A Declaration

This letter to the editor, by Kerry Kittel, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on May 28, 2026.

We all asked many questions as children. It is vital that we continue to ask them as adults, because accepting claims made without proof can be extremely dangerous. One such claim is that America was founded as a Christian nation.

The founders of America were products of the Enlightenment, where science and reason replaced religious dogma. They understood that governments based on religion always led to the persecution of people of other faiths, and often to lengthy wars between nations over religion.

Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration, and James Madison, who wrote the Bill of Rights, both believed that government and religion should operate separately.

People who want to mislead you about the role of religion will quote the phrase “endowed by their creator” as primary evidence to support their position. People who follow Judaism, Islam, and Native American religions also believed in a “creator,” so we must assume they too possessed “natural rights.”

It also applies to Deists, like Jefferson, who believed that a rational creator established the universe and natural laws, but who does not intervene in human affairs.

There is no mention of Jesus or the Bible in any of our founding documents. They do mention limiting the role of religion in Article VI of the Constitution by saying “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the U.S.”

Our first Congress was charged with passing The Bill of Rights to protect specific rights of all Americans. The first item in the First Amendment says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Note that the first protection was against the establishment of religion, followed immediately by a guarantee that Americans could freely exercise any religion, if that is what they want to do.

Our founders did not want a government based on religion. If they had, they would have said so. According to the Constitution and Bill of Rights, they said the opposite. I say we stick to what the founders intended in this case.