In light of the ongoing debate over America's religious roots, it is time to set the record straight: There were a number of "Christian" state governments in colonial America, but the United States of America was not founded as a Christian nation.

The Religious Right movement in America today wants to conform the United States government to the morality of "Christian" colonial governments. In colonial America, "Christian" governments determined that which citizens were required to believe, and the manner in which residents were required to act. Anyone, Christian or otherwise, who disobeyed, became subject to intense persecution.

Baptists were among the most persecuted of all citizens in the "Christian" colonial governments, considered by the theocratic colonies among the worst of liberal, radical trouble-makers. Why? Because Baptists dared to insist that the New Testament mandated that religion and government be separate, and that matters of faith were between the individual and God and could not be mandated, or interfered with, by the government. In short, the Baptist commitment to voluntary faith threatened the theocracies.

Because of their "heretical" beliefs and their refusal to pay required religious taxes, Baptists of the 17th and 18th centuries in colonial America were beaten, whipped, stoned, jailed, put in the stocks and run out of town - all at the hands of "Christian" government officials. Baptists were not allowed to voice their faith in public; some Baptist families were accused of child abuse and had their children taken away from them because they did not practice infant baptism; some Baptist preachers were dragged from the pulpit and jailed and even urinated upon while preaching - all at the hands of "Christian " government officials.  (More information on Baptist persecution at the hands of colonial era "Christian" governments.)

In the early 1770s, as Americans were clamoring for political freedom from England, many Baptist preachers were serving time in jail for violating "Christian" laws prohibiting non-government sanctioned preaching. When America did win her independence from England, Baptists in America were the sole uncompromising voice insisting that the new nation be founded upon full religious liberty for every citizen, and complete separation of church and state.

When the United States of America finally drafted a Constitution that made no mention of God, Europeans were scandalized, charging the new upstart nation as being an atheist country. Only when the First Amendment, with its guarantee of full religious liberty and separation of church and state, was added to the Constitution did Baptists breathe a sigh of relief. After nearly 150 years of intense persecution at the hands of "Christian" colonial governments, Baptists and other dissenters finally emerged victorious.

By the witness of their own shed blood, Baptists and other dissenters had made certain that the new nation was founded as a secular nation. No longer in the New World would a "Christian" (or any other religious) government promote or force religious views upon her citizens, or persecute (or penalize) non-conforming Christians (or any other person, religious or otherwise) for holding improper beliefs.

Yet, in a tragic turn of events, today's Religious Right (to which many contemporary Baptists claim allegiance) denigrates and defiles the faith and legacy of our nation's Baptist forefathers by falsely claiming that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, and that the separation of church and state was the figment of some infidel's imagination. Furthermore, they have defiled the Gospel of Jesus Christ by placing their faith in lies and deception, rather than the truth.