Christian nation?

I got an email from a person I knew in the Service many, many years ago. The email was about Obama saying at some point that "America is not a Christian nation." As you can imagine this upset my friend, who is, I guess, a devout Christian now. The email was basically a chain email for folks to send to others.

I was going to respond to him directly but since it's been many years since I've known him I decided to respond in my blog.

I think Obama was right in saying that the U.S. is not a Christian nation. I know many Christians who want to force their religion on others but we are not a Christian nation. More correctly, in my view, we are a nation OF Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, AND non-believers. The government of the the U.S. must be secular, taking no position on any religion. Hence the separation of church and state. I do not want to be a Christian nor do I want our government to run at the will of Christians. In fact, if the U.S. government were to favor one religion, which it seems to be sliding towards, then it will be to the detriment of all religions and all Americans.

We had eight years of Bush siding with the religious right and see what it got us! Let's move towards the other direction!