America was Founded on Pagan Ideals

The United States is not a Christian Nation!

"In 'Blessed Assurance: A History of Evangelicalism in America,' religious historian Randall Balmer of Columbia University writes that a 'contrived mythology about America's Christian origins' has been a factor in the reentry of evangelicals into political life, helping sustain the conservative swing in American politics."
-- "For evangelicals, a bid to 'reclaim America,'" by Jane Lampman, The Christian Science Monitor, March 16, 2005

"Right-wingers claim that our nation was established in 1776 upon Christian ideals. They're wrong. Democracy and republicanism are historically Pagan ideals, directly opposed to churchly authoritarianism."*

"Most of America's traditional patriotic symbols are deeply Pagan deliberately chosen by the Founders to show that the roots of the Revolutionary values of equality, cooperation, and liberty lay, not in Jerusalem, but in pre-Christian Athens and Rome."*

From the Wildhunt.org, 4.26.2008, A Monumental Issue

What would be engraved on this monument? A line from the Treaty of Tripoli, a historical document unanimously approved by the US senate and signed by our second president John Adams*. A line that warms the hearts of religious minorities and secularists everywhere.

"...the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..."

You can understand then why the City Commission, who were pressured by local Christians to not remove the 10 Commandments monument, would be hesitant to allow a "sister monument" that questions the status of America as a "Christian nation". Which brings us back to the case currently pending before the Supreme Court, Pleasant Grove City, Utah v. Summum. This case should definitively decide if those overseeing public lands can favor one religious or philosophical monument over another.

John Adams, a Unitarian, also called the Christian cross an "engine of grief" and insisted that America was founded by "the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery".

Thomas Morton of Merrymount

The Pagan Pilgrim, as Thomas Morton is also known, was one of the earliest settlers in the Colonies. There were more than just radical Christian pilgrims coming to the "new" land -- there were other religious activists too. Read more about Thomas Morton in these articles.

* This page is based heavily on Coven Oldenwilde's Wiccan Website (especially the pages written by Steve Rasmussen) with additional material from The Wild Hunt blog.

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