¶ … America a Christian Nation?
During the founding of the new Republic, soon to be the United States of America, the idea of Christianity and the power of God to represent the best will of the people was part of the Founding Fathers' notions. It was inconceivable to them, in fact, to separate the idea of being religious and being political; and the notion of religion was tied with Christianity. The social view of the time was different than it is now, and there was a difference between the cultural heritage of religion and Biblical Christianity. There are examples from both sides of the argument that show America as one founded on the basic principles of Christianity -- the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution being, for their time period, quite egalitarian. In the Declaration of Independence, for instance, there is a clear reference to the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." "That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" (Declaration of Independence). Patrick Henry, for instance, writing about the founding of the new nation wrote: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here" (Henry). In the last verse of the Star Spangled Banner, the poem emphasizes that we are a nation under God, powered by God, and solidified through mutual belief in God:
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! (Key)
If one asks about the nature of Christianity today, though, there is a surprising set of statistics. About 28% of American adults have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion or no religion at all. Sixteen percent say they are unaffiliated, which is double the number from past surveys. And, when we dig deeper into actual practicing Christians, we find that the number of Americans who report that they are Protestant is barely 51%. This population is characterized, in fact, but a significant number of diversity and fragmentation in which there is no semblance of agreement. For example, Figure 1 shows the overall breakdown of religion in America; and we see that almost 79% of Americans do identify themselves as Christian. Figure 2 looks at the Christian segment alone, showing the tremendous divide amongst those even professing faith. The survey also shows more diversity and a larger increase in Hinduism and Islam (Pew Form on Religion and Public Life).
Philosophically, we can look at America as a sociological explanation of Christianity in combination with the development and expounding of modern capitalism. For instance, the basic tenet of the Calvinist Biblical Interpretation of the Bible is that the way to succeed is through hard work, effort, diligence, and application to a task. In essence, it is part of the socialization of the American Middle Class -- part of the value system that we must uphold whether we are taking music lessons, studying for exams, or playing sports -- the entire paradigm is that rewards will NOT come to those who do not toil. In this, the Protestant Ethic was to become the ethic of the American Middle Class -- working hard and expecting to take care of their families, strong family values, and kindness to those less fortunate, and extreme patriotism based on the idea that God is on the side of America (Weber). In this, religion is not simply spirituality or worship, but an ethic that combines the interpretation of the Bible with individualism,...
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