, I also hate those with the rhetoric that the U.S. was ounfded to be a Christian government. Yes, the founding fathers were of Christian background. Many of them also lived there private lives in seeming conflict of Christian values. About 1/3 of them owned slaves. Several had illegitimate children. Quite a few had mistresses. Sometimes slaves and mistresses were one and the same. Sometimes their illegitimate children were also the slaves'. Even the very accomplished Ben Franklin, while considering himself Christian, seldom attended religious service, and publicly rejected much of the Christian dogma of the day. He advocated modelling oneself equally on Socrates just as much as Jesus.The founding fathers were nonetheless incredible and wise men. If anything, their lives and actions founding this great country showed they were human, and intended this nation to be a place where humanity would thrive not just under Christian values, but human values.Thomas Jefferson actually asked for divine intervention during the making of our Constitution. As we know, the First Ammendment provides the following: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; . To summarize in analogy, it's OK to put In God We Trust on a coin, so long as that coin can freely go into the collection place at a synogogue, or a mosque, or even an athiest's pocket. That's how our Christian founding fathers meant this place to be. If your idea of religion is not compatible with this, be you christian or otherwise, then your values are not as American as you think.