Did the founders create a Christian nation? No, but religion did shape their thinking

When he talks about the role of religion in the founding of the United States, historian Gregg Frazer does not attract eager audiences. “Neither side really wants to hear what I say,” says Frazer, a professor of history and political studies at The Master’s University, a Christian school in Santa Clarita, California. The founders, Frazer says, did not create a Christian republic. Several key founders either rejected core Christian doctrines or were vague enough to keep historians debating. For Frazer, that often disappoints audiences of his fellow Christians. But, he says, nor were the founders a cluster of rationalist deists - believers in a God who set the universe in motion like a clockmaker and then left it alone - and anti-religious skeptics, as they are sometimes portrayed. That disappoints audiences who favor a high firewall between church and state. Most of the founders were religious in one form or another. The long-running debate over the founders’ intentions about religion has been turbocharged with the approaching 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. Amid the America 250 celebrations, some Christian activists and authors are redoubling claims that the U.S. had a Christian founding. They have an ally