Were the Founding Fathers predominately Christian, and therefore colored their endeavor with a reliance on Christian norms?
The assertion is problematic. The American colonies were primarily comprised of a variety of Christian sects, certainly, and the common understanding of the average citizen was colored by “Christian” belief of one sort or another, but to claim that therefore the nation as a whole was “Christian” is to ignore both the wide schisms of the sects extant in America at the time, in general, and of the unorthodox beliefs of the primary architects of the Constitution, specifically. To use the phrase coined by Frazer to describe the beliefs of the Founders, these men were Theistic Rationalists. That is to say that, by and large, they were “religious,” but not Christians. Many believed that religion was essential to a free society, in order to produce morality, but that any religion would suffice. But the key is, despite their mixing of Protestantism, natural religion, et cetera, the decisive factor in their beliefs was rationalism. Despite retaining the trappings of Christianity, they rejected
