From: John Cuccia 

before US conservative thinkers concluded that the ideals of the Founding
Fathers were un-American.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/02/3531_arkansas_house.html
Arkansas House Rejects Thomas Paine A lot of conservative spokespeople like
to say that America's founders were Christian, when, in fact, most of them
were not. Members of the Arkansas state House of Representatives now know
that Thomas Paine was not a Christian: A proposal to commemorate January 29
as "Thomas Paine Day" failed because of concerns about Paine's
criticism of Christianity.

Paine, the author of "Common Sense," was a deist. Arkansas state
representative Sid Rosenbaum presented to the legislature Paine's book, The
Age of Reason, as "anti-Christian" and "anti-Jewish."
As a result of this characterization, the proposal to create "Thomas
Paine Day" failed to pass the Arkansas House. Only six more votes are
needed, however, and the proposal's sponsor, Rep. Lindsley Smith, plans to
introduce it again.

Said Paine in The Age of Reason:

" I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the
Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant
church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or
Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and
enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5