It is also the first in a series which will make a closer examination of what it means to be Christian in America at this point in time.
As I write this we citizens of the United States of America live in a country that has nurtured and sheltered the growth of religion within its borders - buttressed by what has become a constitutional mandate to keep state and religion officially separated.
As I write this I'm aware that there is a movement toward abolishing the legal separation of church and state - a movement that of itself is legally part of the rights of citizens to advocate for legal and governmental change. The U.S.A is a country dominated by Christianity but remains by no means the sort of Christian Nation some advocates encourage.
Advocating for change and reform is part of what it means to be American, like baseball, apple pie and Mom. Seriously considering change and reform must include a sense of what "being American" really means on an individual level. But politics and religion seem to remain among a majority subjects of social discussion most frequently made taboo or avoided, primarily because I suppose, politics and religion bring out our passions.
Today it is time for our passions to speak. In the absence of our own passions, we are passively allowing our society to slide toward being told by others the correct answer to "What does it mean to be Christian in America."
For me being an American Christian equates to believing in Jesus Christ as the founder of a global religion that has become the predominant spiritual philosophy in this country. Christianity as a global religion is not the product of a historical religious imperialism that proved itself the most successful force behind its growth (although religious imperialism is part of Christian history.) Were such true, global Christianity would already look more like what the most aggressive right wing Christian agitators are attempting today in America.
We then are either spectators of or participants in a conflict in this country about whether or not a "Holy (or Wholly) American Christian Church will rise and separate itself from the original. In light of today's most important happening, death and destruction on the Gulf Coast, those who remain part of the original global Christianity find themselves curiously upstaged when exhorting all Christians to be the Good Samaritans by those whose view remains steadfastly focused on separating the country and its people from reality.
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