[Buddha-l] is america christian (was: pinker)

[curt]

A good test case for Richard's thesis that the US of A is
not a Christian nation was the reception of Thomas Paine's
"Age of Reason". The reception was such that Paine fled
the country for several years and was physically assaulted
by angry mobs on his return. While Paine claimed (rightly
so, in my opinion) that his views were not irreligious - they
were quite explicitly anti-Christian. If a public figure of
Paine's stature could not publicly criticize Christianity without
such dire consequences I don't see how anyone could maintain
that early post-Revolutionary America was anything but
a Christian nation. At the very least it is obvious that America
was, and remains, intolerant of all religions save Christianity -
and that seems to me to be a pretty good definition of Christian
nation. That other religions do indeed exist in the US does not
diminish the fact that the society is intolerant of those religions.
Just as the fact (if, indeed, it is) that Lincoln was gay does not
in any way diminish the intolerance toward gays that existed
in the 1860's and that still exists (possibly - but also possibly
not) to a lesser extent today.
- Curt