by the exigencies of history (McCarthy, et al., 11).
By the late eighteenth century, as the "united states" were becoming a cohesive political entity, it became fundamentally clear that the plurality of religions foreclosed the possibility of a single state religion. Indeed, the framers of the Constitution recognized that the "United States" was not founded on the principle of civil-religious order, although it is relatively clear that this was to be essentially a "Christian" (if not Protestant) nation. Thus, it was necessary to initially disestablish the church as a state institution, as the First Amendment to the Constitution testifies.
Stephen L. Carter, in his book The Culture of Disbelief, argues that the evolution of American law and politics has "trivialized" religious practice. This is not to say that Carter proposes the return to a church-dominated state. Quite to the contrary, Carter sees the need, in many areas, for a continued separation of church and state that currently exists. In support of his premise, for example, he states (86):
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