colonies that banded together and created the Continental Congress that in 1776 declared the colonies to be free and independent states. Congress in 1781 ratified the first frame of government, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Ratification took place not in year one of a new secular order but "in the year of our Lord one Thousand and seven Hundred and Seventy- eight." Both the sovereignty of God and the Christian calendar are recognized in the closing paragraph. Americans by common definition were a Christian people. The American Christian nation as nation-state, at least in its embryonic form, was in place in 1781, before the Constitution was contemplated.

The outcome of the Constitutional Convention cannot be described as leading to a secular nation; it led to a Constitution that created a federal government with limited, delegated powers. It preserved the Christian nation by virtue of the continuity of existence of the thirteen original states that retained all reserved powers, that is, those not delegated to the federal government. These powers included jurisdiction over religion, education, health, and welfare.

Religious liberty was constitutionalized with the adoption of the First Amendment, the first clause of which reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

The Founders wanted to retain the Christian nation that was already in place. They saw fit to create a limited, not secular, federal government that had no jurisdiction over matters of religion and was barred from creating a state church, which was done to preserve religious liberty and encourage free exercise of religion. States had jurisdiction over the religion, education, health, and welfare of the people. The federal bar against establishment of a state church did not apply to the states; in fact, New England states for some decades retained their state churches.

In this arrangement the federal government generally encouraged Christian religion inasmuch as English common law, which the United States absorbed, was based on Christianity. For most of U.S. history up to World War II (1939-1945), the federal government respected the constitutional jurisdiction of the states over religion and education, including allowing moral and spiritual guidance in public schools.

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