Rocag said:
What exactly does it mean to be a "Christian nation"? Is it just a meaningless label used to make Christians feel better about themselves? Or if not, what rights and privileges should the government grant to Christians and Christianity that it denies to all others? I'm interested in specifics here. As a non-Christian, in what ways am I a lesser citizen than Christians living in this so-called "Christian nation".
The reason John Adams said what he did, that the constitution is for a moral and religious people, is that as much as enlightenment philosophers like Montesquieu and Locke influenced the creation of that system of government, the founders were also influenced by classical thinkers like Aristotle and Aquinas later. Liberalism can't resolve tensions between a materialist worldview and a Christian worldview. Under a certain epistemological and teleological framework, it all comes unraveled. It's a recognition that the system of government would not survive a certain amount of acculturation.
It's not that you, a non-Christian are denied certain rights. It's that you don't hold a Christian view of rights and obligations. That's the crux of it. Do I have the right to raise children in a society of people whose consciences are informed by Christian ethics, or do you have a right to the opposite thing? To live in a society where people's consciences are NOT informed by Christian ethics?
When I say we were founded as a Christian nation, I just mean that as a matter of fact. The entire citizenry were Christian, so we were a Christian nation. How could it be anything other than that?