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Is the USA a Christian nation?
Posted by Thundercatt99 • 4/15/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: christian, discussion, nation, religion, United States, usa
April 12, 2009
Obama's 'Christian Nation'
By Monte Kuligowski
President Obama is taking a fair amount of heat from conservatives for his recent comments in Turkey in which, speaking for Americans, he said that, "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation; we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."
Back in June of 2006, Obama said,
"Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation - at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."
Obama made a similar statement in an email response to CBN's David Brody in 2007:
"Whatever we once were, we're no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers....
Any thoughts? Is the USA a Christian nation?
User Comments
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No, we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.-
Amen!!!
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About 80% of people here are Christian. President Obama should check the stats maybe. The country will always be majority Christian.-
The fact that a large percentage of people (I believe it is lower than 80%) self-identify as Christian is largely meaningless. When we were a "Christian nation", calling oneself a Christian meant more than saying a word; it described a set of values and principles that governed life choices. George Washington, in his final address before leaving the Presidency, spoke about how those principles were inseparable from our character as a nation and our decision-making processes. Those things are quite obviously no longer true, not just because the United States is now populated by people of many faiths (and no faith), but because the word "Christian" no longer conveys a common set of values and principles, and there is little common ground in the priorities and beliefs of those who self-identify as Christian. -
To me, The truth of what USA citizen's religious faith is, not about what stats says. it,s more about how people practice the teachings and values of the religion they claim to hold to. The recorded stats make no sense as it only categorize by ID data. So if we wanna find out the answer...we have to take a look at how american now take religion in their life...There are some fact found that from day to day the number of people in the US going to Church decrease and decrease...many more people even claim they dont believe in any religion...
So now, Is the stats still worth taking as measurement...??
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Such discussions ultimately lead one to believe that we need to look at our founding values... Like the Treaty of Tripoli (1796) approved unanimously by the Senate.
Article 11 contains the following:
"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 tranquility, of Mussulmen..."
Mussulmen of course being the term used for people of Muslim faith. -
Many moons ago, in history class each year, we'd learn that the U.S. was a "melting pot." The focus was on how people of different origins, religions, etc., were all welcome in America.
I don't know at what point we strayed from that idea. -
I don't think that the US is a Christian nation. I am Christian and I don't condone violence or wars. There are others ways, more peaceful ways, to deal with our current issues others than violence. -
Based on the statistics yes, however try to see ppl at individuals.
Somebody could say "Yes I have born Christian" but do not exercise any religious practice. It depends of the area as well. You have more possibilities to find religious ppl in South Dakota than in NY. It is a huge country, you can never know the actual truth. -
I think what Obama has said is very good. It allows people to consider their underlying values according to their own perceptions/ beliefs and ideals. Being Christian is a fine thing for Christians but America needs to expand way beyond that limited thought, at that is not being disrepectful to Christians in any way. If America or the world as a whole is to survive, it must embrace unity in diversity, to trust the goodness in all people and to open up to modes of thinking which are tolerant of the cultural differences which make up the kaleidoscope of humainty. -
Obama is correct. This is not a "christian" nation. It's a nation of many religions. The conservatives need to calm down and back off. Obama isn't so seedy and discriminating as to lie about the religious nature of our nation. He knows there are multiple faiths, accepts that fact and even embraces it. It's about time we had a president like that.-
I think the conservatives need to apologize and leave the parliament. Obama does a great job but the best job can be done without a government. No power, no police force, no military force but common sense. Come on guys we use only the 10pc of our brain. Of course we can make our world a better place to live.
I am sorry 4 posting that link here, I need a favor pls to rate Obama's performance
miketheblacksheep.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/the-change-we-need/#b
I would appreciate it... thanks -
Michael, that assumes that a sufficient number of people are interested in making the world a better place to live.
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We need to define what we mean by Christian. Does this include Mormons? Are they Christians? What about Jehovah’s Witnesses? May Christians consider them to be cultists. A lot of Christians don’t think Catholics are Christian. I consider the only “proper” Christians to be born-again evangelicals who follow a literal interpretation of the Bible.
What percentage of the population are literalists Christians? The exact same percentage who voted for Bush! Before the recent election America was indeed a Christian nation, by 50.1% majority. Today America is not a Christian nation, since McCain lost. Nuff’ said!-
You also have to consider whether somebody for whom the Bible, church, and God are dead human traditions is truly a Christian.
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Well this is a complicated issue. What the majority of America's citizens believe is really irrelevant because of the wonderful thing called the Constitution. Based on my own research of the writings of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and John Adams, the answer to this is unequivocally no.
We are a nation that is founded on Deist philosophy which does not align itself with any theology but rather a common sense of morality. To say that this nation is a Christian nation would be to say that we are a theist nation. This would mean that we as a county align ourselves with a specific theology or dogma, to be more specific, the dogma/theology of Christianity.
I prefer to let the words of John Adams, Thomas Paine, and James Madison:
"The Government of The United States is in no way founded upon the Christian religion" John Adams, The Treaty of Tripoli
"What does the bible teach us? - Rapine, cruelty, and murder." Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
"Religion and government will exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together." James Madison
I write about this topic and more like it in my blog. If you would like to read more here is a link to my blog:
compromiseoftwilight.blogspot.com -
The USA is one big amazing melting pot! I love it! -
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Well,believe it or not,but I'm gonna agree w/madamex on this one
PS I didn't mean 2 go 2 ur profile shutter,my phone is touchy -
I believe it is a religious nation. Freedom of religion, whether that be Baptist, Catholic, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Atheist, etc. -
In what sense? In the sense of everybody (even everybody who calls themselves a christian) following Christ absolutely not. But in the sense of having a huge portion of our culture based off biblical ideas and thought, and the huge influence of religious movements like the Quakers, the revivalists, the puritans, and Spanish Mission Catholicism on the many parts and aspects of our nation, yes, we are a Judeo-Christian nation as much as a Greco-Roman nation or a Celto-Germanic nation.
As for this comment: "Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation - at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."
That's actually LESS true then it used to be (1800's used to be.) In the early days of our republic, Jews in particular were probably a much larger percentage of the population and came to define much of our nation. In particular, New York City was almost entirely defined by them, while they were a major influence in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Atlanta as well, most of these places long sense deserted by them.
In addition, almost the entire Western US (with the exceptions of New Mexico, Texas, and parts of California) used to be atheist, deist and non-afiliated and only in the past hundred years has christianity really found root there. Seattle in particular used to (1860 about) have 2000 people and only 10 churchgoers, including all 7 members of the Denny Family and the Pastor, the other 2 largely there to schmooze the Denny's (source "Sons of the Profits," Spiedel.) And in Jack London's stories of Alaska, the Father Rourbon receives only occasional pennant sinners in serious desperation and no serious stable Christians. Today around 53% of Seattle's population is Roman Catholic and Alaska is a social conservative stronghold, as is Orange County California, much of Colorado, Idaho and Montana, and even the harder hearts of the Western States have a reasonable fraction of their population (bottoms out at Washington, 43%) as Christians. -
Christians have a strong influence on what goes on here in Houston. We have some huge mega-churches and hundreds of others. I do not have membership figures of these churches, but this city is also a huge conglomeration of many other belief systems. From one report I heard recently, there are over 600 dialect and language groups in this city of 4 million plus. The bulk of them do not profess faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. So, at least from this perspective, we are not a Christian city.
My guess is that the same holds true for all of the major metro areas in the great state of Texas, i.e. Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. Perhaps we are typical of the entire country.
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