The Founders, at a time when there was a majority Protestant hegemony in our country, were eager to make sure that the State did not endorse any particular understanding of the Christian tradition. And they did so for theological and religious reasons: They did not want the State to dictate, or mediate disputes, regarding doctrinal issues. This was to be the task of the church and its members, not the role of the civil authorities.

Their understanding of the separation of church and state was for the exclusion of the civil authorities from the affairs of organized religious bodies. The state was to give neither support nor sanction to the church (and, by extension, to any religious community).

James Madison expressed such concern when Virginia's General Assembly was debating a bill that would have paid religion teachers with state money. “The Bill implies either that the Civil Magistrate is a competent Judge of Religious Truth; or that he may employ Religion as an engine of civil policy. The first is an arrogant pretension falsified by the contradictory opinions of rulers in all ages, and throughout the world: the second an unhallowed perversion of the means of salvation.” **

Rather, the free exercise of religion and the legal protection of religious liberty were to be constitutionally protected against the intrusion of the State.

Our country is saturated with Christmas imagery at this time because a majority of Americans, of diverse denominations and traditions, call themselves Christian. But their presence, however large, does not make the nation a “Christian” nation, anymore than if a majority of this country were practicing Buddhists would make this a Buddhist country.

Well-intentioned politically conservative Christians are eager for America to return to its “Christian roots.” In many cases, what they really want is for their faith to have greater influence on the shape of our public policies and on the sorry state of our popular culture. These are legitimate concerns, concerns shared by many others who do not share their faith tradition.

The separation of church and state does not mean the separation of religious principles from our public and political disputes (believing otherwise would mean some of the most important social and political movements in our history were ill-founded). But in our highly pluralistic and diverse society, calls for America to become a Christian nation in any sectarian sense are theologically unfounded, constitutionally illegitimate, and politically unrealistic.

**The proposed legislation, called “A Bill establishing a Provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion,” was tabled and Madison's Bill for Religious Liberty was passed.