One has to wonder if John McCain has ever bothered to read the Constitution, or the Bible for that matter. In an interview on belief.net McCain is asked three questions regarding the role of Christianity and in the founding of our country.
McCain, inarticulately hamfists his way through this interview. These questions are pretty easy to answer, but being a guy that vitally needs the religious right to vote for him without alienating the mainstream of society, he has to carefully position and parse his answers. His lack of citing the Constitution or the Bible for support also demonstrates that he has no clue in how to answer what he is being asked.
Here's a video abstract of his answers. You can see the whole video here.
"Most Americans believe the Constitution established a Christian nation. Do you agree?"
McCain, with discomfort states "probably yes."
What? Probably yes? The Constitution is a legal document and nowhere does it explicitly state that Christianity as the official religion of the US. In England, the Anglican Church is the official Christian practice and thus receives taxes. In the US, the Church is separate from the state and does not receive taxes and does not have to support the state by being taxed. Nowhere does the Constitution state "God." This is unlike the recently minted constitutions of Afghanistan and Iraq, where Islam is the official religion and that no (secular) law may contradict the Koran. Furthermore, the Constitution explicitly states that "...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." I do not know how more explicit against an establishment of Christianity you can be, or any other religion for that matter. Hint: an establishment of religion is like being pregnant. You either are or you are not. So there is no "probably."
McCain continues to add that, although the Constitution establishes Christianity, it is in the "broadest sense." But not so broad to include Judaism. Although both religions share the Old Testament and Yahweh, the similarities stop there. Their practice, belief, and worship in a sacrificed, risen messiah hopelessly divides them both. Both Christianity and Judaism are mutually exclusive. The answer is also very vague.
McCain goes on to mention other great American sentiments that have nothing to do with the Constitution, but are often skewed by the religious right who want to replace a democracy with a theocracy. Again, two mutually exclusive concepts.
(Also, I object to the wording and the premise of the question, but I'll save that for another time.)
Many Republican activists say that separation of church and state is a myth. What is your opinion?
In the first question, McCain answered a (weak) yes, yet now says that, in fact, the US has separated church and state. Okay. Does he see the obvious contradiction between both answers? You can not have one or the other. McCain could have cited a specific example from the Constitution where it expressly establishes Christianity, but instead he now says that this establishment is on "Christian principles." What are "Christian principles?" If he means the articles of faith that one must subscribe to to be a Christian, then no. But if he means charity, reciprocity, and basic humanism then yes. However, all religious and the non-religious espouse basic kindness, so being kind and good is not solely the providence of Christianity.
McCain then goes on to sum up the religious beliefs of our the founders. That's all very nice and all, but we are talking about law of the land here. And nowhere did any of the founders, Madison, Jefferson, Madison, Paine, Allen etc ever state "In God We Trust." This statement was added later in 1957 to our currency. The phrase "All created equal" is not part of the Constitution, but part of the Declaration of Independence. This declaration of war, does not explicitly state or even imply the Christian God.
Is America exceptional because it is divinely chosen?
This has to be one of the most poorly answered questions. Why did not McCain just answer with the platitude of "God bless America" and move on? Again he makes an appeal to whatever "Christian principles" are and also states that the Founders were "inspired" by these very same Christian-Judeao beliefs. BS. While many of the Founders were Christian, Jews, and some were deists, if it wasn't for the fact that they were Enlightenment rationalists and dissident protestants agreeing to separate church and state, we would not have had a secular democracy today. That was the boldest move.
How do we know this? We know this by many things, like the Virginia State constitution (where much of the US Constitution is based upon), from legal document like the Treaty of Tripoli, or from the private correspondence between Jefferson and Madison. And we also know by the critics. Take Reverend George Mason for instance, who stated that "we will have every reason to tremble, lest the Governor of the universe, who will not be treated with indignity by a people more than individuals, overrun from its foundations the fabric we have been rearing and crush us to atoms in the wreck." The rhetoric is the exactly the same today when Christianity attempts to Christianize the commons and the schools and loses in court.
No. They were inspired, not by Christianity, but by secularity. The resounding silence of the Constitution about God and Christianity and the fact that nowhere is it written into law that there are "no other gods before me" within our founding legal document should put McCain's assertions to rest.
Yet it doesn't. McCain is playing to the religious right. The religious right wants to take away American's freedom to worship and replace it with they way they think you should or should not worship. This is patently UnAmerican.