Fact: US just isn't a Christian nation

So according to Darryl Bullock (Letters, Oct. 12), “America is a Christian nation.” Easy to say, but proving that consists of more than recklessly tossing some out-of-context quotations from a few of the founding fathers.

How about this? “The government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion” – Treaty of Tripoli, ratified, unanimously, by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams on June 10, 1797.

It’s pretty hard to get around that, regardless of what certain individuals may have thought privately, or expressed publicly.

And what are we to make of this?: “…no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States”? That’s Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.

Christian nation? I don’t think so, and neither does any other rational citizen of this country.

Is a Muslim eligible to be president? The Constitution says he is. Getting elected is another story, and the only class of individuals less likely than Muslims to get elected, to any office, are atheists.

There are two Muslims in Congress, but since the departure of Massachusetts’ Barney Frank and California’s Pete Stark, there are exactly zero atheists.

And BTW: Ben Carson is an ignoramus who isn’t qualified to be elected dogcatcher, let alone president.

You can help defend our religious liberty by joining Americans United for Separation of Church and State. There’s a chapter right here in Olympia.

This story was originally published November 2, 2015 at 11:37 AM with the headline "Fact: US just isn't a Christian nation."