Will McAvoy on the Myth of a Christian Nation

I stopped watching The Newsroom about halfway into the season… so I missed this gem on how we’re not a “Christian nation”:

Will McAvoy: During Tea Party rallys and in campaign speeches, we’ve been told that America was founded as a Christian nation and if the founding fathers were here today, they’d tell us so. Here’s John Adams in the Treaty of Tripoli: “As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” And here’s Thomas Jefferson: “… that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions.” And here’s the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

What’s more frightening than the perversion of our great history is that sensible, smart, strong Republicans, the very men and women who should be standing up to radical fundamentalism, are so frightened of losing primary battles to religious zealots that they’ve thrown in the towel on sanity. So we get this:

[Video of John McCain: Yes, that the Constitution established the United States as a Christian nation.]

It’s ironic because the biggest enemy of the phony Republican isn’t Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. It’s this man. [Image of Jesus Christ]. He said ‘Heal the sick. Feed the hungry. Care for the weakest among us. And always pray in private.’

(Thanks to Todd for the link!)