We’re Not a Christian Nation

[cbayer]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/03/we-re-not-a-goddamn-christian-nation.html

Jul 3, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
Despite what many on the Christian right claim, America was not founded as a Christian nation. Author Fred Rich on why we should be afraid of their agenda on our Independence Day.


A tattered American flag sits on top of a wooden cross at a roadside memorial in Lafayette, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty)

Most Americans saluting the flag this Independence Day grew up being taught that the nation for which that flag stands is a constitutional democracy. As Lincoln put it, the United States was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. But a significant number of your fellow citizens have a very different vision as they hoist the flag. They were raised to believe—or have now been convinced—that our Founding Fathers gave us what they call a “Christian Nation.”

On this July 4, 2013, we live in a country where our fellow citizens have a dazzling diversity of religious beliefs (and non-belief), and most of them do not present any threat to our democracy. But one influential strain of Christian fundamentalism, which insists most loudly that we are a “Christian Nation,” has a vision for America that is profoundly theocratic. So if you want to engage in a small but meaningful patriotic act this Independence Day, you might want to educate yourself about what the “Christian Nation” movement means, and what our country might look like if the “Christian Nation” vision were to be realized.

It’s tempting to think that those who call America a “Christian Nation” simply mean that Christianity historically has been the majority religion and the basis for many elements of our national culture, which of course is true. But that is not what they mean. Evangelical preachers and conservative politicians calling for America to be a “Christian Nation” mean something very different: a country uniquely favored by the Judeo-Christian God, founded to create a “Godly Kingdom” in the new world, and destined, as the shining “city upon a Hill” envisioned by the Puritans, to be a just and pious land dedicated to drawing all the nations of the world to the redemptive message of Jesus. And some of them believe that realization of this destiny is a condition for the second coming of Christ.

In the “Christian Nation” these Americans envision, Christianity enjoys a uniquely privileged legal and political position; separation of church and state is anathema. Christian pseudo-historians like David Barton, together with fundamentalist legal “scholars,” thousands of home-schooling educators and many Christian broadcasters, relentlessly promote the message that church-state separation is a “myth” concocted by liberal elites to deflect America from realizing its true destiny as a “Godly Kingdom,” where the Bible is the highest law of the land, and our political leaders talk to God and tell the rest of us what He says.

more at link

[okasha]

1. Jefferson said it; I believe it; that settles it.

This is the kind of thing civil liberties organizations ought to be going after full throttle. The Dominionists, Christian Identiy fascists and others of their ilk are quite open about what they want to do. We shrug them off at our own peril. Take them to court where possible, and educate, educate, educate.

[cbayer]

2. I would like to see the FFRF and other organizations spending their efforts on

the really big issues around church/state separation.

And I would like to see more education as well.

[trotsky]

3. What do you consider to be a big enough issue?

I think that many of the FFRF's "little" victories happen to be quite huge if you are one of the people that they helped.

Plus, anyone who's really studied the church-state separation issue has seen that the "big" violations are often justified/built on the small creeping ones. Many folks such as yourself might dismiss efforts to get god slogans off our currency, yet how many people justify their belief that this is a "Christian Nation" by noting that it says so right on our money?

I'm glad the FFRF fights for church-state separation wherever it can.

[el_bryanto]

4. The Godless Constitution by R. Moore and Isaac Kramnick

Well worth reading in this context - it's pretty good in general, but gives some context to these debates.

Bryant

[Lordquinton]

5. That graphic should not be on this article

Living really close to that monument, it is a vast anti war demonstration, that has been up since it started, with a marker for every soldier fallen (I think, probably less, but they tried for a while) there are mainly crosses, but there is a mix of stars, yin/yangs, moons and others in there to boot.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=37.895129,-122.123672&spn=0.000436,0.00066&t=h&z=21 That's the location in google maps, right across from the local BART station there have been a couple lawsuits to get it removed, but they all failed as it's all on private land.

[cbayer]

6. So why shouldn't it be on this article?

FWIW, it leads the original article and I just reprinted it here. I think the point is that they have erected primarily crosses and the question is whether that really reflects the population.

FWIW, I saw a similar memorial in Santa Barbara along the beach. Not sure if it is still there or not.

[Lordquinton]

7. It's a local thing.

I know you didn't put it there, the original article did, and there have been many attempts to get that display removed (it is a protest piece, after all) so attaching it to christian patriotism is another in a line of attacks it has to weather (it wasn't just a random image, it was specifically added, out of context) Had it not been named, I would agree that it fits,

[cbayer]

8. I understand. Didn't know about it's history.

Thanks for the info.

[refrescanos]

9. kierkegaard

Attack upon Christiandom.
Incredibly upsetting, still haven't finished it. Summary (so far) : when a nation defines itself by it's religion, then it negates an individuals relationship with his/her god,gods, goddess,goddesses. People lose their free will and it becomes state-sponsored without any true faith.
By telling people in church what is right or wrong and saying that their party, ethnicity, nation are doing the will of a deity, then it becomes very easy for people to fall in line as not to many people in church want to go against the majority (or vehement minority) .