The United States was founded by Protestants and Deists who chose not to establish a theocracy. The words Christian, Jesus, God and Bible do not appear in the Constitution. The word ‘religion’ only appears when the document says there will be no religious test for any public office. It is clear that America began as a nation without an established religion. Below is an excerpt from a submission to the U.S. Religious Liberty Commission. “The First Amendment protects religious freedom by erecting a “wall of separation between church and state” that has stood for more than two centuries. Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom that served as the model for the First Amendment, first wrote this metaphor in a 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists, and it has endured, becoming synonymous with the First Amendment.1

“In 1879, the Supreme Court cemented this foundational truth when it adopted the metaphor of “the wall of separation of church and state” in the first case where it interpreted the religion clauses of the First Amendment. In Reynolds v. United States, the Court reviewed the history of religious freedom from before and through the founding, noting that before the adoption of the Constitution, “attempts were made in some of the colonies and States to legislate not only in respect to the establishment of religion, but in respect to its doctrines and precepts as well.”2 The Court then described the effort to amend the Constitution to protect religious freedom by Madison, Jefferson, and others. The Court held that the phrase “separation of church and state” is “almost . . . an authoritative declaration of the scope and effect of” the First Amendment.3

 "As one reviewer pointed out, "the Supreme Court adopted the wall metaphor in 1878, and employed it in 1947, 1948, 1961 (three times), 1962, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1977, 1982, and again and again in countless concurrences, dissents, and lower court opinions.”4 The Supreme Court issued many opinions throughout the mid-20th Century reinforcing the history and tradition of religious freedom in our country by making clear that the First Amendment bars the government from endorsing, funding, or promoting religion.”

“Despite this well-documented history, Christian Nationalists and their extremist allies rely on cherry-picked quotes, out-of-context documents, and flawed historical methods to insist that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation.” This is a myth. Indeed, the Constitution is a wholly secular document, containing no mention of Christianity or any deity or specific religion. It refers to religion only twice: to prohibit religious tests for office in Article VI and to protect religious freedom in the First Amendment.

1 Letter from Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, to the Danbury Baptist Association, Connecticut. (Jan. 1, 1802) (on file with the Library of Congress, June 1998 - Vol 57, No. 6).

2Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 162 (1878).

3 Id. at 164.

4 Andrew L. Seidel, Bad History, Bad Opinions: How “law office history” is leading the courts astray on school board prayer and the First Amendment, 12 N.E. U. L.R. 248 (2020).

Taken from p. 43 of the Submissions to the Religious Liberty Commission written by Americans United for Separation of Church & State https://www.justice.gov/religious-liberty-commission/media/1437931/dl?inline