Christian country or not?
Mr. Duncan”s concern as to whether the United States is a Christian country seems pointless based on what he writes. Of course it is on the basis of his data. Population belief: Yes. Belief of founders: Yes. And so on. Now, population belief is the more important, if only because at the time our country was founded there simply was no other credo available, unless one wants to include native American beliefs. History reveals an amazing variety of Christian beliefs at that time in our country, from the stern concepts in New England, remember Salem? to the much more tolerant views of the south where the major influence was Anglican. Catholicism was very minor. Yes, there was one Jew who had great influence, but he tends to be forgotten. Let”s remember, too, that these people were not all that pious and had enough distrust of religion that they made sure there was a separation between church and state.
Being a Christian country may be good or bad. The Vatican is the only Christian theocracy I know of, truly a Christian country and not very tolerant. With the possible exception of Alaska, every country in the western hemisphere is a Christian country. But so was Germany in the middle-ages when a major hobby was to kill Jews, which they reinstituted during the 1930s and 40s, also Spain during the inquisition.
I feel that what Duncan was trying to say is that he would like this country to be run according to what he feels are Christian values. A lot of us probably would agree with him, at least partially as long as the King James Bible is not the sole foundation. This version was initiated as a PR document to help James II and differs from the Gutenburg Bible, the first printed version, that literally stopped each new version from being affected by the scribe”s feelings or bad eyesight, let alone the fact that most couldn”t read. People should also consider what Christianity might be today if Constantine had included more than about a third of the available testaments. He didn”t because his political goal was to promote peace between Rome and the Barbarians, both of whom were pantheists, by forcing a new religion on both, with himself as the chief figure and he didn”t want to irritate either party any more than necessary.
“Christian values” are also not necessarily Christian. Best example I know of is the tablet of the Ten Commandments, which is Hebrew and predates Christ by maybe 2,000 years and is replicated in many other faiths, including many Native American ones. Virtually every faith has its own version of creation. The Golden Rule is another with wide origins. If what Duncan really means is that we should try to behave honestly, with moral and ethical honor, and to do what we know has to be done no matter how uncomfortable, with freedom of speech, choice, and action as long as it does not cause harm to others and so on, I am with him. For good or bad, if the same people who gave us the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were to write the same documents today, they would be considerably different. Things, lifestyles and values have changed far more than they could ever have foreseen. I suspect the same for the Bible. It seems to be “We the people” who are just as human as ever and just as reluctant to accept change.
Guthrie “Guff” Worth
Lakeport
