Treaty of Tripoli

[desales09]

A man at work cited the Treaty of Tripoli for evidence that our country was not founded on Christianity.

I never argued that it was - but it seems to me that our nation was closer to Christian values and principles in times past than it is today.

Anybody have ideas on how I should respond?

 

[Della]

While America was not founded to be exclusively Christian, the men who founded it certainly were influenced by Christianity and many were practicing Christians. The treaty cited did not claim that America was not largely made up of Christians, it merely states that the US government has no claim to any particular religion, therefore it has no quarrel with Islam. I rather think the writers and signers were more interested in allaying Muslim fears that the USA would be sending missionariies or taking the part of other Christian nations against them out of bias. This document, long forgotten, has only recently been “resurrected” by some to try to “prove” that atheism is America’s “official” religion, but of course, that’s making a case that doesn’t exist from a treaty that made no claims of that, either.

 

[George_Stegmeir]

Your friend is seriously mis-interpreting the Treaty of Tripoly, which in essence declairs “Peace and Friendship” between the US and the Bey of Tripoli and his people. The particular clause usually cited in the treaty by anti-religionists merely states that the US is neutral vis a vie Christianity and Islam.
The Founding Fathers were mostly practicing Christians. However, at the time of the Second Colonial Congress, which produced the Declaration of Independance, The Church of England was the official State Religion of most of the colonies, with the exception of Pennsylvania, which was Quaker, Maryland, which was Catholic, and Connecticut and Massachusetts, which were Puritan.
Fast forward the the drafting of the US Constitution. The Founding Fathers realized that to be fair to everyone, the Government had to be neutral with regards to religion. Therefore, the First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees Freedom of Religion, right alongside Freedom of Speech. The vast majority of the founders who wrote and voted in the Bill of Rights were practicing Christians, or as it was called back then, Deists.