Christian Right

Damon Linker in his discussion about his new book mentions the prevailing ideology of the founding fathers. He states that most of the founding fathers saw their form of theism--which he calls "deistic episcopalianism"-- as basically an assumed civic religion. Their belief was that God was bound with nature and agreed with rational inquiry and physical laws yet somehow endowed us innately with inalienable rights, and that's about it. Some such as Thomas Payne were even atheistic. Thomas Jefferson carefully read the New Testament and removed the parts which he doubted, which came to be known as the Jefferson Bible. Is this the country that President Bush alludes to when he says that we were founded as a Christian nation? I have some misgivings about equating the two.