|
In my experience it usually means either "You'll do what I tell you because (I think) it says so in the Bible." or "You aren't welcome here because you have different religious beliefs than I do.". Happily, neither of these concepts appear in our Constitution. For evidence, people either tend to point to the fact that "the founding fathers" where Christian, and/or the references to God in the various documents produced around the founding of our country.
As to the founding fathers being Christian - some of them were, more or less. Many of them were enlightenment-era deists. Either way, based on the founding fathers, it makes just as much sense to call America a Rich, White, Male nation as a Christian one.
There are several references to God and the Bible in the documents produced by the founders, but none (except for "year of our Lord" to express the date) in the Constitution. It is pretty explicitly *not* founding our country or laws on any particular set of religious beliefs.
That said, I believe that some (the ACLU in particular) go a bit too far in trying to keep religion out of the public sphere. Religious displays and that sort of thing. I guess the pithy phrase to describe this is 'freedom of religion, not freedom from religion'. Even in cases where they may technically be in the right, I think it's the wrong focus.
|