Apr

Christianity. Remember that?

Finally, an educated, intelligent US president. Barrack Obama is delivering on the rational front as we all hoped he would. In his press conference on April 6 in Turkey, President Obama explained: “One of the great strengths of the United States is … we have a very large Christian population — 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.”

Conservatives assert that the U.S. is in some sense a Christian nation and tend to make the following arguments. The first is that the majority of Americans describe themselves as Christians, even though the number of voters who describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated has grown from 5.3 percent to 12 percent in 2008 in the last twenty years. The ratio of Christians to non-Christians in American society as a whole is actually irrelevant to the question of whether the American government or indeed the nation, is Christian.

The second argument is that the constitution itself is somehow Christian in character. On that point, republican candidate John McCain said: “I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States as a Christian nation.” Is he right? Is the U.S. a Christian republic in the sense that according to their constitutions Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan are all now officially Islamic republics? The Constitution states that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust in the United States.” Again, in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … “

True, over the years since the founding, Christian nationalists have won a few victories like inserting “In God We Trust” on money during the Civil War and adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance during the Cold War in 1954. These are really feeble foundations on which to claim that the U.S. is a Christian republic.

Unfortunately, Australia currently has a christian Prime Minister, but he hasn’t so far (that I’ve heard anyway) stated that the nation is a Christian nation or similar. It may only be a matter of time, but he seemed to get on well with President Obama on his first visit to the US since being elected.