These days, if you dare to suggest that the United States is a Christian nation or that it should be a Christian nation, you are likely to get viciously attacked. There are many voices on the left that have convinced themselves that America has never been a Christian nation and that it will never be a Christian nation.
But in our system of government matters of law are not settled by what intellectuals on the left think. Rather, in our system of government matters of law are settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken very clearly on this matter.
In Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court emphatically stated in 1892 that “this is a Christian nation”…
If we pass beyond these matters to a view of American life, as expressed by its laws, its business, its customs, and its society, we find every where a clear recognition of the same truth. Among other matters, note the following: the form of oath universally prevailing, concluding with an appeal to the Almighty; the custom of opening sessions of all deliberative bodies and most conventions with prayer; the prefatory words of all wills, “In the name of God, amen;” the laws respecting the observance of the Sabbath, with the general cessation of all secular business, and the closing of courts, legislatures, and other similar public assemblies on that day; the churches and church organizations which abound in every city, town, and hamlet; the multitude of charitable organizations existing every where under Christian auspices; the gigantic missionary associations, with general support, and aiming to establish Christian missions in every quarter of the globe. These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.
Subsequently, in Zorach v. Clauson the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1952 that we “are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being”…
We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. We guarantee the freedom to worship as one chooses. We make room for as wide a variety of beliefs and creeds as the spiritual needs of man deem necessary. We sponsor an attitude on the part of government that shows no partiality to any one group and that lets each flourish according to the zeal of its adherents and the appeal of its dogma.
That same opinion contains a stinging rebuke for those that would seek to remove all traces of Christianity from public life…
The First Amendment, however, does not say that, in every and all respects there shall be a separation of Church and State. Rather, it studiously defines the manner, the specific ways, in which there shall be no concert or union or dependency one on the other. That is the common sense of the matter. Otherwise the state and religion would be aliens to each other — hostile, suspicious, and even unfriendly. Churches could not be required to pay even property taxes. Municipalities would not be permitted to render police or fire protection to religious groups. Policemen who helped parishioners into their places of worship would violate the Constitution. Prayers in our legislative halls; the appeals to the Almighty in the messages of the Chief Executive; the proclamations making Thanksgiving Day a holiday; “so help me God” in our courtroom oaths — these and all other references to the Almighty that run through our laws, our public rituals, our ceremonies would be flouting the First Amendment. A fastidious atheist or agnostic could even object to the supplication with which the Court opens each session: “God save the United States and this Honorable Court.”
When the U.S. Supreme Court sets a precedent, our entire system of government is bound by that precedent.