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1. Scholar of religion and theology here. I teach a course on Christian nationalism and American politics every year at KU. While I appreciate this thread, I would argue that America *is* a Christian nation—but specifically for the reasons identified by Matthew Avery Sutton in his new book.

The Editorial Board

1. America is not a Christian nation. Yes, I know what they say. But we're not, and it's not because history and the Constitution say so.

Обсуждение

Ответы

dcovin

3 авг., 21:50

The problem with this is you're using "Christian Nation" in a different sense than the usual argument. When a politician says "America is a Christian nation" they mean "it is an inextricable part of America's founding ideals to promote Christianity," not "we promote Christianity in practice"

Ответ для dcovin

dcovin

3 авг., 21:56

You might just as well ask whether America is a nation of social inequality. In practice we absolutely are, but our founding documents declare that all men are created equal, and attempts to deliberately entrench further inequality on the basis that it happens already would be wrong.

The Editorial Board

2 авг., 18:31

Thanks for this thoughtful response.

David W. Congdon

2 авг., 16:41

2. First, though, I want to respond to John's points. The problem with all of them is that they define Christianity—or genuine Christian faith—in terms of measurable qualities: the amount of knowledge about the religion or the level of moral fidelity to Jesus's teachings.

Ответ для David W. Congdon

David W. Congdon

2 авг., 16:43

3. As much as we might want Christian commitment to be measurable in these terms, if these were the criteria, then we'd have to deny that most people throughout Christian history have been "real" Christians. This places us in the position of trying to measure who and who is not truly Christian.