At the time of the Revolution, America certainly seemed a Christian nation. All thirteen colonies applied a religious test as part of qualification for public office. In most colonies, Jews, Deists or Catholics were disqualified. Most had an official religion and all thirteen mentioned God in civil law. But gradually, governmental ties to Christianity then began to disappear.
A trend toward secularism began in 1779. In that year, Jefferson introduced legislature to establish complete freedom of religion. A test of faithful conviction or religious affliliation would not be a requirement for public office. One's opinions on religion shall "nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." The right of one to hold such opinion was determined at birth. "...we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind..." After much wrangling to smooth the rhetoric of Jefferson's pen, the Virginia Act For Establishing Religious Freedom was finally passed in 1786.
Between introduction of the Religious Freedom Act and its passage, Patrick Henry introduced a bill to procure public money to employ ministers. With Jefferson in Paris, it fell upon his young friend James Madison to fight this battle in the Virginia legislature. Upon its introduction, the bill had wide support particularly within the clergy who stood to benefit financially. Madison built an coalition of secularists determined to limit religious intolerance on civil government and evangelicals who were determined to both pray as they deemed fit and to prosleytize the infidel unhindered by government restrait. Madison's own words against the bill bear repeating.
What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not.
From A Memorial and Remonstrance,
addressed to the General Assembly
of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1785.
Two years after its introduction, the Henry bill was defeated. On the eve of the Constitution Virginia stood alone as secular state.
When delegates gathered in Philadelphia in 1787, they could have chosen to frame their Constitution after any one of thirteen models. Massachusetts had an admirable but hardly secularist document. It was mostly conceived of a popular delegate, John Adams of Boston. In the end it was Virginia that served as a template for the United States Constitution. In Article 6, Section 3 we find Jefferson's act of 1786, "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." As if that wasn't explicit enough, part one of the First Amendment was more precise. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
A noticeable omission that proponents of the Christian nation fail to explain is the absense of divine blessing. The law of the land is not vested in God, but rather the people, we the people of the United States. The omission is particularly noticeable to students of the period. Until that time, no similar document omitted a diety. Even the Articles of Confederation acknowledged the "Great Governor of the World." This was a truly unique phenomena and it cannot be ignored.
After the Constitution was ratified, all states eventually followed the lead of the Federal government regarding matters of religion. Official ties to a particular sect were eventually severed. Tests of religious conviction for public office were all eventually abolished. After 1789, the United States was a nation of Christians with freedom to worship, but it was not a Christian nation.
