Western Civilization: Christianity as a Unifying Force Within a Secular State Part Two; Disunity

Between the initial waves of colonists and the establishment of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights there was a movement in the North American colonies that we now call the Great Awakening (or First Great Awakening - there are now 3 or 4 movements referred to by that name). The First Great Awakening was a religious revival movement that emphasized a need for personal morality and piety as well a individual study of the bible in contrast to passive listening to sermons. It is generally considered to have occurred from 1730-1740. Despite having spurred a huge change in the way many people viewed religion and despite many passive churchgoers turning into sincere, active and devoted Christians, it was by no means a unifying force. There was much disagreement within denominations and even within congregations. Many denominations experienced schisms as some people held on to the old way while others embraced the new ideas. There was another movement, retrospectively referred to as the Second Great Awakening that took place between 1790-1800, just as the new nation was getting started, this second movement was more concentrated on bringing non-churchgoers into established denominations, but it also resulted in the creation of new denominations. This was the atmosphere wherein the Constitution was written, as well as the First Amendment.

It has been well-established that the United States is not a Christian nation de jure, I don't think that I need to go into detail about the lack of any mention of God, Jesus or the Bible in the Constitution, or the fact that no religious test could constitutionally be made for any public office or that established churches were banned. But many still make the assertion that despite all of this, we were (and are) de facto a Christian nation insofar as our culture is Christian. A case could be made that the great majority of Americans at the time of the founding were Christians and that the religious convictions of the people influenced the way things were done. But was there a universally agreed upon definition of what it meant to be Christian?

While some differences among Christian denominations were a matter of church governance (i.e. was each congregation independent, or were they overseen by a regional or national council? Was there a heirarchy, bishops etc?) other differences were more serious and resulted in schisms and mutual excommunications. At the founding of the United States there were hundreds of denominations all at odds with each other over a variety of issues. As time went by, even to the present day, the differences became even more acute. Perhaps an extremely broad, watered-down, generic Christianity could be characterized as our common faith, but would a Christianity of generalities be distinguishable from any other faith?

In my opinion the idea of Christianity as a unifying force can be better characterized a tool to promote "us against them" by demagogues, since there really is no "us" that can be strictly defined by religion. Before there were more than a tiny percentage of Jews, Buddhists or Muslims in the country, Christians demonized other Christians; "them" were the Irish, or the Italians or the Chinese. Naturally the idea of non-establishment in the early days was seen in the context of numerous Christian (or more accurately Protestant) sub-groupings, and our founders sought to keep them all on equal footing, not imagining that other religions, or even the non-religious, would ever constitute a noticeable percentage of the population. But things change. Catholics upset the dominance of Protestants, Jews (in some urban areas) upset the dominance of Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Pagans and Atheists all make up growing sectors of our nation. The balance among Christians must now change to a balance among all beliefs.