The myth that the United States is founded on the "Judeo-Christian Bible" persists and prospers despite readily available evidence. Contrary to popular belief, the Founding Fathers rejected the biblical model in favor of a secular model of government. 

    The authors of the United States Constitution had first-hand experience with governments created and supported by God.  Preaching at the coronation of King George III, the Archbishop of Canterbury argued that the new monarch ruled by "divine appointment" which required his subjects to submit entirely to his authority:

    To lead successfully a revolution, the Founding Fathers had to reject the biblical model: God did not create and maintain governments. Rather, they endorsed a revolutionary view of government that has its origins outside of the Bible in English common law and the Enlightenment.

Men, not God, created governments. This principle was enshrined in the Constitution itself:

    Instead of turning to the Bible, the Founding Fathers turned to secular history. As a group, their basic creed was pragmatism, not Christianity. They wanted to create a government that would promote happiness on earth and sought examples of good government from ancient and contemporary history. It was the Greeks and Romans that experimented with a participatory form of government. Unlike the Hebrews who relied on prophets, the Greeks and the Romans allowed "ordinary citizens" to create and revise laws based on necessity. One cannot forget, however, that the colonist were "Englishmen," and they sought to preserve their "ancient rights," such as the trail by jury and the Writ of Habeas Corpus. Experience taught the Founding Fathers that the power of the government had to be limited if a people were to be happy. Moses and David, on the other hand, had no such limits.

    The Founding Fathers also rejected the notion that political allegiance depended upon faith in God.  Since every European government claimed divine sanction, they required their subjects to profess a particular creed.  Even England, with its liberal Act of Toleration,  restricted Catholic worship because of the Jacobite threat to the crown.  Parliament also passed the Test Act, requiring office holders to prove their faith and political loyalty by taking communion in the Anglican Church.  The US Constitution explicitly outlawed religious tests for office holders.  A person's view's concerning God had absolutely no bearing on loyalty to the state.  Current proponents of including "one Nation under God" in the pledge of allegiance are thus reverting to a pre-Revolutionary War notion that political loyalty is tied to one's faith.

    Advocates of the "Biblical Nation" have turned the words and ideas of the Founding Fathers on their head. No serious scholar would deny the individual faith of many of the Founding Fathers.  When they wrote the Consitution, however, the authors collectively rejected the idea that the US Governments had a divine origin and that it needed to protect and promote faith in God. Quite the contrary, faith in God and individual liberty flourishes when governments keeps their hands off religion. Faith in God and freedom diminish when politicians use God to limit an individual's conscience.

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