A new Gallup Poll has been released asking Americans about their religion. Remember, this is not based on official membership lists, but this is the self-identification of a random sample of adults across the country.
A third of American adults identify themselves as Protestant or with some Protestant denomination. One in four (24 percent) identify themselves as Catholic. Two percent identify themselves as Jewish and one-half of one percent as Muslim. A total of 17 percent said that they identify with no religion or simply refused to answer the question (15 percent and two percent). The others identified with many small religions generally considered not Christian.
A 57 percent majority clearly sees themselves as Christians, but the United States continues to edge closer to a time when that majority will disappear. It is a melting icecube. Despite the claims of some propagandists, the U.S. was never a Christian nation, always valuing religious liberty and pluralism over the established faiths of Europe. But in the 20th Century it did come into a time when the majority of Americans identified with one Christian denomination or another. How long will that consensus last?
"Despite the claims of some propagandists, the U.S. was never a Christian nation, always valuing religious liberty and pluralism over the established faiths of Europe. But in the 20th Century it did come into a time when the majority of Americans identified with one Christian denomination or another."
I don't understand how religious liberty and pluralism negate a majority of Christians in our nation's history? I have been proud to be of a Christian Nation that promotes Pluralism and Religious Liberty (although I know we have many skeletons). I am probably misunderstanding. Are you defining 'Christian Nation' as a majority identifying with Christianity (like Turkey being a Muslim Nation), or are you defining it as a nation unified as to the meaning of Christianity and it's place in our lives. Or more definitively, a church-state. If you are exclusively defining Christian Nation as church-state I get it... but does anybody really believe or promote a false history of the US being a church-state? Alternatively, I assumed 'Christian nation' is defined by majority. It is my understanding that we have always been a Christian Nation through the majority of our short history. If you are defining as unified understanding and application, I don't know that there has ever been a 'Christian' territory as such. we cant even get through the NT with out the entrance of pluralism. Even if the attempt is made to define middle ages as Christian under the definition of unity, I don't know that it would be, outside of the marriage of Institution and state.
I say all that to say I don't know that there ever has been (or needs to be) consensus. What I do historically see is various forms of definition,understanding, application, positioning, relevance, and institutionalization of Christianity.
I am personally excited about a new phase of Christendom where experience and praxis is needed to prove relativity and existence. Of course, this is within my small sphere of influence... I have no clue what we do when a new expression of Christianity intersects with the Next Christiandom as expressed by Phillip Jenkins.
I will assume God still wins in the end and that He will give us opportunity to come beside Him wherever He is at work and will equip us to help people transition into the Kingdom that is... in preparation for the one that will be :-)
I know I am naive, but I don't see the consensus dying in the US like it has in Europe, perhaps redefined and/or relabeled. That said, I'm sure something as visually, economically, emotionally and personally draining as a World War all over our turf as it was in Europe would inevitably change all that.
Posted by: Andrew Clark | January 06, 2012 at 07:02 PM
I think you are right that America will always be a more religious nation than Europe. The idea of a "Christian nation" I am refering to here is the idea that the Christian religion should have a privileged place in our society; that it is OK for example to have a public celebration of Christmas paid for by a government entity but to ignore the fact that there are many citizens who are not Christians and therefore do not celebrate the birth of Christ. Or, that it is OK for government employees (such a public school teachers) to lead children in Christian religious practices and ignore the fact that some of the children are from homes where other faiths are practiced. In that sense the U.S. is not a Christian nation because the First Amendment prohibits government "establishment" of religion and, as Jefferson wrote, there is a "wall of separation" between church and state. Some parts of the U.S., such as small towns in the South and Midwest, have long ignored the requirements of the First Amendment and behaved as if Christianity were an established religion. They get away with this because there are almost no non-Christians in certain communities to complain. But, as the percentage of Christians gets smaller, then there are more and more places where this is no longer possible.
Posted by: Monte | January 15, 2012 at 10:45 AM