DISCUSS: Christianity and the American Identity Debate

DISCUSS: Christianity and the American Identity Debate August 9, 2024

After writing today’s post, I realized that I neglected to address a main concern of this blog.  How does Christianity apply to the controversy over “America as an Idea” vs. “America as a People”?  So I thought I’d throw the question over to you.

The latter position is claimed by many Christians today, both by the Christian nationalists and the more globalist Catholic integralists.  But is that necessarily true?  Hasn’t Christianity shaped “America as an Idea”?

Isn’t the danger of “civil religion” more evident in a nation that wants to forge one united people?  Doesn’t the American principle of freedom of religion create a climate more favorable to religion than a state church or its equivalent?

In the Lutheran migration to America due to the syncretism and liberalism of the state churches in Germany, one of the earliest settlements was in Wisconsin.  These devout believers named their church Trinity and their community Freistadt.  “Free City.”  Why did these conservative Lutherans value freedom as much as they did?

You get the idea. . .

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