Any researcher who comes to the United States of America to study how people talk will find plenty of people who speak languages other than English.<\/p>\n\n
Some don\u2019t speak English at all. Many speak English and another language. Many others \u2014 computer-software pros, for example \u2014 speak dialects blending English with various unknown tongues. But statistically, the U.S. is an English-speaking nation.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cOK, that is true,\u201d said Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor-in-chief of First Things, a journal of religion and public life. \u201cThis is not to say that most Americans speak English very well. But when they are speaking a language very poorly, it is English that they are speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
What about religion? Anyone who offers a parallel analysis of religion in America will hear howls of protest.<\/p>\n\n
Want to start a fight? Call America a \u201cChristian nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
But do the math, said Neuhaus. Surveys show that 90 percent of Americans call themselves \u201cChristians\u201d and 80 percent claim some link to a specific church. Even backsliding Baptists and Christmas-Eve Catholics feel some of the ties that bind.<\/p>\n\n
Thus, Neuhaus dares to speak the words \u201cChristian America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It is a \u201cmatter of extraordinary significance how people think about themselves,\u201d said Neuhaus, speaking an ecumenical conference at Samford University\u2019s Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala. \u201cIt\u2019s not for us to say, \u2018Oh, you think you\u2019re a Christian, but let me judge you \u2014 you\u2019re really not.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe may find someone to be a very imperfect Christian, a very muddled Christian, a very confused Christian, an inwardly contradictory Christian. But, in their minds, they think they are Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Yes, most Americans do an inadequate job of practicing their religion, he said. Yet it is also true that when they are \u201cpracticing a religion very inadequately, it is Christianity that they are practicing \u2014 overwhelmingly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Neuhaus has a knack for punchy statements that make academic and media elites nervous. He emerged as a major voice in church-state debates in 1984 with his book, \u201cThe Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America.\u201d As a Lutheran pastor he marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, he is a Roman Catholic priest. Anyone who wants to understand the views of culturally conservative Christians \u2014 such as the current occupant of the White House \u2014 pays attention to this witty New Yorker.<\/p>\n\n
One reason it\u2019s hard to speak the words \u201cChristian America\u201d in public is that so many people use these words in such radically different ways. Osama bin Laden says America is a \u201cChristian nation.\u201d Then again, so does the Rev. Pat Robertson. This is the kind of synergy that makes people nervous.<\/p>\n\n
Neuhaus said many scholars admit that America can be called \u201cChristian\u201d if this is understood in cultural, not doctrinal, terms. Even then, most would insist that this language is too dangerous to use in public life.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThere are troubles in talking about a \u2018Christian America,\u2019 \u201d he said. \u201cYou can say, \u2018Well! America, even in moments of patriotic fervor, such as we have witnessed and continue to witness does not deserve to be called \u2018Christian.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
There are other problems. Many Catholics resist using \u201cChristian America\u201d because this term has historically been so popular with Protestants. Also, there remain small pockets of believers who \u2014 if they had the power \u2014 would gladly replace \u201cOne nation, under God\u201d with \u201cOne nation, under God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit\u201d or even \u201cOne nation, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Meanwhile, some critics \u2014 on left and right \u2014 now believe that \u201cwe live in a \u2018post-Christian\u2019 America. At one time it was Christian, but now \u2026 it is essentially a pagan America,\u201d said Neuhaus. Some leaders on the religious left insist that it\u2019s time to joyfully embrace the fact that America can be described as \u201cOne nation, under many gods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Lots of people wish the subject would go away.<\/p>\n\n
Perhaps many Christians have a reason to ignore the complex and disturbing statistics that define the paradoxes of faith and public life in America, said Neuhaus. Perhaps, just perhaps, \u201cWe Christians don\u2019t want to take responsibility for what a overwhelmingly Christian society would look like. It looks an awful lot like this one \u2014 filled with sinners.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Any researcher who comes to the United States of America to study how people talk will find plenty of people who speak languages other than English. Some don\u2019t speak English at all. Many speak English and another language. Many others \u2014 computer-software pros, for example \u2014 speak dialects blending English with various unknown tongues. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n