I ‘m presently listening to James Kennedy of the Coral Ridge Church, expounding upon “prooftexts” to byutress his argument thatthis is a Christian nation. Supreme among these arguments was the use of “the Year of Our Lord” in the constitution. This PROVED that they were Christian. The fact thatthey used the word “Lord” also further cemented this. BALONEY. The Year of our Lord is a PHRASE, used by EVERYBODY. Pointing to this as a SIGN that the framers were Christian is ludicrous.

I am not interested in DISPROVING the faith or non-faith of the framers of the Constitution. In fact, I believe many of them, even MOST of them were. But the sticking point for me is: Would these Christians “pass the litmus test” that most fundamentalists require of present day Christians in order to be “trustworthy” as “true Christians”? From what I read of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. , absolutely not. These guys would be under constant attack from the SBC if these present SBC leaders were back in the days of the Framing of the Constitution, or vice-versa (if those framers were in governmanrt today).

Kennnedy’s sermon is over, and I don’t know what his point was. I guess the proclamation that this is “a nation based on Christian principles” is THE message. Without some suggestion of WHAT GOD REQUIRES, I find this absolutely useless. Of course, this is a benchmark of the presentday Christian right theology. It stands on its own as a theological buttress to the theology of empire being advanced by the Bush administration (and not just the Bush administration).

Now , the TV broadcast from Kennedys’ program has Richard Land from the SBC, spekaing on “Reclaiming America for Christ”. Stay tuned