According to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Also, Thomas Jefferson makes it very clear that the US government is secular in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom he wrote in 1779.

The founding fathers clearly formed the US gov. to be secular. We know this based off of their public and private writings. From the separation of church and state, to the founders own personal doubts (and contempt) for the orthodoxy. It was all about liberty.

The constitution does not have any of these words, contrary to popular belief: Christian, Christianity, Jesus, Moses, bible, God.

Government itself is supposed to be secular in that it doesn't force religion onto others.

people shouldn't confuse this though with issues such as abortion, stem cell research, gay marriage, and the death penalty.

it seems that everyone wants to pin religion onto these issues when it's not just that.

Abortion - killing a baby (i'm for it, but be realistic)

Embryonic Stem Cell research - create life to destroy it (once again, for it)

Gay Marriage - give benefits to couples that can reproduce (around even in the Roman times when homosexuality was gladly accepted, but they wished to give benefits to couples that could reproduce for they wanted more people), but i'm sort of for gay marriage too.

Death Penalty - killing a potentially innocent man, and we shouldn't make the risk (and i'm for that too).

it seems that whenever a person of faith takes to these issues, people decide to make it only a religious issue and they ignore any other argument brought onto the table (such as the ones posted).

the government was formed to be secular, because our founders formed our government to escape the religious oppression of divine right

It was formed to be a secular nation because the Founding Fathers did not want America to be ruled by another Church of England.