How Christianity effects America

The topic I'm thinking about pursuing is "How does Christianity (past and present) currently effects Americans?." I am by no means religious, but I am aware that Christianity does have an impact on our lives. My question is, how much?

-DAY ONE-

I decided to give this topic a chance. When I turned to google with my question the first thing that popped up was separation of church and state. So Today that's what I learned a bit about, the separation of church and state, which is a legal and political principle derived from the First Amendment of the Constitution which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." The phrase "separation of church and state", isn't actually in the Constitution but is traced to a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists (1802). The letter read as follows. "We have solved, by fair experiment, the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries."

Much later the interpretation of the separation of the church and the state branched out to the school system. In 1962, the Supreme Court analysed the issue of prayer and religious readings in public schools. In the case of Engel vs. Vitale, the Court determined it unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and require its recitation in public schools, even when it is non-denominational and students may excuse themselves from participation. Also, any teacher, faculty, or student can pray in school, in accordance with their own religion. However, they may not lead such prayers in class, or in other "official" school settings such as assemblies or programs, including "non-sectarian" teacher-led prayers which prior to this case were mandatory. The petitioners contend, among other things, that the state laws requiring or permitting use of the Regents' prayer must be struck down as a violation of the Establishment Clause because that prayer was composed by governmental officials as a part of a governmental program to further religious beliefs.

-DAY TWO-

Friday, November 21, 2008

The largest religion in the United States is Christianity (no surprise there), practiced by the majority of the population (nearly 76.5% in 2001). Approximately 51.3% of Americans are Protestants, 23.9% are Catholics, and 1.7% are Mormons (the name commonly used to refer to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and 1.6% to various other Christian denominations. Christianity was introduced to what is now the United States during the period of European colonization. Anglicanism, Baptism, Calvinism, Puritanism, Presbyterianism, Lutheranism, Quakerism, Amish and Moravian Church were among the first to settle here, spreading their faith in what was then a new country. The French, Spanish, Lebanese, Irish, and Italians brought Catholicism. And Northern Europeans introduced Protestantism.

The strength of various sects varies greatly in different regions of the country, with rural parts of the South (except Louisiana and the Hispanic community, which both consist mainly of Catholics), having many evangelicals but very few Catholics, while urbanized areas of the north Atlantic states and Great Lakes, as well as many industrial and mining towns, are heavily Catholic, though still quite mixed. Mormons are predominant in Utah, and are present in significant numbers in neighboring states.

Despite its status as the most widespread and influential religion of the US, Christianity is undergoing a continuous relative decline in demographics. While the absolute number of Christians rose from 1990 to 2001, the Christian percentage of the population dropped from 88.3% to 76.5%

-DAY THREE-

I didn't have much luck finding info, I did however find a timeline for Christianity. I'll continue to look for sources after school. Some of the events on the timeline are irrelevant to the topic, but they were epic.

I originally copied and pasted the timeline in my blog, but it was uber long so I thought I would save you the trouble. Basically Jesus was born in 4 B.C... which doesn't make sense to me because B.C stands for before Christ, begins ministry in 27 A.D, crucifixion in 30 A.D. Empires fall, important books are written, important people are born and die, countries gain independence, the issue of slavery splits religious groups, birth control approved by FDA, etc. The truth is there were too many names to keep track of and I got bored.

-DAY FOUR-

This info was found on wikipedia. The phrase "In God We Trust" first appeared on a U.S. coin on the 2-cent piece of 1864, and has been on all coins and paper bills since 1957. It was declared the national motto by Congress in 1956. The one dollar Federal Reserve Note of October 1957 was the first U.S. paper money with the motto. The U.S. Pledge of Allegiance was modified in 1954 to add the phrase "under God". So much for freedom of religion. Survey results below show the percentage of people that believe in God.

A 2006 online Harris Poll of 2,010 U.S. adults (18 and older) found that 73% of those surveyed said that they believed in a God, 11% said they believed there was no God, and 16% said that they were not sure whether or not there was a God. The believers in God included 58% of respondents who said they were "absolutely certain", and 15% who said they were "somewhat certain" that there is a God. The believers in no God included 6% who were "absolutely certain", and 6% who were "somewhat certain" that there is no God. About 29% believed that God "controls what happens on Earth", while a plurality (44%) believed that God "observes but does not control what happens on Earth". The poll also showed that an "absolute certain" belief in God is correlated to age: only 43%-45% of those aged 18-29 were "absolutely certain" that God exists, while 54% of those aged 30-39 were "absolutely certain" that God exists, and 63%-65% of those aged 40 and older were "absolutely certain" that God exist.

Politicians frequently discuss their religion when campaigning, and many churches and religious figures are highly politically active. However, to keep their status as tax-exempt organizations they must not officially endorse a candidate. There are Christians in both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, but evangelical Christians tend to support the Republican Party whereas more liberal Christians and secular voters tend to support the Democratic Party.

Every President, with the exception of JFK (a Roman Catholic), was raised in a family with affiliations with Protestant Christianity. However, many presidents have themselves had only a nominal affiliation with Protestant churches. Several early holders of the office were Deists, with at least four presidents being Unitarians, and several, such as Thomas Jefferson, having no formal affiliation.

Only three presidential candidates for major parties have been Catholics, all for the Democratic party.

Sorry Becky, hardly any of day fours findings are in my own words.

*So there you have it 4 blogs about Christianity in America. Sorry if the info is scattered, organizing it more than I did would be far too time consuming and I've already put a lot of time into this topic. I have yet to determine if the fact that Christianity is the most popular religion in the U.S the sole reason it has such an impact on our lives. Thoughts anyone?