THE DANGERS OF THE UNITED STATES BECOMING A CHRISTIAN NATION

THERE IS A KEY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INFLUENCE AND DOMINATION

While President Trump has never been known for being religious he has consistently shown support for evangelical Christian groups. Starting at his inauguration, where he had more religious speakers than any other president or when he said the United States was a nation not of laws but of God, Trump has decided to protect his supporters by giving them many different concessions.

The real danger is that choosing a particular religious doctrine is the antithesis of democracy. When politicians talk about the dangers of Sharia law they usually talk about religious exclusion and using archaic laws that unfairly persecute individuals. But couldn’t the same be said for using Christian doctrine as the ultimate reasoning for enforcing laws? For example, some evangelical Christians would want exclusion of basic human rights for the LGBT community. Or the imposing of a specific faith becomes a de facto elimination of the power of others faith.

While the government and laws of the United States have deep-rooted connections to Christian theology, that does not mean that the government should continue to be entirely based on that doctrine in its modern version. First, governments evolve. As the United States has changed so to should be the traditions that it is based on. Second, the issue of making the United States a Christian nation as we know it is more of a modern creation. Since the 1980s the Religious Right movement has been aggressively trying to impose a strict interpretation of religion in the political system. The term used is” Dominionism” which means the complete control of all areas of society by Christian faith.

Beyond it violating the possibility of protecting individuals for religious freedom, it also carries international implications. The idea of engaging against other religions through violence or from not giving aid based upon non-Christian nations being involved sets a dangerous precedent. The world has already suffered enough from religious wars.

So is the United States a theocratic government? Well not technically. The country is not run by religious leaders. But the continued imposition of a specific Christian faith presents too many pressing issues that should be challenged by a balance of leaders, laws, and discourse and that impede the plurality that the liberal democracy of the United States should be.