America is not a Christian nation

You know those mass e-mails that fly around being forwarded by countless people?  Well I got one the other day that included this section…

As I was listening to a news program last night, I watched in horror as Barack Obama made the statement with pride, 'we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists. As with so many other statements I've heard him (and his wife) make, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd hear something like that from a presidential candidate in this nation.  To think our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian nation--and to have this man say with pride that we are no longer that. How far this nation has come from what our founding fathers intended it to be.

Now regardless of whether a person is “for” or “against” Barak Obama, this statement is just so wrong.

We are NOT a Christian nation and we have NEVER BEEN a Christian nation.  What our forbearers died for was the right to be a nation that is not of any one faith.  There were attempts to include the words “Christian” and/or “Jesus” in the US Constitution when it was being written.  There have been attempts every so often since our country was founded to say that we are a Christian nation.  Each and every time the attempt has been made it has been soundly defeated because we are NOT a Christian nation, we are exactly what our forbearers intended us to be-  we are a secular nation where all faiths and doctrines are to be respected and permitted.

So like it or not, we are a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and more.  And there is actually no way to blame that on Barak Obama.