Should America Be a Christian Country - Term Paper Example

Is American a Christian country? Should it be? Institution Is America A Christian Country? Should It Be? Introduction Christianity is a monotheistic religion which has a basis on moral teachings and the entire life of Jesus of Nazareth, his birth, death and resurrection as it is detailed in the Old Testament. Christianity developed from Judaism in the 1st century C.E. Those who follow this religion are called Christians. Christianity is the largest religion in the world with approximately 2.4 billion adherents currently( Brickett, 2011) Most Christians believe that Jesus has an important role in the world and he is the son of God, fully divine and human as well, savior of mankind and this is why he is generally referred to as Christ or Messiah. Christianity has various forms and branches with accompanying different practice sand beliefs. The three major branches of Christianity are Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism. There are numerous subcategories of these branches still. Most followers of Christianity were mainly found in the West until late 20th century but now it has spread rapidly to all the continents. The one God believed by Christians exist as The Father, The son and The Holy Spirit giving emphasis on the faith of Christ. The sacred book of Christians is the bible including Hebrew scripture (Old Testament) and the New Testament. The common practices to Christians are gathering at churches for worship, study fellowship and even interacting with rest of the world and other Christians through evangelism and social work. In the case America, Christianity was introduced to United States by the colonizing Europeans around 16th and 17th century. Immigrants from other places further increased the numbers. Christianity is the most popular religion and the denominations here can be divided into Mainline Protestantism, Evangelical Protestantism and Roman Catholic. A research conducted in 2004 on religions in United States, it showed 26.3% Evangelical, 22% Roman Catholics and 16% Mainline Protestantism. Most surveys done in America have constantly shown that over 73% of Americans identified themselves as Christians (Boyd, 2007). Is America A Christian Country? Many people especially some politicians and religious activists have argued that America was meant to be Christian nation by those who founded it. Having a large portion of the population being Christians does not simply qualify the country to be a Christian nation. To be a Christian nation it has to be official, Christian beliefs at least, have to be enshrined in the constitution and institutions like judiciary, education departments, and commissions should be shaped by Christian teachings (Gregory, 2007). This is not the case for American constitution. The constitution is the document that basically defines the lives of people of America and to dig deep into whether America is a Christian country, we have to find out if there is an element of the Christian doctrine in the constitution. Is there a special treatment of Christianity in the constitution? The above question has no as its answer. The constitution does not mention anything like the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ which is the basis of Christian faith. Most of the drafters of these laws were even believers of Christian faith itself. If they really intended to have a Christian nation they would have put it down right there. The constitution is purely “non religious” and not that the founding fathers detested religion, they must learnt a lot from the problems experienced by the unions between states and churches especially in Europe. They were very informed of the dangers associated with church states. Many colonies had established churches and imposed on both believers and non believers. They did this by taxing the population to support the church. They even reserved some public offices for Protestants, it was soon to get a constant opposition from many quarters most of them were the members of the clergy. Their argument was that they were not against religion but that true religion needs not be supported by authorities. On the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson talked of “unalienable rights endowed by our creator” (Brickett, 2011). This is universally viewed by many as an act by Jefferson to address all religions; he would have pin-pointed Christianity if he had to. We all agree that “our creator” is acceptable across all religions. The bill of rights in the constitution indicates the freedom of worship for all religions. This makes it clear that they didn’t intent to make the nation a Christian one. Some of the country’s founders were of the opinion that America to be a Christian state but their arguments were soon varnished and permanently placed at the losing end, that’s why those views are nowhere in the constitution. Martin Luther who then represented Maryland once said that some delegates to the constitution convention advocated for recognition of Christianity practices as a formal in the constitution, arguing that it will differentiate between Christians and Pagans. This was not accepted instead the constitution didn’t give government any mandate over religions and any person of any religious view can hold any public office. President George Washington in 1790 wrote a letter to the Jewish congregation in Newport, it become famous as 1790 Jewish letter. In the letter he described his happiness that Jews would now enjoy a freedom of worship in the United States. He said “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship”. Most experts on religion and constitution matters agree with him till date. In 1797 the Washington administration under the leadership of John Adams was in forefront when “the treaty of Tripoli” was signed. This was a treaty between America and Muslim leaders from North Africa initiated after adverse fears that the new American state would be hostile to Islam. It was agreed that America wasn’t founded on Christian religion and this was fully supported by the American senate. A line from this treaty candidly says “The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on Christian religion…” The negotiators would not have put it better than this! It is these discrepancies on Christianity in the constitution that influences me to draw a strong conclusion that America is not a Christian nation. If America is a Christian nation it, it would have been spelled out in the constitution which is an official binding document. It is also vivid that the constitution treats all religions equally and the mere fact that most American citizens are Christians ceases to make it a Christian nation. There have been numerous attempts by those for political religion mingling. In 1864 a group called National Reform Association (NRA) fought so hard to have an amendment on the constitution to uphold “Christian nation” policy. They argued that the civil war was because America didn’t officially recognize God as source of power and his son Jesus Christ is the as the ruler of nations. They pushed this fight at the congress .The house Judiciary Committee was later to vote against the adoption of this amendment. The committee concluded that there are many dangers resulting from unions between states and churches and it is the source of collapse of old world. Should it be? Today religions in America have become very dynamic, the number of Muslims living in America has exploded and they are at their highest ever, the Jews have equally multiplied. There are entries on other religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and others. A section of Americans still insist that they have no religion, don’t follow any faith. Some call themselves humanists, others atheists. America is not a Christian nation and I hold a strong position that it should not be. The first nationalist for America seemed to have understood the merits of clearly separating the church from the state. This separation is convenient for all religions Christianity included. When Virginia State passed the religious freedom law, Thomas Jefferson hinted that it would be freedom for Jews, Gentiles, Christians, Mahometan, Hindoo, infidels and all denominations. I think America has been held together for all this time partly because it doesn’t have a state religion. We get to learn a lot from cases whereby the state and religion is intertwined, for instance the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which is evidently very intolerant of other people’s views and religions. My big question is what will happen to the non- Christians if we run a Christian country? Religion will flourish if left to people to choose at will, so America should be neutral to religious matters as it has always been. The best and arguable the only way to achieve the freedom to worship is to totally separate the state from the church. References Brickett, M. (2011). America-Yes We Are Not A Christian Nation. Xylon Press. Gregory, A. (2007). The Myth Of Christian Nation. Zondervan. Read More