“Was the United States founded as a Christian nation?”

One of the topics we discussed in Micah was, “Was the United States founded as a Christian nation?”

I am reading Andrew L. Seidel's The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American. I can recommend it wholeheartedly. It is a good read as well as an informative one.  One caveat:  He writes as an atheist as well as an advocate.  It is not intended to be a balanced study.  As someone who has spent over forty years advocating other's positions in a variety of tribunals, I like the approach.

Just this week I found an interesting juxtaposition between the news and a quote from the book.

The news:

Donald Trump emerges from his “meeting” with congressional Democrats and complains (three times I recall) about the “I-word.” I guess with Trump in a different context, this word could be “immigration” or “immorality” rather than impeachment. But context is everything.

The quote from the book was from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The quote:

“Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”

Donald, be afraid; be very afraid.

RACISM IS NOT DEAD; IT MAY NOT EVEN BE SICK.

I had to look at my calendar to make sure this was still 2019 instead of 1919 or, maybe, 1819.

Here is the start to a WAPO article:

"A Georgia mayor is facing bipartisan calls to resign following a report that she dismissed a candidate for a top city position based on his race. Racist remarks from one of her defenders further inflamed the controversy, revealing what some say are outdated racial attitudes long pervasive in a small, predominantly white city.

The drama came to a head Monday in the Jackson County community of Hoschton, after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Mayor Theresa Kenerly withdrew the application of Keith Henry, a finalist for city administrator, 'because he is black, and the city isn’t ready for this.'” 

Her defender, a good Christian supported her saying:

“I’m a Christian and my Christian beliefs are you don’t do interracial marriage. That’s the way I was brought up and that’s the way I believe,” he said. “I have black friends, I hired black people. But when it comes to all this stuff you see on TV, when you see blacks and whites together, it makes my blood boil because that’s just not the way a Christian is supposed to live.” 

I think I missed that section in our Social Principles!

But the most disturbing portion of the above quoted portions is that:

"the controversy, reveal(ed) what some say are outdated racial attitudes long pervasive in a small, predominantly white city."

Now, perhaps this is my misreading of the sentence or maybe it is poorly crafted.  But, if I first read it, the writer says that some say such prejudice is outdated seems to leave some doubt as to its being outdated.  The next we will hear is that there are good people on both sides!!

What I hope the writer meant to say is:

revealing what some say are outdated racial attitudes (that) some say are long pervasive in a small, predominantly white city.

Why not just say it.  These are  are outdated racial attitudes and have been and are long pervasive in every every small, medium and large village, town and city in America.

A mayor reportedly said her city isn’t ready for a black leader.