Christianity in America is not a religion so much as a hobby or club.
In a country that claims itself as mostly Christian, founded mostly on Christian principles, the vast majority of us act and present ourselves in a decidedly non-Christian way.
Christianity has become mass marketed and adulterated from its intended form in America. This issue is so important because the American people more and more are using their limited and myopic view of Christianity to make political decisions that affect the rest of the world.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines religion as: A cause, principle or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion. The majority of Christians in America clearly do not pursue it with zeal or conscientious devotion.
Seventy-six percent of Americans claim to be Christians. However, if you were to pick just about any standard of Christ’s teachings and compare it with the practices of this country, you would see that we do not hold up.
For example, In Matthew 19:9 Jesus speaks to the Pharisees about divorce, saying “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
That seems pretty clear to me, yet the divorce rate in America is 50.6 percent. Can there be that much marital unfaithfulness going on to justify this rate? Does none of that percentage remarry?
Or, we can go further and examine what, to me, was Christ’s main teaching that interlaces most of the other ideals taught; be kind to one another and love your fellow man. So Jesus wanted us to help those less fortunate than ourselves and take care of those that cannot.
In 2004, America ranked second to last among developed countries in government foreign aid. Giving only 15 cents per day (per capita) in official development assistance to poor countries and only 6 cents per day to private charities for relief work, the only nation less charitable than America is Italy.
This is not to say that we take exceptionally good care of our own needy, so that we cannot spare the extra for the rest of the world’s. Since nearly 18 percent of American children lived in poverty last year.
It does not end there; let us look at the task of self control, which is yet another core part of Christianity that Americans ignore.
The treasury department currently estimates the national debt to be $8,043,895,983,828.15 at the time of writing this and has been increasing an average of $3.48 billion per day since Sept. 30, 2005.
Many say that the debt of the government does not represent the nation’s inability to control spending, but this country is ran by its people so we must be responsible for any and every action our government takes.
Also, according to “CNN Money,” the average debt for an American household with at least one credit card is $9,200. This does not seem to be consistent with the teachings of Romans 13:8: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.”
I have been told that just because the numbers show that we as Americans are failing to follow the teachings of our self-proclaimed religion, it does not mean that we are not trying and that Christianity is all about intent over action.
I could believe that if it were a matter of marginalized statistics of people not living up to the standard they claim, but the numbers are simply too overwhelming.
Also only approximately 40 percent of Americans can name even more than four of the 10 commandments, roughly half can name any of the four authors of the gospels, and sadly, about 12 percent believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.
This, to me, shows a genuine lack of interest on America’s part.
It would be different if the information were somehow hidden or difficult to come by but each of us has the opportunity to access more than one Bible every day, we just choose not to pursue the knowledge within.
Christianity is used to sell things and get people elected now more than it is used as a guideline for the way one should live one’s life.
Because so much of the country claims to belong to the Christian faith, it is a powerful identifier and unification point for politicians.
George W. Bush has been known to say that Jesus Christ is his favorite philosopher.
Now whether that is true or not, it is easy to see how such a statement would win him votes in a nation that likes to keep the appearance of being predominately Christian.
The formerly devoted nation has marginalized its piousness over the years in favor of a self-serving and blind attitude towards Christianity.
The fact that so much of America claims to be Christian and yet so little have an accurate body of knowledge about Christianity may be an indication of a large margin of hypocrisy.
The American standard that very nearly directly opposes Christian teaching shows abandonment of its principals and leads to the conclusion that modern Christianity is no more than something to do on the weekends and a group to belong to as far as most people are concerned.

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