I do not believe that America was a “promised land.” However, contrary to what @Bruce_Leiter said, we were founded on the Judeo/ Christian belif system. Our laws are based on the Ten Commandments. Freedom OF Religion, not from, is in our Constitution. In God we trust on our money. The Blue law, to promote God, family, and rest.
This is simply not true. The overwhelming majority of the Founders were traditional Christians who believed in the authority of the Bible, the Trinity, and the active intervention of God in human history. John Jay: The first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and a massive figure in the founding. He was the president of the American Bible Society and explicitly wrote that it was the duty of a Christian nation to select Christians as its rulers.
Patrick Henry: Famous for “Give me liberty, or give me death,” Henry was a devout Christian who wrote in his will that the greatest gift he could leave his family was his faith in Jesus Christ. Samuel Adams: Known as the “Father of the American Revolution,” he was a deeply religious Puritan who constantly called for days of public prayer and fasting.
This is where people like George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison fall. Calling them " strict deists" is historically incorrect. A strict deist believes in a “Clockmaker God” who created the universe and then completely walked away, never answering prayers or intervening. Washington and Adams did not believe that. They spoke constantly of “Divine Providence,” an active, caring God who directly intervened to help America win the Revolutionary War. While their private letters show they wrestled with certain orthodox theological dogmas (such as the exact nature of the Trinity), they frequently attended Christian services and funded churches. They believed Christianity was absolutely vital to public morality.
Now it is true that there were a few prominent Founders who genuinely rejected orthodox Christianity in favor of rationalism: Thomas Jefferson. He famously cut out the miracles of Jesus from his personal Bible with a razor, keeping only Christ’s moral teachings. He considered himself a follower of Jesus’ morals, but rejected his divinity. ( 1. Source: [Smithsonian National Museum of American History / Smithsonian Magazine] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-thomas-jefferson-created-his-own-bible-180975716/) 2. Official Exhibit Info: Smithsonian Books Product Details)
Benjamin Franklin: In his own autobiography, Franklin admitted that he entertained deist views in his youth, though later in life he became much more open to the idea of a God who actively governs the affairs of men. ( * Source: Baylor University Magazine)
Thomas Paine: Paine was a fierce, outspoken critic of institutional Christianity and wrote heavily against the Bible in The Age of Reason. (Notably, his radical views made him so unpopular with the other Founders that only a handful of people attended his funeral). ( Source: University of Michigan Clements Library (Revolutionary Paine Exhibit))
Saying “the Founders were deists” is like looking at a crowded room, picking out the two or three most eccentric people, and assuming everyone else thinks exactly like them. The cultural and spiritual fabric of the American founding was undeniably grounded in the Christian tradition, even if a few of its primary architects held more unorthodox, rationalist views in private.
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