{"id":2306,"date":"2009-06-16T10:14:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-16T10:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/06\/christian-nation-irony\/"},"modified":"2009-06-16T10:14:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-16T10:14:00","slug":"christian-nation-irony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/06\/christian-nation-irony.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian Nation Irony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It seems unlikely that at any point in the past the vast majority of inhabitants of the United States were devout<\/i> Christians with a personal faith, as opposed to nominal<\/i> Christians for whom their Christianity consisted largely of a \u201ctribal identity\u201d including churchgoing and assenting to some doctrinal beliefs and moral precepts.<\/p>\n

Does it not seem ironic, then, that the notion of American having once been a \u201cChristian nation\u201d, and nostalgia for that bygone golden age, is found largely among Evangelicals, those very Christians who emphasize the need for a personal faith, and the inadequacy of a Christianity that consists merely of church attendance, denominational affiliation, or even moral living?<\/p>\n

Am I missing something? Why would the very Christians who deny the adequacy of such nominal Christianity today, depict its heyday as a sort of golden age for American Christianity?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems unlikely that at any point in the past the vast majority of inhabitants of the United States were devout Christians with a personal faith, as opposed to nominal Christians for whom their Christianity consisted largely of a \u201ctribal identity\u201d including churchgoing and assenting to some doctrinal beliefs and moral precepts. Does it not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian Nation Irony<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It seems unlikely that at any point in the past the vast majority of inhabitants of the United States were devout Christians with a personal faith, as\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/06\/christian-nation-irony.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Nation Irony\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems unlikely that at any point in the past the vast majority of inhabitants of the United States were devout Christians with a personal faith, as\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/06\/christian-nation-irony.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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