1) The founding fathers made it exceptionally clear that the United States was not founded on the Christian religion, as the language from the Treaty of Tripoli clearly states. And the mention of religion in our founding legal document--the Constitution--is very clear about the non-establishment of religion.
Concerning the Treaty you mentioned, according to Wikipedia, "A superseding treaty, the Treaty of Peace and Amity signed on July 4, 1805, omitted this phrase." This is in reference to the claim in the 1776 Treaty that "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
It's so important to understand the huge role Christianity played in the founding of the U.S., esp. in the area of education. The following quote is from the book titled
America’s Providential History.
The Biblical principles upon which America was birthed were passed on to succeeding generations through education in the home, church, and school. Christian education assured a foundation of liberty. Our Founders understood that tyranny and bondage would result from ignorance of the truth. This truth was rooted in the Bible.
As historian Frederick Mayer concluded in
A History of Educational Thought, “The present dilemmas in educational theory are represented by the conflict between champions of progressive education and traditionalists” (p. 354). (Many Americans would question Mayer’s opinion that the progressives are “champions;” nevertheless, his conclusion is basically accurate.)
The widely used American history textbook
History of a Free People by Bragdon McCutchen (1967 edition) explains the purpose for some of the first “public” schools in America:
The New England Puritans believed that citizens should learn enough English to read the Bible and understand the laws of the country. The famous Massachusetts General School Act of 1647 [also called the Ole’ Deluder Satan Act] stated:
It being one chiefe project of the oulde deluder Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the scripture [Bible]…it is therefore ordered, that evry township…after the Lord hath increased them in number to 50 households shall appoint one to teache all such children as shall resort to him to write & reade, whose wages shall be paid by the parents or mastrs of such children or by the inhabitants in genrall. (p.23)
McCutchen also explains that America’s first colleges were formed to offer training for the ministry.
Religion was the principal force behind the founding of most institutions of higher learning in the English colonies. Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Rhode Island College (later Brown), the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), and Rutgers were founded principally to train young men for the ministry (p. 24).
Following the Christian orientation of the first schools, The
New England Primer, published in 1690, became the first American textbook. This text contained Bible verses and was used to teach reading and Bible.
In 1783 Noah Webster’s “Blue-backed Speller” was published. Like the
New England Primer, this spelling text included Bible verses. Another spelling text, the
National Elementary Speller published by A.S. Barnes and Company in 1871, also contained Bible verses along with references to God and the deity of Jesus Christ.
In 1787 Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance. Even though this important document applied only to the Northwest Territory, it contained a bill of rights which served as a model for the national Bill of Rights contained in the U.S. Constitution. Article 3 states:
Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.
President George Washington delivered his farewell address in 1796. The speech was made before Congress to mark the end of Washington’s presidency and offers the following wise counsel:
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens…
…let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in the exclusion of religious principle.
In 1836 the Bible-based McGuffey Readers, produced by William H. McGuffey, were printed for the first time. These readers, utilizing intensive, explicit phonics, were used so extensively that over one
hundred million copies were sold during the next seventy-five years.
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision
Vidal v. Girard’s Executors in 1844. The case centered on the will of John F. Girard. This will granted the city of Philadelphia millions of dollars to start a school with a prohibition that clergy could not hold any position or duty in the school and a requirement that the school “instill...the purest principles of morality.”
Some were interpreting the language of the will to mean that the school could not be Christian, but Justice Story, speaking on behalf of the Court, disagreed. He had this to say:
The testator does not say that Christianity shall not be taught in the college. But only that no ecclesiastic of any sect shall hold or exercise any station or duty in the college....
Why may not laymen instruct in the general principles of Christianity as well as ecclesiastics… Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in the college—its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained and its glorious principles of morality inculcated?
This case makes very interesting reading and proves just how far America has strayed from its Christian roots in education! The Supreme Court assumed that the Bible would be taught in public schools; there was no debate about this. The Justice’s question is a good one. “Why may not the Bible... be read and taught as a divine revelation” in any public school in America? Did the U.S. Supreme Court of 1844 misinterpret the Constitution, or did the Court of the 1960s get it wrong when they outlawed Bible reading by public school staff?