Faith in America

by Kevin Schultze

Obama's comments at his recent press conference in Turkey have been causing quite a stir amongst Americans, and especially those of faith. To many he is quoted as saying "we [America] do not consider ourselves a Christian nation." This of course has many that lean far to the right up in arms, and Sean Hannity seems to be just about foaming at the mouth. However, the surrounding context is not often stated, "One of the great strengths of the United States is ... we have a very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

According to where you get your statistics from, any number from 70 to 85% of Americans consider themselves to be “Christian,” and the vast majority polled believes religion to be a vital part of their lives.  No one denies that freedom of religion is one of the greatest advances our country has had in history, as well as most do not deny that some elements of faith (and historically it has been heavily Judeo-Christian based) have had fundamental cornerstones in America’s crafting.  However with the recourse of this comment, as well as what seems to be a great shifting in the faith element in America, it is clear to see that “something” is up.  

Faith, or the understanding of what faith is, seems to be changing.  There is a movement away from Protestantism, a surge of atheist and agnostic ideals, but also very unique and new understandings of spirituality and faith in general.  Perhaps the words “religion,” “spiritual,” “faith” need some revamping as to what exactly they are describing?