Back when the colonies were around (before 1776) America was not a country. It was a series of "colonies" (theres that word again!) of Britan.
Only AFTER 1776, when we declared independence, did we become a country. And then once we ratified our Constitution, America became a secular nation.
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802
|