Rhode Island [FN186] “enjoys the honor of having been, if not the first, at least one of the earliest, of the colonies, and indeed of modern states, in which the liberty of conscience and freedom of worship were boldly proclaimed among its fundamental laws.” [FN187] 1/6

Rhode Island was the only State of the original 13 that did not send delegates to Philadelphia for the 1787 convention. Its notice of ratification makes no mention of the U.S.A. being founded as a “Christian” country. Its paragraph IV states: 2/6

“That religion, or the duty which we owe our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, and not by force and violence; and therefore all men have a natural, equal, and unalienable right to the exercise of religion according 3/6

to the dictates of conscience; and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established, by law, in preference to others.” [FN188]
There is no statement that Rhode Island was joining a theocracy, is or wanted to be a “Christian” State. 4/6

There’s no requirement that anyone take an oath to a deity. Next up: a recap of various ways by which this country can be shown NOT to be a “Christian” country. The bottom line is that “Christian” nationalists want power & will re-tell history. 5/6

Footnotes:
FN186. The name had been the English Colony, but became the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Ante-Revolutionary War history, 1 Elliot’s Debate, pp. 32-33, 334.
FN187. Id., p. 33.
FN188. Id., p. 334. 6/6