My understanding is that the wording of the Treaty of Tripoli has been the subject of much debate, especially when given the situation and context of that time. (i.e., the intentions not to go to war with the Muslim pirates, and the inability or desire to wage war with another foreign nation)

While I am not 100% sure just how much Christianity played in the founding of this country's government and Constitution, I'm also skeptical of people who claim that our government was completely secular, and hold to a theory that our government was eventually hijacked by over zealous Christians. If that were to be completely true, I have a hard time understanding why it's been so hard to define exactly where that line between church and state begins and ends. Today, it seems as though anything and everything is being targeted as a violation of the "separation between church and state". Some of the stuff is slowly being taken out that was there when I was a child. You hear stories about the word "Christmas" being taken out of schools, or Christmas figures of Baby Jesus decorations now being forbidden in government offices.