Alexis de Tocqueville on Americans and Churches

"Not until I went into the churches in America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power."

"America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

"...the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention....I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion - for who can search the human heart?  But I am cerain they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions."

"In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America;  and there can be no greater proof of its utility...than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation on earth."

Even the Frenchman de Tocqueville understood the virtue of America lay in her Christian churches.  After humanism & the Enlightenment nearly destroyed France, America was seen as a bright beacon of what was good, & it was because of her Christianity.  Who can say America was not founded under Christian principles?