As to whether America is a Christian nation, one might well ask if any nation is Christian or any church or individual. In actuality, no. In aspiration, perhaps.
That said, America was not conceived as a Christian nation, though it benefited from the influence of Christianity. One of the founders, James Madison, for instance, wrote to the Reverend Jasper Adams that when "government and religion are in a manner consolidated" the result is "the worst of governments," as a Baptist Joint Committee newsletter recently noted.
The Declaration of Independence speaks of "Nature's God" and asserts that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." It concludes with a plea for "reliance on the protection of divine Providence." These references may well be described as oblique, almost a studied effort to not make any doctrinal statement. Indeed, many of the Founding People were disciples of the English Deists and the French Philosophes.
It may be said that these "Representatives of the United States of America," as they are referred to in the Declaration of Independence, came closest to the spirit of Jesus Christ by not being dogmatic and intolerant in their writings. Some latter-day bigots, masquerading as Christians, might well take lessons from them in this regard.
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