Christmas present for the U.S.: a Christian nation.

• Position: YOUR LIFE

Some people argue that America never was a Christian nation, even if most of the Colonists were very devout. After all, some of the Founders were Deists and devotees of the Enlightenment, which, in its extreme form in France, tried to replace God with Reason, points out Jane M. Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and president of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, Tucson, Ariz.

Still more argue that the U.S. is not a Christian nation now, relates Orient, recalling that, on June 28, 2006, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) proclaimed, 'Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation--at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."

To test whether this is true, we might consider what a Christian nation would look like, suggests Orient, who indicates it would not be a place like C.S. Lewis' Narnia, where it was "always winter, but never Christmas." Not everyone would celebrate Christmas, indicates Orient, but those who wanted to do so would do it openly, joyfully, and anywhere they wanted.

'The seventh grade chorus would be allowed to sing 'Silent Night,' 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,' and even 'Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?' as we did area 1950 at Salome Townsend Junior High in Tucson. It's beautiful music, even if you don't share the faith. You could also sing Jewish songs or secular songs or Muslim songs (are there any?). You could not sing rap songs with lewd or violent lyrics in places where children might hear."

Orient continues: Children would not be thrown out of school, and teachers would not be fired for saying "Bless you," or praying, or reading the Bible, but they would not be allowed to use profanity or obscene language--nor would they be forced to endure graphic "comprehensive sex education" starting in kindergarten. The nation would not be saturated with pornography. You could turn on the television without seeing programming that treats promiscuity as normal. "Boys would be taught to respect women, and girls would demand respect from men. Women would not be for using, then dumping, or for enslaving. Faithful marriage would be the ideal and the norm. One-third or more of the young women would not have a sexually transmitted disease, or endure the heartbreak of abortion and abandonment by the father of their child. Men would be...