Christianity compromises American ideals

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That cross and the flag don’t go together.

What are American ideals, you might ask? From what I understand, they are individualism, self-reliance, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and, perhaps most important for this post, freedom of religion and to worship or believe anything you want. What about Christian values? Why, those would consist of the doctrine of repentance, subservience to God and his commandments, “embracing Jesus” on pain of eternal damnation, faith, most often blind faith, and conformity to Christian/Biblical religious doctrine, which includes worshipping only one God (Yahweh/Jehovah).

From there it’s clear that Christianity couldn’t have less to do with freedom, or American ideals for that matter, and yet it’s the biggest religion in America. Hell, they even get unearned cultural capital, otherwise known as privilege, which serves as an excuse for non-Christians to be persecuted in whatever manner they could still get away with.

And doesn’t it seem ironic? America’s whole origin story is about people who didn’t want to acquiesce to the state religion of England or to the crown, and set sail to the New World to practice their religion freely. And when England tried to oppress them again, they got their asses kicked! And when America was born, the constitution practically guaranteed freedom of religion to this day. So it seems ironic that freedom of religion and separation of church and state are allowed to be impeded by Christianity, to the fact that much of America’s political officials are Christian, and the President is made to take a religious oath, with religious and right-wing watchdogs keeping an eye on the religious status quo, making sure their imaginary Christian nation stays pure.

It’s also really ironic that Republicans and conservatives identify themselves as Christian, while supporting unregulated capitalism, defending billionaires (instead of standing up for the poor), are often depraved people behind closed doors, and some, like Paul Ryan, actually support Ayn Rand. I’m not mad that they support unregulated capitalism and Ayn Rand, I’m mad that they do it while still calling themselves Christian.

I’m looking you, Donald Trump.

All of this begs the question: why does America readily accept a religion and religious ideology that is contradictory to its own values?