re: Do you believe that the United States was founded as a Christian Nation?

quote:

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You realize that:

1 - the Constitution was for the states to reign in/limit the Fed, not the other way around
2 - the states can do whatever they want

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1 is true originally, 2 is false as of 1947 (in the case of religious establishment).

You see, like you say, the Bill of Rights did not apply to the states until (mostly) the 20th century.

The Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause set off incorporation of those rights against the states.

In 1947, Everson v. Board of Education incorporated the establishment clause against the states (and counties, municipalities and other local government).

Therefore, pre-1947, states were free to establish official religions. Some states did. Look up Massachusetts and Connecticut in the early part of our country's history.

Similarly, the individual right to own a gun wasn't incorporated until about 2011 (I think that was DC v Heller's date).

Some rights spelled out in the Constitution still only apply to the federal government, as they have yet to be incorporated by the courts. That includes the right to a grand jury in a criminal matter (see George Zimmerman in Florida, whose murder case did not go before a grand jury).