On a daily basis we lie to, hassle, hustle, persecute, degrade, judge, kill, leave to starve, and envy not only our fellow American, but we do these things to the man sitting right next to us, but “In God We Trust,” right? Wrong! How can we possibly claim to be a Christian nation when we have been through hundreds of years of religious rights violations, when we have people who are in diar need but no one as a whole no one cares enough about them, and when the African-American species faces endangerment.
The basis of the Pilgrims leaving Europe and coming to America was for religious freedom! Multiple different religions in our “God fearing” nation have been shutout or cast down simply because of their right to believe in a higher being. In saying this, it must be safe to assume that religious freedom was NOT the sole reason because ever since the dust, from Europe to the “West Indies” settled, our ancestors began to tell different religious sects what they could and could not do to worship their own omnipresent deity. Even as the Pilgrims arrived full of the hatred that the religious oppressions had brought them, one of their goals was to convert Native Americans to Christianity! As our colonies became a unified nation, we began passing laws that varied religions from their normal rituals of worship. Henry Louis Mencken said, “Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.” (Leray, 2014) Thomas Jeffereson said, “I never will by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.” (Petrie, 2014) These two quotes make the point that even though we the people, “one nation under God,” are completely severed ...
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... ourselves and could care even less if the next man lives or dies! We claim to be religious or Christian on fouding promises but continuously restrict those promises due to race, gender, sexual preference, and religion! This, simply and surely, is why America is not a Christian nation.
Works Cited
Lieberman, Joseph I. “Religious Democracy” BYU Magazine. Accessed at
1/26/2013 at http://magazine.byu.edu/print.php?a=3079
Leray, Anna. Class Lecture. Accessed 2/13/14 at American Government at Aberdeen High School at Aberdeen, Mississippi
Petrie, John. “John Petrie’s collection of Thomas Jefferson Quotes” accessed 2/18/14 http://jpetrie.myweb.edu/TJ.html
Starr, Bernard. “ ‘Love Your Neighbor as Yourself’: Failing Grade for Religious America” Huffington Post. 10/3/13 at
When the Mayflower sailed over to the New World, on the boats were Puritans that were looking for a change in the way that their religion was practiced where the Chesapeake settlers came over for gold. Alongside the Puritans were the Separatists who wanted everything their way and wanted to perfect the ways of the Puritans. When they landed in New England, they immediately settled down because they didn’t have an economic reason for coming. Both sets of religions ventured overseas so that they could create a new religion that would work for them in their favor and not be prosecuted for practici...
By 1763, although some colonies still maintained established churches, other colonies had accomplished a virtual revolution for religious toleration and separation of church and state. The Anglican Church was the only established denomination in England. In contrast, the colonies supported a great variety of churches. The largest were the Congregationalist, Anglican, and German churches, but many smaller denominations could be found through the colonies. In addition to this, a high percentage of Americans didn’t belong to any church. These differences could be attributed to the fact that many of the Europeans who immigrated to America didn’t fit in to or agree with the churches in their homelands.
When it came down to the government during the convention of May 1776, instead of protecting our rights they had passed them down causing us to be under common law. If one had denied the Christian faith and went against everything it believed in, such as, “there are more Gods than one, or denies the Christian religion to be true, or the scriptures to be of divine authority, he is punishable on the first offence by incapacity to hold any office or employment ecclesiastical, civil, or military,” (Jefferson 176). This is what most people had thought about if you did not follow their religion. Thomas Jefferson believed that the wall between church and state should be very high in order to keep out and prevent hostile situations. Using an example from today’s news, many people get uncomfortable in the United Stated with the Muslim religion because of the previous horrific events that led to many cruel deaths in our history. By this, the way that we look at these people is forever changed because of the incidents and who knows if we will ever not be hostile with one another because of it. If church and state hadn’t been separated we may have not become a true democracy from what our developing country was seeming to lead towards. More people would not be as accepting of each other, and not that they are still not today, but I feel as if it may
By 1763, although some colonies still maintained established churches, other colonies had accomplished a virtual revolution for religious toleration and separation of church and state. Between the two established churches, in the colonies, Anglican and Congregational, a considerable number of people didn't worship in any church. But in the colonies with a maintained religion, only a few belonged to it. As in England, Catholics were still discriminated against, but since their numbers were fewer the laws were less severe. Similarly, The Church of England was established in America, as it was in England already. However, in America the Congregationalists and Anglicans were the more dominate religions compared to the Catholics in Europe and England.
Colonists were extremely adamant for the most part about Christianity being the one true religion. Many set out to convert the Native Americans. They believed that the Native Americans were savages for their differences in spirituality. Fear began to build in the settlers as they believed that the Native Americans where a religion less evil people. These foreign travelers whom have already commandeered their home are now attempting to force them to give up their own religion and overall worldview and adopt Christianity. The colonists treated them as if they are inferior simply on the premise of difference in religion thus forming the assumption that they had none. How could that possibly end well for either group
The Democratization of American Christianity, by Nathan Hatch, is written about “the cultural and religious history of the early American republic and the enduring structures of American Christianity” (3). Hatch writes to make two arguments: 1) the theme of democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity, and 2) the years of the early republic are the most crucial in revealing to process that took and is still taking place. The story of the democratization of American Christianity begins with the population boom in America from the Revolution up to 1845. Hatch writes that during this boom, “American Christianity became a mass enterprise” (4).
Religion and government in England had always gone hand in hand, and if one group’s ideas did not coincide with England’s laws controlling the practice of religion, they would be denied. The unification of church and state within European countries led to many wars, resulting in massive debt. As England declared themselves a Catholic country, Protestants who did not hold the same beliefs needed a new homeland where they could be free to worship in their own way. This new homeland was America, and it allowed Protestants, now calling themselves Puritans, to practice Christianity without government interference. While original settlers came to America to create a Christian homeland where they could practice their faith how they wanted, America quickly became a homeland for religious freedom through a mixing pot of differing religions, cultures, and ethnicities, enough open land for them to exist together, and the key idea of the separation of Church and State.
In Nathan O. Hatch’s “The Democratization of American Christianity” he quickly forms his thesis and expands on the argument “both that the theme of
...ere settlers religiously diverse, but the groups also managed to convert some of the natives to their own religions. The colonists were actually more independent than the citizens directly in England.
Many of England’s problems could be solved in America, and so colonization began. When the earliest settlers came, England had the responsibility to continue the Protestant Church, and prevent the Catholic Church from converting the entire Native American population of North America (Morison, p.105) A potential Protestant refuge could be based there in the threat of civil wars or a change of religion.
Many of the British North Americans who settled faced religious persecution in Europe. They refused to conform to the teaching of the Church of England and fled Europe. Among those who fled were the Quakers and Puritans, two large religious groups in Britain. However, not everyone was willing to accept these religious groups in America either. Many of the Europeans already living there were of the Christian faith. They didn’t want these groups corrupting the minds of the people in their town. Because of this several religious groups started their own colonies. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maryland were founded by the Puritans, and Pennsylvania was founded by the Quakers. The Age of Enlightenment also contributed to religious toleration. The Maryland Act Concerning Religion (1644) was a breakthrough in the early history of religious freedom in America. According to Maryland Act Concerning Religion “matters concerning religion and the honor of God ought in the first place be taken into serious consideration and endeavored to be settled” (Maryland Act 28). Many colonies, however claimed to practice religious freedom, but still had an official state religion. Freedom of religion is considered to be a fundamental right. People are now able to worship whatever and whoever they choose as long as they do transgress on public
...a was based on Christian beliefs, hence, a nation under God. Acts 5: 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority”(Holy Bible). This Biblical verse reflects the Christian beliefs of our founders that men should try to live their lives as God desires. Leviticus 18: 22 says that you should not lie with another man as a women; it is an abomination (Holy Bible). If the United States was truly obedient to God as it should be then there would not be any laws passed allowing gay marriage or abortion. These go against the Bible, the word of God, but the Government has deemed them acceptable. This issue shows how obedience to authority can cripple a nation. The Government is allowing an issue they should never have considered to become recognized as acceptable. If this path continues, society will continue to crumble and decay.
One thing that many Americans do not realize is how much religion plays a role in American lives, and how it has played a role in our presidents lives from the very beginning of our country to now
The pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock has had a number of important impacts on America today. Whether the impacts were positive or negative, it was the pilgrims that had taken the journey to the New World and made the present what it is today. Originating from England, the English were Puritans who believed that the Church of England was in need of spiritual purification. Instead of altering the church, the English set off on a voyage to the New World for new opportunities. The pilgrims could start over and build a new society from scratch without having the chance of having corrupting influences on the Old World. Religion wasn’t the only temptation of going to the New World, there was famine and the taxes in England that made them want to depart to the New World. The New World had the opportunity to obtain rights and then they could live in the society that they had envisioned (Gray, 48).
Though there were religious concerns that contributed to the settling of British North America, the economic concerns outweighed the notable religious concerns. A religious concern that played a role in British colonization was that the British wanted to have the Indians of North America converted to Protestant Christianity (Boorstin et al. 34). In addition, specific groups that were seeking religious freedom used the British colonizing as a venue to achieve this objective. Such groups included the Puritan separatists who had begun to lose their freedoms in England, and thus they became colonists in New England.