by Frances Simon

Created on: August 11, 2007   Last Updated: May 05, 2009

In the beginning America was founded as a Christian enclave.While the pilgrims came to America so they could freely practice their own religion, this did not mean that they believed that anyone should be able to freely practice any religion. An outrageous example of this was the treatment of the devout Puritan and early Quaker Anne Hutchinson.

The government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony used religion as a means of control over the early European settlers. The Church controlled the government. They feared that if they did not the colony could deteriorate into civil war. Anne threatened this by expressing religious beliefs that not only were different but if adopted by a large number of followers would loosen the Church's control over the people.

Anne believed that people could communicate directly with God, without the help of a minister. This directly contradicted the established religion. Religion was such a powerful control over the people that only those who went to government-approved churches were allowed to vote.

Anne was brought to trial for her beliefs. Since the Bible was used as the legal treatise at this time, and many of her beliefs were considered in direct contradiction to it, she was found guilty and banished from the Colony.

The United States Constitution came out of this milieu. The writers of the Constitution were storngly influenced by their surroundings and the people who were in the majority - white, Anglican, male and Christian. Civil unrest has undone racial prejucie, country of origin and sex. Christianity is so ingrained in the Constitution that it almost seems that there is no way of ammending it so as to not be based on Christianity without voiding it entirely.

For strict constitutionalists there may be no way around the implicit assumption that America was intended to be a Christian nation. For someone who delves more deeply into the history and beliefs of the writers, the assumption that Christianity was deliberately embeded in the Constitution can be questioned.

Our forefathers were sheltered from exposure to and understanding of the many, many other religions in the world. If they had known about these would they have intentionally excluded them? The Constitution was written to create a new type of government, and to equalize all of its residents. There is nothing in it that says "Christianity is the one and only true religion." If the writers of the U.S Constituion had believed that they would have made it clearly obvious.

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