Do you agree with this statement, "Christianity is America's official religion"?

It’s not a matter of agreement; it’s factually false.

What Ivan said. The United States does not have an official religion and in my opinion, should never have one. Just because a lot of Americans are Christians does not mean it is our “official religion”. That’s just the dream of many hardcore fanatics who wish the United States to become a theocracy.

@Ivan and @DominicX I totally agree. Would you also agree that he has no business talking about this and that he has no right to question the students on their religion beliefs?

That is a factually false statement—just like everyone else has said. America has no official religion. Saying otherwise is ridiculous. Honestly, I would complain to the school board about him.

As to the second bit—if he’s trying to spark discussion about religion to relate to why freedom of religion is an important value to America and Americans, then it is fine to ask students to talk about their beliefs if they feel comfortable doing so. Otherwise, he really has no business bringing it up.

@Ailia

If he is challenging his students’ religious views, he could very well be breaking the law.

Time to report him in writing to the Superintendent of Schools. NOT the Principal, who may have loyalty issues.

It is absolutely not the “official” religion of America. Agreed that it is factually false.

Also agreed he shouldn’t be debating this issue with you in school (separation of church and state ring a bell? to your teacher not to you, lol)

To discuss further: Christianity is however the predominant religion. This includes those in power, most of those in power are Christian. Doesn’t make it right but it is a fact of our country to-date.

@EmpressPixie I don’t think its that important enough to bring it up with the school board, but I was just annoyed that he asked me that. Its not that I’m opposed to talking about its just that he shouldn’t have done it in the way he did. However @Ivan I don’t think he was breaking the law, he was not challenging my views just debating that America’s official religion is Christianity. Which as you know is ridiculous.

Absolutely not.

It’s kind of up to you there, if you do feel like he’s crossed a line, I would get a parent to bring it up since school boards have a nasty habit of listening to adults more than children.

I have to agree with @all….if you’re in High School it was an inappropriate exchange. However, if you’re in college, the rules are quite different.

It’s factually correct to say that most Americans are of the Christian religion, but that has nothing at all to do with the government or the nation. They are two separate things.

@RedPowerLady Since you brought up this, “most of those in power are Christian” would you also agree that if Obama, or whoever, was not Christian then they would not be or have been elected?

@Ailia I do think that if Obama were not Christian he would have not been elected.
Another President who was Caucasian may have been able to fight the battle. But realistically I don’t think that having two nontraditional factors would have been “allowed” by society at this point. Although I’d be happy to be proven otherwise.

@Ailia: I think that’s a completely different question (very worth asking on the main page, though—it would be an interesting debate).

Also, I was assuming you are in High School, but Val makes an EXCELLENT point. Are you in HS or college?

Also was assuming high school. Agreed it’s a good point.

So the freedom of religion does not extend to the teacher expressing his or her own beliefs? you are free to take what he says in any way. Believe him, don;t believe him…. but don’t say he has no right to say what he wants about religion and then start bitching about religious freedom. So he’s wrong and a little misguided. He still has a right to express his opinion.

It is. Even though they claim it isn’t.
“one nation under God” children are strongarmed into reciting it every day.
“in God we trust” printed all over your money
“so help me God” recited whenever a president is sworn into office.
All of it enforced by the government. Seems quite official to me.

@Dr_C Not if, as the teacher, he is expressing his opinion as fact. Especially not if they will then be tested on this “fact”.

I’m guessing that if Obama had declared himself a Muslim or a Buddhist, then no, he wouldn’t have been elected. As @RedPowerLady said, it would have been too much. However, I don’t think a Caucasian person who declared themselves to be a Muslim or Buddhist would have been elected.

@Val123 Well certainly not Muslim at this point in time. Buddhist Caucasian well maybe but it would be a battle, or point of interest.

You can choose to believe or not. Who cares if you get tested. Have you never written a bullshit answer in a test? One man’s fact is another man’s BS.

@EmpressPixie: I was assuming High School based on the course titles – World Geography. high school, or middle school. Based on the OP’s level of writing, I’m inclined to go with high school of the two.

@Dr_C Outside of the classroom, in a social setting, he is free to debate anything at all. It is inappropriate for any teacher to try to influence a student to their way of thinking about anything. The teacher’s job is to teach, and help the students learn ways of thinking on their own.

@asmonet Probably right (if it had been college he probably would have used the word ‘instructor’ or ‘professor’,) but just wanted to clarify.

@RedPowerLady LOL! Hi! I’m of the Buddhist Caucasian religion! What church do you go to? O? The Negro Buddhist Caucasian First National Church? I’m getting so confused!

@Dr_C I disagree and have a strong feeling that the school could easily expect a lawsuit over that kind of thing. And lose.

@Val123 I agree it’s messed up for a teacher to try and influence a young mind with incorrect facts. But I ask you, if someone is smart enough to distinguish between academic fact and religious belief, and smart enough to determine whether or not he/she agrees… is that person not also smart enough to ignore it and move one? is it really worth complaining about? I’d just laugh it off and focus on something more important.

@all Yes I am in high school but no I am not going to be tested on this. I just wanted to see what everyone thought about this. @EmpressPixie I do think it warrants itself as a separate question but I don’t think I really want to go into a big debate right now seeing as this question already has generated a lot of answers and thoughts.

@Dr_C You need to rethink what the role of a teacher is. It is not to express his or her opinion in class on such delicate matters. It is to teach the truth: that in this country there is s separation between Church and State. This is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of fact. This teacher is engaging in an unrestrained abuse of power, and needs to be restrained immediately. Of course, off campus, or after hours any teacher is free to express any opinion at all.

No. What a ridiculous statement.

@Dr_C I think that is an excellent point and I absolutely agree. However I do think it is important to talk about this as I am sure it is happening in many other places as well. I am not influenced by what my teacher says but my fellow students were. What was even more appalling is that this probably happens in most other American schools, would you agree?

@pdworkin , @EmpressPixie @everyone else…
I completely agree with you that the teacher was wrong and misguided (hell if you guys want i’ll even go over there and beat the ever-loving shit out of him and tape it so you can watch and laugh at his tiny dick) but still think it’s not a big enough deal to start trouble over. Just ignore the guy and get on with your life! there are many more important thing going on in this country right now for anyone to get pissed off over a teacher saying Christianity is the official religion. It’s not.. ok… who really cares? does his opinion or statement of “fact” change your belief system? Does the fact that he said it injure you in some way? will you be unable to live your life in the same way after hearing such a statement? It’s not that important and not worth making such a fuss over.

You answered your own question – The Constitution specifies separation of church and state. Therefore, by definition, there is no “official religion” of the United States of America. Our founders would most likely have considered your teacher’s statement reprehensible.

I consider myself Christian, and I consider your teacher’s statement absurd.

@Ailia I do agree.. and my personal experience with it might be a bit different than most. I went to a catholic boarding school run by an elitist and rather strict catholic order. Then returned to San Diego to enroll in a catholic high school which by comparison was super liberal. In both cases religion was discussed in “religion class” and was kept out of every other subject. There was no prayer before class (unless specifically requested by a majority in religion class) and we were given the right to debate with our teachers if we believed they were wrong. My thing is that if you can recognize a problem with a techer’s philosophy.. then you are smart enough to ignore it.

Not at all. But my observation is that Baptists have a screwed up world view that contains a gross overestimation of their own importance. Its not surprising to me that someone from that religion would believe that.

@Dr_C I think at some point we became more concerned that it appeared he was harassing students about their religion—as if to make sure they were part of the “right” one and perhaps change them if they were not. And that was the more worrying fact worthy of contacting someone over. Getting one of the founding principles of the nation wrong is horrific, but not suit-worthy. More like, maaaaaaybe complain to the principal worthy, but probably ignore.

@Dr_C No one is going to start any “trouble.” The point is, if teachers get to express any personal opinion, where does one draw the line? He crossed a line he should not have crossed. I don’t know if it happens everywhere, but I for one, do NOT discuss my personal views with my students on Christianity (I am one) abortion (pro-choice) or anything else that can only be broken down into individual personal opinion.

@Ailia It is absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, important enough to bring up before the school board. It might not bother you, but imagine if he starts challenging someone with religious beliefs that don’t jive with his… I think we can all imagine how ugly this can get. Its better to head things off before they get out of control. By having this conversation, he’s already crossing a line and needs to be called on it.

@Dr_C Some kids are smart enough to know their own minds. Its the ones who aren’t that this man has no business influencing with his propagandist bullshit.

@EmpressPixie Once again your beauty is matched only by your intellect and level-headedness.

@Dr_C Thats interesting that a Catholic school would be strict about keeping religion out of every other subject even though everyone is Catholic, or at least on the surface. I wonder why a public school would differ on this. Anyways I do agree on your last point, but at the time I felt like I had to say something. It feels wrong to me that my classmates would just sit back and let the world go by as they let everyone else decide for them.

@Ailia I would be annoyed too if I believed they were being led blindly into ignorance. But you have to understand one thing… just because they didn’t speak up, does not mean that they agreed with him or took what he said as fact. Maybe they thought he was off his rocker and decided to ignore it and move on.

@avvooooooo I don’t know about the school board. I’d start with the principal. If he has an ounce of sense, he’ll put an end to it. If the teacher keeps doing it, the principal has to know it’s setting the district up for a law suit, and it would be the end of him if it came to light that he knew and didn’t do anything about it, so I’m sure he wouldn’t let it slide.

@Ailia Honestly, you might even be doing the teacher a favor by cluing the principal in on it. I admire that you don’t want to cause trouble (a breath of fresh air in this sue happy world) but someone else might just act on it up as an excuse to get some sort of monetary settlement. Just a thought. Maybe send an anonymous letter? Maybe print this page off and send it to the principal?! LOL!

@Val123 @Ailia especially the part about me beating the shit out of him and everyone laughing at his little dick

@Dr_C
Why do you know that his dick is tiny?

@Dr_C I have gone back and read each of your answers in sequence on this thread. Maybe you should try the same thing. It as as if they are being written by people who don’t know one another.

@avvooooooo I wouldn’t say he was openly challenging me but I did feel uncomfortable when he just sprang the question about my beliefs. I just wasn’t expecting it, however I don’t think he was trying to convert me or anything. And I also think that he wouldn’t bring this up with anyone student as I am the one who brought up this discussion in my class. I raised a point about another unrelated thing my teacher was saying and then it led to this so I don’t think I need to contact the school board over it. Besides, things could get super ugly if I did anything like that and I don’t really want to strip this guy of his job I just don’t agree with his views. @Dr_C I hope so but I don’t know for sure. I live in the deep south and people, in my town especially, are inclined to his religious views and even if they are not then soon they are forced to or at least act like it. Its like peer pressure but kicked up a few notches. However you may be right and I could be totally off base but I think maybe one or two of my classmates may have been influenced by his words and that worries me. @Val123 I don’t think the principal would really care as his religious views are the same and I am sure no one would raise any lawsuit. Because really it was only between my teacher and I, everyone else was just there and they didn’t say much. Only a few spoke up and they only reinforced what he was saying. However I bet it would be pretty funny if I did print this off to my principal. ;) Oh and @Dr_C I don’t think that would be an appropiate or acceptable thing to do. Just because I don’t agree with his absurd statements does not mean I would engage in violence against him.

Do any nations have “official” religions? I’m not sure such a thing exists. Some religions are clearly dominant in a country, but that doesn’t make it official, right?

@ubersiren: Yes, there are still nations with official religions.

No, it is not the official religion.
And the Yankee’s are not America’s Baseball Team
And the Dallas Cowboys are not America’s Football team.
Some people need to watch their arrogant mouths.

@pdworkin Tends to happen when I answer between patients. My mood may be a bit different while typing each answer but i believe the underlying thread in most of my quips was “don’t make such a big deal out of it”. (the part about beating him up was an apparently failed attempt at humor)

@ubersiren
Italy does, for example. One of the bad properties of that country, next to their protofascist prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

@ubersiren

Saudi Arabia’s official religion is Islam. All Saudi citizens must be Muslim. The Saudi government does not recognize any freedom of religion.

@ubersiren In the fictional country that i just made up in my head the official religion is “awesome”... all citizens must be awesome.

Ok, I see, so it’s official according to each nation’s government. It’s not, like, internationally recognized, like most nations have an official language?

I guess where I’m confused is – Spanish is Spain’s “official language” but it’s not illegal for them to speak French or Portuguese… but nations which have official religions only have them because their citizens are forced to.

@Ailia You are, by far, the best one to judge what action, if any should be taken.
However, if the principal himself wouldn’t take any action because his beliefs are the same, then he ain’t no kinda professional! That would be an awful criteria to base ignoring school/legal policy on.

But….it’s your call, and I’m glad you don’t want to “report” him or cause him to lose his job. Kudos to you. But he was wrong.

But, back to the subject, no, there is no Official Religion of the US, or we’d be just like Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and then we’d have to be attackin’ ourselves!

@Dr_C Can one chose to join your fictional country or does one have to be voted in?

@Val123 you and @EmpressPixie can help run the government :) (With an AWESOME iron fist)

@ubersiren: I’m not sure what you mean. It is internationally recognized that those nations are officially Catholic or Islamic or whatever just as it is recognized that they speak a certain language and have a specific body of laws.

@Dr_C You got it! I’m secatary of edjicatshun!!!

@EmpressPixie

Yeah, but what does it mean to have an official religion? In the case of Saudi Arabia, it means the government does not support freedom of religion and requires its citizens to adhere to the official religion. In the case of Spain and the official language, all it means is that the language is used in official things like schools and road signs, but you’re still free to speak other languages.

@DominicX : That’s what isn’t computing for me. I just don’t get it. How can something be “official” when it’s the only one of something, or if it’s forced. It just… is. I don’t know, I guess I’m stupid.

@ragingloli – Those may be official things about the U.S., but none of them imply an exclusively Christian God. Doesn’t mean I like them, though.

Great Britain has an official religion, too. We forget this, because they are sophisticated enough to realize that diversity is an unalloyed benefit to a democracy.

@pdworkin Yes, and in times past there was a LOT of bloodshed between British Catholics and Protestants, just because of their religions. If you weren’t the King’s Catholic, you were dead. (I just got this incredible urge to go to King’s X for some breakfast!! Anybody wanna go??)

The US has a de facto official religion, but it’s not Christianity—it’s Mammonism.

Most of those who say they are Christians only go to church but do not live the life Christ calls them too. So many of the so called “Christians” that take up this country are not Christians at all. Anyways, I don’t think we we’re ever truly a Christian nation.

I completely agree with you, ‘ratboy’.

@laureth
I think they do. To my knowledge, Jews call their deity “Yahweh” and Muslims call it “Allah” which would make Christianity the only religion which refers to its deity as “God”.
And then consider who it was that put “God” into these official exclamations.

It’s a false statement. When he says that, he’s subtly trying to be dominant on some level. Why would he make such an inciteful and factually hollow statement?

The U.S. Treaty with Tripoli, ratified by the Congress and signed by President Adams, said that: ”...the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…” ( link: http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/treaty_tripoli.html ) This treaty gives a view of the mindset that our government had on this topic back then, not to mention the First Amendment, which is already well known.

Just because the majority of people in a group do something, doesn’t make it “official”.

An argumentation or social studies teacher might make such a statement without meaning it, to create a discussion. But it’s sad that a World Geography teacher would say such a thing as fact.

@Kraigmo Best argument yet! Good one to use if the debate continues after hours. @Ailia BTW, it may well be that your teacher is regretting the discussion and worrying about it as we speak. We all make mistakes. Thanks for letting it be.

@ragingloli – My Jewish friends say “God,” too. And some Christians call him Jehovah. Don’t the Muslims also say that “There is but one God, and his name is Allah” ? For what it’s worth, I’ve also heard (albeit from Wikipedia) that Arab Christians call God “Allah” as well. Heck, even some Pagans worship “God and Goddess,” but I’m pretty sure they don’t mean “God” in the Christian sense. God is a general term meaning a male deity. Thor, for example, is a God.

I pretty much assumed that all the “In God we trust” stuff was Deist.

Many Christians also call God “Yahweh”.

No way!

@filmfann To me? Yes, way!

We don’t even have an official language. To have an official religion would be ridiculous. Shouldn’t matter.

Evelynism is the official religion of the United States of America. Eveyone is an Evelynist, they just don’t know it yet. =)

@deni I think we should have an official language. It’s only been in the last generation that immigrants come in and demand that the whole nation change to meet their language needs. My grandparents immigrated from Holland, didn’t speak English, but demanded that their kids did…..when in Rome.

@Psychedelic_Zebra No, no, no. It’s “Adamynist” is the official religion. Don’t you know?

@Val123 I think we should have an official language too. But, since we don’t, I don’t think we even need to start thinking about having an official religion. Language applies to everyone living here…religion, not so much.

Maybe we can have an official uniform, an official home color scheme, an official cuisine and an official morning exercise routine. What scares you so much about a polyglot culture? Learn a couple of languages, like everyone in Europe does, and quit whining.

@deni Agreed. The two are completely unrelated. One is fact, the other is belief.

@pd Good point. It’s a little depressing that most other nations speak their native language AND English…..and most Americans only speak English. Do you know another language? I don’t. Not really.

Yeah, how dare Spanish-speaking people come to America and expect to be able to communicate in their own language! Next thing you know, good, red-blooded English speaking Americans will travel the world and expect to communicate in English everywhere! Imagine!

If English was good enough for Jesus I guess it oughta be good enough fer the God Damned foreigners.

@Val123 And, at that, most Americans don’t even speak English well!!

@pdworkin ROFL!! How can you be so….rough and so funny at the same time!

@deni We dern’t???? (Don’t even get me started!!)

@laureth If I moved to Greece, I would expect to have to learn a new language. therefore I would. If I moved to Germany, I would expect to have to learn a new language, and I would. If I moved to India, I would expect to have to learn a new language. You know, the tele-prompters only give English or Spanish options. Why not Vietnamese or Chinese or Iranian or a hundred other options?

@Val123 – Sorry, my sarcasm font was broken.

Christianity may not be the official religion of the USA but it certainly is the unofficial or default one. Dubya made no secret of the fact that he prayed to a christian god for the knowledge to tie his shoes in the morning and virtually every thing else he did. And now Obama is not much different.

If there is indeed so much separation between church and state, I wish these guys and all the rest of them in DC would make educated decisions based on knowledge and research and ditch the divine intervention method of policy making.

@rooeytoo but don’t you know, if the politicians dump God in the dustbin of history where he belongs when it comes to decision-making, then they’ll be swayed by that evil ol’ Debbil, and it will be just as the Buy Bull predicted. Obama is the anti-Christ, didn’t you lurn nuthin’ in Sunday school?

@Psychedelic_Zebra – You’re right of course, I lost my grip on reality there for a minute, hehehe.

@laureth Ah!

Most, if not all, of the men that penned the constitution were Christian. Maybe he was stating this fact and you misunderstood. Majority of Americans claim Christianity as their faith, however, if this were the case and people were actually living for God and following His ways, America would be a different place. It’s funny how the schools can discuss any other non-factual thing and even print them in text books, ie evolution, and you don’t get near the protest. Maybe God struck a nerve with you because He’s dealing with your heart.

lol

any other non-factual thing and even print them in text books, ie evolution,
wat

lOl

@usaloveorleaveit – Many were, but definitely not all.

Nuts anyone? I’ve got ‘em roasted and toasted and all kindsa ways. ;D

pecans, please

Official religion? No. But our laws and culture does have a lot Christian values incorporated into it, so although it’s not officially America’s religion perhaps it is the unofficial religion.

top unofficial religion
on the way to work I pass 23 Christian churches 1 hour drive outside the city, 1 hour through the city 40–60 churches
I pass less fast food restaurants(combined)

Mahatma Gandhi once observed that he admired Jesus, but not so much Christians. And the Founding Fathers explicitly denied that this is a Christian country; most of them were deists.

So many things to respond to. To answer the original question, of course there is no official religion in the US. That was the whole point of the first amendment.

It’s true that no teacher should push his religious views on his students but the bigger issue is when it is a public school. Then the teacher is using the power of government to indoctrinate children into his religion and forcing all tax payers, including those of other beliefs, to pay for it. That is a clear violation of the first amendment.

@ragingloli ‘to my knowledge, Jews call their deity “Yahweh” and Muslims call it “Allah” which would make Christianity the only religion which refers to its deity as “God”.’

Many religions refer to their deity as “God”. Christian Arabs refer to their deity as “Allah” because Allah is Arabic for the word God, it is not a name. Both are blanket terms for all deities.

Jews do not pronounce the tetragrammatron that constitutes the name of G-d. We don’t even know how that combination of letters is pronounced. When we encounter those letters in writing we substitute other words, like Hashem, or Adonai, to indicate that we are speaking of the Creator.

@Val123 I left those nuts over on the Sarah Palin question.

It’s obvious, by their speech, why some people don’t want to here anything about God in the public schools or anywhere else for that matter. There is more to it than just laws and such. Remember, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

This was a quote from above by pdworkin:

If English was good enough for Jesus I guess it oughta be good enough fer the God Damned foreigners.

@usaloveorleaveit That was a joke. People do that sometimes.

The reason God does not belong in public schools is because we have freedom of religion. That means freedom for you to practice your religion and try and shove it off on other people as well as freedom for others to practice their religions. Public schools are government run. We have the separation of church and state (i.e. government run schools) because it is not the place of any kind of government agency or official here in the US to tell you, me, or anyone else how or what to worship.

You’re free to believe evolution is crap and claim that it shouldn’t be in textbooks, I’m free to think you’re nuts for denying the only theory with some kind of tangible evidence out there. That’s how it works.

@pdworkin is well aware that Jesus spoke Aramaic.

@usaloveorleaveit This is America. If you have Muslims in the class room, is it OK to bring Allah into the classroom?

@usaloveorleaveit You need a history lesson about the religious beliefs of the founders of this country. They were varied and different and there is good reason that freedom of religion was one of the freedoms included in the constitution. They were not all Christian, nor were they mostly Christian. The framers were Christians, Unitarians, deists, theists and possibly some agnostics and atheists.

If you do just a little research, you’ll find that your assumptions about the religion that was a part of founding this nation are faulty.

No. And Barack Obama made that pretty clear.

@mattbrowne So are you implying that Obama isn’t a christian?

@Ailia No, Obama made it clear he’s a Christian, but he made it clear that all religions are welcomed into the US, that all religions have redeeming value, and that Christianity isn’t “better than” Islam or any other religion. He ranks them all equally.

@mattbrowne Oh okay, thanks for the clear up. :)

@Ailia Actually, that was me, and Matt might have something different, and probably better to say…

@Val123 Oh my god, I’m sorry I think I must be blind…:( And thats been happening more and more lately….time to go to the eye doctor….;)

@Ailia It’s OK. People often mistake me for Matt!! (NOT!! ROFL!!) (Hey, it was probably just because you expected Matt to answer, so you skipped right past it. Everybody does it, no biggie!)

@avvooooooo
Alot of people, including myself, do not think that using the Lord’s name in vain is funny. We find it very offensive, but, I guess that doesn’t matter unless His name is brought up in school, right?

@Val123
As for your question concerning Muslims in classrooms, http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/byronislam.htm . Funny how I haven’t read anything about that on here. Maybe there is more to it! Maybe, just maybe, Jesus is being pushed out because He loves us and deals with our sin, because He knows it will destroy our life and ultimately our soul. When people don’t want to give up their sinful lifestyle, the last thing they want to here about is a Holy and Righteous God that hates sin. Good news is, although we have fallen short, Jesus took our punishment when He died upon the cross, “that whosoever shall believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

@usaloveorleaveit I don’t give blogs a lot of credence. All they are are people’s opinions. They can write whatever they want, no matter how off the wall, but if the site is decently attractive, and the writer decently literate, people give it far more weight than it deserves.

Islam is not an “evil” religion. Their main focus is peace and love. Judaism is not an evil religion. Neither are most other religions whose focus is on God.

@usaloveorleaveit You would have a fit if someone else’s religion was taught in schools. Why do you think yours should be? Because its “the one?” Other people believe that theirs is “the one” or “the truth.” The simple answer to this problem is that no one’s is allowed. It makes perfect sense.

There are places where it is appropriate to preach. And there are places where it isn’t. That goes for the internet as well as real life.

@avvooooooo Yeppers. Quite right. As always. (Why is it when you and I are being quite serious, there is no one around to see it? LOL!!)
School is NOT the right place to teach any particular brand of religion or belief. Unless you’re in Nazi, Germany.

Here’s a snippet from Obama’s inauguration speech:

“For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.

And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society’s ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.”

@mattbrowne Great words!

I think President Obama is the first President to actually acknowledge non-believers in a legitimate way.

Good job for a President who tries to look at the Whole, and is not threatened by it.

From a Christian perspective, I’ll answer the last part of your question first. Yes, the Constitution gives us freedom of religion but there is no “separation of church and state” found in the Constitution. The First Amendment has been butchered beyond believe to make it say something that it doesn’t. What it does say is that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
In other words the state (Congress) cannot establish there own religion. The Constitution says that the government needs to stay out of religion. The reason being is that the pilgrims, while in England, could preach only what their government allowed them to preach. That’s why they came to America and that’s why the 1st Amendment was put first.
American where being a Christian nation as it once was. How many government officials do you know that are born-again believers in Christ? For that matter, how many people in general are truely born-again? Simply believing in God doesn’t make a person a Christian. In order for America to be considered a Christian nation almost everyone would have to be born-again but that simply isn’t the case.

“Truly born-again” experiences are definitely not a requirement for being a Christian. In fact, sometimes it can be counterproductive. It can lead to infatuation and people who claim the exclusive monopoly of truth. Worst of all it can even lead to young-earth creationism, one of the most unchristian ideologies I’ve encountered.

For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:29).

@TitusFargo It is NOT necessary to be “born again” to be a Christian. Wrong. So very, very wrong.