Hot Topic: Is U.S. A "Christian Nation?"

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Late last week, the polling organization Gallup announced that "the percentage of Americans who identify with some form of a Christian religion has been dropping in recent decades, and now stands at 77 percent." In 1948, the percentage of Christians was 91 percent.

Another poll, the American Religious Identification Survey, found that 15 percent of Americans now claim no religious affiliation, nearly double the percentage in 1990.

Those figures suggest that Christianity is on the decline. Yet it remains a major force in American life: More than three in four Americans identify as Christians, and religion – Christianity in particular – is connected to many aspects of our lives.

It influences the debate over social issues and plays an important role in many families and communities; it touches everyone from death row inmates to the president, who Monday oversaw the traditional White House Easter Egg roll.

So is the United States, in the end, a "Christian nation?" And what does that mean, anyway? President Obama, as part of an effort to reach out to the Muslim world, explicitly rejected the formulation in Turkey last week.

"We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation," he said. "We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

Not that the president is averse to using Christian imagery: In what the White House billed as a "major" speech Tuesday, the president invoked a parable from the Sermon on the Mount.

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Newsweek, meanwhile, recently printed a cover story entitled "The End of Christian America" – which prompted complaints and a call for the firing of the author of the piece, Editor Jon Meacham.

"As crucial as religion has been and is to the life of the nation, America's unifying force has never been a specific faith, but a commitment to freedom—not least freedom of conscience," he wrote.

Newsweek polling found that 62 percent of Americans believe theirs to be a Christian nation – which, despite being down from 69 percent last year, is a formidable number.

Yet the separation of Church and state remains relatively strong. Despite the efforts of many Christian evangelicals, prayer is generally kept out of schools, as is, by and large, the teaching of Creationism. The popular elected president supports abortion rights. And on one of the key social issues of the moment – gay marriage – the traditional Christian perspective appears to be losing ground, with increasing support for gay rights among the young and more states legalizing same-sex marriage.

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One would not expect a "Christian nation" to move toward gay marriage; New York's new Catholic archbishop, Timothy Dolan – who suggests gay marriage would be a "detriment to civilization" – said Monday that Catholics are "above the times, we're timeless in our beliefs in our values and in our ethics and in our morality."

Yet Americans, more generally, are not "timeless in our beliefs," as evidenced by a consistent pattern of social change virtually since the nation's founding. Perceptions about everything from slavery to alcohol to women's rights have changed dramatically over the years.

Ultimately, the question of whether America is a "Christian nation" depends in large part on how you define the phrase. If a "Christian nation" is simply a nation made largely of Christians, then America is undeniably one. Despite the increase in non-religious Americans, they are still outnumbered more than 6-1 by Christians, according to Gallup.

But if a "Christian nation" is something else – a nation on which laws, behavior and policy are fundamentally tied to Christian ideals – then the question is more complex. The legal system has an undeniable basis in the Christian conception of morality, as does our societal conception of right and wrong.

Yet the phrase "Christian nation" can also be problematic. Domestically, it suggests the possible sublimation of individual rights in favor of a unified and inflexible worldview. Internationally, it creates an "us vs. them" as the U.S. fights for hearts and minds in countries with overwhelmingly Muslim populations.

There's much more to discuss on the issue, of course. But we're leaving the rest to you. Do you think the United States is a Christian nation? How do you define the phrase? And do you believe that it's useful? Let us know below.

[rabbitPhister]

Hello, I'm from Denmark

I'm amazed at some of the manifestations of faith in America. In a TV-programme where Alice Keyes gets together with a lady of the Afra-American theatre - whose name I regretably do not remember - she tells of how devoted she is to Christian belief and of how she practises prayer meetings with her staff before going on stage. It amazes me that such devotedness should also be expressed in a video of herself as someone who can bring back a living creature from the dead - a dog - and then later ascends towards the heavens. Doesn't she know that it's our lord Christ, and he alone, that can work such miracles ? In fact, what she does in that video rather pertains to being some sort of anti-christ as in exalting oneself by simulating the appearance of Christ.

To me, it's misuse of the gospels and seems hypocritical. To proclaim to be a practising Christian and then proceed the way Alice Keyes does in that video would have to be otherwise ignorant and immature. I mean, she must be a role model for very young girls, they're not always so discerning.

[LibertarianOrBust]

The Treaty of Tripoli was ratified by Congress in 1797. This congress included many of our founding fathers. It was signed by then president James Madison - a founding father. Article 11 of this document stated in part:

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen..."

Just about every prominent founding father was known to NOT be a Chrisitian. Just after George Washington's death orthodox Chrisitians set out to convince the people that all of our founding fathers were orthodox Christians - much as the far right is doing now. All the proof that you need to see that they were not only "not" othrodox but many were not even Christians is contained in the National Archives if the forms of letters that they wrote themselves and in the minutes of the debates during the framing of the constitution.

Far right Christians, you do not need to change history to stop Christian bashing. However, you will need to change history is you wish to take over this country and force religion into the government.

LibertarianOrBust.Wordpress.com

[IAmTheWalrus89460]

"The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
Article 11, Treaty of Tripoli

[TXLibertarian]

One of the reasons I left the Church is that I thought logically about how a god (if there is one) would have passed on his word to people. If I were an all powerful being, would I pull one guy out of a crowd and give him the task of telling the rest of the world, or would I just tell everyone directly? Obviously, I wouldn't give one guy the task of doing it. I'd tell everyone. And what about timing? If I were a god, would I pass my word on to people just one time in history, or would I periodically follow up to make sure they're going in the right direction? I'd certainly follow up. Otherwise, my word might become outdated and rejected by society, like the stuff in the bible and koran about how to treat slaves and women.

Secondly, much of the text in the bible is horribly barbaric. For example, the "vengeful god" thing. It isn't logical that an all powerful being would be stirred to anger since he'd be well aware that his creation was capable of messing up. This image was used to scare people into sticking with a religion. When I told my parents I wasn't Catholic anymore, their first reaction was to say "Aren't you afraid of hell?" Obviously the fear tactic worked on them. It also doesn't come across as logical that a god would require routine worship, since the last person who would have an ego problem would be the guy who created the universe. Requiring rituals and worship is to me more of a psychological tactic used to inspire loyalty to a cause, like fraternity pledge training.

That brings up the next point - the language. Does the text of the bible sound like something a god would write? To me it sounds like it was written by poor, Robin Hood-minded people who didn't like wealthier individuals and decided that a way to get at the wealthy would be to convince them that it was a sin not to share that wealth. They sound like people who opposed rule by kings and wanted to sway the population away from such reverance to an untouchable leader in order to establish a balance of power between the kings and commoners.

That leads me to the motivation of individuals to call themselves prophets. Were Jesus, Mohammad, and other self-proclaimed prophets motivated by different ideas than people like L Ron Hubbard, David Koresh, and Jim Jones? When backed into a corner, Jesus let himself be killed and David and Jim fought to the death or suicided themselves. Sure they all wanted to create a better world, but some failed horribly. But if you stuck Jim and David in the time period of Jesus, could they have convinced a horribly uneducated, poor, and gullible populace that they were in fact the son of god? To me, Jesus and Mohammad were in the right place at the right time more than they were true prophets of a god.

[fastlan3]

Basic answer... Our "Nation" (not the people with in it) is in direct defiance of biblical laws, and therefore can not be accepted as a "christian nation".

Consciences view...
We are part a world with many views of itself. One can not talk for the rest, and the rest can not talk for the "ONE". As a "freethinker" I feel obligated to respect each others choices and if people must feel certain attribution should contribute to the "whole" then, this must be. So in my view "we will be what were will be, and if we change, we change." I can only agree with freedom of religion for the serenity one must posses to allow the people to come to a collaborative census we can all find accepting.

[rationale]

In my opinion, it is highly unnecessary for professing Christians to believe that Jesus Christ was promoting nation building theology. The notion of a ?Christian nation? is not taught in the New Testament Bible at all. Jesus Christ came on earth to save mankind from their sins and not to create theocracies.

I believe that we are one nation under God with religious freedom.

[myloveisgod]

When we all are drained all of our life's wonders on our selfish selves and we turn around and you are alone, that is when you will call on the Almighty, by whatever name you might have called "it" before, in the hope that you will get an answer. Never forget GOD's many names. You may need it one day.

[willyn3]

The entire story in the old testament was plagiarised from much older, "religious" beliefs. The story of Jesus too, is much older than 2000 years.
The concept worked to control people 10,000 years ago and smart leaders knew how to use a good thing. Still do!

[AgentGGG]

"The legal system has an undeniable basis in the Christian conception of morality, as does our societal conception of right and wrong."


Please, could you possibly be more vague?

What I find curious about these so-called Christian values, is that it has yet to be precisely articulated, what those values exactly are, and then, why they are Christian values. Certainly some of the founders of our nation came from a Christian background, but the USA was founded in a spirit of deep mistrust of religous doctrine. Religous fervor was seen then as being politically destructive to the health of nations (as we are seeing now in the USA after 30 years of the Christian right.)

However, I am still waiting to learn what specific Christian values and morals our democracy was founded on. My guess is that these are not exclusively Christian values, but that they are universal values that are espoused by all faiths. Then, why is the US is not founded on humanistic values, rather than Christian values?

[whiggery]

Totally. Particularly with regard to Muslim values. Given that the countries whose values we are most obviously opposing are Muslim countries, what exactly are the differences between traditional Christian and Muslim values? I don't think I can tell.

[christy75rk]

First, this country was founded on the priciples that there is a supreme being, and that there should be FREEDOM of religion, not that ONE specific religion (or belief system about God) should be instated.

Second, do we not realize that when we call this a "Christian Nation" we are disregarding the Jewish people, and faithful Muslims who are citizens of this great country? These people are peaceful, believe in God, and have strong morals. Just because you call yourself a Christian does not mean you are GOOD, or JUST, or MORAL.

Let us remember and honor our forefathers, AND our respective religions by realizing that this country is for ALL people (no matter what religion) that are seeking to better themselves, their environment, and their nation WITHOUT disrespecting others. Isn't that what the United States is about?

[whiggery]

Admirable attitude, but there is no mention of a "supreme being" in the constitution.