A 'Christian' Nation?

I’ve been told time and time again that the US is a ‘Christian Nation’. We have been founded on ‘Christian principles’.

But what is ‘Christian’?

If you were not aware, there are three major branches of Christianity. Two of which, Catholicism and Protestantism, comprise about 78% of the American population. ~51% are Protestants and 25% are Catholics. Catholics make up the largest Christian denomination if you break up Protestantism (Source). Protestants are broken down into (from largest to smallest) Baptists, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Presbyterian/Reformed, Methodist, Anglican/Episcopal, Adventist, and others smaller groups (Source).

Even those groups can be broken down further. Supposedly, there are 40 different branches of Methodism alone.

Why do we have so many different branches of one religion? Some man at some point in his life didn’t like how things were done so he challenged authority and unintentionally formed a new church. Then someone else didn’t like the new way things were done, so he branched off. Repeat a hundred times.

 This is the simplified version.

We have all these churches because someone didn’t like how something was interpreted or being run. People have different beliefs. Even though all these people believed that Jesus Christ was their lord and savior, people couldn’t agree on the 'small' things (baptism, the trinity, was Jesus more man than god or more god than man, road to personal salvation, who should read the bible, how the church should be lead, who can join, who can be a priest/minister, how much religion should run our daily lives, free will, etc.)

So what does all of this have to do with the USA?

How can we call ourselves ‘Christian’ when we don’t have a collective Christian identity? I don’t have the time to explain every branch of Christianity and how they are different from each other. Some believe in evolution, some don’t. Some support gay marriage, some don’t. And those are just the political issues. Like I said earlier, there are a lot of theological issues that greatly divide the many factions. There is almost a five-way tie in opinion on what it means to be Christian and how to obtain salvation in the US.

So any politician who claims to want to bring our nation back to its roots, ask him or her their theological position on something, like baptism. If they say baptism should be done at birth, kiss the Baptists goodbye. What about communion? Once a week, once a month, or no need for it? Is the bread and wine at communion a metaphor or the actual body and blood of Christ? Ask them the previously mentioned ‘how to obtain salvation?’ question and you will guarantee upsetting 80% of Christians no matter how you answer. And the best thing is, they will look like hypocrites if they respond “Religion is a personal matter and none of your business” but keep trying to force religious beliefs into their arguments! How can you claim religion is personal but keep trying to force it into the public sphere?

So many colors!

 (Source)

The USA is a melting pot. Even though this term is used for race and ethnicities, it also applies to religion. We have the First Amendment guaranteeing the separation of Church and State (and that’s not just my belief, Jefferson said it). We know what happens when one Christian group tries to take over. We have religious freedom; the right to worship, or not worship, without government interference. If the government is highly influenced by one religious group, how can it fairly protect the rights of all? The US does not have a single Christian identity and therefore cannot profess to be one. We are a hodgepodge of a diverse group of religions and beliefs. We are only ‘Christian’ in the sense that most of us believe in the divinity of Christ. After that, it gets complicated.