A more important (and relevant) question would be, "What is the definition of a Christian?" Do you think it is the same (or even compares) to the definition they held back in the early 1700's?

 

That is a good question James, and I think central to the question. But we must clarify further. When we talk of "they" holding a definition of Christianity in the "early 1700's", who is "they". Much like today there were numerous groups who labeled themselves Christians but held differing theologies. For example, (off the top of my head), there were those that were strongly influenced by the French Revolution and the deist theology that came from it, and then there were those who came more from the Puritan/Pietest tradition, with a much more orthodox view of God and Christianity. When it comes to the debate on "wether the Founding Fathers were Christian", I see a tendency on both sides of the aisle to lump them all together, as if they all came from the same theology/tradition, which is not true. We do this because we want to have the weight of the "founding Fathers" backing our own theology. I think the debate itself should move on past this and we look at what they did and the merit of their actions, rather than trying to pigeon hole an entire group of men from history into our theology to fight modern day battles for us. BTW, that does not mean I think you are doing that, I am just noticing this from what I have read, on both sides.