Ross Douthat, unlike many of his deluded right-wing compatriots, will concede that Jefferson was not an orthodox Christian. Nevertheless, he argues that the reference to a creator God in the Declaration is the root of liberal democracy in America. Is that accurate?
It is undeniably true that strongly committed Christians were very prominent in the fight for social justice in both the 19th and 20th centuries. It is equally true, however, that strongly committed Christians were on both sides of those battles, and that liberalism is rooted in the failure of Catholics and Protestants to impose their views on their opponents in the 16th and 17th centuries. Liberalism is based on ideas of toleration, and toleration was born of exhaustion, not idealism. The relationship between Christianity and liberalism is, therefore, a mixed bag at best.