Religion in American Politics: A Short History

The delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention blocked the establishment of Christianity as a national religion, but they could not keep religion out of American politics. From the election of 1800, when Federalist clergymen charged that deist Thomas Jefferson was unfit to lead a "Christian nation." to today, when some Democrats want to embrace the so-called Religious Left in order to compete with the Republicans and the Religious Right, religion has always been part of American politi...