Neil Gorsuch Moving Left says the US wasn't founded to be about one religion
Days after facing backlash for calling America a "creedal nation," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch says the United States was "never supposed to be a nation that was about one race or one religion."
In an appearance on PBS' "Firing Line With Margaret Hoover" that aired last week, Gorsuch discussed his new children's book, Heroes of 1776: The Story of the Declaration of Independence. Host Margaret Hoover noted that Gorsuch has said "there is no common religion or cultural heritage of Americans," and that he has described the U.S. as "a creedal nation" because "we believe in the creed, we believe in those three founding ideals."
Hoover was referring to freedom of religion, freedom of speech and equality under the law. She told Gorsuch that "that sentiment, particularly as expressed by you, has received some criticism from conservative circles and drawn backlash," and asked him to respond to critics who insist "we absolutely had a common cultural heritage and religion."
Gorsuch pointed to Charles Carroll, a Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, and said many American colonies were founded on the principles of "religious pluralism" and "the opportunity to practice your own faith in your own way."
"We were never supposed to be a nation that was about one race or one religion," Gorsuch said. "It was about those ideas.".................................
Speaking with National Review in May, Gorsuch said, "We're a creedal nation. What unites us is not a religion, not a race."
John-Daniel Davidson, senior editor of The Federalist, pushed back: "America is not a really great idea. It's a people and a culture derived from England and Christian Europe. Anyone who wants to be an American must adopt that culture as their own. It's not racist or xenophobic to say this, it's simply the truth."
Federalist CEO Sean Davis added: "If America were a creedal nation, then America would regularly be denaturalizing and deporting anyone who rejects the creed, either in word or in deed. But that never happens, so you know this is just empty rhetoric."