{"id":2045,"date":"2012-06-20T10:27:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T10:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/06\/the-ungodly-constitution-how-the-founders-ensured-america-would-not-be-a-christian-nation.html"},"modified":"2012-06-20T10:27:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-20T10:27:00","slug":"the-ungodly-constitution-how-the-founders-ensured-america-would-not-be-a-christian-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/06\/the-ungodly-constitution-how-the-founders-ensured-america-would-not-be-a-christian-nation.html","title":{"rendered":"The Ungodly Constitution: How the Founders Ensured America Would Not Be a Christian Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>When I was growing up in the fifties and sixties, almost no one in politics or everyday life went around proclaiming, \u201cI am a Christian.\u201d If indeed you were a Christian\u2014that is, someone who considers Jesus Christ the Messiah\u2014you identified yourself as a Lutheran, a Methodist, a Baptist, a Catholic, and so on in excelsis in order to let others know where you stood in the vast American religious landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Calling oneself a Christian today, by contrast, has a special, politicized meaning. For most people in public life, this self-identification suggests a particular form of conservative Christianity, a brand of religion that seeks not only to proselytize but to impose its values on others through the machinery of the state. The huge exception to this rule is President Barack Obama, who has been forced by the birther-paranoids to advertise his credentials as a Christian in order to refute the lie that he is a \u201csecret Muslim.\u201d<br>Read the rest <a href=\"http:\/\/prn.fm\/2012\/06\/20\/susan-jacoby-ungodly-constitution-founders-ensured-america-christian-nation\/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=susan-jacoby-ungodly-constitution-founders-ensured-america-christian-nation#axzz1yLcv8TSx\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I was growing up in the fifties and sixties, almost no one in politics or everyday life went around proclaiming, \u201cI am a Christian.\u201d If indeed you were a Christian\u2014that is, someone who considers Jesus Christ the Messiah\u2014you identified yourself as a Lutheran, a Methodist, a Baptist, a Catholic, and so on in excelsis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Ungodly Constitution: How the Founders Ensured America Would Not Be a Christian Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When I was growing up in the fifties and sixties, almost no one in politics or everyday life went around proclaiming, \u201cI am a Christian.\u201d If indeed you\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/06\/the-ungodly-constitution-how-the-founders-ensured-america-would-not-be-a-christian-nation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ungodly Constitution: How the Founders Ensured America Would Not Be a Christian Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was growing up in the fifties and sixties, almost no one in politics or everyday life went around proclaiming, \u201cI am a Christian.\u201d If indeed you\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/06\/the-ungodly-constitution-how-the-founders-ensured-america-would-not-be-a-christian-nation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-20T10:27:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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