren't necessarily religious men, and they fought hard to create, in Thomas Jefferson's words, "A wall of separation between church and state."  George Washington and James Madison didn't take much interest in religious matter and leaned toward deism.  Madison once implied that religion encourages superstition, bigotry, and persecution.  Whenever George Washington mentioned our maker in a public address, as he occasionally did, he was careful not to use the word "God."  He would use other names like "Great Author" or "Almighty Being."   I have also read that when George Washington died, no religious