Friday, November 12, 2010

Americanism and God Talk

In the infancy of Christianity, spread throughout the Roman Empire, the early church found itself without “voice” and without “power.” The Roman Empire persecuted the early Christians for a number of reasons, one being the thought that Christians were atheists. Sure they believed in a God, but they didn’t believe in a god approved by the Roman Empire. The Jews were fine because they had been practicing their Judaism for some time now and the Romans saw them as relatively harmless, the Greeks were fine because by and large they didn’t have a god, and the romans were ok because, well they had Caesar. The Christians, however, were a weird anomaly, an insidious cult trying to subvert the Roman way of religion and life. We know that Christians weren’t atheists, but to the Romans they were because they didn’t believe in gods that were known to be “safe” to the empire, gods that weren’t going to stir things up, gods that were docile and domesticated. For all intents and purposes it was a new deity brought into the Empire that threatened the pantheon of the Romans and the normal way of doing things. Not to mention these new Christians refused to participate in the standard religious fare of the time, which only further heightened suspicions of their atheism because of their refusal to pay homage to the god of the empire. All of these things compounded not because the Christians didn’t have a God, but because their God wasn’t inextricably tied up with the Empire. Essentially, they were considered atheists because they wouldn’t “do as the romans did”

This ultimately leads me to my point—When in America it is meet and right to do as the Americans do. In 2008 76% of Americans self-identified with having Christian convictions, while 15% claimed no religious convictions and a meager 3.5% associated with the “fringe” religions such as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and New Age religions.[1] Even more specific in the state I’m writing (Georgia) 68% said that religion is “very important in their lives,” and in my home state Indiana 60% said the same thing.[2] The point being, that overwhelmingly, Americans identify themselves as religious and predominately Christian. That’s all good and fine, but as most of us have read, the Pew research poll[3] taken recently effectively says that Americans know diddly about religion, more so, they know less than didly about Christianity—the supposed espoused religion of the masses. It’s important to keep in mind keep that the questions asked were on a Sunday-school felt-board learning level—like the four gospel writers, or the first book in the Bible. And Christians in America couldn’t answer the questions (correctly at least). Americans know very little about what they claim to be so important to them. And what’s more shocking, those who don’t even believe in a god, let alone the Christian God, know more about the tenets of the Christian faith than Christians. So what am I saying—the atheists have a more comprehensive and well thought out world view than the bumper sticker touting, bible-thumping, Merry Christmas wishing Americans do? Yep.

Ok, so no more statistics, no more demographics, no more numbers. What does this all mean? What is the take-away from the less-than-shocking discovery that the Pew Research Forum has dug up? Here’s what it means: Americans are good at looking like Americans (any other nation in the world could probably attest to that). Here’s what it also means: Americans are, by and large, bad Christians. We can have “god bless America” after every speech but it seems that Americans don’t even know what they mean when they invoke “god.” But I understand, saying things like “Jesus have mercy on us” after every speech would be kind of a downer, and its just…so…churchy right? I mean serious religious convictions, with real names and disciplines might not fit so neatly with the American ethos, so I get it. And finally here is what it also might mean: if Christians in America aren’t willing to take their Christianity seriously, more seriously than their being American, maybe they should stop calling themselves Christians. Cheap grace anyone?

What’s the take-away? Well I’ll start by suggesting that any serious politician, political pundit, news anchor, writer, journalist or for that matter anyone in America who seriously considers themselves a Christian to drop the “god-talk.” America is no more a Christian Nation than Wisconsin is made out of beer and cheese. So don’t assume that when you hint at something religious that it makes any sense or holds the least bit of theological value. Lets start working things like the cross, or resurrection into the conversation. Lets embody that which we say is so defining about our character. Or maybe like Kurt Vonnegut (an atheist himself and true American patriot) said: “For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings…I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. ‘Blessed are the merciful’ in a courtroom? ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ in the Pentagon? Give me a break!”[4] Lovely, another atheist showing us up.

So much like the Christians in the early church I find myself being a modern day “atheist” who believes in a God that challenges the empire not a god who is held hostage by it. And I believe in a God that deserves to be named and wrestled with not mentioned and shooed away. Therefore, let us consider for a moment and entertain the thought that maybe God doesn’t have the fetish for America like America has a fetish for god. Let us consider for a moment that when most people talk about god in America, that they are statistically speaking: full of Sh*t. Let us consider for a moment that all of this god-talk in America really isn’t about God at all, but about Americans trying to look American at all costs. And finally, let us consider that the god Americans invoke and “worship” is like the god the Romans worshipped—no god at all.



[1] http://www.teachingaboutreligion.org/Demographics/map_demographics.htm

[2] http://pewforum.org/How-Religious-Is-Your-State-.aspx

[3] http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey.aspx

[4] Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country, (New York: Random House, 2005), 98.

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