Comments on: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: America a Christian Nation?

By: Richard Willmer

Richard Willmer — Wed, 30 May 2018 22:46:59 +0000

The highly interconnected nature of modern society means that there has to some kind of ‘social contract’ undergirding that society. The issue is to what extent that ‘social contract’ (a.k.a. ‘culture’) should be ‘beholden’ to be particular religion or world view?

There is no doubt in my mind that many ‘Christian principles’ have a very important part to play in the on-going formation and development of that ‘social contract’. My main gripe with ‘the most fundamentalist and rigid sects of (alleged) Christianity’ is that they have in many ways departed from (what I understand to be) ‘Christian principles’. This is, in my view, an inevitable consequence of the (almost-)deification of the Bible, and all the profound and dangerous theological, philosophical and moral distortions that this causes.

By: Patrocles

Patrocles — Wed, 30 May 2018 20:16:32 +0000

Yes, but as far as I see – Dr. Throckmorton may correct me -, Roger Williams made a difference between his private opinion and his constitutional principles. Privately he almost certainly judged groups along the line how far they departed from “Christian principles”. In constitutional matters he wanted that all groups are treated equally.

The bigger government gets, the bigger government gets influence on culture, the more inevitable are culture wars (as wars about who controls government). We have to understand that it’s a structural problem; it’s not (only) the guilt of those bad Christian Rightists.

By: Warren Throckmorton

Warren Throckmorton — Wed, 30 May 2018 20:16:32 +0000

M. From where I sit, the band isn’t so narrow. I wish it was. The GOP’s primary season has been dominated by the band you hope is narrow which all of a sudden makes me think that the band is either not narrow or that the GOP has been taken over by them. Either way, the damage is real. The GOP scared away moderate candidates and nearly undid Romney, who is not Gingrich or Santorum, but other than that I am not sure what i can say for him.

On a more personal note, the hate mail I get doesn’t come from the left anymore, even though I am more of a moderate than anything else. I hope you are right, but I am not clear on what I would do differently if you are.

By: Richard Willmer

Richard Willmer — Wed, 30 May 2018 20:16:32 +0000

From what I can see, Roger Williams seems to understand what is perhaps the core principle of democracy under the rule of law. His ‘rebellious’ streak (the good old ‘two fingers’ at the notion of a state church) warms the cockles of this particular heart! Despite his puritan leanings, the (English) Oxford Movement ‘ritualists’ who, around two centuries after Williams’ passing, founded the church which I attend would, I suspect, have agreed with much of his (Williams’) thesis on the nature of relationship between Church and State. They too were persecuted (by both Church and State) on account of their position in this regard.

By: M. Worrell

M. Worrell — Wed, 30 May 2018 20:16:32 +0000

I think it’s a fairly narrow band of people who actually think the Founders were Christian in the Evangelical sense. Or who care. I went to the initial screening of “Monumental” with some conservative Christian friends, and frankly it was met with a good deal of skepticism and caution as we discussed it afterwards.

When most conservative Christians say that America was a “Christian Nation”, I think they largely mean that Judeo-Christian morals were in many ways normative among Christians and non-Christians alike, and consequently an individual seeking to live a decidedly Christian existence would find America and its prevailing cultural atmosphere to be an agreeable place to do so. Half of the country and much of the culture is now hostile to that aim, and it’s unpleasant.

I also think this is all that most Christians are looking for when they say they want to “restore America”, etc. The easy acceptance of the Mormon Glenn Beck and the Jewish Dennis Prager and Michael Medved among conservative Evangelicals is, I think, and indication that faithfulness to particular doctrines of the Christian faith is not the issue at all.

The culture drowning in filth. Was it always? Probably. So what? Why accept it?

I have irreligious Mother Jones-reading leftist friends who share many of my objections about the current condition of the cultural air we all breathe. That’s the common ground we need to get to.